It had just opened on the famous Rynok square in Lviv the year before. It was not just the location that drew my attention to Pravda Brewery in 2015… for the most part, it was its marketing. Pravda didn’t pull any punches with its political convictions… it had launched beers with names like “Frau Ribbentrop,” “Obama Hope,” and, my personal favorite, “Putin Huylo” (the latter being a term popularised by fans of FC Metalist Kharkiv describing Putin as a dickhead).
Kharkiv locals already had every reason to hate Putin… An often forgotten page of history is that the Kremlin tried to do to the Kharkiv oblast what it had done to Donetsk and Luhansk by supporting and sponsoring Pro-Russian separatist movements in order to destabilize the region. When I visited Kherson that year, I saw that the Lenin statue that resided in the central square had finally been torn down. My Ukrainian friends dubbed the picture I took very symbolic – not because the old communist leader had fallen, but rather than in the background, somebody had spraypainted the exact same words: “Путін — Хуйло” (“Putin — Huylo”).
The word “Pravda” means “Truth” in Ukrainian. According to Andriy Korol, the Brewery’s Export Manager, Pravda aims to promote two things:
- The truth about beer brewing only unpasteurized and unfiltered beer that is both delicious and healthy.
- The truth about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. It’s a fight for freedom, democracy, and the right to self-rule.
In retrospect, one could reasonably argue that the Pravda Brewery team was able to outperform many political analysts in their observations on Chancellor Merkel, whom they compared to Nazi Foreign Affairs Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, with the beer “Frau Ribbentrop”. In Ukraine, at least, the former German head of state received a lot of criticism after the Crimean annexation for her role in enabling Russia’s military posturing (and consequential future invasion) by approving the Nordstream II Pipeline. She had tried to contain Russian aggression via cooperation and diplomacy. Instead, the German economy had become further dependent on the Oligarchy’s ability and willingness to provide Europe with their flatulent commodity.
Andriy states that just before the invasion, many in Lviv were not all that concerned with the idea that Russia could invade. Political lightning struck after the 24th of February as Ukraine’s capital was buzzing with the spirit of resistance.“Of course, in the first few days, the situation on the border drew international headlines, but you must realize that 90% of the city remained and was ready to put up a fight,” he says.
Businesses were transformed overnight to help the war effort, metallurgy companies were making Czech hedgehogs to slow the advance of Russian tanks, restaurants were preparing food for refugees, and then there was Pravda, who began making Molotov cocktails. While it wasn’t a specific goal they had in mind, Pravda had garnered international attention, in part for the novelty in changing the utility of their products, but also for their defiance in the face of injustice and adversit, and the symbolic resonance they exude of the fierce Ukrainian spirit. “It wasn’t our goal to get all that press attention; it just happened.”
The Pravda Brewery from then on focussed on helping the Ukrainian army by different fundraisers. “The proceeds go to the army, sometimes we even turn an operational loss on production but that’s ok if we can help the Ukrainian army”.
Should we be surprised that Pravda joined forces with the online partisans of NAFO for a project? I guess not. Pravda has already introduced meme-themed beers (“Putin Huylo”)… Joining forces with the North Atlantic Fella Organisation was always going to be a logical step.
NAFO in itself has become an online force to be reckoned with, while nobody disputes the power of the Russian propaganda the Kremlin has clearly lost on the humor front.
Hank Kobzar
Join NAFO BEER RAFFLE!
This beer will be brewed in collaboration between Pravda Brewery in Lviv, Ukraine and Aeronaut Brewing in Somerville, MA, USA.
For $25 donation to the fundraiser for the 93rd brigade you can join the raffle. Winners will have an opportunity to have their personal NAFO avatar on the beer label of one of the two individual brews. The raffle winners will also win a case of beer! More details on the project page.
