samagon

Some months ago several young men accused a shaman of faking and in the argument which followed he was killed. They had been drinking samagon, doubly violating the laws, but it shows a changed public opinion from the old belief that anybody who laughed at or touched a shaman would be struck dead.

1928, Junius B[oyd] Wood, “Oyrots of Oolala”, in Incredible Siberia, New York, N.Y.: Lincoln Mac Veagh, The Dial Press, pages 64–65

He shut the door, pulled out from a sack a flask of samagon and offered it to the chairman with the words, ‘Take it, tovarishtsh. I’ve made it myself, excellent brew, you will like it.’

1931, Maurice [Gerschon] Hindus, Red Bread, New York, N.Y.: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, page 347

The swarthy young delegate from the sheet-metal shop reported: “Zaporozhe is surrounded by an ocean of samagon. The kulaks distill it in tons from last year’s surplus harvest. They flood it into the city through a joint behind the Peasants’ House.[…]”

1943, Anna Louise Strong, Wild River, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, page 72

If the young men got tipsy with such frightening regularity, it was chiefly because the family earned its living by the distilling and selling of samagon, home-made vodka.

1973, Aba Gefen, Unholy Alliance, Yuval Tal Ltd., published 1975, page 45

There were many familiar faces around the table; the meal was lavish and instead of the stinking samagon Bobkov used to drink so heavily, there was good vodka from Moscow and excellent wines from the Caucusus.

1992, Leon Berk, Destined to Live: Memoirs of a Doctor with the Russian Partisans, Melbourne, Vic.: Paragon Press, →ISBN, page 222