Molotov Cocktail

Name and etymology

The name 'Molotov cocktail' comes from a taunt coined by Finns during the Winter War of 1939. The Soviet Union denied the invasion and Molotov claimed to be sending humanitarian food to a starving neighbour, so Finns sarcastically called the Soviet RRAB-3 cluster bomb 'Molotov's bread basket' and its submunitions 'loaves', and called this firebomb 'a cocktail for Molotov' to go with that food. Foreign journalists dropped the preposition, and the present name stuck. Finnish literature notes that the name appeared in Swedish newspapers by 1940, and also records alternative versions tying it to the self-igniting liquid 'KS' first produced industrially in October 1941 or to Cuban internationalists who used incendiary mixture in the Spanish Civil War. These accounts conflict with one another and remain unconfirmed.

In Russian usage, 'Molotov cocktail' or 'bottle with incendiary mixture' is the general name for the simplest liquid incendiary grenades, and the English form, derived from the original 'cocktail for Molotov', entered Russian from English at the end of the twentieth century.

Construction and variants

The simplest design is a breakable glass bottle, a flammable liquid, and a porous cloth wick inserted in the neck and soaked with that liquid; the glass may be scored to aid shattering. The Finnish wartime mix was a slightly sticky combination of alcohol, kerosene and tar with potassium chlorate added.

Ignition can use matches or a self-igniting ampoule inside the bottle. In Finland, captain Eero Kuittinen of the Koria garrison designed the polttopullo in spring 1939, and adding tar improved adhesion, smoke and burn temperature. The Alko distillery at Rajamaki mass-produced 500 ml bottles filled with petrol and paraffin plus a little tar, with storm matches or an internal self-igniting ampoule; output is recorded as some 542,000 bottles by spring 1940. A Russian-language account gives the wartime mix as denatured alcohol, kerosene and tar in half-litre vodka bottles.

Germany's Brandflasche was 250 mm high and 60 mm in diameter, filled one-third with flamethrower oil and two-thirds with gasoline. The United States adopted the M1 Frangible Grenade in 1942, a glass bottle holding a pint of incendiary mixture. Britain's No. 76 self-igniting phosphorus grenade was adopted after a July 1940 demonstration and over 6,000,000 had been made by August 1941, issued mainly to the Home Guard as an anti-tank weapon. The Polish Home Army developed a version igniting on impact without a wick, and the Norwegian Army issued April 1940 instructions for 'Hitler cocktails'.

There is also a smoke variant: bottles filled with a mixture such as sulfur trioxide dissolved in chlorosulfonic acid need no ignition source, because the mixture reacts with air once the bottle is smashed.

History and antecedents

The use of vessels with combustible mixture as a weapon goes back to antiquity, to Greek fire, and such vessels were used in Cuba during its war of independence, with 20 July 1895 given as the date when insurgents besieged the Spanish garrison at Bayre and threatened a 'new secret weapon'.

According to Russian-language accounts, glass incendiary shells of B. N. Yuryev's design were made in June 1915 and delivered in thousands to aviation companies by 1 August 1915, and this literature holds that the claim of Captain Kuittinen's and Finnish industry's priority in inventing and first mass-producing the Molotov cocktail in 1939-1940 does not correspond to reality. In the Spanish Civil War, such improvised incendiary devices were first used in warfare between July 1936 and April 1939, before they became known as Molotov cocktails: in 1936 Franco ordered Nationalist forces to use the weapon against Soviet T-26 tanks at Sesena near Toledo, and both sides then used petrol bombs. A Russian account adds that a shortage of anti-tank weapons spread bottles of incendiary mixture among Republican formations, and that in October 1936 Spanish Legion troops used bottles filled with petrol and kerosene near Madrid.

Japanese infantry also used bottles of fuel as an anti-tank means near Lake Khasan in summer 1938 and at Khalkhin Gol in 1939, where 'anti-tank teams' of 10-12 soldiers were armed with glass bottles of combustible mixture and anti-tank pole mines; Japanese claims of several hundred Soviet tanks destroyed are not supported by Soviet loss records.

The Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939, starting the Winter War, and the Finns perfected the design and tactical use of the petrol bomb. A British War Office report of June 1940 recorded the Finnish policy of letting Soviet tanks penetrate, canalising them through gaps, separating armour from infantry and destroying stopped tanks with explosive charges and petrol bombs. Early in 1940, facing invasion, the British public improvised petrol bombs in large numbers, and on 5 June General Ironside cited the Finnish 'Molotov cocktail' of resin, petrol and tar to LDV leaders as an effective anti-tank weapon.

During the Second World War several countries produced Molotov cocktails in factories, including Finland, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Sweden and the United States. The Soviet side used bottles with incendiary mixture from 22 June 1941; the Vietminh made Molotov cocktails against French armour in the First Indochina War; and in Vietnam War-era Saigon, students protesting the Lon Nol government made hundreds of petrol bombs. During the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, U.S. Marines clearing houses used Molotov cocktails made of one part liquid laundry detergent to two parts gas.

After the Russian invasion of 2022, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry told civilians to make Molotov cocktails, a television recipe using styrofoam as a thickening agent circulated, and the Pravda Brewery of Lviv converted from beer to producing them; the Russian regulator Roskomnadzor fined Twitter over instructions.

Symbolism and limits

Because it is easy to make and is used by civilian forces, the Molotov cocktail has become a symbol of civil uprising and revolution, and thereby a symbol of civil unrest, while often appearing in popular culture and video games.

A Russian-language account holds that overall effectiveness against armour is low: killing the engine requires hitting the rear ventilation grilles from the side or rear, feasible mainly in urban guerrilla conditions; in the Second World War tank grilles were covered with mesh so bottles bounced off unbroken, and modern tanks have reliable protection. In Britain too, after weapon designer Stuart Macrae's Farnborough trial anecdote, trials on modern British tanks confirmed that Molotov and SIP grenades caused the occupants 'no inconvenience whatsoever', and Wintringham cautioned against reliance on petrol bombs rather than explosive charges.

Distinctions from other incendiaries

The weapon is related to but distinct from Greek fire, flamethrowers, improvised explosive devices, improvised firearms, and insurgency weapons and tactics, listed as see-also rather than equivalents. A non-incendiary variant is the 'Puputov' used during the 2017 Venezuelan protests, a glass container filled with excrement; the #puputov hashtag topped Venezuelan Twitter on 8 May 2017.

Legal status

As incendiary devices, Molotov cocktails are illegal to manufacture or possess in many regions. Canada treats them as an explosive substance under Criminal Code section 82, with up to five years' imprisonment; the United Kingdom acts under the Explosive Substances Act 1883; and the United States classifies them as destructive devices under the National Firearms Act, regulated by the ATF. Belarus introduced criminal liability in 2016 for actions involving 'items whose destructive effect is based on the use of combustible substances' (Criminal Code art. 295.3, up to two years, up to five for repeat or group offences) without naming the Molotov cocktail in its laws. Russia likewise does not separately regulate the name, turning instead on whether the item constitutes explosives or explosive devices under Criminal Code art. 222.1 and art. 223.1, each carrying up to 20 years' imprisonment. Japan bans the manufacture, storage and use of self-made incendiary weapons, including Molotov cocktails, strengthening criminal liability in 1972 after uses in 1969, 1970 and 1971. Isolated cases continued: on 19 October 2024 a 49-year-old Japanese man threw several bottles at the LDP headquarters building in central Tokyo and was arrested.