Even if you haven’t ever cooled down with Redpop! from Faygo on a hot summer day, you definitely passed by it at your local grocery store about a million times; and if you haven’t yet purchased Lifeway Kefir at your local supermarket, you have probably seen it. Regardless of your involvement with  the abovementioned beverages, I bet you listen to the radio, at least occasionally. What do these things all  have in common? Russian people created them.

Alexander Popov was a professor of physics in 1885. While giving a lecture at St. Petersburg University he unveiled a system for wireless communication. In doing so, he gave the world its first radio. Unfortunately, he worked for a military institution and was unable to publish his work. Meanwhile in Italy, Guglielmo Marconi had been conducting similar experiments that would be the basis for an article that he did get published in 1897. Not long after that, the radio became a commercial sensation with the credit for its development still disputed today: Russian or Italian?

If you don’t live in the United States you may never have had the pleasure of drinking a Faygo Root Beer or Faygo Rock N’ Rye. In about 1907, the Feigenson brothers, both of whom had emigrated from Russia, started producing soda pop that made them more money than their previous jobs as bakers had. In the beginning they had only three flavors and they were based upon their cake frosting recipes: strawberry, grape, and fruit punch. During  the 1920’s the name had been changed to Faygo, they purchased a truck to deliver it, and sales began to take off. Initially, they charged $.03 for one bottle and $.05 for two. They would even deliver it to your home. Today, Faygo is quite popular in Michigan and has been featured in Bon Appétit magazine.

Lifeway Foods produces a tasty, fermented milk called kefir – this is their flagship product. Kefir is made by inoculating animal milk (cow, goat, or sheep) with kefir grains. In 1976 Michael Smolyansky emigrated to the U.S. and happened to visit a food show where he found kefir. He saw the potential of this product that had not really taken off in America and started Lifeway out of his basement. They have also created a variety of tasty flavors including vanilla, blueberry, strawberry, and peach. Kefir has been around for centuries and is quite popular across Europe and Asia, however, Lifeway has increased its popularity in America in a big way. I personally grew up drinking kefir. Unfortunately, kefir didn’t come in 20 different flavors during my childhood but we were fond of adding sugar to it. Today you can find many varieties of kefir in both national and independently-owned grocery stores across the country.

Some other Russian inventions include electrically-powered railway wagons, videotape recorders, the helicopter, solar cells, and transformers – the kind necessary for a power grid. People from all countries have invented some great products that have made our lives better in some ways, Russia is no exception.