Rose, Soviet, Essential Oil

Rosa Damescena likely mixed maybe with Rosa Raduga

For those of us old enough to remember, I give you a glimpse back into the Soviet Union. Yes, the USSR! It's almost like a dream (or a nightmare, depending on your circumstances). More about the USSR further down.

I recently came upon a bottle of rose oil distilled in the USSR in 1972--which you may remember was the year of the Moscow Summit between President Nixon and Leonard Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist party--it was the signing of the first Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the first Strategeic Arms Treaty (SALT1) and the US-Soviet Incidents at Sea Agreement. It's difficult to imagine today, how mysterious the USSR was to Americans.

The rose oil is either Damascene or a combination of Damascene/Raduga. The roses were picked by Young Pioneers about 15 years old as summer work duty. (Rose picking was excellent, as it was over by mid-day, paid very well, comparatively, and involved Roses, of course. Other summer agricultural jobs for young people were not so great: cabbage, wheat, etc.)

Just the petals were picked, and the daily quota was 2 kilos, which took longer than you'd think. Apparently some of the boys would add a little sand to the collection bags to increase the weight. The petals were salted and then stored underground, in the dark, for at least a month; and then distilled. I can't even guess at how the roses smelled when freshly distilled. As of 2025, 53 years later, the tone is deep dark and earthy--it doesn't change as much as fresh rose oil, when applied to a scent strip or the skin--it's strong earthy rose and somehow perfectly illustrates how a collective farm rose harvest by Young Pioneers obviously smells like.

We gadded about with our scent strips, stirring our champagne with them, adding to cream desserts, plastering our throats.....had we access to more, it would have been insane, but the point I'm making is that it tastes exactly as it should.

We are offering this in 1 ml sizes, as a collectors Item or a mavens item or a logical addition to a rose lovers fine reserve--this isn't something you will be able to make a commercial perfume out of. It's finite.

There is a chance we can get a bit more, as I only bought a small amount. So please, if you get it, and try it, and love it, let us know and we will see about getting what we can.

I assume this oil is from Ukraine, or even Belarus. It could be from Azerbaijan. It's Soviet, that's all I know.

he USSR, (Soyuz Sovietski Socialisticheski Republik) was a reluctant conglomeration of countries (including but not limited to Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, many of the -istans, Azerbaijan.....all gathered under Russia's umbrella. But Russia was no longer Russia; the 1917 revolution had ended Tsarist rule and installed a communist "workers paradise" where theoretically everyone was equal, but as Orwell noted in Animal Farm, "All Animals are Equal But Some Animals are More Equal than Others.) This, then, was the Soviet Union. And not to be confused with the unfortunate countries of Eastern Europe, who had the fate of being aligned with the Soviet Union, while maintaining varying degrees of independence. These countries were Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czecholslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The USSR dissolved in 1991 I think......

If this is the first time you're hearing about the USSR, it's fascinating--go check it out. If you remember something, then you can envision collective farms, Young Pioneers, etc, Marx/Engles/Lenin, endless lines, gray, Pravda, etc.

1 gram