The drinks are being released in honor of the 67th anniversary of the pivotal Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet-era name for Volgograd, and will appear in Volgograd stores in early February. A second release of the drinks is set to coincide with the May 9 Victory Day celebrations, with this year marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The three soft drinks in the series feature portraits of Stalin, Marshal Gregory Zhukov, and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovksy, and are flanked with the phrase “Our cause is right – We have triumphed.”

An estimated 30 million people died as a result of Stalinist repressions and widespread famine in the 1930s and 40s.

Boris Izgarshev, director of the Pivovar plant producing the beverages, saw nothing wrong with putting Stalin’s picture on a lemon-flavored soft drink. “There’s nothing bad here: all three military commanders are significant historical figures…the name of each one is connected with the Volgograd soil.”

“Of course, we expect there to be a negative wave from social organizations and some veterans, but time will tell. I think that there will be a demand to have these drinks,” he added.

Stanislav Gorokhov, chairman of the Volgograd City Council for Military Veterans, spoke out passionately against the product.

“Before such a reckless step was taken, they should have interviewed the veterans,” Gorokhov insisted. “Really, every one of us has known much sorrow from those times. We think that we have the right to vote. Alright, Zhukov and Rokossovsky, but Stalin – that’s excessive.”

“Yes, he was chief in command, and the country won against the Germans under his command,” he went on. “But what a feeling the veterans will have who unjustly suffered from the Stalinist repressions! Who sat for years in the camps! And the families, who were deprived by his fault of their relatives and close ones? Veterans will be torn over this novelty, but we are in favor of stability. And we will never support those who drive a wedge between generations through such actions.”

Volgograd Regional Duma Deputy Andrei Popkov shared no such misgivings. “There’s nothing bad here,” he told the newspaper. “I think that far from all veterans are hostile towards this novelty; really, they lived through a whole epoch with Stalin. And there’s another plus – in the battle for the market, all means are good ones. And here’s just a superfluous advertisement that doesn’t harm anyone.”

“I mean, there’s vodka named Putinka, and that’s no problem,” the deputy added.

Russian society is largely fractured in its reconciliation of Stalin as a war hero and Stalin as a ruthless dictator. In 2007, then-President Vladimir Putin mandated a revised school history textbook that called Stalin “the most successful Soviet leader ever” and lauds his qualities as a “great organizer.” President Dmitri Medvedev condemned the dictator in a speech last October, but Putin spoke out in the leader’s defense several weeks later in a live telecast, arguing that the question of Stalin was a “subtle” one. A 2009 poll indicated that nearly a third of Russians would like to see a Stalin-like leader as their head of state. At the same time, this number is down from recent years – 42 percent favored a Stalin-like leader in 2005.

Nikolai Levichev, who leads the Just Russia fraction in the State Duma, said his party’s observers noticed the faulty pens in 6 polling places in the southern city of Volgograd.  Levichev showed journalists videotape from one polling center that seemed to back his assertion.

In the video, an older pensioner fumbles near the ballot box, suddenly noticing that her ballot selection has disappeared, leaving her with a blank slip.

The pensioner turns to an incredulous election worker, who uses a pen from the ballot booth to write “I don’t believe you,” on the ballot.  Several minutes later, the phrase fades from sight, much to the surprise of astonished onlookers.

A ballot count later found 285 invalid slips at the polling place, most of them blank.  A recount, conducted upon request from a local candidate from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, was even more shocking.  Conducted on March 8th, the recount found an extra 206 votes for the United Russia party.  Levichev asserts that ballots that were initially blank now had “writing and graphical representations made with the same handwriting.”  In such a way, United Russia may have been trying to make a safety net and ensure that it received a certain percent of votes in the election, Levichev said.

Just Russia is not the first party to assert that disappearing ink was used in the recent elections.  The two other parties in Parliament, the Russian Communist Party (CPRF) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), expressed identical concerns.  “Our observers recorded similar violations in tens of polling stations in the [Volgograd] oblast,” said Sergei Ivanov, an LDPR deputy.

Russia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC), which oversees elections, said that using invisible ink did not formally violate any laws, suggesting that the tactic was a sort of loophole.  As of yet, the Commission had not formally looked into the allegations.

CEC member Igor Borisov told Gazeta.ru that electoral law dictates that polling stations must contain a pen, but that the law does not define what the composition of the ink must be.

“Although truth be told, we understand a pen to be a means of writing, whose mark does not rub off,” he clarified.  “That is to say, for instance, it can’t be a pencil.”

Just Russia says it will consider all its options in the near future, and that it is prepared to take the matter to court.  They’re probably hoping the case won’t simply disappear.