Table-glass or granyonyi stakan or granchak is a type of drinkware made from especially hard and thick glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 and having a faceted form. It is a very widespread form of drinking glass in Russia and the former Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Granyonyi stakan has certain advantages over the other drinkware, since due to its form and hardness it is more difficult to break. It is arguably more handy in usage on moving trains or rolling ships, where it is less prone to decline and fall, or slip from hands, and less likely to be broken when hitting the floor, compared to non-faceted types of drinking glasses.

Granyony stakan may be used to drink any type of beverage, including vodka

Vodka

Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....

 and tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

. It is often used in combination with tea glass-holder (podstakannik).

The classical form of Russian and Soviet granchak is that with 14 facets. Such glasses have been produced since 1943 at a factory in the city of Gus-Khrustalny

Gus-Khrustalny

Gus-Khrustalny is a town in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Gus River south of Vladimir. Population: 65,000 ; 40,000 ; 17,900 ....

, the famous center of Russian glass-making. According to one theory, this version of drinking glass became a preferred one and was massively produced in the Soviet Union because it was more fit to be washed using dish washing machines. A legend tells that the 14-facets form was designed by a famous Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina

Vera Mukhina

Vera Ignatyevna Mukhina was a prominent Soviet sculptor.- Life :Mukhina was born in Riga into a wealthy merchant family, and lived at Turgeneva st. 23/25, where a memorial plaque has now been placed. She later moved to Moscow, where she studied at several private art schools, including those of...

.
Faceted drinking glasses, however, have been known in Russia from much older time. Their depictions are often found on the pictures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when they became widespread.

A legend says that the first known faceted glass was given as a present to Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 Peter the Great from a glass-maker called Yefim Smolin

Yefim Smolin

Yefim Smolin was a legendary Russian glass-maker and inventor of granyonyi stakan , living in the late 17th century and early 18th century in the area of the modern Vladimir Oblast in Russia....

, living in Vladimir Oblast

Vladimir Oblast

Vladimir Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Vladimir, which is located east of Moscow...

. He boasted to Tsar that his glass couldn’t be broken. Tsar Peter liked the present, however, after drinking some alcoholic beverage from it, he said loudly Let the glass be! ( - literally the glass be), threw the glass on the ground and managed to break it. But Peter didn’t punish the glass-maker, and the production of such glasses continued. According to the legend, people present during this episode misinterpreted the Tsar’s words and thought that Peter called to break the glasses ( - literally beat glasses or break glasses), that’s how a tradition of breaking drinkware on certain occasions appeared in Russia. Glasses were broken after especially important toast

Toast (honor)

A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast"...

s or just during the especially cheerful parties. Russian restaurants even held a special prices for breaking the glasses. Breaking of drinkware, or, in wider context, any tableware

Tableware

Tableware is the dishes or dishware , dinnerware , or china used for setting a table, serving food, and for dining. Tableware can be meant to include flatware and glassware...

, is believed in Russia to bring luck and happiness.

The popularity of hard-to-break table-glasses diminished after 1970-s, when more thin-glass drinkware started to be produced using equipment brought from Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. Several factories in Russia and Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 still produce granchaks, which became somewhat symbolic of the Soviet era and sometimes perceived as souvenirs.

An image of granyonyi stakan in popular culture is associated either with vodka

Vodka

Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....

 and pickled cucumber

Pickled cucumber

A pickled cucumber is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation.-Gherkin:A gherkin is not only...

s, or with tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 and podstakannik

Podstakannik

The podstakannik , or tea glass holder, is a holder with a handle, most commonly made of metal that holds a drinking glass. The primary purpose of podstakanniks is to be able to hold a very hot glass of tea, which is usually consumed right after it is brewed. It is a traditional way of serving and...

.