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A Molotov cocktail is an improvised incendiary firebomb, made by placing a flammable item such as a cloth or a rag inside a breakable bottle of fuel \u2013 usually petrol or alcohol \u2013 which is lit just before the bottle is thrown. When the bottle breaks on impact, the cloud of flammable substance ignites, causing an immediate fireball.<\/p>\n
They were first used during the Spanish Civil War<\/a> of 1936\u201339, when the Spanish general and future ruler of the country Francisco Franco ordered his Nationalist troops to use them against Soviet-supplied tanks who were supporting the Republicans. But they did not get their name until the First Soviet-Finnish War (aka \u2018the Winter War\u2019) of 1939\u201340, when the Soviet Union invaded Finland. In the face of international protests against the invasion, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslev Molotov claimed that Russian aircraft were dropping humanitarian food deliveries, not bombs. Finnish citizens mockingly dubbed the Soviet bombs \u201cMolotov\u2019s bread baskets\u201d, and gave their home-made bottle bombs the name \u201cMolotov cocktail\u201d, as \u201ca drink to go with the food\u201d.<\/p>\n In the 1940s, with the prospect of a possible Nazi invasion<\/a> on the horizon, many Britons made their own Molotov cocktails. And years later, in Northern Ireland, Molotov cocktails were used by paramilitary groups and protesters.<\/p>\n The Molotov cocktail is today seen as a symbol of rebellion and has featured in several protests around the world.<\/p>\n