| Belomorkanal is a Soviet brand of cigarettes that was released to celebrate the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, abbreviated as "Belomorkanal" in Russian.
Belomorkanal has a specific cigarette design called papirosa in Russian, to stand out from casual cigarettes called sigareta (сигарета). Generally, the "papirosa" have no filters. Belomorkanal is a great example of one of the periods in the evolution of cigarettes: it is composed of a hollow cardboard tube widened by a thin cigarette paper tube with tobacco. The cardboard tube is used for disposable cigarette holder. This method was also used but later abandoned by Western brands shortly after World War II. The Belomorkanal are still produced in different post-Soviet states, mostly in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.
Due to their low price, Belomorkanal cigarettes became famous in most of the Soviet countries. They are characterized as one of the strongest (if not the strongest) cigarettes available in Eastern Europe. You can see them depicted in many works of art and literature, proving how popular they were.
| 
