Explanation: During the Winter War in WW2, the USSR invaded the neutral nation of Finland in order to seize a large amount of its territory. Finland resisted, naturally, despite the Soviet military outnumbering the entire population of Finland.

The Soviets engaged in some blatant denials during this time - the Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, denied that Soviet planes were bombing Finnish cities, instead claiming that they were dropping food as ‘aid’, showing the immense humanity of the Soviet Union even towards its enemies.

The Finns, with dark humor, named the Soviet bombs ‘Molotov baskets’. And in-line with this, the Finns named their own improvised incendiaries ‘Molotov cocktails’ - ‘a drink to go with the food!’ Typically, Molotov cocktails were glass bottles which were filled with gasoline and motor oil, and capped with a rag. You ignite the rag with a lighter, and throw the bottle, which breaks on impact, spreading (and igniting) the flammable contents over the target. Due to the primitive state of armored vehicles in 1940, this was effective at disabling even Soviet tanks.

The Molotov cocktail remains a popular improvised weapon to this day, though is less-effective against modern armored vehicles.