Antonovka is an late-fall/winter apple cultivar that was widely grown in the Soviet Union and, previously, in the Russian Empire. Ivan Bunin's early short story, Antonovka Apples (1900), is a sort of ode to this apple cultivar. Granny Smith, an apple cultivar Over 7,500 cultivars of the Apple are known. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... The Russian writer Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (October 10, 1870 - November 8, 1953), born in Voronezh, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1933. ... Ode is a form of stately and elaborate lyrical verse. ...

Its popularity is explained by the antonovka's ability to sustain long harsh winters typical for some regions of Russia and for its superior preservation qualities. Sometimes nicknamed "the people's apple" (народное яблоко) it was especially popular among the dacha owners, and remains widely grown at dachas in many Post-Soviet states. Dacha â–¶(?) (Russian: да́ча) is a name for summer home or vacation house in Russia and CIS countries where people spend their summer holidays and grow fruit and vegetables for their own use. ... The Post-Soviet states, also commonly known as former Soviet republics, are the independent nations which split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its breakup in 1991. ...

Antonovka suits especially good for late apple wine. The taste of wine is noticeably lighter than wine from "ordinary" apples.