The firebomb weapon called a Molotov cocktail--a bottle or jar filled with gasoline with a rag stuffed in the top as a fuse--is named for him.
He was Soviet foreign minister from 1939 to 1949 and 1953 to 1956.
His wife was imprisoned by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
During the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact talks in Berlin prior to World War II, he was so afraid of being poisoned by his "hosts" that he refused to remove his spectacles for fear they could be tainted by
the Germans.