[6] Smolyansky family emigrated from Kyiv to Chicago in 1976 as part of President Richard Nixon's Grain for Immigrants program.
[7] From 1976 to 1985, Smolyansky worked for EJ Littell Machine Company as a project engineer and as the department manager with responsibility for the design of material handling equipment.
[5] Smolyansky's wife suggested the idea of him founding a business making kefir, whilst they were visiting Germany in Winter 1984.
Smolyansky rented a small factory on the east side of Skokie in 1985, where he set up a production line; he invested about $50,000 of family savings in the business.
[4] Smolyansky visited Kyiv in February 1992 for the first time since 1976, in an effort to form a joint venture to produce and sell kefir in Ukraine.