This is only true in those parts of Eastern Europe were "vodka" retained its (old) colloquial use from Polish. So... Poland and maybe some parts of Ukraine, Slovakia etc.. If there are parts of Moldova where these drinks would be called "vodka", I haven't been to them yet :-).
The local generic term for an alcoholic drink is different, but "vodka" is specifically used only for things that say "vodka" on the label pretty much everywhere between the Tatra Mountains and the Mediterranean.
Definitely not called vodka in Slovakia nor Czech republic unless its precisely that, using it in such way would show lack of pretty basic local knowledge (since alcohol use permeated much of the society).
Neither has the taste nor smell any resemblance with vodka, usually much higher quality drink compared to standard vodka (ie from plums you smell and taste plums very intensively, and its 100% from just the fruit, no marketing tricks). Also usually around 50-57% alcohol content compared to 38-40% of usual vodka. Each drink has their own name based on fruit its distilled from, plums are easiest and most common to make due to generous fermenting window and high sugar content of the fruit.
The tradition to make it at home is pretty strong for those who have gardens/houses with such trees, and those home products are of much higher taste quality than anything you can buy in any shop (once western world discover this I expect prices will skyrocket and move it into 'artisanal' category, how can anybody be satisfied with just good quality bland vodka is beyond me). It means given person collected fruits, let them ferment for very precise time for given fruit in vats, and then took it to local certified distillery, no blinding self-made moonshine which is a tool of desperate and very poor.
>Definitely not called vodka in Slovakia nor Czech republic unless its precisely that, using it in such way would show lack of pretty basic local knowledge (since alcohol use permeated much of the society).
I can confirm this. When I lived in the Czech Republic I knew a local who made his own plum schnapps. He explicitly called it slivovice (and schnapps when I asked for the English name), not vodka.
Oh, yeah, hence the "maybe". I've never heard "vodka" used as a generic term for alcoholic liquids anywhere except in Poland, and even there rather rarely.
The local generic term for an alcoholic drink is different, but "vodka" is specifically used only for things that say "vodka" on the label pretty much everywhere between the Tatra Mountains and the Mediterranean.