There is a luxurious summer outside - the time for vacations, picnics and all kinds of other types of recreation. On such days, it is somehow not even with the hand to write about revolutions, unrest and wars, thought by itself turns into something more peaceful and, preferably, pleasant. Why, even then to say - not only blood for many centuries flowed like rivers in the vastness of our Fatherland! "Green of Wine" has also been spilled a lot …
Unfortunately, articles about everything related to the use of alcohol in our country can, for the most part, be divided into two categories - either purely advertising (everything is clear with them), or angrily condemning-tragic, mercilessly stigmatizing drinking as such and all at least a few "using" people. We will try to look for an answer to the question of what role the intoxicated one played in Russian and Soviet history, and along the way we will scatter to smithereens at least the most obsessive and ridiculous myths associated with this issue.
"Drinking" myths of Russia
"Vodka is the most Russian drink!", "Russians are the drunkest nation in the world, carrying alcoholism in their gene pool!", "Our people have been drunk for centuries - first tsars, then Generals!" - what kind of impassable nonsense you will not hear and read, you just have to "hook" on this question. And as foreigners … Look, not so long ago the Japanese journalist Mititaka Hattori in all seriousness gave out the version that it was Gorbachev's anti-alcohol decrees, which the Japanese persistently call "dry law", that led to the collapse of the USSR! They, in his opinion, "aroused the anger of the drinkers" who simply "had no other entertainment." And that’s all - the end of "perestroika", cranks to the Soviet Union … Well, what can I say? It remains only to deal in detail with the age-old lies and delusions heaped up around "Russian drunkenness".
"Prince Vladimir - an apologist for Old Russian alcoholism." Such nonsense was born and to this day is in circulation due to the fact that Nestor the chronicler, known to all of us from school, the author of The Tale of Bygone Years, in the section describing the choice of the Grand Duke Vladimir of a new faith for his state, argued that from Islam, he refused almost exclusively due to the prohibition on the use of wine in the Koran. "Fun in Russia is drink!" - Red Sun seemed to give out, thereby giving the Mohammedans a turn from the gate. It is clear that the ancient pen worker just wanted to paint everything "beautifully" and the choice of such an important attribute as the state religion of the great pragmatist Vladimir was influenced by completely different factors, which today would be called geopolitical considerations. But the legend went for a walk around the world,giving a good trump card to those who claim that …
"The Russians are the most drinking nation and have always been." Everyone in Europe will tell you this - they know for sure! In fact - sheer nonsense, just blatant slander, one of the widest arsenal of "Russophobia for beginners." We must start with the fact that the same Nestor has no faith for an extremely simple reason - in Russia during the time of Vladimir, mass drunkenness was physically impossible! The main intoxicating drink was fermented "standing" honey. Its strength was closer to beer, maximum - to weak wine. And, most importantly - was there a lot of that intoxicated honey ?! Especially when you consider that the valuable product obtained from bees had many other uses. Beer was brewed too - but in very small quantities, again, not everyone could transfer barley to it. And the wine was a product of exclusively "imported production"by virtue of which it was available exclusively to princes, close squads and other "cream of society".
In the richest pantheon of the ancient Slavs, there were no "drinking" gods like the Greek Bacchus or the Roman Bacchus, and there was not even close. Gods of fire and water, war and agriculture, carnal love and fun … But the gods-drunkards, unlike the "enlightened Europeans", our ancestors did not have. And in the oldest legislative code of our Motherland - "Russian Truth", which considered in the most detailed way all possible crimes and offenses, "alcoholic articles" also cannot be found. The problem was clearly irrelevant! Moreover, according to statistics, already in the 19th century, more than 95% of minors (under 18), 90% of women and 43% of men in the Russian Empire were absolute teetotalers (that is, people who had never tasted alcohol in their lives)! So much for "general drunkenness" …
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Who invented vodka?
And, of course, the Russians did not "invent" either alcohol or vodka. The Arabs were the first to think of the distillation of grape wine - according to historical chronicles, a substance that is as close as possible to the current strong alcohol was obtained by either Ragez, or Ragiz back in the 6th-7th century. Hence the name "al-kogol", meaning "intoxicating", "mindless." But Mohammed intervened, imposing a ban on alcohol for all the faithful - and the center of "drinking development" of mankind moved to Europe. It was then that the "green serpent" turned around in full! Especially zealous in this matter were alchemists, of whom in the Old World then bred as uncut dogs. Hence all sorts of lofty names, like "spiritus vin" ("spirit of wine"), which remained in our everyday life as "alcohol". The first drinks obtained from distilled grape wine (the former, in fact,analogs of the current grappa or chacha), in Europe they called "aqua vita", that is, "the water of life." This name in a revised form - "shackle" and stuck with vodka in Ukraine. They are generally b-a-alshie Europeans, yeah …
Russians did not know vodka at all until the 12th century. The then "aqua vita" was brought to Moscow by Genoese merchants, trying to surprise the local nobility. The stubborn Muscovites tried, spat, rinsed their mouths and continued to drink honey-beer, remaining confident that such zaboristy things could be used only for medicinal purposes. But strong booze even took root in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which, in the opinion of many natives there (the same Mikhail Litvin), greatly contributed to the collapse of his statehood and falling under the full power of the Commonwealth. So, there was no "primordially Russian vodka" at all ?! Well, of course - it was, of course. The honor of its creation is attributed to a certain monk Isidore (a personality, quite possibly mythical). It was he who, according to legend, thought of mixing alcohol with water in proportion,making it much more palatable. The main difference between the new drink, its true "Russianness" was that it was based on alcohol, obtained not from grapes, but from rye grain. Hence the first true name of Russian vodka - "bread wine".
As such, the term "vodka" began to be used in Russia to the familiar to all of us today to the water-alcohol mixture of the century from the 17th century before that, in addition to the name given above, there were: "hot wine", "burnt wine", "green wine", "Boiled wine" and so on. And the strength of the vodka used in the Russian state was initially far from the present. For the first time, the Tsar of All Russia, Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, allowed the sale of "bread wine". By the way, he also opened the first tavern in Moscow - an institution designed exclusively for drunken drinking. So, with him the vodka was at 14 degrees! She began to gain strength only later - over the years and centuries. Here, of course, it is impossible to ignore another idiotic myth - that modern and supposedly “ideal” vodka was “invented” by the great Russian chemist Mendeleev. There was nothing like this in my life! Yes,the scientist really defended his thesis on the topic of "mutual dissolution of anhydrous alcohol and water" at one time, but it had nothing to do with the production of vodka! According to Mendeleev himself, he "never drank vodka in his life," and knew its taste "on a par with the taste of most salts or poisons." So where did 40 degrees come from ?! This ratio has a very specific author - Russian Finance Minister Reitern. It was he who proposed to “round off” the strength of vodka established under Peter the Great at 38-39 degrees to exactly 40. This made the calculation of the corresponding tax deductions easier and faster! Alas, we owe the "classical degree" not to a genius, but to an official. True, all the same - domestic.but it had not the slightest relation to the production of vodka! According to Mendeleev himself, he "never drank vodka in his life," and knew its taste "on a par with the taste of most salts or poisons." So where did 40 degrees come from ?! This ratio has a very specific author - Russian Finance Minister Reitern. It was he who proposed to “round off” the strength of vodka established under Peter the Great at 38-39 degrees to exactly 40. This made the calculation of the corresponding tax deductions easier and faster! Alas, we owe the "classical degree" not to a genius, but to an official. True, all the same - domestic.but it had not the slightest relation to the production of vodka! According to Mendeleev himself, he "never drank vodka in his life," and knew its taste "on a par with the taste of most salts or poisons." So where did 40 degrees come from ?! This ratio has a very specific author - Russian Finance Minister Reitern. It was he who proposed to “round off” the strength of vodka established under Peter the Great at 38-39 degrees to exactly 40. This made the calculation of the corresponding tax deductions easier and faster! Alas, we owe the "classical degree" not to a genius, but to an official. True, all the same - domestic. It was he who proposed to “round off” the strength of vodka established under Peter the Great at 38-39 degrees to exactly 40. This made the calculation of the corresponding tax deductions easier and faster! Alas, we owe the "classical degree" not to a genius, but to an official. True, all the same - domestic. It was he who proposed to “round off” the strength of vodka established under Peter the Great at 38-39 degrees to exactly 40. This made the calculation of the corresponding tax deductions easier and faster! Alas, we owe the "classical degree" not to a genius, but to an official. True, all the same - domestic.
So who was it that "got the Russian people drunk"?
The fact that "general Russian drunkenness" and "addiction to alcohol" of our people is nothing more than an evil myth has already been said above. By the way, there is a version according to which our ancestors are partly to blame for his appearance - they always tried to "welcome" foreign guests: if you dine, so that they could not get up from the table, if you drink, so they crawl … So the poor fellows took Russian hospitality for "national traditions". However, it cannot be denied that drunkenness in Russia as a national problem has been present since a certain time. Who is to blame for this? Believe it or not, foreigners were the first to be caught in instilling a love for abundant drinking in our people. Specifically - the Germans captured in the Livonian War,whom all the same Ioann Vasilyevich settled in Moscow in the so-called Kukui-Sloboda and endowed with considerable, in today's language, "benefits and privileges." Including - for the production of strong alcohol and trade in it, which the Russians at that time were strictly prohibited. Well, the guests turned around wonderfully - the scale of the disaster was such that it came down to complaints to the Metropolitan. John the Terrible got his nickname for a reason - the settlement was burned to hell, and the presumptuous "bootleggers" were kicked out into the cold, as contemporaries wrote "in what the mother gave birth to."John the Terrible got his nickname for a reason - the settlement was burned to hell, and the presumptuous "bootleggers" were kicked out into the cold, as contemporaries wrote "in what the mother gave birth to."John the Terrible got his nickname for a reason - the settlement was burned to hell, and the presumptuous "bootleggers" were kicked out into the cold, as contemporaries wrote "in what the mother gave birth to."
However, Kukui with all its traditions - including drunkenness - was reborn in a wonderful way already under Boris Godunov. And already under Peter I, it bloomed in full bloom. This sovereign, no doubt, was great, but how many all kinds of rubbish he dragged onto the Russian land - do not count! Of course, he hung the pood "medals" for drunkenness on his subjects, but one of his "all-sensible and all-drunken councils" canceled out the entire "anti-alcohol policy" of the tsar in one fell swoop. By the way, the same monarch first introduced the state monopoly on distilling, the second in Russian history, and then, canceling it, began to tear the excise tax from the distillers - a lot of money was needed to equip the army and navy and to wage wars. Catherine II, who in every possible way promoted the idea of "liberty of the nobility" made distilling the privilege of an exclusively noble class. Under her, the final development and consolidation at the state level was received by the system of so-called "buyouts", the meaning of which was that the collection of funds received from the wine trade for the state treasury was carried out by private individuals who had their own, rather considerable "margin" from this. This is an explanation in an extremely condensed form, the system, in fact, was quite complex and was constantly changing.
"Alcoholic" ransom payments received by the treasury of the Russian Empire were huge! If in the year of the introduction of this system (1781) they amounted to 10 million rubles, then already in 1811-1815 they exceeded 50 million annually. The state wine monopoly, finally introduced in 1894, by 1913 accounted for more than a quarter of all income of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, these frightening figures are far from being an indicator of "general drunkenness" and therefore need clarification. The thing is that until about the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, "bread wine" in Russia was produced from alcohol obtained by distillation. Such a drink needed careful cleaning and could only be produced from high-quality raw materials (grain). However, technical progress, whether it was three times wrong, brought the technology of rectified alcohol. You could drive him out of anything - from potatoes, beets, even from sawdust, about which the great Soviet bard sang with such resentment. Russian vodka, having lost its, one might say, "sacred essence" has become cheap. At the end of the 17th century, a 12-liter bucket of "funny" vodka now with a fortress of 24 degrees "pulled" about a ruble of money, and in a lean year it could cost three or four times more, respectively, a liter cost at least 8 kopecks. In 1913, rectified "forty-degree" was sold on average at 60 kopecks per liter. But the craftsman of Peter's time did not earn even half a dollar in a month, but an experienced factory worker under Nicholas II had a salary of 30-50 rubles! Feel the difference. By the way, it is no coincidence that the bucket measure for vodka was given by me - until the 19th century, a smaller volume of "bread wine" was not released from the pub to take away. It was also a kind of filter against the soldering of the poor.
Fighting drinking - for good and for evil
As we can see, up to the beginning of the 20th century, huge "vodka" receipts to the Russian treasury were provided, rather, by the high cost of the product than by the massive consumption of it. However, not everyone in Russia was of this opinion. In Russian history, an extremely little-known fact is as flattering for our people as it is shameful for the then government - the anti-alcohol riots of the late 19th century. More specifically, the mass demonstrations that took place in 1858-1859, which engulfed 32 provinces of the Russian Empire, in the process of which the peasants at first all and all refused to drink intoxicated, and then began to smash taverns to pieces, destroyed alcohol (and not at all by drinking it inside) and, moreover - demanded from the authorities "never to open them again." In the Volga region, the rebellion took on the dimensions of almost a new Pugachev region - it came to the point thatthat troops were thrown against the militant teetotalers, which fired to kill! 11 thousand fighters against alcohol were sent to prison and hard labor! "Temperance gatherings" were banned by the Minister of Finance himself by personal decree - still, such a loss to the treasury …
It is not surprising that with such a "state policy", the consumption of vodka in the Russian Empire steadily increased, reaching 4.7 liters per capita by 1914. At the same time, however, Russians remained second in the world in the field of drinking … from the end! But then a real "dry law" broke out - with the outbreak of the First World War, the sale of alcohol (not only vodka, but wine and even beer) was prohibited. Moreover, there is evidence that Nicholas II in all seriousness declared his intention to leave the ban in force after the end of the war! How can a revolution not happen here ?! However, the Bolsheviks, who took power in Russia as a result of all the vicissitudes, did not even think to abolish the "forced sobriety". "Prohibition" existed first in the RSFSR, and then in the USSR until 1925. And even then at first vodka was sold no stronger than 30 degrees. Well,and the Stalinist USSR, in comparison with today's Russia and the “post-Soviet republics”, was generally a country of teetotalers: in 1932, no more than a liter of vodka was consumed per capita per year, by 1950 - 1.85 liters. So, the nonsense about "the people 's" People's Commissars "100 grams that made the people drunk" is nothing more than one more of the heinous inventions of the "anti-Stalinist" liberals.
Even in the years preceding the decline of the Soviet Union, our people drank ten times less than the French, seven times less than the inhabitants of the United States, and three times less than the British sirs and ladies. However, by 1984, alcohol consumption reached 10 and a half liters per capita per year. And this is without taking into account the moonshine … Was Gorbachev right when he declared a "war of destruction" on alcohol in any form? Now it is difficult to say - only the winners are not judged, and that “war” was fought with such stupid and barbaric methods that it’s scary to remember to this day. And it was, in the end, lost - just like everything that Gorbachev was up to, except, alas, the collapse of the USSR. The "spring" of drunkenness, "squeezed" during the years of the anti-alcohol campaign, straightened in the bad memory of the 90s with such force that we reap terrible consequences to this day. And, nevertheless, Russia did not become "the most drunk country in the world"!In the annual ratings compiled on this occasion, as a rule, it does not even make it into the top ten. All "honorable" places in it are occupied by the countries of Europe or our former "neighbors" in the USSR. Europeans, by the way, have been holding the lead in drunkenness-related suicides for years. By the way, the same Japanese Hattori mentioned at the beginning of the article is forced to admit that today Russians drink much less than his compatriots.
So, dear readers … Smartly, in moderation, for a worthy reason, a quality product and in a good company … Why not ?! To your health!
Author: Alexander Necropny
