There is an opinion that in fact the Russian people did not accept drunkenness and opposed it in every possible way. Proof of this was the most powerful anti-alcohol riots, which no country in the world knew. So, in 1859, an anti-alcohol riot engulfed 32 provinces, more than 2000 villages and villages rose up against the soldering of the nation. People destroyed drinking establishments, breweries and wineries, refused free vodka …
Sounds like some kind of fantasy, right? Have you heard about this somewhere?
Let's find out more about this …
The scientific term "instinct" is translated from Latin as "motivation", "inspiration". IN AND. Dahl, inserting this non-Russian word into his vocabulary of the living Great Russian language, noticed that the word "instinct is so bad that one cannot but wish to replace it with a wake." And when we see today how the Russian people are burning on an alcohol fire, it involuntarily comes to mind that the nation has completely lost the instinct of self-preservation, having lost the wake, that is, the will, to live.
A century and a half ago, the people's self-preservation instinct worked, despite the fact that an alcoholic irritant in those years by today's standards can be called sobriety: children, adolescents under twenty-one years old and women did not drink at all, and men drank no more than two or three liters of alcohol a year in year. And nevertheless, in 1859, a real anti-alcohol battle broke out between townspeople and peasants (at that time still serfs) against 146 tax farmers - just so many people in the empire were allowed, as they would say now, to control cash flows from the production and sale of alcoholic beverages.
The textbooks are silent about that war, although its battles were fought in 17 provinces, from Kovno in the west to Saratov in the east. Another feature of it: no one organized the actions of the people, she did not nominate commanders, people were ruled by the elements, the very prompting that prompted: you can't live like that, you have to fight!
What was the ransom system? In a word, it was bondage: every peasant or city dweller was assigned to a certain tavern, and if he did not drink his "norm" and the amount from the sale turned out to be insufficient, then the uncollected money was collected from the surrounding yards. The one who did not want or could not return the "debt" was flogged with a whip for the edification of others.
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The appetites of the tax farmers grew, and so did prices. In 1858, instead of the previous three rubles, they began to sell a bucket of sivukha for ten (at that time, a chervonets was the monthly salary of a worker). In the end, the peasants boycotted the merchants, and not so much out of greed, but out of the principle: seeing how one by one fellow villagers join the ranks of drunks who are no longer up to work, village gatherings decided: in our village no one drinks.
The other side accepted the challenge and cut prices. The working people did not respond to "kindness." Then the shinkari, in order to bring down the temperance mood, began to offer wine … for free. In vain! "Don't drink!" - this slogan instantly spread throughout Russia. For example, in the Balashovsky district of the Saratov province in December 1858, 4,752 people refused to drink alcohol. All the taverns in Balashov were guarded by the people for observation, those who violated the vow were fined or subjected to corporal punishment by the verdict of the people's court. The townspeople also joined the grain growers: workers, officials, nobles. The priests also supported the sobriety of their parishioners, which seriously frightened winemakers and potion merchants, and they complained to the government.
State peasants were the participants of the 1st Sober Movement; they were joined by landlords and appanage peasants, urban lower classes, retired soldiers and some other strata of society. It all began with the emergence in August 1858 in the Vilnius and Comenius provinces of temperance societies, which by the summer of 1859 had spread to 32 provinces of Russia, mainly northwestern, central and Volga regions.
The peasants at the gatherings decided not to drink wine, but to subject the violators to fines and corporal punishment. In May 1859, the people dispersed in earnest and proceeded to a mass pogrom of drinking establishments.
In March 1859, the ministers of finance, internal affairs and state property issued orders, their essence boiled down to a ban … sobriety! The local authorities were instructed not to allow the organization of sobriety societies, and to destroy the existing sentences on refraining from wine and not allow in the future. To calm down the riot, the owners of drinking establishments reduced the prices for vodka, and even put it up for free - it's useless. At the request of the government, the Holy Synod recommended that the priests temporarily refrain from denouncing drunkenness in their sermons - it did not help. And only the troops managed to pacify the sober movement.
The authorities relied on the law-abiding people, on the authority of the state. And they got it - a riot! A wave of pogroms swept across Russia. Beginning in May 1859 in the west of the country, in June unrest reached the Volga. The peasants smashed drinking establishments in Balashovsky, Atkarsky, Khvalynsky, Saratovsky and in many other districts. The pogroms became especially widespread in Volsk. "Volsk is a small town - a corner of St. Petersburg" - this is how the proverb noted the neatness of the settlement, which abounded in architectural masterpieces. On July 24, a crowd of three thousand people smashed wine exhibitions there at the fair. Quarter warders, police officers, mobilizing disabled teams (retired soldiers) and soldiers of the 17th artillery brigade, could not calm the crowd. The rebels disarmed the police and soldiers and released prisoners from prison. Only a few days later, the troops that arrived from Saratov put things in order, arresting 27 people (and a total of 132 people were thrown into prison in Volsky and Khvalynsky districts). All of them were condemned by the commission of inquiry on the basis of only the unfounded testimony of the tavern's inmates, who slandered the accused, who allegedly stole wine (while smashing taverns, the rioters did not drink wine, but poured it on the ground). Historians note that not a single case of theft was recorded, the money was plundered on the sly by the employees of the drinking establishments, and the loss was blamed on the rebels. Historians note that not a single case of theft was recorded, the money was plundered on the sly by the employees of the drinking establishments, and the loss was blamed on the rebels. Historians note that not a single case of theft was recorded, the money was plundered on the sly by the employees of the drinking establishments, and the loss was blamed on the rebels.
From 24 to 26 July, 37 drinking houses were destroyed in the Volsky district, heavy fines were taken from the peasants for each of them, and the taverns were restored. In the documents of the commission of inquiry, the names of convicted fighters for sobriety have been preserved: L. Maslov and S. Khlamov (peasants of the village of Sosnovka), M. Kostyunin (village of Tersa), P. Vertegov, A. Volodin, M. Volodin, V. Sukhov (with. Donguz). The soldiers who took part in the temperance movement were ordered by the court, “having deprived of all the rights of the state, and the lower ranks - medals and stripes for blameless service, whoever has such, punished with gauntlets every 1000 people, 5 times, and sent to hard labor in factories for 4 years.
All in all, 11 thousand people were sent to prisons and hard labor in Russia. Many died from bullets: the riot was pacified by the troops, who were ordered to shoot at the rebels. All over the country there was a reprisal against those who dared to protest against the soldering of the people. The judges raged: they were ordered not only to punish the rioters, but to punish them approximately, so that others would not disdain to strive "for sobriety without official permission."
But those in power understood that it was possible to pacify by force, but sitting on bayonets for a long time was uncomfortable. It was necessary to consolidate the success. And the government, like the heroes of a popular comedy movie, decided: "Whoever hinders us will help us." The ransom system for selling wine was abolished, and an excise tax was introduced instead. Anyone could produce and sell wine by paying a tax to the treasury. In many villages there were traitors who, feeling the support of the bayonets behind their backs, continued the war against sobriety by other, "peaceful" methods.
The alcohol riot prompted the government to end the ransom system, which was abolished in 1861 and replaced by excise taxes.
It is believed that the sober movement led to an increase in the self-awareness of the people, which forced the tsarist government to abolish serfdom in 1861. On the taverns, as being protected by the state, and bringing the state significant income, state emblems were put. Using a monopoly position, tax farmers refused to sell ordinary wine, diluted it at their discretion, arbitrarily raised prices, while earning huge amounts of money. All this, along with other reasons, caused discontent among the people, which could result in a peasant war.
… A quarter of a century later, sobriety societies re-emerged in many provincial and district cities of Russia. The attack on the "green serpent" went from all sides. The merchants delegated to the State Duma the Samara bakery owner Mikhail Dmitrievich Chelyshev, who no longer smashed taverns from the Duma rostrum, but the very idea of drinking alcohol. The Samara peasant Ivan Churikov promoted religious abstinence from alcohol. The All-Russian Shepherd John of Kronstadt called alcohol "a dissolved demon". Hundreds of teetotal newspapers and magazines paved the way for Prohibition in 1914.
The defeated in 1859 took revenge after half a century. Although the war of supporters and opponents of the "drunken lifestyle" continued after 1914. Actually, from a legal point of view, there was no "dry law". It's just that Emperor Nicholas II allowed the self-government bodies to curtail the trade in wine and vodka in their territories, and gatherings began to close taverns even before the start of the First World War, the hostilities only spurred the process of sobering up the country: in all cities and villages, the people themselves declared the "green snake" outlaw … The level of consumption from four liters of pure alcohol per capita in 1913 fell to almost zero in 1915.
Almost, because there are loopholes. Wine was sold in restaurants. Beer was not considered alcoholic (as we know!). In the same Volsk, where the destruction of taverns was most zealous in 1859, in 1916 the struggle broke out again, already on the legal field. Brewer Leonid Vasilyevich Worms, taking advantage of the fact that 1.5-degree beer was not subject to the ban, overstocked all retail outlets with them. The townspeople did not like this - they petitioned the governor. Sergei Dmitrievich Tverskoy only threw up his hands: it is not in my power. Just in case, Worms insured himself and found doctors who had perjured: beer is a harmless drink. The zemstvo stood up for the teetotalers and demanded that Worms remove beer from the counters. He jerked: then it is necessary to ban sweets with liquor (in general, a sensible idea: confectionery with alcohol teaches children to alcohol!). The brewer renamed "Slavyanskoe pivo" into "Slavyansky malt drink", but it was also forbidden to consume it by the soldiers who were quartered in Volsk. Worms complained to the governor. But the revolution broke out, the dispute never ended. In 1919, the Bolsheviks backtracked, allowing wine, and in 1924, and vodka, popularly nicknamed "Rykovka" by the name of a native of Saratov, then Prime Minister Alexei Ivanovich Rykov, who had recently been undergoing treatment in Germany for … alcoholism.at that time the chairman of the government, Alexei Ivanovich Rykov, who had recently been undergoing treatment in Germany for … alcoholism.at that time the chairman of the government, Alexei Ivanovich Rykov, who had recently been undergoing treatment in Germany for … alcoholism.