During World War II, if you were to ask, what impressed the Germans the most? They will surely say "The Soviet Bobosha, Katyusha and Vodka".
The first two made the Germans afraid with their super firepower, while the latter impressed the Germans because the Soviets never left their hands. How much did the Soviets at that time like to drink vodka?
Drink before the war, drink in the free time of battle, drink after the war. Because it was inseparable from vodka, the Soviet Ministry of Defense simply directly included vodka as a strategic necessity and stipulated that soldiers on the front line could receive 100 grams of vodka per person per day.
In 1942 alone, the Soviet Western Front drank about 1 million liters of vodka. With so much wine, many Soviets had the illusion that they could win the war, in part by wine.
Russian vodka
Alcohol can help the fight, but it can also create a series of problems. As the Soviets brought their love of alcohol into postwar life, the Soviet Union and later Russia became the world's largest number of deaths from alcohol.
The harm is so serious, why does the government not ban alcohol? In fact, successive governments have issued prohibition orders to a certain extent, but they have always had little effect, because Russians cannot do without alcohol...
Russians drinking
For most Russians, drinking alcohol is a long-standing traditional practice, just like the Chinese New Year.
According to the Russian "Chronicle of the Ages", during the Period of Ancient Rus', Archduke Vladimir, who ruled the Slavs, chose Islam at first when choosing ethnic religious beliefs.
But when he learned that Islam prohibits drinking alcohol and eating pork, he immediately switched to Orthodox Christianity. Because in his view, the joy of the Rus' people is inseparable from wine, and without wine, the meaning of life is lost.
His choice seems to have begun the history of drinking throughout the nation.
However, the early wine was more expensive and not everyone could drink, so there was such a phenomenon that the nobles drank heavily, and the commoners had no wine to drink. What really made the common people develop the habit of not being able to do without alcohol was the emergence of vodka.
"Vodka", in the early history of Russia, specifically refers to "a solution obtained by soaking various herbs, berries, tree roots and animal organs, etc. into alcohol", and is limited to medical use.
Soldiers drinking vodka
However, in daily life, some Russians suddenly find that taking this medical immersion can not only cure diseases, but also have other irreplaceable effects, such as eliminating fatigue, temporarily forgetting all worries and sorrows, and so on.
Coupled with the fact that the price of vodka was much cheaper than the popular liquor on the market at the time, vodka began to become one of the indispensable necessities of Life for Russian civilians, just like food.
By 1533, in addition to the vodka that civilians had privately made, there were already vodka taverns in Moscow dedicated to the soldiers of the Forbidden Army. By the end of the 16th century, a large number of taverns specializing in vodka began to appear in the city.
Due to the low cost of production and high popularity, many taverns began to rely on vodka to make huge profits. Gradually, this kind of vodka, which is very strong to drink, spread throughout the north and south of the river.
By the 17th century, if you came to Russia, it was almost impossible not to drink vodka. Because during this period, in addition to the common people opening taverns to sell vodka, even the government launched a national chain of stores to compete for profits.
The popularity of drinks even caught the attention of the Tsar. Russia's most famous Peter the Great directly issued a decree for Russians to drink: any peasant woman who forcibly took away their drinking husband in a tavern must be flogged.
In addition, Peter the Great also sold wine to the army. Keen on territorial expansion, he was required to issue half a liter of vodka to soldiers every day. Since then, vodka has completely become one of the necessities of Russian life.
Soviet soldiers drinking vodka
In addition to the long history of drinking, Russians can not do without alcohol is also related to the climate. Because Russia is located in a high latitude region, the climate is cold all year round, and the heating cost is extremely high, so wine is the best alternative.
You can imagine how wonderful it is to drink a mouthful of intense vodka during the long, cold winter months. So in Russia, in general, not very wealthy families, vodka has become a necessary living reserve in winter.
However, although alcohol can help Russians drive away the cold in winter, excessive drinking has also caused many frozen corpses to appear on the streets of Russia in winter.
Therefore, successive Russian governments have issued prohibition orders to varying degrees.
The first time Russia banned alcohol was during World War I.
However, at this time, Tsar Nicholas II banned alcohol not only to prevent the people from drinking to death, but mainly to obtain war funds. After the introduction of total prohibition, he gave the government a monopoly on the production of vodka, raised the price of alcohol, and made a profit.
Nicholas II succeeded, blocking the russians from drinking, and some were forced to drink vodka from their precious grain. But more people began to join the proletarian revolution and seize the distilleries monopolized by the government.
With the response of more and more wine lovers and workers and peasants, the October Revolution was a success, and everyone could drink their favorite vodka again.
However, unregulated drinking has created many problems for revolutions that have not yet fully succeeded. So the Soviet government under Lenin's presidency introduced a total prohibition on alcohol.
What Lenin did not expect, however, was that the harsh Prohibition of Alcohol would put many Russians on the opposite side of the revolution. In 1923, Lenin had to revoke Prohibition in exchange for popular support.
But the complete liberalization of the prohibition on alcohol is not conducive to revolutionary work. So Lenin had the milder "Riccocca" produced instead of the "enthusiastic" vodka.
Lenin
Over the next decade or so, the Soviets' reliance on vodka was slightly reduced, and their alcoholism changed.
However, after the start of World War II, the Soviets began drinking vodka again. In order to allow the soldiers to drive away the cold in the ice and snow, Stalin lifted the prohibition of alcohol and officially provided vodka.
Stalin's approach won the support of many Soviet soldiers, who in their eyes could win the war by two things, vodka and Katyusha.
As for the people's drinking, Stalin did not care, he himself was a lover of wine.
Stalin
Like Stalin, Brezhnev was a leader who was very fond of drinking, and often drank heavily. He was very lenient about drinking in the Soviets.
Once, when Brezhnev was driving the Soviet foreign minister, the foreign minister suddenly said, "We have to take care of a tube of vodka, and the people are about to become drunkards."
Brezhnev listened and did not speak. After 5 minutes of silence, he suddenly said, "The Russians can do nothing without vodka." "So the prohibition of alcohol was never mentioned again.
It is worth mentioning that because there was no prohibition on alcohol, during the Brezhnev period, vodka contributed 170 billion rubles to the revenue of the state finances.
By the time of Gorbachev, someone had submitted a secret report that vodka had endangered national security. Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to order a ban on vodka.
Wineries were banned, taverns were closed, and even excavators pushed out many vineyards. But that didn't stop the Soviets from drinking vodka. Private breweries abounded and were favored by the Soviets.
Gorbachev (right)
Not long after, the Soviet Union collapsed and Gorbachev stepped down. The successor Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, the most loyal lover of vodka, completely lifted prohibition and alcohol became a common phenomenon in Russian society.
By the time putin was in power, although he was scornful of the Russian tradition of drinking, it was difficult to abandon the high taxes brought by alcohol, so Putin did not issue a strict prohibition on alcohol.
This has led to a lot of alcoholism, making Russia the country with the highest number of alcohol deaths in the world, and alcohol has become the second largest factor in Russian murderer cases.
These circumstances have made the Putin government strengthen the management of alcohol, but Russians who can't do without alcohol but can't afford to buy it will always think of various ways to get alcohol.
They extract alcohol from bath liquids, antifreeze, cologne, and even medical glue, and then drink it with water or drink it directly.
And these, in turn, caused most deaths. In 2016, in the siberian city of Irkutsk, it caused a sensation in Russia because of the direct drinking of a bath liquid containing alcohol, which directly led to the death of more than 60 people.
In fact, Russians are not the countries that drink the most alcohol in the world, but they do drink the most deaths.
Many Russians have given the answer to this question, saying that the reason why Russians have the highest death rate due to alcohol is because of the irregular way of drinking.
Drunken Russians
The British also like to drink alcohol, but they drink mostly low-grade wine, and there are many drinks and drinking lots.
Russians love vodka with a high number of high numbers, and when they drink, they are basically booze and do not even need any appetizers. In this way of drinking, the average life expectancy in Russia is basically in the 50s.
On the other hand, after entering the 21st century, due to the excessive gap between rich and poor, many Russians can't even drink the cheapest vodka, so they choose to drink alcohol directly in order to pursue the feeling of vodka "strong", which undoubtedly caused more deaths.
Despite this, because russians drink alcohol, the liquor industry can bring huge profits every year, not only driving the development of society, but also becoming a sponsor of many sports, especially football.
Without alcohol, Russian life is much less exciting, so banning alcohol in Russia is a very difficult thing. As the Russian writer Victor Jerofeev once said, "What we drink is not vodka, what we are drinking is our soul and spirit." ”
Resources
Prohibition of Alcohol: A Heavy Topic in Russia[J].People's Weekly
ZHANG Ying,LIU Weichenping,ZHANG Yu. Russia and wine: the contents of the cup
SUN Mingliang. Alcoholism and prohibition in the former Soviet Union[J].Folklore Studies
ZHANG Liyan. Interpretation of Russian Vodka Culture[J].Journal of Heilongjiang Institute of Education,