Why in 1914 Russia adopted a "dry law", and How it influenced the course of history

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Some historians call the restriction of the sale of alcohol in pre-revolutionary Russia one of the reasons for the destabilization of the situation. In September 1914, the State Duma approved the first full-fledged "dry law" in Russian history. The ban on the sale of vodka was originally associated with the beginning of the First World War. Such a political step became disastrous for the state budget, since the wine monopoly brought to the treasury almost a third of the finances. And from the point of view of health care, the decision turned out to be crude: having lost access to high-quality alcohol, the people switched to a surrogate dangerous to health.

Background and profitable wine industry

Before the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the treasury was replenished from the vodka monopoly through the sale of farms to private entrepreneurs. For money, they received the right to manufacture and sell vodka in a particular area. The tax farmers, selling low-quality vodka at rather high prices, more than compensated for the costs. By the end of the 1850s, "sober riots" swept across the country: the peasants conspired not to buy bread wine and not to visit taverns. The tax-farmers suffered losses, and Alexander II canceled the ransom system. At the state level, we introduced free trade in alcohol by everyone, subject to the payment of excise duty. The treasury has lost a significant source of income, and the quality of drinks has not increased from this. Then the question was taken up by the financier Witte, who proposed to revive the state monopoly on vodka.

The production of alcohol for bread wine could be carried out by private owners, but the state was solely supposed to trade in vodka. A manufacturing patent was issued with a guarantee of the proper quality of the product. In 1900, the state-owned alcohol monopoly provided almost a third of budget revenues. The moral emperor Nicholas II, concerned with national health, decided to instill sobriety in the Russian people. On the one hand, the last tsar knew about the contribution of the wine industry to the economy, but on the other hand, he was weighed down by the reality in which the state budget was based on soldering the population.

Imperial prohibitions

The head of the Ministry of Finance under Nicholas II, Kokovtsov, did not see the country's budget filled without vodka, being a supporter of the wine monopoly. In a report to the emperor, he argued that the state was not able to cover the deficit in a short time in other ways after the emergency introduction of "dry law". The sovereign insisted, and the resulting contradictions ended with the dismissal of the financier. Peter Bark, who replaced him, undertook to replenish the treasury at the expense of indirect taxes. The people had to tighten their already not free belts.

The sudden outbreak of world war and mobilization accelerated the country's ban on alcohol. The Russian soldier, according to the emperor, should have gone into battle for the tsar, faith and Fatherland sober. With the entry of the empire into the war, "dry law" was extended until the end of hostilities. The July 1914 decree banned the state trade in strong alcohol. Further government orders gradually introduced bans on private sales of alcohol with a strength of over 16 degrees. Beer with a strength of 3, 7 degrees also fell under the sanctions. There was no punishment for home-made alcohol at that time.

Dangerous surrogates

With the urgent introduction of restrictions on the sale of vodka, the people switched to surrogate products. Fatal poisoning was not long in coming. Now the most popular drinking drink of the commoner has become a diluted solvent - denatured alcohol. People independently purified the flammable liquid using available methods: by boiling it with rye bread, diluting with kvass and milk, and infusing it with salt. The second version of the pleasure drink was an alcoholic solution of resin, which was used to polish wooden products. But the most dangerous surrogate for health was poisonous methanol - wood alcohol. This potion at least led to blindness, often turning into the death of the drinker.

Perfumed colognes were used, which caused a massive theft of the coveted bubbles in hairdressing salons. Vodka was replaced with pharmacy alcohol drops, balms and tinctures. From a good acquaintance or for a generous reward, pure alcohol was obtained in pharmacies. Doctors who dispensed alcohol prescriptions to patients became the main intermediaries of the underground pharmacy trade.

Results of alcohol restriction

Most historians are inclined to conclude that the introduction of "dry law" in the form of 1914 not only significantly reduced treasury revenues, but also in difficult military conditions was a fatal mistake of the emperor. A hard turning point led to the socio-economic crisis of 1916 and partly contributed to the revolution. There was a catastrophic shortage of money in the country, Russia needed an urgent increase in the production of weapons and overseas purchases. And if everything is unambiguous with finances, then it is much more difficult to talk about the psychological consequences of a sudden "dry law". The historian Buldakov is sure that the overnight deprivation of a common person's usual way of relaxation only contributed to the emergence of thoughts about state reorganization. The benevolent reform of Nicholas II inflamed the mass political activity of the population, which turned against the sovereign.

Since the "dry law" did not prohibit the private sale of vodka, social inequality in the country was clearly highlighted. In restaurants, where workers and peasants were not allowed to enter, the usual carousing continued, while the "rabble" only sullenly knocked down the thresholds of the boarded up state-owned shops. The elite did not calm down even after the ban on the sale of strong alcohol in restaurants. Drinks there were poured into tea bowls for a fee available to the rich. Unsurprisingly, in 1917 came the "wine pogroms", when the looting of wine cellars by the hands of the proletariat, soldiers and sailors became a common form of social protest.

In the history of the USSR, however, there were periods when drunkenness was not only fought, but even involuntarily encouraged. This explains why they drank a lot in the country under Brezhnev.