Table of contents:
- Alcoholization of the population under "dear Leonid Ilyich"
- Why did the Soviet people drink
- Gorbachev's anti-alcohol company
Video: Why did they drink a lot in the USSR under Brezhnev and how they fought against alcoholism in "perestroika"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Today it is customary to talk about "alcoholization of the population in the dashing 90s." But, as statistics show, it was the USSR of the 1970s - 80s that was the country of “household alcoholics”. The fact is that it was during these years that the statistics on alcohol consumption reached their maximum indicators. So, how much and why they drank during the era of stagnation, and what changed during the years of perestroika.
Alcoholization of the population under "dear Leonid Ilyich"
The USSR of the Brezhnev era is a country of drinking people. To be convinced of this, it is enough to turn to statistics. So, in the 1960s, an ordinary Soviet citizen a year drank an average of 4.6 liters of alcohol, and by the "stagnant" 1970s, this figure had almost doubled - to 8, 45 liters, and by the beginning of the 1980s - this figure has reached 10, 6 liters.
It turns out that in a year in the early 1980s, the average person drank 53 bottles of vodka or 118 bottles of wine. And this is the "average temperature in the hospital", because there were people who were completely nondrinking or drinking very rarely. And if we add to this official figure the consumption of moonshine, home-made liqueurs and non-target liquids like cologne or glass washing, then the real picture looks shocking - the official figure can be multiplied by 1.5 - 2 times.
Even according to statistics from the same Brezhnev times, 2% of dead men are victims of alcohol poisoning. And not the consequences of long-term alcohol consumption, such as heart attacks, cirrhosis or pancreatitis, namely poisoning. 23, 7% occurred in a state of alcoholic intoxication and about the same number of suicides for the same reason.
In general, 486 thousand people died in the USSR every year due to various reasons associated with alcohol, which is quite comparable with the population of a regional city.
Why did the Soviet people drink
Today, many political scientists see the reason for the drunkenness of the Soviet people in the state system of that time. An ordinary Soviet citizen sometimes drank out of boredom. And what else could the working people do - you will not start your business, you will not go abroad (except once a year to the Crimea), you will not earn more than 200 rubles. But you can go to the dacha every weekend and drink there with friends.
In addition, the society of that time was extremely tolerant to alcoholics. Although anti-alcohol posters were hung on the streets and enterprises, drunkards in films were ridiculed, sobering-up stations worked, but in real life they were busy with drunks at home and at work they tried not to fire them without special reason. And if dissidents were actively locked up in prisons and madhouses, then alcoholics were treated like their own, native proletarians who simply stumbled.
Gorbachev's anti-alcohol company
When Gorbachev came to power, perestroika began and publicity was announced, they started talking about many problems of the Soviet system, including domestic drunkenness. On May 7, 1985, the Central Committee of the CPSU Central Committee issued a resolution "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism", from which the so-called "anti-alcohol campaign" began. Within the framework of the latter, the state introduced unprecedented measures - the prices for vodka increased more than 2 times, which practically halved its consumption.
It is worth saying that this measure was discussed for quite a long time in government circles, because revenues from the sale of alcohol made up a solid part of the budget. But even then the excesses began - an order was given to cut down vineyards throughout the Union. In wine-making collective and state farms, elite varieties were saved as best they could.
It was the dry law that led to the fact that the people began to drink everything in a row. Sleeping pills, tranquilizers, the existence of which most drinkers did not even know, were used. At the same time, an interest in drugs was first recorded, which subsequently gave a terrible death rate from overdoses. The people sang to the tune of the then hit about Komarovo: “For a week, until the second, we will bury Gorbachev. We will dig up Brezhnev, we will drink as before”.
On the other hand, in parallel with these measures, Soviet citizens were allowed trouble-free travel abroad, it became possible to open their own business, which gave optimism to active people who, during times of stagnation, were forced to drink from despair and senselessness in research institutes and factories.
One way or another, but at the end of the Soviet Union, per capita alcohol consumption was 3.9 liters (while under Brezhnev it was 10.6 liters).
"Shouldn't we have a drink ?!" - it seems that not only Russian people are asking this question. Anyway, drunkards of different times and peoples in the paintings of famous artists look very realistic.
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