Anti-alcohol reform. Anti-alcohol campaigns in the ussr

Anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR 1985-1987- a set of government measures to reduce alcohol consumption among the population under the general slogan "To drunkenness - fight!" In the Soviet Union, attempts were made to combat drunkenness more than once. Currently, the most popular is the anti-alcohol campaign in the period 1985-1987. Before and at the very beginning of Perestroika. However, the fight against drunkenness was also waged under Gorbachev's predecessors (however, alcohol consumption in the USSR grew steadily).

Combating alcoholism

In 1985, a resolution was adopted by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet government "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and on putting things in order in the trade in spirits." It was forbidden to sell vodka in all public catering trade enterprises (except for restaurants) located at train stations, airports, at the station and station squares. Whether the sale of vodka was allowed in the immediate vicinity of industrial enterprises, educational institutions, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, in places of mass walks and recreation. On May 16, 1972, Resolution No. 361 was published "On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism." It was supposed to reduce the production of spirits, but instead to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices for alcohol were also increased; the production of vodka with a strength of 50 and 56 ° was discontinued; the time of trade in alcoholic beverages with a strength of 30 ° and above was limited to the interval from 11 to 19 hours; medical and labor dispensaries were created, where people were sent forcibly; scenes with the use of alcoholic beverages were cut from the films.

May 7, 1985 the Resolution of the Central Committee was adopted KPSS "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism" and Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 410 "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of moonshine." According to these documents, all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies were ordered to resolutely and everywhere strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, and a significant reduction in the production of alcoholic beverages, the number of places and the time of their sale was envisaged.

May 16, 1985 the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of home brewing", who backed up this struggle with administrative and criminal penalties. Corresponding decrees were adopted simultaneously in all union republics. In fulfillment of this task, trade unions, the entire education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions (writers, composers, etc.) were also involved without fail. The execution was unprecedented in scale. For the first time, the state began to reduce income from alcohol, which was a significant item of the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production. At that time, many vineyards were cut down.

The initiators of the campaign were members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Solomentsev and E.K. Ligachov, who, following Yuri Andropov, believed that one of the reasons for the stagnation of the Soviet economy was the general decline in the moral and ethical values ​​of the “builders of communism” and a negligent attitude towards labor. in which mass alcoholism was "to blame".

After the start of the fight against drunkenness in the country, a large number of stores selling alcoholic beverages were closed. Quite often the complex of anti-alcohol measures in many regions ended with this. So, the 1st secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol shops and reported to the Central Committee that the work with sobering up in Moscow was completed.

Shops selling alcohol could only work from 14.00 to 19.00. Therefore, there were such sayings:

"At six in the morning the rooster sings, at eight - Pugachev, the store is closed until two, the key is in Gorbachev." "For a week, until the second," they will bury Gorbachev. If we dig up Brezhnev, we will continue to drink. "

The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences FG Uglov about the harm and inadmissibility of consuming alcohol under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not typical of the Russian people began to spread everywhere. Alcoholic scenes were cut from the films, and the film "Lemonade Joe" was released on the screen again (after a 20-year hiatus) (because of M. Gorbachev he also received such a nickname - next to the nickname "mineral secretary").

Tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and squares, as well as on long-distance trains. The drunk detainees were in serious trouble at work. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, and the promotion of alcohol-free weddings began. The members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union began to impose stringent demands on the refusal of alcohol.

Campaign results

During the years of the anti-alcohol campaign, the officially registered average per capita alcohol sales in the country have decreased by more than 2.5 times. IN 1985-1987 years the decrease in the state sale of alcohol was accompanied by an increase in life expectancy and fertility, and a decrease in mortality. During the period of the anti-alcohol decree in the USSR, 5,500,000 newborns were born per year (500,000 more per year than every year in the previous 20-30 years), and the weakened were born by 8% less. The life expectancy of men has increased by 2.6 years, and the overall crime rate has decreased. The reduction in mortality compared to the predicted regression line excluding the campaign is 919.9 thousand for men (1985-1992) and 463.6 thousand for women (1986-1992) - a total of 1383.4 thousand people or 181 ± 16 500 per year ...

At the same time, the real decrease in alcohol consumption was less significant, mainly due to the development of home brewing, as well as illegal production of alcohol at state-owned enterprises. Strengthening home-brewing led to a deficit in the retail sale of raw materials for making moonshine - sugar, followed by cheap sweets, tomato paste, peas, cereals, etc., which led to an increase in social discontent. Cash and, moreover, the shadow market of artisanal alcohol received significant development in these years - vodka added to the list of goods that had to be “obtained”. The speculation in alcohol reached inconceivable proportions (speculators received 100-200% profit per day). Despite the decrease in the total number of alcohol poisoning, the number of poisoning with alcohol-containing surrogates and non-alcoholic intoxicants, as well as the number of drug addicts, has increased. However, the growth in consumption of “illegal” alcohol did not compensate for the drop in consumption of alcohol of “legal”, as a result of which a real reduction in the total consumption of alcohol was observed, which explains the positive consequences of the anti-alcohol campaign.

But the anti-alcohol campaign aimed at the "moral improvement" of Soviet society finally achieved the opposite results. In the mass consciousness, it was perceived as an absurd initiative of the authorities directed against the “common people”. For those widely involved in the shadow economy and the party and economic elite, alcohol continued to remain affordable, and ordinary consumers faced problems with this.

The decline in alcohol sales caused serious damage to the Soviet budget system, as the annual retail turnover fell by an average of 16 billion rubles. The losses for the budget turned out to be unexpectedly large: instead of the previous 6,000,000,000 rubles of income, the food industry gave 38,000 million in 1986 and 35,000,000,000 in 1987. By 1985, alcohol yielded approx. 25% of budget revenues from retail trade, due to high prices for it, it was possible to subsidize the prices of bread, milk, sugar and other products. The damage from the reduction in the sale of alcohol was not compensated, by the end of 1986 the budget had actually fallen.

Massive discontent with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in the USSR in 1987 forced the Soviet leadership to end the fight against the production and consumption of alcohol.

However, in two years, unique collection grape varieties were destroyed. Vineyards were cut down in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova.

IN Moldavia 80 thousand hectares of vineyards from 210 thousand hectares were destroyed.

1985-1990 vineyard areas in RSFSR decreased from 200 to 168 thousand hectares, the restoration of the vineyards was halved, and the establishment of new ones was not carried out at all. The average annual grape harvest has fallen compared to the period 1981-1985 from 850 thousand to 430 thousand tons.

Former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Y. Pogrebnyak, who supervised the implementation of the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, recalls:

The trouble is that during the struggle for sobriety, Ukraine lost about a fifth of its budget, 60,000 hectares of vineyards were uprooted in the republic, the famous Massandra winery was saved from defeat only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean regional party committee Makarenko. The active conductors of the anti-alcohol campaign were the secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of the vineyards. During his vacation in Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to "Massandra". For all 150 years of the existence of the famous plant, there are samples of produced wines - a wine collection. All famous wineries in the world have similar storage facilities. But Ligachev said: "This wine collection must be destroyed, and" Massandra "must be closed." Mikhail Sergeevich said: "Well, save it."

According to some reports, 30% of the vineyards were destroyed, compared with 22% during the Second World War. According to the materials of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine, it took 2 billion rubles and 5 years to restore losses from the destruction of 265 thousand hectares of vineyards.

Mikhail Gorbachev claims that he did not insist on the destruction of the vineyards: "The fact that the vine was cut were steps against me."

The biggest loss was the destruction of unique collection grape varieties (for example, the unique Ekim-Kara variety, from which the Black Doctor wine was made), the decline of selection work. As a result of persecution and a series of unsuccessful attempts to convince Mikhail Gorbachev to abolish the destruction of vineyards, a leading scientist-breeder, director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Winemaking and Viticulture "Magarach", Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Pavel Golodriga committed suicide. The relations of the USSR with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria became sharply complicated, most of the wine in which was produced for export to the USSR. Vneshtorg refused to buy wine in these countries, offering to compensate for lost profits with other goods.

Massive discontent with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in 1987 in the USSR forced the Soviet leadership to curtail the fight against the production and consumption of alcohol. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the anti-alcohol campaign in 2005, Gorbachev remarked in one of his interviews: "Through the mistakes made, a good big deal ended ingloriously."

They tried to fight the addiction of Russians to alcohol both in tsarist Russia and in the Soviet Union. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, they administratively banned the production of alcohol until 1923.

Then attempts to combat drunkenness were made repeatedly - in 1929, 1958, 1972. However, the anti-alcohol campaign of 1985-1987, which characterized the beginning of perestroika and the government, is considered the most famous and resonant. Mikhail Gorbachev.

Drunkenness fight

The first to speak about the need for another anti-alcohol campaign General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Yuri Andropov... According to the Soviet leader, due to the decline in the moral values ​​of alcohol-addicted citizens, the growth of the national economy is slowing down. Indeed, by 1984, according to official statistics, the consumption of alcoholic beverages reached 10.5 liters per person per year, and if we take into account the brewing of home brewing, then all 14. For comparison: during the reign of Tsarist Russia or the reign of Joseph Stalin, one citizen consumed no more than 5 liters alcohol per year. The idea of ​​an anti-alcohol campaign was supported members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee Egor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev.

On May 7, 1985, a resolution was adopted "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism and the eradication of moonshine." The document provided for strengthening the fight against the "green snake", as well as reducing the production of alcohol, the time of its sale and the closure of a number of shops selling alcoholic beverages.

And on May 16 of the same year, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, and the eradication of moonshine" came into force. This document has already introduced administrative and criminal penalties for non-compliance with Prohibition.

“In 1985, a month after the ban was introduced, I had a wedding. Today our wedding is remembered with sincere emotion and laughter, our relatives are normal Soviet people, they love this business. But since it was impossible to drink, they did this: they removed all the bottles, put the teapots, poured cognac into them. And all the guests drank tea, washed down with lemonade. Why did you have to hide? And because everyone was party members, they could have kicked out just once if they saw brandy on the tables, ”recalls Executive Director of the Research Institute of History, Economics and Law Igor Suzdaltsev.

The path to moonshine

As you know, a significant share of budget revenues is made up of alcohol revenues. It seems that the Soviet authorities sincerely wanted to "cure" citizens from drunkenness, since they turned a blind eye to the treasury revenues from alcohol. As part of the implementation of the Prohibition in the USSR, many shops selling alcoholic beverages were closed. The remaining outlets could only sell alcohol from 14:00 to 19:00. In addition, the cheapest bottle of vodka in 1986 rose to 9.1 rubles (the average salary was 196 rubles then). Drinkers were forbidden to drink alcohol on boulevards and in parks, on long-distance trains. If a citizen was caught drinking alcohol in the wrong place, he could be fired from his job, and the party members were expelled from the party.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the USSR did not think to give up the consumption of alcoholic beverages, they just switched to moonshine instead of "official" alcohol. In addition to moonshine, alcohol-containing surrogates increasingly appeared on the tables of Soviet citizens.

Soviet anti-alcohol poster

The anti-alcohol campaign dealt an irreparable blow to winemaking and viticulture - it was planned to reorient this structure to the production of table varieties of berries. The state has reduced the program to finance the establishment of new vineyards and the care of existing plantings. In addition, the felling of vineyards was widely practiced on the territory of the Soviet republics. For example, out of 210 thousand hectares of vineyards located in Moldova, 80 thousand were destroyed. In Ukraine, 60 thousand hectares of vineyards were cut down. According to the former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic Yakov Pogrebnyak, revenues from vineyards accounted for a fifth of the budget of Ukraine.

In Russia, over five years (from 1985 to 1990), the area of ​​vineyards has decreased from 200 to 168 hectares, and the average annual harvest of berries has almost halved - from 850 thousand tons to 430 thousand tons.

Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Gorbachev denied the involvement of the top leadership of the USSR in cutting down the vineyards. According to Gorbachev, the destruction of the vine was a step against him.

Alcohol "took revenge" on the budget

As a result, Prohibition resulted in budget holes - if before the start of the anti-alcohol campaign, about a quarter of the state treasury revenues from retail trade accounted for alcohol, then in 1986 the state treasury revenues from the food industry amounted to only 38 billion rubles, and in 1987, even 35 billion rubles. instead of the previous 60 billion. The fall in budget revenues from alcohol coincided with the economic crisis that began in 1987, and the Soviet government had to abandon the fight against drunkenness.

The anti-alcohol campaign of the 80s is called the most serious mistake of the perestroika period. Even its initiator Yegor Ligachev admitted the fallacy of this idea. “I was the most active organizer and conductor of that anti-alcohol campaign.<…>We wanted to quickly rid the people of drunkenness. But we were wrong! To cope with drunkenness, you need many years of active, smart anti-alcohol policy ", - quotes Ligachev Evgeny Dodolev in the book “The Red Dozen. The collapse of the USSR ".

However, the effect of Prohibition is still ambiguous. Firstly, with such a complex of measures, alcohol sales per capita decreased by 2.5 times, according to the State Statistics Service. At the same time, life expectancy has increased, the birth rate has increased and mortality has decreased. According to statistics, during the period of the anti-alcohol campaign, 500 thousand more children were born than in recent decades, the weakened newborns were 8% less. Moreover, during the Prohibition period, life expectancy among men increased by 2.6 years, which was the maximum in the entire history of Russia.

A decree was issued on the resumption of production and trade in alcoholic beverages in the USSR.

Campaign of 1929

1958 campaign

1972 campaign

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Resolution No. 361 "On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism" was published. It was supposed to reduce the production of strong alcoholic beverages, but instead to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices for alcohol were also increased; the production of vodka with a strength of 50 and 56 ° was discontinued; the time of sale of alcoholic beverages with a strength of 30 ° and above was limited to the interval from 11 to 19 hours; medical and labor dispensaries (LTP) were created, where people were sent forcibly; scenes with the use of alcoholic beverages were cut from the films. Campaign slogan: "Drunkenness - fight!"

1985-1990 campaign

At present, the most famous is the anti-alcohol campaign of the period - years, which took place at the very beginning of Perestroika (the period of the so-called "acceleration"), when, in spite of the previous stages of the struggle, alcohol consumption in the USSR was growing steadily. It began two months after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and therefore was called "Gorbachev's".

By the end of the 1970s, the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the USSR reached a record level in the history of the country. Alcohol consumption, which did not exceed 5 liters per person per year, neither in the Russian Empire, nor in the era of Stalin, reached the mark of 10.5 liters of registered alcohol by 1984, and taking into account underground moonshine brewing, it could exceed 14 liters. It was estimated that this level of consumption was equivalent to about 90-110 bottles of vodka per year for every adult male, excluding a small number of teetotalers (vodka itself was about of this volume. The rest of the alcohol was consumed in the form of moonshine, wine and beer).

The initiators of the campaign were the members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Solomentsev and E.K. to the work of which mass alcoholism was guilty.

The execution was unprecedented in scale. For the first time, the state decided to reduce income from alcohol, which was an important item in the state budget (about 30%), and began to sharply reduce its production. After the start of the fight against drunkenness, a large number of stores selling alcoholic beverages were closed in the country. Quite often the complex of anti-alcohol measures in a number of regions ended with this. So, the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol shops and reported to the Central Committee that the work on sobering up in Moscow was completed. The prices for vodka were raised several times: the popular vodka, popularly nicknamed "Andropovka", which cost 4 rubles before the start of the campaign. 70 k., Disappeared from the shelves, and since August 1986 the cheapest vodka cost 9 rubles. 10 r.

Shops selling alcohol could only do this from 14:00 to 19:00. In this regard, the popular spread has spread:

Tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and public gardens, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk were in serious trouble at work. For consuming alcohol in the workplace, they were fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, alcohol-free weddings were promoted. The so-called "zones of sobriety" appeared, in which alcohol was not sold.

In the fulfillment of this task, trade unions, the entire education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.) were also involved without fail.

The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences FG Uglov about the harm and inadmissibility of consuming alcohol under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not typical of the Russian people began to spread everywhere. Censorship removed and paraphrased the texts of literary works and songs, cut out alcoholic scenes from theatrical performances and films, and released the “non-alcoholic” action movie “Lemonade Joe” on the screen (as a result of the nickname “Lemonade Joe” and “mineral secretary” they were firmly entrenched in Mikhail Gorbachev).

Impact on viticulture and winemaking

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, the allocations for planting vineyards and caring for plantings were sharply reduced, and the taxation of farms was increased. The main guidelines for the further development of viticulture were the Main Directions of Social and Economic Development of the USSR for 1986-1990 and for the period up to 2000, approved by the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, in which it was written: it is primarily for the production of table grape varieties. "

Many publications criticizing the anti-alcohol campaign say that many vineyards were cut down during this time. Vineyards were cut down in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and other republics of the USSR.

From 1985 to 1990, the area of ​​vineyards in Russia decreased from 200 to 168 thousand hectares, the restoration of uprooted vineyards was halved, and the establishment of new ones was not carried out at all. The average annual grape harvest has fallen in comparison with the period 1981-1985 from 850 thousand to 430 thousand tons.

The former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Yakov Pogrebnyak, who oversaw the control over the implementation of the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU on strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism through the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, says:

The trouble is that during the struggle for sobriety, Ukraine lost about a fifth of its budget, 60 thousand hectares of vineyards were uprooted in the republic, the famous Massandra winery was saved from defeat only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean regional party committee Makarenko. The secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of the vineyards, were active conductors of the anti-alcohol campaign. During his vacation in Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to Massandra. For all 150 years of the existence of the famous plant, there are samples of produced wines - a wine collection. All famous wineries in the world have similar storage facilities. But Ligachev said: "This wine collection must be destroyed, and" Massandra "must be closed!" Vladimir Shcherbitsky could not stand it and called Gorbachev directly, they say, this is already an overkill, and not a fight against drunkenness. Mikhail Sergeevich said: "Okay, save it."

The first secretary of the Crimean regional committee of the CPSU Viktor Makarenko confirms the words of Pogrebnyak. According to him, " Ligachev demanded the destruction of vineyards as the primary basis for the production of alcoholic beverages. He even insisted on the liquidation of the famous Massandra winery. Only Shcherbitsky's personal intervention saved her» .

Ligachev himself, in his 2010 interview, denied the cutting down of vineyards according to instructions from “above,” said that the campaign itself and he had been slandered in connection with it, including that “Ligachev, while vacationing in Crimea, came to Massandra and personally closed the winery. One of the leaders died of grief. I want to declare: Ligachev has never been to Massandra. "

According to some reports, 30% of the vineyards were destroyed, compared with 22% during the Great Patriotic War. According to the materials of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine, it took 2 billion rubles and 5 years to restore the losses of the destroyed 265 thousand vineyards. biennium - "fight" against drunkenness and alcoholism. "

However, the initiator of the campaign, Yegor Ligachev, claims that in 1985 (at the beginning of the campaign) the area of ​​vineyards amounted to 1 million 260 thousand hectares, in 1988 (after its completion) - 1 million 210 thousand hectares, respectively, the harvest of grapes - 5.8 and 5, 9 million tons. Mikhail Solomentsev in an interview in 2003 to the question "Why were many vineyards cut down in the south of Russia, Crimea and Moldova?" answered: “We grew 92% of technical grapes and only 2% of table grapes. It was recommended to increase the production of table grape varieties. And the vines are cleared and cut down constantly. If before the decree 75 thousand hectares of vineyards were cut down, then after - 73 thousand. "

Mikhail Gorbachev claims that he did not insist on the destruction of the vineyards: "The fact that the vine was cut down was a step against me." In an interview in 1991, he stated: "They tried to make me an inveterate teetotaler during the anti-alcohol campaign."

The biggest loss was the destruction of unique collectible grape varieties. For example, the “Ekim-kara” grape variety, a component of the famous Soviet wine “Black Doctor”, was completely destroyed. Selection work was especially severely persecuted. As a result of persecution and a series of unsuccessful attempts to persuade Mikhail Gorbachev to abolish the destruction of vineyards, one of the leading scientists-breeders, director, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Pavel Golodriga, committed suicide.

Relations with the CMEA countries - Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, in which most of the wine was produced for export to the USSR - deteriorated sharply. Vneshtorg refused to buy wine in these countries, offering to compensate for lost profits with other goods.

results

The growth in consumption of “illegal” alcohol did not compensate for the decline in consumption of alcohol of “legal”, as a result of which a real reduction in the total consumption of alcohol was still observed, which explains the beneficial consequences (reduction in mortality and crime, an increase in the birth rate and life expectancy) that were observed during the anti-alcohol campaign.

Aimed at the "moral recovery" of Soviet society, the anti-alcohol campaign in reality achieved completely different results. In the mass consciousness, it was perceived as an absurd initiative of the authorities directed against the “common people”. For those widely involved in the shadow economy and the party and economic elite (where a feast with alcohol was a nomenklatura tradition), alcohol was still available, and ordinary consumers were forced to “get it”.

The decline in alcohol sales caused serious damage to the Soviet budget system, as the annual retail turnover fell on average by 16 billion rubles. The damage to the budget turned out to be unexpectedly great: instead of the previous 60 billion rubles in revenue, the food industry brought in 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987. Until 1985, alcohol accounted for about 25% of budget revenues from retail trade, due to high prices it was possible to subsidize prices for bread, milk, sugar and other products. Losses from the reduction in the sale of alcohol were not compensated, by the end of 1986 the budget had actually collapsed.

At the same time, it strongly stimulated the growth of the shadow economy. V.F. Grushko (former first deputy. Chairman of the KGB of the USSR) in his memoirs "The Fate of a Scout" commented on the results of the anti-alcohol campaign as follows:

Mass dissatisfaction with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in the USSR in 1987 forced the Soviet leadership to end the fight against the production and consumption of alcohol. Although the decrees restricting the sale and consumption of alcohol were not canceled (for example, the formal ban on the sale of alcohol until 2 pm was canceled only on July 24, 1990 by the USSR Council of Ministers Decree No. 724), active propaganda of sobriety was discontinued, and alcohol sales went up. It is estimated that average per capita alcohol consumption significantly exceeded baseline levels by 1994, resulting in a completely catastrophic rise in mortality in Russia.

In culture

The last Soviet anti-alcohol campaign was reflected in the culture. So, Andrei Makarevich for the movie "Start over again" was forced to replace the words "Conversation on the train" (1987) [ ] :

When there's nothing else to drink.
But the train goes on, the bottle is empty
And pulls to talk.

But, in connection with the campaign, Andrei Makarevich had to write another version:

Carriage disputes are the last thing
And you can't cook porridge from them.
But the train goes, it got dark in the window,
And pulls to talk.

During the anti-alcohol campaign, methods of secretly storing alcohol in kettles, cans, and other unusual items were common. In the song of the group "Lyube" "Guys from our yard" there were the words: " Remember, beer was carried in a can, Oh, the whole yard swore at this ... »

The rock group "Zoo", in turn, created and recorded the satirical song "Sobriety is the norm of life", in which it cynically ridiculed the propaganda clichés of that time (non-alcoholic bars, weddings, etc.).

Also, the song of the Leningrad group "Situation" "Prohibition" is dedicated to the Soviet anti-alcohol campaign and its consequences.

A hidden allusion to the anti-alcohol campaign and typical phenomena thereof (the use of alcohol-containing surrogates, home brewing and the sale of moonshine from under the floor) is present in the song "Cucumber Lotion" by the "Automatic Satisfaction" group.

see also

Notes (edit)

1. G. G. Zaigraev.

Currently, the anti-alcohol campaign is most famous in the period 1985-1987, before and at the very beginning of Perestroika. However, the fight against drunkenness was also waged under the predecessors of A.

In 1958, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government was adopted “ On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and on putting things in order in the trade in spirits". It was forbidden to sell vodka in all public catering establishments (except for restaurants) located at train stations, airports, and at the station squares. The sale of vodka in the immediate vicinity of industrial enterprises, educational institutions, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, in places of mass festivities and recreation was not allowed.

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Resolution No. 361 was published “ On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism". It was supposed to reduce the production of spirits, but instead to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices for alcohol were also increased; the production of vodka with a strength of 50 and 56 ° was discontinued; the time of sale of alcoholic beverages with a strength of 30 ° and above was limited to the interval from 11 to 19 hours; medical and labor dispensaries (LTP) were created, where people were forcibly sent; scenes with the use of alcoholic beverages were cut from the films. Campaign slogan: “ Drunkenness - fight!».

After 1985

On May 7, 1985, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU was adopted (“ On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism") And Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers N 410 (" On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, to eradicate moonshine brewing "), which instructed all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies to resolutely and everywhere strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, and provided for a significant reduction in the production of alcoholic beverages, the number of places of sale and the time of sale. On May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued " On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of moonshine”, Which reinforced this struggle with administrative and criminal penalties. The corresponding decrees were adopted simultaneously in all union republics. In the fulfillment of this task, trade unions, the entire education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions were also involved without fail. The execution was unprecedented in scale. For the first time, the state decided to reduce income from alcohol, which was an important item in the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production.

The initiators of the campaign were members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Solomentsev and E.K. mass alcoholism was to blame.

After the start of the fight against drunkenness in the country, a large number of stores selling alcoholic beverages were closed. Quite often the complex of anti-alcohol measures in a number of regions ended with this. Thus, the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol shops and reported to the Central Committee that the sobering work in Moscow had been completed.

Shops selling alcohol could only do this from 14.00 to 19.00. Therefore, there were sayings:

At six in the morning a rooster sings, at eight - Pugachev, the store is closed until two, the key is at Gorbachev

“For a week, until the second,” we'll bury Gorbachev. If we dig up Brezhnev, we will continue to drink.

Tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and public gardens, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk were in serious trouble at work. For consuming alcohol in the workplace, they were fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, and alcohol-free weddings were promoted. The so-called. "Zones of sobriety" in which alcohol was not sold.

The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences FG Uglov about the harm and inadmissibility of consuming alcohol under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people began to spread everywhere. Alcoholic scenes were cut from the movies, and the action movie "Lemonade Joe" was shown on the screen (as a result of the nickname "Lemonade Joe" and "Mineral Secretary" they were firmly entrenched in their favor).

Strict requirements of refusal from alcohol began to be imposed on the members of the Party. Party members were also required to "voluntarily" join the Temperance Society.

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, the allocations for planting vineyards and caring for plantings were sharply reduced, and the taxation of farms was increased. The main directive document determining the ways of further development of viticulture was the Main Directions of Social and Economic Development of the USSR for 1986-1990 and for the period up to 2000, approved by the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, in which it was written: “ To carry out a radical restructuring of the structure of viticulture in the Union republics, focusing it primarily on the production of table grape varieties».

Many publications criticizing the anti-alcohol campaign say that many vineyards were cut down during this time. Vineyards were cut down in, on, in and other republics of the USSR.

History department

Department of Contemporary History of Russia

ANTI-ALCOHOLIC CAMPAIGN IN THE EIGHTY YEARS IN THE USSR

GRADUATE QUALIFICATION WORK

(GRADUATE WORK)

specialty - history

Plan

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… ... 3

Chapter I. The policy of the state and society in relation to

drunkenness in the XV - early XX centuries …………………………………………… ..... 13

1.1. Measures to reduce alcoholism before the events of October 1917 ... .13

1.2. Alcohol policy of the state (1917 - 1985) …………………… .23

Chapter II. The problem of alcoholism during the periods of "stagnation" and "perestroika" ........ 33

2.1. Socio-economic situation in the USSR in the early 80s. XX century ... ... 33

2.2. .Implementation of the state anti-alcohol policy

in 1885 - 1888 ……………………………………………………………… .38

Chapter III. Anti-Binge Campaign Results ……………………… 54

3.1. Consequences for the economy …………………………………………… ..54

3.2. Demographic situation after the end of the campaign ………………… 65

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… .72

List of sources and literature ……………………………………………… 75

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………… 83

Introduction

The urgency of the problem. The socio-economic transformations carried out in modern Russia have led to radical changes in the life of society. Such a society is characterized by: political democracy based on a multi-party system, the presence of socio-economic and political conditions for the development of a free individual.

However, due to the fact that market relations in Russian society are in the initial stage of development, the current stage is characterized by a significant decline in various areas: in the disorder of the consumer market, an imbalance in the economy, inflation, unemployment, and in weak social guarantees for a person. The restrictive framework of Soviet society ceased to operate.

Against this background, a sharp increase in alcohol consumption is noticeable with a condescending attitude of society towards the problem of drunkenness and alcoholism. The nature of alcohol abuse by the population of Russia over the past decade has taken the form of an epidemic. An analysis of statistical data from state narcological institutions in Russia indicates a consistently high level of alcoholism prevalence among various groups of the population. The real picture is many times higher than the data of official statistics, since a significant part of the population who abuse alcohol, including those with alcoholism, do not seek medical help.

Understanding the reasons and finding ways to overcome the current situation necessitate the study of its genesis. As you know, alcoholic beverages have long played, and continue to play, an extremely controversial role in the life of Russians.

In this regard, the sociologist G.G. Zaigraev notes the following: “The problem of drunkenness and the associated consequences for Russia has always been acute and painful. Due to a number of circumstances: the nature of folk traditions and customs, the level of culture and material well-being, the peculiarities of natural and climatic conditions - the negative impact of this social phenomenon on the development of the sphere of social life was particularly noticeable, unlike many other countries. "

For long periods of national history, income from alcoholic beverages played a significant role in budget replenishment. Thus, according to some data, over the 140 years of existence of the wine lease in Russia, the "drinking" income of the treasury has increased 350 times. In 1913, the wine monopoly accounted for 26.3% of the income.

The problem of excessive alcohol consumption acquired a special dimension in the 20th century, and not only in Russia. Throughout the XX century. the governments of many countries have repeatedly tried to reduce or even eliminate the destructive consequences of drunkenness through various kinds of prohibitive measures. The spectrum of anti-alcohol measures ranged from a complete ban on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages in the USA, Iceland, Finland to the establishment of a state monopoly on alcohol and restrictions on its availability for the population - Russia, Norway, Sweden.

However, “prohibitive” measures, as a rule, did not give the expected effect. On the contrary, many unpredictable social and economic problems arose, the spontaneous resolution of which turned out to be significant costs and, as a rule, the restoration of the previous alcoholic situation.

Thus, the research topic today remains relevant in practical terms.

Research object are state institutions and public organizations that took part in the anti-alcohol campaign of the 1980s.

The subject of research is the policy of the government of the USSR in relation to drunkenness and alcoholism; activities of state bodies, which are reflected in regulatory documents.

Chronological scope of the study... The study of the problem begins in the 1970s, when the situation is shaping up and the first concepts of future reform are being developed, and ends in 1988, when a new decree of the CPSU Central Committee was actually issued "On the progress of the implementation of the CPSU Central Committee decree on strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism." ... The paper also partially examines the period of similar events in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the USSR before the 1985 campaign, as well as the 1990s. This is done in order to prove that there was experience in the implementation of the fight against alcoholism; show the consequences for the further development of Russia.

Territorial scope of research... The research was carried out on the basis of all-Russian material. The fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, which was carried out by the government, state institutions, and public organizations, was considered.

Historiographic review. The problem under consideration has not been sufficiently studied in domestic and foreign historiography; many aspects have not been studied by scholarly historians. It should be emphasized that the historiography of the topic was in every possible way conditioned by the specific historical situation, economic, socio-political, spiritual processes taking place in our country.

Immediately after the publication of the decree "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness" on May 16, 1985, an increase in the literature on anti-alcohol topics was observed. Physicians addressed the problem, but their work had a highly specialized focus, historical issues were touched on in fragments. Researchers have noted the disadvantages of sober movement, the reasons for the increase in alcohol consumption and the spread of home brewing. Nevertheless, the assessment of historical events was made superficially, without going into details, without comparing the facts, using a limited range of sources. At the same time, a huge number of propaganda articles and brochures were published.

It should be noted the works of supporters of the introduction of "dry law": P. O. Lirmyan, A. N. Mayurov, F. G. Uglov, G. A. Shichko, G. M. Entin. According to the authors, the only possible means of eradicating drunkenness is a sharp restriction and cessation of the sale of alcoholic beverages. The following arguments were put forward: firstly, alcohol poisons the human body when consumed at any dose, and, secondly, the availability of alcohol contributes to the introduction of people to alcoholic beverages. The works convincingly show the shortcomings of the anti-alcohol campaigns of the early 20th century, but exaggerated the role of prohibitive measures that did not reduce drunkenness, but provoked it.

A new phenomenon was the holding by societies of the struggle for sobriety in Leningrad on December 18, 1987 the forum of historians "The People's Struggle for Sobriety in Russian History", on the basis of which a collection of articles of the same name was published. During this event, the problem of combating drunkenness in the first years of Soviet power, ways of solving the problem in the 40s and 60s were discussed, as well as the topic of increasing the effectiveness of the reform being carried out.

The next "wave" of research is associated with the collapse of the USSR, the abolition of the state wine monopoly, i.e. since the early 1990s. At this stage, there is a shift in historical research as well. Radical changes in the socio-political life of the country contributed to the fact that the social sciences began to free themselves from the ideological and party-state diktat. A change in paradigmatic attitudes began, the subject field of research and methodological arsenal expanded. As a result, fundamentally new opportunities have arisen for the study of alcohol problems.

Sociologists - I.V. Bestuzhev-Lada, Ya. Gilinsky, I. Gurvich, G.G. Zaigraev, V.V. Basically, the problem under study was addressed in part: in the form of separate chapters, as an example of a positive fight against mortality and a drop in the level of consumption of alcohol-containing products per capita. However, the works do not at all touch upon purely historical problems of the campaign mechanism.

AV Nemtsov was especially active during this period. Anti-alcohol campaign 1985 - 1988 gave a rich material for studying the positive effect of reducing the level of alcohol consumption on morbidity, mortality, life expectancy, fertility. The data obtained unambiguously indicate the positive effect of such a decrease on all the indicated phenomena. The author's interest in the problem of drunkenness in Russia first arose in 1971 during a trip to the Kostroma region.

In 1982, the author began to study alcoholism. And at the very end of 1985, it became clear that the anti-alcohol campaign provides an opportunity to study a wide range of phenomena associated with alcohol consumption. Since then, three small books and over 40 articles have been published on this topic in Russian and English.

The first book of the author - "The Alcohol Situation in Russia", published in 1995, was brought up to 1992 by events. After all, it was then that a new sharp turn in alcohol policy was laid in the country, and at the same time, new political "flaws" in this area ... In addition to a brief excursion into the centuries-old alcoholic history of Russia, the author investigated the campaign of the 80s. All its advantages and disadvantages were highlighted. A. V. Nemtsov also stressed that the thoughtlessness of the management's decisions brought to naught all the advantages of the fight against drunkenness. The author condemned the coercive measures to eradicate alcoholism. The researcher also connected a rich statistical material, so in the second part of the book, where alcohol history was considered from the standpoint of epidemiology.

Later, data on alcohol mortality were published in separate books: "Alcohol mortality in Russia, 1980 - 1990s."

B.S.Bratus is a supporter of the insolvency of only administrative prohibitive measures in the struggle to sober up the people. In his works, it was proved that for the formation of a sober lifestyle, it is necessary to create in a person "effective meaning-forming motives of behavior", the implementation of which requires the fulfillment of a number of conditions, the main of which is absolute abstinence from alcohol. “What these sense-forming motives should be is difficult to say now,” writes BS Bratus. “One thing is clear: to count on family, work and other generally accepted values ​​to become such motives is to ignore the whole process of personality change that occurs during the course of the disease.”

Selected problems of the state alcohol policy of the 1980s. were touched upon in the works of N. B. Lebina, A. N. Chistikov, A. Yu. Rozhkov. These works are of interest primarily in terms of comprehending various aspects of the nationwide alcohol policy, researching the results of the reform. NB Lebina paid special attention to the spread of alcoholism among working youth and the emergence of alcoholic customs. The spread of drunkenness among party leaders drew attention to E.G. Gimpelson.

In addition to special works on the problem, many works were published on a more comprehensive topic related to the largest historical event of the 20th century, the collapse of the Soviet Union. The study of Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign was sketchy. The problem was seen only as one of the elements that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among such works, the book by V.V. Sogrin undoubtedly stands out. It also touches upon the problems of the period of interest to us, but much more attention is paid to political issues. The author emphasizes that in the conditions of "perestroika", the weakening of the economy due to the loss of income from alcohol, aggravated the situation that led to the collapse of the USSR.

It is also worth highlighting the work of A. S. Barsenkov "Introduction to modern Russian history 1985 - 1991: A course of lectures." The work itself is clearly structured into two parts: the first is devoted to a comprehensive study of the period 1985 - 1991. in all its many aspects, political, economic, national, ideological; the second focuses on the collapse of the USSR and the formation of Russian statehood proper. Not much space has been devoted to the anti-alcohol campaign of M. S. Gorbachev, but the author's conclusions are of interest for this study. Thus, the author examines the course of the campaign and notes that the time for such measures was wrongly chosen. Also A.S. Barssenkov sums up the fight against drunkenness, noting its strengths and weaknesses.

At present, in the light of the topic of interest to us, the studies of R.G. The author, like previous researchers, speaks about M.S.Gorbachev's campaign mainly from the negative side, but emphasizes that the budget shortfall due to the lack of income from alcohol was compensated by the release of non-alcoholic products of these factories (juice, kvass, dried fruits, etc.) ); the mortality rate has dropped and the birth rate has increased; a lot of machinery and equipment were saved that had previously broken down due to drunkenness in the workplace, etc.

No special studies were carried out among foreign authors, however, in general works on the history of the Soviet Union, the problem of the Anti-alcohol campaign was considered. Such works include the works of historians N. Werthu and J. Boff. At the same time, the first of these authors pays more attention to the problem: his work, although written in hot pursuit, retains its value at the present time. The author examines in detail the course of the campaign, the measures taken by the country's leadership, and the reaction of the population.

Thus, the problem of combating drunkenness over the past 30 years has remained at the center of public attention, but researchers have occasionally turned to the history of combating drunkenness and alcoholism, there are no deep and complete works on the history of the problem, which serves as an additional confirmation of the relevance of the topic of the thesis.

Source base of the study compiled published documents of state, party and public organizations, official legislative documents, periodicals, memoirs.

A wide range of party documents was involved in the work. The value of this set of sources is that it gives an idea of ​​the nature of the relationship between state and public organizations with party bodies, the degree of influence of the party on the forms and methods of work of these organizations, the direction of their activities. Party documents are also important because the role of the Communist Party was decisive, and its decisions were the basis of the legislative and practical activities of the Soviet state and public organizations.

From the published sources, first of all, we paid attention to the legislative acts that came out at that time, since they reflected the requirements of the leadership to the course of the campaign, with the help of them some aspects of it were regulated. An analysis of this group of sources will help to understand the legal side of the ongoing struggle for sobriety.

To the next group of sources, we include the memories of the participants in the events associated with the history of the fight against drunkenness. These are the memoirs of EK Ligachev, MS Gorbachev, N. Matovets, Y. Pogrebnyak, and others. The literature of a memoir in many ways supplemented, concretized and illustrated well-known phenomena; ultimately it helped to better represent the problem. Of course, distortions and falsification of facts are possible in the memoir literature, therefore, their comparison with the press, documents and other sources is necessary.

The last group of published sources is the periodicals. During the anti-alcohol campaign, the problem of drunkenness was actively discussed on the pages of central and local newspapers: Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Trud, Novosibirsk Agitator, Sovetsky Sport, whose materials were used in the work. The newspaper articles contained socially significant information, the publications helped to reveal the initial reaction of society to the events that took place, to emphasize the particular ways of solving the problems that arose. They also published guiding materials of the Party Central Committee, discussion materials.

All of the above documents and materials, to a certain extent complementing each other, provide a range of sources necessary for solving problems. Their comprehensive analysis helped to recreate the historical picture of that time, to reveal the activities of state and public organizations to eradicate drunkenness and alcoholism.

Purpose of the study is determined by the state of knowledge of the topic: to consider the alcohol situation and to study the process of implementing the state's alcohol policy in the second half of the 1980s. Within the framework of this goal, it is planned to solve the following specific tasks:

• to characterize the state policy in relation to alcohol in the period from the 15th century. before 1917;
• consider the legal, organizational and socio-political aspects of the struggle for sobriety during the years of Soviet power;
• to determine the reasons for the anti-alcohol campaign 1985 - 1988;
• to study the activities carried out by the country's leadership during the years of "dry law";
• show the positive and negative aspects of the campaign for the economy of the USSR;
• analyze the demographic situation in the country after the end of the struggle for sobriety.

Methodological framework research is a dialectical method of cognition of history, including the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency. To achieve the goal of the study, general scientific and special-historical methods were used.

General scientific methods: comparison, statistical analysis, abstract-explanatory interpretation, made it possible to single out the general and the particular in the subject of the study under consideration. Special-historical methods: system-comparative, synchronous, problem-chronological were used to identify and comprehensively consider the facts and events that made up the process of combating drunkenness and alcoholism.

Work structure. This work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a bibliography of sources and literature, applications.

ChapterI... State and society policy regarding drunkenness in XV - early XX centuries.

1.1. Measures to reduce alcoholism before the events of October 1917

Thief of the mind - this is the name of alcohol for a long time. People learned about the intoxicating properties of alcoholic beverages at least 8000 years before our era - with the advent of ceramic dishes, which made it possible to make alcoholic beverages from honey, fruit juices and wild grapes.

For several centuries, the state saw in alcohol only a means of replenishing the treasury. The myth that drunkenness is an old tradition of the Russian people is incorrect. Russian historian and ethnographer, connoisseur of the customs and mores of the people, professor N.I. Kostomarov completely refuted this myth. He proved that in Ancient Russia they drank very little. The Slavs knew how to make malt for brewing beer from the 5th - 6th centuries, but hop was known to them from the 10th century: it is mentioned by Nestor. However, only on selected holidays was brewed mead, home brew or beer, the strength of which did not exceed 5 - 10 degrees. The charka went in a circle, and from it everyone drank a few sips. On weekdays, no alcoholic drinks were supposed, and drunkenness was considered the greatest shame and sin. So, back in the 17th century. peasants were allowed to brew beer, mash and honey for home consumption only 4 times a year, at Christmas, Easter, Dmitrievskaya Saturday and Shrovetide, as well as for christenings and weddings. In Sylvester's house-building norms, it is recommended that "the son and daughter-in-law should not get drunk and watch the household." Metropolitan Photius in 1410 forbade the population to drink beer before dinner.

The exact date of the emergence of distilleries in Russia is unknown, but the most likely period can be considered the period from 1448 - 1478. During this period of time, a Russian distillery was created and a technology for distilling grain alcohol was invented.

However, they did not start drinking in Muscovy immediately after that. This is what Michalon Litvin wrote in his treatise: "On the customs of the Tatars, Lithuanians and Muscovites", written by him in 1550 to the Prince of Lithuania and the King of Poland Sizigmund II Augustus: on the path of robbery and robbery, so that in any Lithuanian land more [people] are paid for this crime in one month than for a hundred or two hundred years in all the lands of the Tatars and Muscovites, where drunkenness is prohibited. Indeed, among the Tatars, the one who only tastes wine receives eighty blows with sticks and pays a fine with the same amount of coins. There are no taverns anywhere in Muscovy. Therefore, if only a drop of wine is found with any head of the family, then his whole house will be ruined, his property will be confiscated, his family and his neighbors in the village will be beaten, and he himself will be condemned to life imprisonment. The neighbors are treated so harshly, because [it is believed that] they are infected with this communication and [are] accomplices of a terrible crime, but we have not so much power as the immoderation itself or a brawl that arose during drunkenness kills drunks. The day [for them] begins with drinking fiery water. Wine, wine! they shout while still in bed. Then this poison is drunk by men, women, youths in the streets, squares, along the roads; and, having been poisoned, they can do nothing afterwards, except to sleep; and whoever is only addicted to this evil, the desire to drink is constantly growing ... And since Muscovites abstain from drunkenness, their cities are famous for various skillful craftsmen; they, sending us various wooden ladles and staves, helping the weak, old, drunk when walking, [as well as] scoops, swords, phalers and various weapons take our gold away. "

The situation has changed dramatically since 1552, when the first drinking house in Moscow was opened by Ivan the Terrible in Russia. It was then the only one in the whole of Russia and was called "Tsarev tavern", where only the guardsmen were allowed to drink. The rest of the Muscovites could do this, as noted above, only on Christmas Day, on Dimitrievskaya Saturday, on Holy Week, etc. For drinking vodka on other days of the year, they were severely punished, even imprisoned.

From 1649 the state sale of alcohol in Russia was gradually replaced by a ransom system. The tax farmers obtained a monopoly on the trade in alcoholic products and soldered the population in order to obtain more and more profits. The rapid spread of taverns provoked protests and complaints from the clergy and people. Therefore, on the advice of Patriarch Nikon, in 1652, at a specially assembled church cathedral, certain restrictions were introduced: “to sell vodka one glass to a person”. It was forbidden to give wine to drinkers, as well as to everyone during fasting, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. However, due to financial considerations, an amendment was soon introduced: “in order to make a profit for the great sovereign, the roosters from the kruzhechny yard should not be driven away”, which actually supported drunkenness.

At the same time, even then, the struggle against the clandestine production of alcohol began, and the violators were ordered to “cut their hands and exile to Siberia”.

In the XVII century. Russia is creating its own raw material base for the production of wines. So, in 1613, by order of Mikhail Fedorovich, a "garden for the courtyard of the sovereign" was laid in Astrakhan, in which, among other things, grape seedlings brought from abroad were planted. Already in 1656 - 1657. the first batches of domestic wine were served at the tsar's table. And in 1651, on the Sunzha River, they found thickets of wild grapes, and the Astrakhan governor sent a message to Alexei Mikhailovich, in which he reported that "grape drink is made from these wonderful berries, they are brought to the Terek for sale and kept to themselves." Thus, together with the start of production of domestic wine for export, a variety of alcoholic beverages was created for the local population. In other words, the process of getting the people drunk began, and those minor measures to curb drinking were no longer effective.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that in 1716 Peter I introduced the freedom of distilling in Russia, all distilleries are subject to a duty. This was done to replenish the treasury and implement the king's undertakings.

In 1720, Peter I instructed the governor of Astrakhan to grow grapes, and on the Terek "in addition to Persian grape varieties, start breeding Hungarian and Rhine forms and send grape masters there." Distilling under the emperor achieved significant success, which allowed several years later, when visiting Paris, to transfer several barrels of wine from the banks of the Don to the French.

At the same time, Peter I was the main opponent of drunkenness in Russia, having issued a decree that a cast-iron medal should be hung around the neck of drunkards and fastened with a chain to the neck. Russian vodka has always been low-grade, for example, Petrovskaya vodka is only 14 degrees. Excessive use of alcohol was punished: they beat with a whip, tore nostrils.

New measures to combat drunkenness were implemented in 1740, when an earthen rampart was built around Moscow, on which soldiers hired by the company were on duty. Those who tried to cross the shaft were flogged by the soldiers with whips and whips. This collegiate chamber has survived to this day and is now in the center of the capital.

In 1755, all distilleries were sold to private hands, since it was easier and more profitable for the state to deal with the sale than the manufacture of alcohol. "To multiply state revenues for the present and future times" Elizaveta Petrovna introduced uniform prices for vodka: 1 ruble 88 kopecks per bucket for wholesale and 2 rubles 98 kopecks for retail.

In the XVIII century. there is an active growth in the production of alcoholic beverages. So, Paul I equipped a special expedition to study the possibilities of developing viticulture and winemaking. According to her recommendation, "it is preferable to grow grapes and make wine in the area between Kizlyar and Mozdok."

In 1762, Catherine II grants the privilege of distilling to the nobility, adjusting the size of production in accordance with ranks and titles. This situation led to the fact that by the end of the 18th century, almost all vodka was "home" made. Each self-respecting landowner had his own recipe for making alcohol tincture. Ordinary people also did not lag behind the nobility - they drove alcohol, made tinctures on herbs. Such a rapid flowering of folk art was facilitated by the discovery of Academician Lovitz, who was the first to describe the purifying properties of charcoal. At the same time, under Catherine II, the price of alcohol is growing. So, a bucket of vodka already cost 2 rubles 23 kopecks, and the income from its sale was 20% of the state budget.

At the beginning of the 19th century, during the Patriotic War, vodka, along with Russian troops, came to France, where it was appreciated by the local aristocracy. For the first time in Paris, they began to serve it in the restaurant "Veri", which was rented by the government for officers of the Russian army in 1814.

In 1819, due to huge abuses, theft and deterioration of the quality of vodka, the government of Alexander I changed the lease system to a rigid state vodka monopoly. The state completely controlled production and wholesale. However, Nicholas I - in 1826 partially restored the ransom system and two years later completely abolished the state monopoly.

These decrees led the state treasury to large losses and badly affected the spiritual and physical health of the subjects. They completely abandoned the ransom system only in 1863, replacing it with an excise one.

Of course, it was unprofitable for the state to introduce dry law and it was not going to do it, but in order to calm down the true, supporters of a healthy lifestyle, it began to fight for a snack. So, on January 1, 1886, an official decree was issued to close all taverns in which booze is sold without snacks.

In addition, take-away alcohol began to be sold in closed bottles, which they tried to seal in such a way that they were carried home, and not drunk at the door of the store, which created the appearance that alcoholics in the country had significantly decreased. At the same time, it was forbidden to sell alcohol to children and persons in a state of intoxication.

At the end of the XIX century. a large-scale public struggle for sobriety begins. Special societies to combat alcoholism are being created. The first of them was established in 1874 in the village of Deikalovka, Poltava province. Some time later, in 1882, a "consent to sobriety" was created in the village of Tatevo, Smolensk province, in 1884 the Ukrainian Sobriety Society was organized. The struggle for sobriety is begun and actively supported by prominent cultural figures of that time: in 1887, L.N. Tolstoy, together with N.N. Miklukho-Maclay, P.I.Biryukov, N.N. drunkenness ”and created a sobriety society on his estate.

By the end of the century, similar societies were opened in many large cities of the country. So, in 1890 the St. Petersburg Society of Sobriety was founded, in 1891 - Odessa, in 1892 - Kazan, in 1893 - Rybinsk, and in 1895 - Moscow Society of Sobriety. The Kazan Society of Sobriety, chaired by A.G. Soloviev, was especially active. For two years the society has published many brochures and books.

Such societies included: factory workers, artisans and peasants. Prominent Russian doctors (A.M. Korovin, N.I. Grigoriev), as well as other progressive Russian intelligentsia, took an active part in the establishment and work of sobriety societies.

At this time, temperance magazines began to be published in Russia: from 1894 in St. Petersburg - "Bulletin of Sobriety", from 1896 in Kazan - "Deyatel", and from 1898 - "Narodnaya Sobriety", an appendix to the magazine "Our Economy " and etc.

This did not quite coincide with the plans of the authorities, since with the help of the sale of alcohol, the state was trying to patch up the "holes" in its own budget. Therefore, in 1894 - 1902. again the state vodka monopoly was introduced and the state standard for vodka was established. The introduction of the monopoly was seriously worked out, it consisted of a number of successive stages and was implemented over a period of eight years. The main objectives of the reforms were: to instill in the Russian people a culture of consuming alcoholic beverages, to introduce a high-quality standard for vodka, to completely withdraw production and trade from private hands. A special commission was created, headed by D.I. Mendeleev, who developed the technology for the new production of vodka.

Despite the short period of time since the beginning of action, the reforms began to bear fruit: the quality of the produced vodkas improved, the time of sale was streamlined and the responsibility for the production of moonshine was tightened. For example, trade in vodka in capitals and large cities was allowed from 7 am to 10 pm.

The financial results of the wine monopoly have had very impressive results. In 1914, Witte said: “When I left the post of finance minister at the end of 1903, I left my successors 380 million rubles of free cash, which enabled them to spend in the first months of the Japanese war without resorting to loans. After the war, not only was there no free cash, but in 1906 there was a deficit of 150 million rubles, then cash again began to increase and now exceeded 500 million rubles ... This is the role played by drinking income in our deficit-free state economy. "

At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. in Russia there is an upsurge in anti-alcohol education and teaching sobriety of the younger generation. In 1905 - 1908 Petersburg began to publish a free supplement to the magazine "Sober Life", "A leaf of sobriety for schoolchildren", and in 1909 a leaf of a sober life for younger children "Zorka".

Also, with the introduction of the wine monopoly in 1895, Witte carried out a reform to establish guardianship for popular sobriety. Although, along with government agencies, public organizations continued to operate. Thus, the number of sobriety societies by January 1, 1911 was 253. Moreover, most of them were located in European Russia. In Western Siberia, the first civil society of temperance was opened on April 13, 1893 in Tobolsk, but in 1910 it was still the only organization. Thus, in contrast to European Russia, the sober movement of Western Siberia from the very beginning was based on the initiative of the diocesan authorities and the activity of the parish clergy.

At the beginning of the XX century. advocates of sobriety decided to instill it from the student's bench. Thus, the inspector of public schools GF Markov in 1912 wrote the "Draft methodology for teaching the Science of Sobriety." In 1913, in St. Petersburg, a textbook of sobriety for primary and secondary schools by J. Denis, translated from French by AL Mendelssohn, was published. In 1914, the popular textbook of sobriety for elementary schools, "School of Sobriety" by S.E. Uspensky, was published in Moscow, and in 1915, the first Russian anti-alcohol anthology anthology by N.V. Vasiliev "Sober Life", in which the works of G. Uspensky were used , A. P. Chekhov, N. A. Nekrasov, G. Mopasana and others.

Since 1913, blotters with the inscription: "The future belongs to sober nations" appeared in school notebooks, and in 1914 VF Smirnov's book "The St. George children's circle as a measure of struggle against school vices" was published. Much attention was paid to the problem of drunkenness in the periodicals. The magazine "Feast of Sobriety" was published in Kazan, in Serpukhov, Moscow province, "Voskresny leaf", in the Island of the Pskov province, "Friend of Sobriety", Voronezh - "Dawn of Sobriety", Odessa - "Green Serpent", Ufa - "Ufa Guardianship of Popular Sobriety" , Tsaritsyno - "Tsaritsyno teetotaler", etc.

The alcohol policy of the Russian government changed after the outbreak of the First World War. Fearing a repetition of the riots of 1905, when drunken crowds of friends, relatives and sympathizers ransacked taverns, liquor stores and warehouses while bidding farewell to recruits, the government initially banned the sale of alcoholic beverages during mobilization. At the same time, strong drinks were allowed to be sold in expensive restaurants, as well as made at home.

However, in 1914, the government introduced a dry law on the territory of the country, temporarily prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, being fully confident that thanks to such radical measures, the problem of drunkenness will be solved in Russia in the very near future. Indeed, in the first months after the introduction of Prohibition, this gave a positive result. Thus, according to official statistics, in 1915 alcohol consumption in the country fell by 99.9%. However, there was a huge demand for alcohol-containing medicines in pharmacies, and often the lines at their doors looked suspiciously like crowds at the doors of wine shops.

So, the tsarist government was one of the factors driving the rise in alcohol consumption in the country. With the growth of the production of alcoholic beverages, their consumption also grew. The authorities imposed drunkenness with one hand, and with the other tried to put it in the bounds of decency. However, most of the measures to curb drinking were partial. Since, the simple way to replenish the country's budget was the sale of alcoholic beverages.

The creation of special public organizations for the struggle for sobriety, which began in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, turned out to be more effective. In a fairly short period of time, the members of these societies managed to develop methods of promoting a sober lifestyle.

With the outbreak of the First World War, a dry law was introduced, which made it possible to significantly reduce the consumption of alcohol-containing products and activate all forces to fight the enemy. Under these conditions, the emerging Soviet state began its history from a sober page.

1.2. Alcohol policy of the state (1917 - 1985).

After October 1917, a different government had to improve life in the country. Prohibition was extended. Since he did not envisage the destruction of state reserves of alcohol, the revolutionaries got about 80 million buckets of vodka, as well as spacious royal cellars with a huge supply of collection wines. According to research by historians, only the contents of the cellars of the Winter Palace were estimated at $ 5 million.

As for the alcohol policy of the Bolsheviks, the latter did not at all intend to abolish the dry law, and intended to sell wine reserves abroad. However, the people started plundering wine cellars. Realizing that it would not be possible to take alcohol out of the country, in November 1917 the Military Revolutionary Committee decided to destroy them.

It is worth noting that the fight against the "green serpent" was of great economic importance: there was not enough food in the country, and the government made every effort to prevent the production of alcohol and moonshine from grain and other products.

One of the effective measures of that time was the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On granting the people's food commissioner extraordinary powers to fight the village bourgeoisie, hiding and speculating grain reserves," according to which moonshiners were considered enemies of the people. At best, they faced a 10-year prison sentence, and at worst, they could be shot.

On December 19, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution “On the prohibition on the territory of the RFSR of the manufacture and sale of alcohol, strong drinks and alcohol-containing substances not related to beverages”. This decree provided for strict penalties for brewing, buying and selling moonshine: at least 5 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The struggle for sobriety was reflected in the Program of the RCP (b), adopted at the VIII Party Congress in 1919. Alcoholism as a social phenomenon was put on a par with tuberculosis and venereal diseases.

V. I. Lenin strongly opposed drunkenness, against attempts to obtain profits through the sale of alcoholic beverages. In his report on the food tax at the X All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b) in 1921, he pointed out that in trade one has to reckon with what is asked, but “... unlike capitalist countries that allow entry of such things as vodka and other intoxication, we will not allow this, because, no matter how beneficial they are for trade, they will lead us back to capitalism, and not forward to communism ... ". In a conversation with Klara Zetkin V. And Lenin quite definitely expressed his attitude to this issue: “The proletariat is an ascending class. He does not need drunkenness to deafen him or excite him. He does not need alcohol intoxication. He draws the strongest motivation to fight in the position of his class, in the communist ideal. "

In the early years of Soviet power, when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the country, the fight against alcoholism was directed mainly against moonshine and was expressed in administrative measures. However, the growth of home brewing in the early 1920s, the relative failure of administrative measures to combat it, forced the Soviet government to entrust the state with the production and sale of vodka. N. A. Semashko wrote in 1926 that "we produce vodka in order to displace harmful moonshine, but vodka is also harmful, it is necessary to fight the most resolute and irreconcilable against both vodka and moonshine."

N. A. Semashko believed that such a “long-rooted custom as drunkenness could not be destroyed by a simple formal prohibition on the sale and production of alcoholic beverages, but ultimately it was necessary to pursue a course towards stopping the sale of vodka. It is possible to stop selling it only when the masses are prepared for this. "

Soon in Russia it was allowed to make drinks with a strength of up to 20 degrees, and already in 1924 the permitted strength rose to 40 degrees. The result was not long in coming. If in 1924 11.3 million liters of alcohol were produced, and the income from its sale amounted to 2% of budget revenues, then already in 1927 Russia produced 550 million liters of alcoholic beverages, which provided 12% of state revenues ...

The forced trade in vodka is accompanied by an intensification of the fight against alcoholism and drunkenness. The journal "For sobriety", published in Kharkov, wrote in 1929 that "the struggle for a sober and healthy life is as serious and necessary as the struggle against whites in the era of the civil war, as the struggle against devastation, as the struggle against the class enemy" ...

In March 1927, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree "On measures to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages", which prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors and persons in a state of intoxication, as well as the sale of alcoholic beverages in buffets and cultural and educational institutions.

The 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which adopted the first five-year plan and set a course for the industrialization of the country, considered the issues of combating alcoholism among the most important tasks aimed at improving culture, reorganizing everyday life, strengthening labor discipline.

Along with government measures to combat alcoholism and drunkenness, the activities of public organizations are stepping up. In May 1927, a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the organization of local special commissions on alcoholism" was issued, the task of which was to involve wide layers of workers and peasants in the anti-alcohol struggle, study the causes of alcoholism, coordinate measures developed by various institutions and organizations on the ground , fundraising and assistance in the organization of treatment-and-prophylactic and cultural and educational institutions to combat alcoholism. Such commissions and committees began to be created in many cities and large settlements. Experienced party and Soviet workers were elected as their leaders. The anti-alcohol movement is spreading throughout the country, anti-alcohol cells are being created at enterprises, which become hotbeds of the struggle for the restructuring of everyday life and the improvement of the population. In Moscow in 1928, there were 239 such cells, of which 169 were in factories and plants. These cells numbered about 5,500 workers.

N. A. Semashko attached great importance to the creation of cells and societies to combat alcoholism. He believed that these "sober islands are designed to organize public opinion and conduct anti-alcohol work." Anti-alcohol cells united in a society to combat alcoholism. Societies and cells were created not only in large labor centers, but also in the most remote places of the country.

In 1928, the All-Union Society for Combating Alcoholism was created, which played an important role in the organization and development of the anti-alcohol movement. The organizational committee of the society included N.A.Semashko, V.A.Obukh, A.N.Bach, L.S. M. Yaroslavsky, writers D. Poor, Vs. Ivanov and others. The leaders of the society, together with the workers of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR, launched an active work to involve the public in the fight against alcoholism.

An important event in the anti-alcohol movement was the 1st Plenum of the All-Union Council of Anti-alcohol Societies, which summarized the first experience of work in the new conditions. At the plenum, it was noted that by the end of the first year of the society's existence, almost 250 thousand people, mainly workers, had become its members, of which about 20 thousand stopped abusing alcohol and returned to normal production and social work. "The return of these workers to the machine tool gave the state about 10 million rubles in net income due to the decrease in absenteeism and an increase in labor productivity." The society considered one of the most important tasks to contribute to the implementation of Soviet laws to combat alcoholism and drunkenness.

A radical change in socio-economic conditions required an in-depth study of the problem of alcoholism both on a national scale and among certain social groups of the population. For the development of research work in the field of alcoholism in 1929 - 1930. special provisions were made. It was planned, in particular, to study the effect of administrative restrictions on the prevalence of alcoholism, to assess the results and cost of treatment for alcohol abusers in special anti-alcohol and general psychiatric institutions.

In the course of the anti-alcohol movement during this period, many new forms and methods of work were born: weeks and months of combating alcoholism, conducting anti-alcohol conversations in schools, the wide involvement of scientists and cultural figures in the anti-alcohol struggle, the inclusion of indicators on the fight against alcoholism in the socialist obligations of production enterprises, creating in collectives an atmosphere of intolerance towards drunkards, improving anti-alcohol propaganda, etc.

Alcohol remained a serious item of state revenue after the war. Now, in the system of state reporting, alcohol was classified as consumer goods.

In the post-war period, the main work in the fight against alcoholism and drunkenness is carried out by the institutions of the ministries of the interior and health. Medical sobering-up centers, drug treatment rooms and hospitals for the treatment of alcoholic patients are being organized. These institutions received special development in connection with the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and on putting things in order in the trade in spirits." In pursuance of this decree, an order was issued by the USSR Minister of Health of December 31, 1958 "On measures for the prevention and treatment of alcoholism", which provided for the creation of drug treatment rooms at neuropsychiatric dispensaries, medical and sanitary units of industrial enterprises and polyclinics.

The issues of combating alcoholism in the 50s and 60s were discussed at many medical forums, in particular at a conference organized by the Institute of Psychiatry of the USSR Ministry of Health, at the All-Union conference on the fight against alcoholism, at the All-Russian meeting on the prevention and treatment of alcoholic diseases, at the IV All-Union Congress of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists. At these conferences, the need to involve the public and institutions of the general medical network in the fight against alcoholism was emphasized.

With the resumption of the teaching of social hygiene in the mid-60s, the socio-hygienic orientation in the study of the state of health of the population and, in particular, in the study of alcoholism, increased. At the II All-Union Symposium on Social Hygiene and Organization of Public Health, Academician B.V.

The first results of the study of alcoholism were discussed in May 1972 at a conference at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Social Hygiene and Health Organization named after I. N. A. Semashko. This conference, which was devoted to the social and hygienic aspects of the problem of alcoholism in Russia and the USSR, was attended not only by historians of medicine and specialists in the field of social hygiene, but also clinicians, psychiatrists, sociologists, economists and representatives of other specialties.

As noted at the 24th Congress of the CPSU: “There can be no victory of communist morality without a decisive struggle against such antipodes as money-grubbing, bribery, parasitism, slander, anonymous letters, drunkenness, etc. Fight against what we call vestiges of the past in the mind and the actions of people - this is a matter that requires the constant attention of the party, all the conscious, progressive forces of our society. " The main forms of educational work carried out by state bodies and the public to combat drunkenness are the creation of persistent cultural traditions, convincing people of the need to eradicate drunkenness, and widespread anti-alcohol propaganda.

Resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism" and the republican legislative acts adopted in accordance with them, in particular, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR dated June 19, 1972 "On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism "and the corresponding resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR mark a new stage in the fight against alcoholism.

These documents are aimed at increasing the efficiency of administrative, social and medical impact on alcohol abusers. They provide for the strengthening of mass-political, cultural and educational work in labor collectives and at the place of residence, economic and medical measures. The adopted resolutions and legislative acts on measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism have created a solid organizational and legal basis for eradicating this phenomenon.

In order to improve the coordination of the work of state bodies and public organizations, commissions were created in 1972 to combat drunkenness and alcoholism under the executive committees of district, city, regional and regional Soviets of People's Deputies, under the councils of ministers of the union and autonomous republics.

Fulfilling the relevant decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the USSR Ministry of Health, its bodies and institutions in the field, together with party and Soviet bodies, carried out organizational measures to create an independent drug treatment service in the country. Already by 1976, special premises were allocated and 21 narcological hospitals, narcological offices and departments at industrial enterprises were organized, new staff standards were approved, which made it possible to introduce additional ones. 13 thousand medical positions and 55 thousand positions of nursing staff for the newly created narcological service. In 1978, there were about 60 drug treatment clinics and over 2,000 drug treatment rooms in the country.

The organization of the fight against alcoholism in recent years was discussed at the VI and VII All-Union Congresses of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, at the III and IV All-Russian Congresses of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, at the II and III All-Union Scientific and Practical Conferences on the Clinic, Prevention and Treatment of Alcoholism, at the All-Russian conferences ... Discussion of the issues of combating alcoholism in these forums contributed to the exchange of experience, further improvement of drug treatment for persons suffering from alcoholism, and the implementation of alcoholism prevention.

Each of the Soviet leaders at one time made attempts to defeat drunkenness: Khrushchev introduced dry law in 1958, Brezhnev in 1972, but after each anti-alcohol campaign, alcohol consumption per capita did not decrease, but increased.

Despite the prohibitions, the people were not going to quit drinking. There was a struggle against moonshiners: they lowered the prices of vodka, toughened criminal penalties for moonshine brewing. The state waged a struggle not only with moonshiners, but also with those who consumed this moonshine. True, in practice, the fight against drunkenness was reduced only to the fight against the drinkers themselves.

Thus, the growth in alcohol consumption has steadily increased. If in 1913 3.4 liters were sold per person per year, then in 1927 - 3.7. By the end of 1940, sales had dropped to 2.3 liters, and by 1950 had dropped to 1.9 liters, but then they began to grow rapidly.

So, the Soviet government, trying to replenish the budget, canceled the dry law. However, the rise in drunkenness in the country soon worried the government. A new wave of the struggle for sobriety begins. There is an active promotion of a healthy lifestyle, but at the same time, as in the previous period, the amount of alcoholic beverages produced is growing, at the legislative level there is also no “working” regulation of drinking, etc. Therefore, the measures of the Soviet leadership nullify the entire positive result of the struggle. The situation in the country with alcohol began to develop into a crisis during the years of stagnation. Attempts to rectify the situation ended in failure and a new even greater surge in the growth of drunkenness. The country found itself in this state by the beginning of the 1980s.

Chapter II. The problem of alcoholism during periods of "stagnation" and "perestroika".

• Socio-economic situation in the USSR
  in the early 80s. XX century

All attempts by the authorities to restrain the growing drunkenness did not bring results. An attempt to fill the treasury with money at the expense of income from the sale of alcoholic beverages resulted in a catastrophic social problem in the early 80s. Mass death of people begins - directly from alcohol (poisoning, accident) or indirectly (weakening of the body).

Mass alcoholization of the population leads to the ruin of the country, comparable in scale to a war or an earthquake. The state monopoly on the sale of alcohol gave the treasury in the 70s. up to 58 billion rubles annually - without this it was impossible to make ends meet in the 400 billion budget. But then a glass of vodka began to take away from the national up to 120 billion rubles a year. After a glass of vodka, a bus with fifty passengers overturns into a ditch, a tractor crashes into the wall, an expensive machine breaks down, hundreds of fires every day, the cause of almost every fire was and remains an empty glass of vodka and an unextinguished cigarette in the hands of a dozing man.

More and more often women, young people, even teenagers are taken to a glass of vodka. However, a woman in Russia has a special position, here a woman has always been the main stronghold of the struggle against drunkenness, and now the last stronghold is crumbling. As for young people and adolescents, their involvement in general drunkenness means, firstly, the avalanche-like growth of the latter, and secondly, the final undermining of the gene pool of the people, because the process of conception in a state of intoxication increases sharply and, accordingly, the process of oligophrenization of the population is accelerated.

All this back in the early 70s made it possible to qualify the alcohol problem situation in Russia as acutely critical with a tendency to develop into a catastrophic one.

In the official statements of the leaders of the USSR, the need for the anti-alcohol campaign in 1985 was determined by the severity of alcohol problems in the country. However, there was also a different economic and social context.

The post-war period of the USSR was characterized by high rates of GDP growth, as is often the case in countries with dilapidated economies. This is what gave rise to the slogan of N. Khrushchev "catch up and overtake America." However, in the mid-1960s. the recovery period ended, and the rate of GDP growth dropped sharply, and in the mid-1960s. a new post-war consumer crisis began. One of the everyday manifestations of the new crisis was "sausage trains" - the population from the periphery of the country went for food to cities with special, preferential food supplies, for example, to Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.

This national crisis was overcome within several years due to the sharp rise in world oil prices after 1973 as a result of the world oil crisis. And this turned into an influx of petrodollars for the USSR.

However, in the late 1960s. in the industrially developed countries of the West and in Japan, a scientific and technological revolution and the transition to a post-industrial society began, and in the 1970s. As a particular manifestation of this process, by the early 1980s, Western countries managed to modernize and rebuild their economies, make them energy-efficient, and thereby overcome the oil crisis. There were also more general prerequisites for this in the form of a new organization of the world market according to rules beneficial to countries developing high-tech industries, and disadvantageous to countries where raw materials production dominated.

The maximum oil prices were reached in 1980, after which they began to fall rapidly and after 2 - 3 years reached a level lower than the cost of oil produced in the USSR. The inflow of petrodollars decreased, and a consumer crisis was brewing in the country again.

In conditions of isolation from the world economy and in order to prevent a new crisis, the management has relied on internal resources and on improving labor efficiency. The short, fifteen-month rule of Yu. Andropov was marked by a number of steps in this direction. On the one hand - the introduction of self-financing in a narrow sector - in the military-industrial complex, on the other hand - the capture of people during working hours outside their production, in order to "tie" them to the workplace with fear.

Yu. Andropov saw great opportunities for increasing labor efficiency and improving the economy in the sobering of the country. Back in early 1982, being the chairman of the KGB, he sent a note to the members of the Politburo of the CPSU about the need to adopt a resolution to strengthen the fight against drunkenness. The Politburo quickly responded by setting up a commission headed by A. Pelshe, who recruited young and intelligent economists to prepare a draft resolution.

The draft argued that administrative and prohibitive measures cannot eradicate drunkenness. This requires systematic and long-term work. As priority measures, it was proposed to increase the production of dry wines and beer, to expand the network of cafes, wine glasses and other types of drinking establishments, which began to timidly open even before the adoption of the decree. This liberal project was soon presented to the Politburo, but it was not destined to be realized: in November 1982 L. Brezhnev died, and in 1983 - A. Pelshe.

M. Solomentsev became the head of the commission on anti-alcohol legislation, who inherited from A. Pelshe the much more important post of Chairman of the Party Control Commission. The new head of the two commissions, taking into account the installation of the new General Secretary Yu. Andropov to strengthen discipline in the country, took the path of tougher measures against drunkenness.

At the same time, Yu. Andropov authorized the release of cheaper vodka, which was probably intended to soften anti-alcohol measures. This vodka was dubbed among the people "Andropovka" or "schoolgirl", since it was introduced into the trade on September 1. The original draft of A. Pelshe's anti-alcohol decree has undergone radical changes towards toughening anti-alcohol measures. However, the rapid and consistent death of two leaders - Y. Andropov in February 1984 and K. Chernenko in March 1985 - delayed its adoption and implementation.

So, it was necessary to solve this problem and present a plan for the implementation of the reform as soon as possible. By order of the government, several research groups were formed, which from 1976 to 1980 independently studied the problem and by 1981 submitted their recommendations to the Consolidated Department of the USSR State Planning Committee. The recommendations boiled down to the following:

1. Make the budget as less dependent on "alcohol injections" as possible. Without this, any struggle against drunkenness initially crashed against the economy, rested on the "economic front". To this end, about 20 programs have been proposed to expand the production of consumer goods, from prefabricated cottages and cars to fashionable clothes and collectible books. The sale yielded income far in excess of the income from the state alcohol monopoly.
2. To develop the "leisure industry", since millions of people take a glass of vodka only for pastime, since the human psyche cannot withstand the melancholy of "doing nothing". A dangerous "leisure vacuum" has formed, which, according to world experience, can only be filled by slot machines and other attractions, plus clubs of interest.
3. To organize effective treatment of millions of alcoholics on special agricultural farms on the principle of self-sufficiency in food with the personal labor participation of patients.
4. Of course, in parallel, large-scale preventive work should be launched to prevent alcoholism.
5. Neutralize the "shadow" economy, which alone is capable of undermining any efforts to combat drunkenness. To do this, bring the prices for alcohol closer to the real market prices, apply ruinous fines for large underground alcohol producers - out of fear for millions of small ones, a protracted struggle with which did not and could not produce noticeable results.
6. Introduce harsh sanctions for being drunk in public places - up to and including deprivation of a "residence permit", which is the main value in the eyes of every Russian, and exile for compulsory treatment in special labor colonies.
7. To widely promote a higher culture of alcohol consumption, to explain the anachronism of traditions - relics of the past, to arouse feelings of shame in people for drunkenness, for their inability to consume alcohol without losing their sense of human dignity.

So, the history of drinking alcoholic beverages in Russia goes back to the distant past. Anti-alcohol policy was also not unique. Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the commissions, the period of preparation for the reform was fruitful, however, due to the frequent deaths of the general secretaries, only the new general secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, managed to implement the reform.

• Implementation of the state anti-alcohol policy
  in 1885 - 1888

Alcohol mortality data has always been a state secret of the Soviet Union. According to closed data of the USSR State Statistics Committee, from 1960 to 1980. alcohol mortality in our country increased by 47%, i.e. about one in three men died from vodka. On the other hand, the vodka trade brought huge profits to the state. Under Brezhnev, prices for vodka rose several times, and income from the sale of alcohol during his reign rose from 100 to 170 billion rubles.

Even Andropov in 1982, in a secret note addressed to Brezhnev, wrote that the annual per capita consumption of alcohol in the USSR is over 18 liters, and the figure of 25 liters is recognized by doctors as the border beyond which the nation's self-destruction begins. At the same time, a special commission was created in the Politburo to develop an anti-alcohol resolution, but due to the frequent death of the country's leaders, they returned to this problem only in 1985. So, a quarter of a century ago, a campaign to combat drunkenness began in the USSR.

The initiators of the campaign were the members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Solomentsev and E.K. to the work of which mass alcoholism was guilty.

As Mikhail Gorbachev himself said then: “We will firmly continue the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism. The roots of this social evil go back centuries, this phenomenon has become habitual, it is not easy to fight against it. But society is ripe for a sharp turn. Drunkenness and alcoholism, especially in the last two decades, have increased manifold and have become a danger to the very future of the nation. " The day before, during his first visit to Leningrad, Gorbachev mysteriously smiles at the townspeople who have surrounded him: “Read tomorrow's newspapers. You will find out everything. "

On May 7, 1985, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism" and the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of home brewing" were adopted, which instructed all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies to decisively and everywhere strengthen the struggle with drunkenness and alcoholism.

It cannot be said that the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee was unanimous in adopting this decision. Referring to the Georgian customs of making chacha from waste, E. Shevardnadze objected to the revision of the section on moonshine brewing. There were other participants in the meeting who tried to soften certain, especially harsh wordings of the draft resolution: a member of the Politburo and First Deputy of the Council of Ministers G. Aliev, a member of the Politburo and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR V. Vorotnikov, secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee I. Kapitonov and V. Nikonov. The decisive opponent of the resolution as a whole was the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers N. Ryzhkov, who had just become a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. He predicted "a sharp increase in home brewing, interruptions in the supply of sugar and its rationing, and, most importantly, a reduction in budget revenues." However, all these objections were shattered by the arguments of E. Ligachev and M. Solomentsev.

Therefore, the ordinances were established. The adopted documents noted that “in modern conditions, when the creative forces of the socialist system and the advantages of the Soviet way of life are more fully revealed, strict adherence to the principles of communist morality and ethics, overcoming bad habits and survivals, above all such an ugly phenomenon as drunkenness, are of particular importance. , alcohol abuse. The fact that the problem of drunkenness and alcoholism in the country has become aggravated in recent years cannot but cause serious concern. The previously planned measures to eliminate drunkenness and alcoholism are being implemented unsatisfactorily. The fight against this socially dangerous evil is conducted in a companionable manner, without the necessary organization and consistency. The efforts of state and economic bodies, party and public organizations are insufficiently coordinated in this matter. Anti-alcohol propaganda has not really been deployed. It often bypasses sensitive issues and is not offensive. A significant part of the population is not educated in the spirit of sobriety, is not sufficiently aware of the dangers of drinking alcohol for the health of present and especially future generations, for society as a whole. "

In this regard, the Council of Ministers of the USSR ordered the Councils of Ministers of the Union and Autonomous Republics, the executive committees of the regional and regional Councils of People's Deputies, the ministries and departments of the USSR “to decisively intensify the fight against drunkenness, alcoholism, home brewing and the production of other home-made strong alcoholic beverages. For these purposes: to intensify the activities of labor collectives, law enforcement agencies to eliminate the causes and conditions that give rise to drunkenness and alcoholism; to increase the responsibility of the heads of enterprises, organizations and institutions for the creation in all collectives of an intolerant attitude towards any facts of drunkenness; to more actively involve citizens, and especially young people, in social and political life, scientific and technical creativity, to awaken a deep interest in amateur performances, art, physical education and sports; with the utmost severity to apply the measures of influence provided by the legislation to persons who allow drinking alcoholic beverages at work and in public places, as well as those engaged in home brewing and speculation in alcoholic beverages. "

The internal affairs bodies were instructed "to ensure the timely identification of persons engaged in home brewing, sales, purchase and storage of home-made strong alcoholic beverages, as well as speculation in alcoholic beverages, to bring them to justice in accordance with the current legislation."

The USSR State Committee for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade was obliged to increase the number of publications of popular science literature and scientific and methodological materials, posters, booklets, anti-alcohol propaganda memos, as well as those intended for use by teachers of schools, vocational schools, higher and secondary specialized educational institutions in educational work.

At the same time, the number of feature, documentary and popular science films and television films, the number of radio broadcasts on anti-alcohol topics, revealing the harm of drunkenness in social and moral terms, as well as promoting the positive experience of its prevention, increased on television and radio. It was forbidden to preach the idea of ​​moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages, to depict all kinds of feasts and drinking rituals in the media, in works of literature, in films and on television.

This is how L. Makarovich, who at that time headed the ideological department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, recalls the past: “In those days, the party often, before making any decision, first“ loosened ”the public consciousness, using all methods of propaganda. So it was before the start of the anti-alcohol campaign. It should be said that in 1985 people still trusted the media. Six months before the start of the anti-alcohol campaign, television, press, cinema, radio were flooded with agitation for a sober lifestyle. And it lasted right up to 1988. I remember, for example, the article "For the help of the magarich", the author called for abandoning the tradition of putting up a bottle for any service and quite colorfully told about the harmful consequences of such gratitude. There were also specific feature films, documentaries and cartoons on the anti-alcohol theme. On television, they showed disabled children born of alcoholics, drunken villages, whose population was degenerating, "drunken" injuries at work ... Quite often they talked about how the "green serpent" destroyed once prosperous families. And all this was so sharp and convincing that I personally had no doubts about the correctness and necessity of the decree on strengthening the fight against drunkenness. "

They began to allocate additional funds for the construction of cinemas, palaces and houses of culture, clubs, libraries, sports facilities and public catering establishments. The rate of deductions from the income of housing maintenance organizations was established - up to 3% for the development of sports work and the construction of sports facilities at the place of residence of citizens.

Surplus fruits, grapes, berries were bought from the population, on collective farms, state farms, for the purpose of resale in fresh, dried and frozen form, as well as for processing into preserves, compotes, jams and juices, which were prescribed to be sold in small packages.

Since that time, the sale of vodka and alcoholic beverages was carried out only in specialized stores or departments of grocery stores. The sale of alcoholic beverages in trade enterprises near industrial enterprises and construction sites, educational institutions, hostels, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, rest homes, train stations, marinas and airports, cultural and entertainment enterprises, in places of mass festivities and recreation of workers was prohibited. The sale of wine and vodka products on weekdays was carried out from 14.00 to 19.00.

On the ground, drug treatment rooms and outpatient clinics were created to provide preventive medical care to people who abuse alcohol and suffer from alcoholism, as well as special drug addiction departments for compulsory treatment of patients with chronic alcoholism with severe concomitant diseases. For example, the law of the Byelorussian SSR of June 4, 1985 stipulated that “patients with chronic alcoholism are obliged to voluntarily undergo a full course of special treatment in medical and prophylactic institutions of health authorities. If such a person evades voluntary treatment or continues to drink after treatment, he is sent to a medical and labor dispensary for compulsory treatment and labor re-education for a period of 1 to 2 years. The issue of sending an alcoholic to a dispensary is being considered by the people's court at his place of residence. The basis for consideration is a petition of a public organization, labor collective, state body, family members or close relatives of the person and a mandatory medical report. "

A wide network of hospitals was created at large industrial enterprises for the treatment of alcoholic patients. Such hospitals were designed to combine treatment with work in factories, which thus received a cheap, albeit unskilled, labor force. As a result, the therapeutic efficacy in such patients turned out to be negligible, because therapeutic tasks were subordinated to production ones and were supplanted by them, in particular, due to night shifts for patients.

The All-Union Society "Sobriety" was created. Gathered "alcoholic commissions" at district councils and enterprises. In 1986, the Moscow City Institute for Teachers' Improvement issued guidelines "Anti-alcohol education of schoolchildren in the process of studying the fundamentals of science." The authors proposed to include elements of anti-alcohol propaganda in the study of chemistry, biology, history, literature, social science, ethics and psychology of family life, the foundations of the Soviet state and law. Thus, the experience of teetotal teachers of the early twentieth century was again reproduced.

In 1987, A.N. Mayurov's manual on anti-alcohol education for teachers appeared, which, in addition to the methodology of anti-alcohol education in the course of school disciplines, offered methodological recommendations on anti-alcohol education in extracurricular work, including interaction with the family and the community.

Measures aimed at combating drunkenness were also contained in labor legislation. In particular, for being drunk at work, a worker or employee could be fired, transferred to another, lower-paid job, or removed to another, lower, position for up to 3 months. Also, in relation to drunkards, measures were introduced: deprivation of bonuses, bonuses based on the results of work for the year, vouchers to rest homes and sanatoriums, etc.

So, the campaign indulged in a massive character. An all-Union voluntary society for the struggle for sobriety was created with its own printed organ. Its members had to, by giving up alcohol, act as active fighters for sobriety. It included advanced workers, workers on collective farms, intelligentsia, i.e. people who can captivate others with a personal example of sobriety and active struggle for a healthy lifestyle. In the fulfillment of this task, trade unions, the education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.) were also involved without fail. Strict requirements of refusal from alcohol began to be imposed on the members of the Party. Party members were also required to join the Temperance Society.

The plans for economic development were, starting in 1986, to annually reduce the production of alcoholic beverages, and by 1988 to completely stop the production of fruit and berry wines.

The ultimate goal of the measures outlined by these documents is the complete refusal of the entire population from the use of alcoholic beverages, even in the smallest doses.

Already on May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of home brewing", which supported the previous documents with administrative and criminal penalties. So, for drinking alcoholic beverages in public places, except for trade and public catering enterprises in which the sale of alcoholic beverages in bulk is allowed or for appearing in public places in a drunken state - an administrative penalty was imposed in the form of a warning or a fine in the amount of 20 to 30 rubles ... However, if this was completely repeated during the year, then the amount of the fine increased to 30 - 100 rubles, as well as correctional labor for a period of 1 to 2 months with a deduction of 20% of earnings. In exceptional cases, the punishment was administrative arrest for up to 15 days.

The manufacture or storage of alcoholic beverages entailed criminal liability. At the same time, the purchase of home-made drinks entailed a fine of 30 to 100 rubles.

Thus, forceful measures were introduced to control the anti-alcohol campaign. The police took anyone whose sobriety was in doubt, sent to sobering-up centers, the number of which had to be hastily increased. Party members were expelled from its ranks. From the memo of the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU: "During July-August alone, about 600 communists were brought to responsibility for alcohol abuse, 152 of them were expelled from the party."

Soon the penalties had to be tightened even more. Therefore, the plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR on November 1, 1985 adopted a resolution "On the practice of the courts' application of legislation aimed at strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism."

Among the measures of coercion, a special place belongs to the responsibility for involving minors in drunkenness. The Criminal Code established that bringing a minor to a state of intoxication by a person in whose service he is dependent is punishable by imprisonment for up to 2 years or correctional labor for the same period or a fine of 200 to 300 rubles. The systematic driving of a minor into intoxication was considered as involving him in drunkenness and is punishable by imprisonment for up to 5 years. Parents who brought a minor to a state of intoxication were subjected to administrative punishment in the form of a fine in the amount of 50 to 100 rubles. Moreover, the parents or their substitutes were administratively responsible for the appearance in public places of adolescents under the age of 16 in a drunken state, as well as for the very fact of their drinking of alcoholic beverages. In such cases, the perpetrators are fined from 30 to 50 rubles. Chronic alcoholism or drug addiction of the parents was the basis for the deprivation of their parental rights.

So, strict measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and public gardens, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk were in serious trouble at work. For consuming alcohol in the workplace, they were fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, and alcohol-free weddings were promoted. There were "zones of sobriety" in which alcohol was not sold.

Only three weeks passed between the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and its beginning (June 1, 1985), which were given to prepare a large-scale all-Union action with far-reaching consequences. As B. Yeltsin later stated, such "haste in the implementation of the resolution, the lack of its scientific elaboration and the strong-willed character of the decision testify to the extraordinary personal ambitions of the two initiators of the campaign." So, on June 1, 1985, two-thirds of the wine and vodka shops were closed, alcohol disappeared from the shelves. The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by FG ​​Uglov, Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, about the harm and inadmissibility of consuming alcohol under any circumstances, and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people, began to spread everywhere. “Do not allow motives promoting drinking, feasts to enter theaters, cinema, television and radio broadcasts, and works of art,” the Central Committee said in a decree. Films and performances with similar scenes were excluded from theatrical repertoires and film distribution. Among the first to be banned was the comedy film "Hussar Ballad". Even the opera Boris Godunov had to be filmed at the Bolshoi Theater. Some executors of the decree tried to correct the history. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, the Pravda newspaper published an old photo of the cosmonaut at a reception in the Kremlin. At the same time, the glass in Gagarin's hand was retouched, and a strange picture turned out: the hero of the cosmos stretches out his hand in a very characteristic gesture, in which there is absolutely nothing.

Already on September 25, 1985, the founding conference of the All-Union Voluntary Society for the Struggle for Sobriety was held in Moscow, which within a few months had 13 million signed up.

The company started actively and on a grand scale. Just a couple of months later, the party’s capital city committee reported: “63 thousand meetings were held in Moscow, which were attended by almost 6 million people. Resolutions of approval have been adopted everywhere. "

The main thrust of the 1985 anti-alcohol campaign was to reduce alcohol consumption by reducing government production and sales of alcoholic beverages. The eradication of home brewing was also considered important. Somewhat later, in August 1985, there was an increase in prices, in particular, for vodka by 25%, and in August 1986 - a new and sharper rise in prices for alcohol.

Of the 1,500 wine points in Moscow, only 150 were left to trade in alcohol. At the Kristall plant, expensive imported equipment recently purchased for foreign currency was scrapped; at the two largest beer production plants, huge stainless steel vats were cut. Since it was supposed to cut the output in fact by half in the near future. For the first time, the state decided to reduce income from alcohol, which was an important item in the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production.

According to the original plan, the reduction in the sale of alcoholic beverages was supposed to be 11% per year, which in 6 years would lead to a twofold reduction in state revenues from the wine and vodka trade. At the same time, it was assumed that compensation for significant budget losses would occur automatically due to the "recovery of production", as well as in connection with a significant expansion of the output of consumer goods.

In the RSFSR, by 1987, the network of stores selling alcohol was reduced by almost five times. The reduction in the turnover of alcoholic beverages was also ahead of plans, and budget losses in 1987 amounted to 5.4 billion rubles, of which only 2.4 billion were compensated by expanding the production of consumer goods. It should be noted that all this happened against the background of a sharp reduction in budget revenues due to low oil prices on the world market.

Although even before the start of the campaign, some economists predicted a rapid impoverishment of the country's budget without "alcohol infusions", however, Gorbachev hoped too much for high oil prices at that time. Then the price of $ 30 per barrel was considered high.

But the worst disaster came to the wine-growing regions of the country - in two years 30% of all vineyards were cut down and destroyed by bulldozers, while in the Great Patriotic War, when the battles took place in the south of Russia, Crimea, Moldova, 22% of all vineyards were destroyed. Moreover, the best, elite varieties were destroyed. In Crimea, because of this, the director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Winemaking and Viticulture, Pavel Golodriga, committed suicide.

Of course, the "golden" times have come for speculators. Taxi drivers sold vodka, sold it in private apartments, and just on the streets - "from under the floor." The queues for alcohol at specialty stores grew sharply and became many hours long, often "from the night." To cover the budget shortfall, the government was forced to increase the sale of expensive drinks - champagne and cognac.

The production and consumption of moonshine rose sharply. And this despite the fact that at the beginning of the campaign a significant part of the moonshine stills were requisitioned by the police or voluntarily surrendered by the population, in some regions of Russia the number of destroyed vehicles was almost equal to the number of houses in villages. The growth in the production of moonshine occurred despite the fact that the number of people brought to justice for moonshine, almost doubling annually since 1984, reached 397 thousand people in 1987, in 1988 - 414 thousand. And the total number of violators of anti-alcohol legislation and administrative rules in 1987 exceeded 10 million people.

However, there was, of course, the benefit of the law. Already in the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU of September 18, 1985, it is said about reducing the number of offenses, hooliganism and other crimes associated with drunkenness. The number of road accidents and various violations at work has decreased. Order is being strengthened in cities and towns. The social activity of the working people is increasing, and their leisure is becoming more meaningful. In 1985, mortality fell sharply and remained fairly low until the very end of the campaign. Mortality from alcohol poisoning decreased by 56%, and mortality from accidents in men - by 36%. And it was during this period that an unprecedented surge in the birth rate occurred. In Russia, in 1987, "alcohol consumption from state resources" decreased 2.7 times or by 63.5% in relation to 1984, which significantly exceeded the planned rate of decline in consumption: it was assumed in 1985 to decrease by 11% in year, in 1987 - by 25%.

In addition, not all vineyards have started cutting the vines. So, researchers at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking "Magarach" came up with the idea of ​​processing technical grape varieties intended exclusively for wine into powder. Thus, the grape juice was obtained in dry form.

In such a "powder" state, 95% of all that is useful in it was preserved from the berry.

Also, in one of the departments of the institute, another original non-alcoholic product was obtained from grapes - honey. Filled with honey, fresh grapes, as confirmed by multiple experiments, can remain the same for several months as on the bunches.

Another way of processing raw materials was the processing of berries: not by the sun and heat, but by the cold. At the same time, it became more "full", as if with the remnants of juice, soft, tasty, not losing anything useful.

At the same time, the budget deficit grew, and neither the printing press nor the sale of gold helped. Debt of the state, both internal and external, has sharply increased. The country began to face the difficulties of paying salaries, which was sacred for the Soviet regime. In addition, in 1987 the state policy began a turn from “acceleration” to “restructuring”, for the implementation of which, as well as for acceleration, there were no funds.

In 1987, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, V. I. Vorotnikov, sent a note to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the fallacy of the methods of conducting the anti-alcohol campaign. When discussing this note, the Politburo handed the decision on the fate of the campaign to the USSR Council of Ministers, which, at the suggestion of its chairman N.I. the production of surrogate drinks without the purpose of marketing was replaced by an administrative one, and on October 25, 1988, a new decree of the CPSU Central Committee "On the progress of the implementation of the decree of the CPSU Central Committee on strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism" followed, which in fact put an end to the anti-alcohol campaign, although some, the processes launched by it continued to operate for several more years. This is how the anti-alcohol policy ended in the 1980s.

Thus, the actively launched campaign was aimed only at some of the most accessible elements of the alcohol situation: the production of drinks and their prices. However, she did not in any way touch upon the necessities of this situation. Until the end, the ill-conceived struggle for sobriety was of a half-hearted nature. Many of the instructions of the Soviet leadership were not implemented. In the context of economic restructuring, the lack of money for the implementation of the cultural component of the "reform" affected.

However, together with the poor organization of measures (a small number of points of sale, lack of a proper number of places of leisure, etc.), the government introduces strict methods of control and coercion.

Also, the authorities were not able to clearly develop and predict the further development of the measures taken. This led to rash decisions and dire consequences. So, for example, the unique Soviet vineyards of Ukraine, Armenia and others were destroyed.

So, due to the lack of popularity of the campaign among the people, as well as in conditions of a budget deficit, the government is curtailing the previously adopted measures. The country met 1988 with a shattered economy, a mass of claims from the ATS countries and other problems.

Chapter III. Results of the Anti-Binge Campaign.

3.1. Consequences for the economy.

Despite the brevity of the campaign, it was a great shock for the country and affected many aspects of the life of the state and its population. The main feature of the campaign is the unjustifiably rapid rate of reduction in state sales of alcoholic beverages: by 63.5% in 2.5 years, that is, by 25% per year. Around the same time, the Dutch government, alarmed by the high level of alcohol consumption in the country, after careful preparation, began to implement a new alcohol policy, which can also be described as an anti-alcohol campaign. Its main content was anti-alcohol education of the population through the media. There was also a large research program. As a result, consumption decreased by 6% over three years. And this was perceived as a purely positive outcome.

As a result of a sharp decline in the state sale of alcoholic beverages, the budget of the USSR for 1985 - 1987. received less than 49 billion rubles, only in the RSFSR and only in 1987 the alcohol shortage of the budget amounted to 5.3 billion rubles in prices of those years.

A significant part of these sums migrated to the pockets of clandestine producers and sellers of moonshine, the consumption of which had almost doubled by 1987. The state failed to provide the money that was not spent on alcoholic beverages. 1985 - 1987 trade in the USSR did not receive the consumer goods stipulated by the plan for 40 billion rubles and paid services for 5.6 billion rubles. The decline in alcohol sales caused serious damage to the Soviet budget system, as the annual retail trade fell on average by 16 billion rubles. The damage to the budget was unexpectedly great: instead of the previous 60 billion rubles in revenue, the food industry brought 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987. Until 1985, alcohol provided 25% of budget revenues from retail trade; due to high prices for alcohol, it was possible to subsidize prices for bread, milk, sugar and other products. The money unspent by the population began to put pressure on the consumer market, which was the contribution of the anti-alcohol campaign to the depreciation of the ruble and increased inflation.

By 1985, the wine and vodka industry had a backward technical base. As a result of the campaign, the rate of its renewal, already the lowest in the food industry, has decreased by more than 2 times. The anti-alcohol campaign reoriented the country's viticulture towards growing table varieties at the expense of the technical ones used to make wine. As a result, the area occupied by these varieties decreased by 29%, and purchases by the state - by 31%.

A sharp drop in the production of alcoholic beverages was accompanied by a decrease in the production of bottles for wine and vodka products by almost 3 times and beer by 1.5 times. Many glass factories were redesigned to produce glassware for other purposes. By 1990, the deficit of bottles for vodka and cognac amounted to 210, wine - 280, beer - 340 million, in 1991 - rose to 220, 400 and 707 million bottles, respectively.

The point is not only that their production was reduced. The return of used ones has also decreased. So, by 1990, the provision of reception points in Moscow was 80%, across the country - 74. The number of returned glass containers decreased due to the illegal trade in alcohol.

Moonshine not only was not eliminated, as the initiators of the campaign assumed, but it expanded significantly and only in 1990, according to the calculations of the USSR State Statistics Committee, removed about 1 million tons of sugar from food consumption. Strengthening home brewing led to a shortage in the retail sale of raw materials for moonshine - sugar, followed by cheap sweets, tomato paste, peas, cereals, etc., which led to an increase in public discontent. The previously existing shadow market of artisanal alcohol received significant development in these years - vodka added to the list of goods that had to be “obtained”. The speculation in alcohol reached unimaginable proportions, even the products of large distilleries were completely bought up by speculators, who received 100-200% profit per day. Nevertheless, the increase in the consumption of “illegal” alcohol did not compensate for the drop in the consumption of “legal” alcohol, as a result of which a real reduction in the total consumption of alcohol was still observed, which explains the beneficial consequences of a decrease in mortality and crime, an increase in the birth rate and life expectancy. which were observed during the anti-alcohol campaign.

While developing, home brewing grew into an underground vodka industry. By the beginning of market reforms, as a result of the anti-alcohol campaign, the all-Union infrastructure of clandestine production and the market of alcoholic beverages was formed, which therefore turned out to be the most prepared for the new market relations.

The increase in the sale of alcoholic beverages was slow. Thus, in 1990, it was sold 0.1 million decaliters of absolute alcohol more than in 1989. Whereas, in 1990, the proceeds from the sale of alcoholic beverages in actual prices amounted to 56.3 billion rubles - by 5.6 billion more than in 1989, and 3.6 billion more than in 1984.

The narcological service, created in 1976, among the interested state structures was most receptive to the campaign, which also breathed new life into this branch of medicine: the number of narcological dispensaries in 4 years increased 3.5 times in the USSR and 4.3 times in the RSFSR. More than 75 thousand beds for alcoholic patients were deployed in newly opened drug treatment facilities at industrial and agricultural enterprises. This clearly surplus number of jobs was filled, often forcibly, by sick people who became unskilled laborers in industries that lacked just such a labor force. 40% of the earnings of these patients were withheld for treatment, which in fact was not carried out due to shift, including night conditions of the enterprises.

A declaratively created narcological service was hastily filled with doctors, most of whom did not have a specialized drug addiction education. Before the start of the campaign, their retraining was very slow. The anti-alcohol campaign has dramatically improved the skills of doctors and staff; drug addiction knowledge has spread to the general medical network. We can say that as a result of the campaign, the qualifications of practical drug addicts have increased in total.

The same cannot be said about scientific drug addiction. In contrast to the practical service, scientific alkology came to the beginning of the campaign very weak due to ideological attitudes and political restrictions. Soviet scientific narcology was represented by several dozen specialists, mainly clinicians, scattered in small groups in institutions in Moscow and in several large cities of the Union. In the closed Institute of Forensic Psychiatry. VP Serbsky there was a department of narcology, dealing mainly with the biological problems of alcoholism. But the social and other aspects of drunkenness and alcoholism remained practically closed for study. Most of the rare narcological publications of this kind were labeled “for official use” or were classified.

At the beginning of the campaign, that is, in 1985, the only department of narcology was reorganized into the All-Union Center for Narcology, however, organizational turmoil and erroneous targets prevented the Center from starting systematic work for several years. In addition to this Center, several laboratories and small departments were additionally created in the country.

It is worth recalling here that the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the United States was created in 1970, and by 1985 it had already become a major research center of the world level.

The somewhat strengthened Soviet alcology continued its general line - the study of the problem of alcoholism, which is far from exhaustive of all alcoholic problems, although in world alcology, at the call of the WHO, already in the early 1970s. there was a shift from the problem of alcoholism to the problem of alcohol use.

Despite the creation of a "single target complex program", almost nothing was done to study and assess the alcohol situation in the country, its forecast for the near future. So in the field of science, the campaign did not leave a noticeable mark, despite the forced inclusion of a large number of non-core institutes in the program and an increase in the number of publications in the field of alkology. And, most importantly, great opportunities for such an "experiment" as the anti-alcohol campaign were missed.

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, the allocations for planting vineyards and caring for plantings were sharply reduced, and the taxation of farms was increased. The Main Directions of Social and Economic Development of the USSR for 1986-1990, approved by the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, became the main directive document determining the ways of further development of viticulture. and for the period up to 2000, in which it was written: "To carry out a radical restructuring of the structure of viticulture in the Union republics, focusing it primarily on the production of table grape varieties."

Many hectares of grapes were also destroyed. Vineyards were cut down in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and other republics of the USSR.

In Moldova, 80 thousand hectares of vineyards out of 210 thousand were destroyed. The current director of the famous Moldovan winery Cricova Valentin Bodul claims that “unique grape varieties - feteasca, rara nyagra, even table varieties were almost completely destroyed. Moldova has lost more than 80 thousand hectares of vineyards. There were just over 130 thousand left, and most of them were approaching a critical age. According to today's money, it costs 12 thousand dollars to plant and bring to mind a hectare of grapes. We have not yet restored the previous volume of work, although we are making every effort. On weekends, we were forced to go out with an ax and chop grapes. Prison terms were especially tough. There were high-profile trials, defenders of grapes received 14-15 years of imprisonment. Allegedly, a computer plant was supposed to appear on the site of the vineyards, which, of course, did not appear, and it was not needed. After all, for Moldova, grapes are like oil for Russia. "

1985 to 1990 the area of ​​vineyards in Russia decreased from 200 to 168 thousand hectares, the restoration of uprooted vineyards was halved, and the establishment of new ones was not carried out at all. The average annual grape harvest has fallen compared to the period 1981-1985. from 850 thousand to 430 thousand tons. “The trouble is that during the struggle for sobriety, Ukraine lost about a fifth of its budget, 60 thousand hectares of vineyards were uprooted in the republic, the famous Massandra winery was saved from defeat only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean regional party committee Makarenko. The secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of the vineyards, were active conductors of the anti-alcohol campaign. During his vacation in Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to Massandra. For all 150 years of the existence of the famous plant, there are samples of produced wines - a wine collection. All famous wineries in the world have similar storage facilities. But Ligachev said: "This wine collection must be destroyed, and the plant must be closed!" Vladimir Shcherbitsky could not stand it and called Gorbachev directly, they say, this is already an overkill, and not a fight against drunkenness. Mikhail Sergeevich said: “Okay, save it,” says the ex-secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Y. Pogrebnyak.

The first secretary of the Crimean regional committee of the CPSU Viktor Makarenko confirms the words of Pogrebnyak: “Ligachev demanded the destruction of vineyards as the primary basis for the production of alcoholic beverages. He even insisted on the liquidation of the famous Massandra winery. Only Shcherbitsky's personal intervention saved her. "

In general, in Azerbaijan over these years, the area of ​​vineyards has decreased by almost 70 thousand hectares. Whereas, each of them cost the state about five thousand rubles at one time.

The Russian south did not bypass the attack. “We had terrible felling of vineyards in our region. People just cried when they watched all this. Our Slavyansky district of the Krasnodar Territory is still lucky. We had a clever head of the district committee. He himself advised us not to be violent with felling, asked us to hide the equipment. We dug holes, laid them out with hay and stored equipment there. So we kept production. But the Anapa region, for example, suffered absolutely terrible losses, "said Boris Ustenko, chief engineer of the Slavprom winery.

Indeed, up to 100 thousand tons of grapes were harvested in the Anapa region before the anti-alcohol campaign. The vineyards came close to the city limits. After the Gorbachev campaign, the industry was practically destroyed. Nowadays, 10 thousand tons of berries are considered to be a good harvest in the region.

According to some reports, 30% of the vineyards were destroyed, compared with 22% during the Great Patriotic War. According to the materials of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine, it took 2 billion rubles and 5 years to restore the losses of the destroyed 265 thousand vineyards.

However, the initiator of the campaign, Yegor Ligachev, claims that "in 1985 the vineyard area was 1 million 260 thousand hectares, in 1988 - 1 million 210 thousand hectares, respectively, the grape harvest was 5.8 and 5.9 million tons."

Mikhail Gorbachev claims that he did not insist on the destruction of the vineyards: “The fact that the vine was cut down was a step against me. They tried to make me an inveterate teetotaler during the anti-alcohol campaign. "

The biggest loss was the destruction of unique collectible grape varieties. For example, the “Ekim-kara” grape variety, a component of the famous Soviet wine “Black Doctor”, was completely destroyed. Pink nutmeg survived only on 30 hectares. There are almost no grape varieties left with the romantic names pedro jimenes, sercial, kefesia, semillon.

Along with this, the care of the plantings has worsened. The average lifespan of vineyards is only eleven years. More than half of the land occupied by vineyards has ceased to yield returns. At the same time, up to 300 million rubles are required annually for their maintenance.

The industry is losing experienced personnel. In the last three years alone, about 40% of those employed have left winemaking. The graduation of mid-level specialists has been discontinued. The number of students in the specialties of "Viticulture" and "Technology of Winemaking" has been halved in the country's universities.

“Then a stupid, ridiculous war was declared on wine varieties,” recalls Maria Kostik, who was then working as a junior researcher at the Magarach Research Institute. “They went under the knife, and table varieties began to be planted. I remember that so many “Moldova” grapes were planted that later they did not know what to do with it. When all economic ties with the republics of the USSR were destroyed, Moldovan grapes on the scale of Ukraine turned out to be too much for consumption, and they were put under pressure, trying to make wine out of it. But these grapes did not have the necessary qualities, and the wine turned out to be terrible. Then came the era of cheap table grape wine. And the famous varieties inherited from the Golitsyns, Soviet varieties and grapes of P. Golodrigi, who created more than twenty varieties for many years of selection work, remained on a microscopic scale.

Thus, breeding work was subjected to especially severe persecution. As a result of persecution and a series of unsuccessful attempts to persuade M. Gorbachev to abolish the destruction of vineyards, one of the leading scientists-breeders, director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Wine and Viticulture "Magarach", Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Pavel Golodriga, committed suicide. Its varieties were not afraid of root aphids, frost and disease. Our varieties were superior to the famous European ones. Pavel Golodriga managed to create the Citronny Magaracha variety, which is very similar to the elite white nutmeg, but even surpasses it in stability and vitality.

Now at all conferences and meetings they say that the future belongs to them, they allocate millions to restore them. But then these varieties (Aurora Magaracha, Riesling Magaracha, Centaur Magaracha) remained in several state farms, the growers simply cried, watching the destruction of entire plantations. Those who managed to restore the vineyards, at least partially, now have excellent results. For example, the state farm "Tavria" grows the Firstborn of Magarach and the Gift of Magarach on 400 hectares.

After the suicide of the scientist, the authorities decided to get rid of future wine varieties, from the gene pool. A small area with thousands of priceless hybrids has been uprooted: a trifle on an industrial scale, but invaluable for the future. M. Kostik tried to fight, bombarding the authorities with letters, and then, realizing that this was the policy of the state, she began to secretly cut the vine and send it through her own channels - through the Crimea, to the Kuban, to Chechnya. As a result, six varieties of Golodrigi and the famous Citron Magaracha were saved. Now on the southern coast of Crimea, it has been planted on 18 hectares and has already received an amazing wine "Muscatel White".

Natalya Bogomolova worked at Magarach when M. Gorbachev passed dry law, and this is what she remembered: “Of course, it was not an easy time for us. They cut down the old vineyards and uprooted them. And new ones were not planted instead. Not then, not later. After the perestroika, houses began to grow in those places one by one, the plots went into private hands. "

Relations with the CMEA countries - Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, in which most of the wine was produced for export to the USSR - deteriorated sharply. Vneshtorg refused to buy wine in these countries, offering to compensate for lost profits with other goods.

So, mass dissatisfaction with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in the USSR in 1987 forced the Soviet leadership to end the fight against the production and consumption of alcohol. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the anti-alcohol campaign in 2005, Gorbachev remarked in one of his interviews: "Because of the mistakes made, a good big deal ended ingloriously."

In the fall of 1988, business executives managed to get Gorbachev to review the course of the campaign for the Politburo. This time is considered the date of the abolition of the Soviet "dry" law. Although before that, on May 29, 1987, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On responsibility for moonshine brewing" was adopted, which sharply increased the measures of criminal punishment for this crime. So, if a moonshine was found, a fine of 100 - 300 rubles (in case of repeated seizure - 200 - 500 rubles and correctional labor for up to 2 years) was imposed.

Thus, the not fully thought out scheme for the implementation of the anti-alcohol campaign had a negative impact on the country's economy. The campaign also fell on the years of the restructuring of the country's economic and social life, the breakdown of the state apparatus, which influenced the further existence of the USSR. Moldova, Bulgaria and others also suffered economic losses from the fight against drunkenness, long-term friendly relations with neighboring countries were piled up. At the same time, there were also positive results of this campaign. So, thanks to strict labor control, it was possible to reduce "drunken" losses in production, equipment, machines, human lives were saved. Due to the absence of spending on alcohol, many goods that were previously not in demand began to be bought, however, in the context of the production crisis, many goods became scarce, store shelves were empty, long queues lined up.

So, the "dry law" 1985 - 1988. had both positive and negative results for the country's economy. However, due to the haste of decisions, the economy was in a deficit state, since it was deprived of proceeds from the sale of a controversial one. The 1980s campaign came to a different outcome. in demographic terms.

3.2. Demographic situation after the end of the campaign.

The anti-alcohol zeal of party bodies, police and other power structures had serious moral costs. Since the end of the war, the prestige of power has fallen so low for the first time. “War has been declared to drunkenness,” stated a well-known sociologist. It was really a war of some Soviet citizens against others, also Soviet. The moral costs increased also because the belligerents equally did not see the inner meaning in such a war. So, a policeman pouring an arrested moonshine into the sink, equally with an arrested moonshineer, regretted the destruction of such a desired product. A significant part of the population, if not the majority, was strongly against the anti-alcohol actions of the authorities, which ignored the fundamental law of politics, which is that any reform should be based on the psychology of people, take into account their value orientations and motivations.

During the years of the anti-alcohol campaign, the officially registered average per capita alcohol sales in the country have decreased by more than 2.5 times. 1985 - 1987 the decrease in the state sale of alcohol was accompanied by an increase in life expectancy, an increase in the birth rate, and a decrease in mortality. During the period of the anti-alcohol decree, 5.5 million newborns were born per year, 500 thousand more per year than every year in the previous 20-30 years, and the weakened were born by 8% less. The life expectancy of men has increased by 2.6 years and reached the maximum value in the entire history of Russia, and the overall crime rate has decreased. The reduction in mortality compared to the predicted regression line excluding the campaign is 919.9 thousand for men and 463.6 thousand for women. And this is the main positive outcome of the campaign.

As a result of anti-alcohol measures, not only mortality has decreased, but also morbidity, especially the one that is directly related to alcohol consumption. For example, in 1987 the frequency of alcoholic psychosis in the RSFSR decreased 3.6 times compared to 1984. This fact dispels the widespread and deeply rooted prejudice that during the campaign, with a significant decrease in the average consumption, “alcoholics drank, that's how they drink. " But this is not the case. Alcoholic psychosis occurs only in patients with alcoholism, and if the number of psychoses has decreased, it means that the consumption of alcohol by patients with alcoholism has decreased. This mainly affected patients who were relatively safe, both clinically and socially.

There is less drunken hooliganism and drunken crime. However, this lesson was not learned: for the population, the coercive nature of the campaign and the violent methods of conducting it were much more important. This significantly narrowed the psychological and social basis of the anti-alcohol idea, which is that excessive drinking is a great evil, both for the individual and for society. The failure of the anti-moonshine campaign also contributed to the decline in the number of people with anti-alcohol attitudes. But, most importantly, the authorities did not learn from the example of the campaign that alcoholic beverages and drinks in the campaign are part of the culture of modern society.

Therefore, the anti-alcohol campaign aimed at the "moral improvement" of Soviet society in reality achieved completely different results. In the mass consciousness, it was perceived as an absurd initiative of the authorities directed against the “common people”. Meanwhile, the people started a "war". Taxi drivers sold vodka "from the trunk" at double or triple prices, grandmothers sold queues to the suffering in endless tails to shops. Craftsmen without rest riveted moonshine stills. For those widely involved in the shadow economy and the party and economic elite, alcohol was still available, and ordinary consumers were forced to “get it”.

There were other negative effects of the anti-alcohol campaign. The number of "household poisoning" with technical fluids has sharply increased.

The attributed increase in drug addiction due to the campaign is not fair. Since it began several years before 1985 and took place under the influence of other, both international and domestic factors. This is due to the fact that in the 1970s. there was some saturation of the American market with drugs. This led to the fact that the world drug business began to master the Western European market and new routes of its supply from Central Asia. An additional impetus for this was some temporary suppression of two of the three "golden triangles" - the main regions of drug production and drug trafficking in the world: Colombia (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia) and Thailand. As a result, the third "triangle", including Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, began to function more actively. For the transportation of drugs from this "triangle", the USSR was assigned the role of a transit territory. This was facilitated by the poor technical equipment of our customs service and its unpreparedness to identify such cargoes. Therefore, drugs disguised as neutral cargoes easily crossed the Russian border in both directions.

For the growth of drug addiction in our country, the war in Afghanistan since December 1979 was of great importance, and later - the transparency of the Afghan-Tajik border, the drug business of the Tajik opposition, and most importantly - the factory production of drugs established in Afghanistan by the Taliban, who cruelly dealt with the private drug business. Afghanistan has become one of the main sources of opium in the markets of our country. It was at this time that a very tough repressive drug policy began in Iran. This took the country out of the third "golden triangle" and thereby blocked one of the main routes of drug trafficking to the West. All this led to the formation of a new powerful "triangle" (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan - Gorny Badakhshan). There were also internal factors in the growth of drug addiction in the USSR in the period preceding the campaign.

The anti-alcohol campaign caused an increase in drug addiction in Russia, but almost exclusively in the form of substance abuse, which began to subside with the increase in alcohol consumption.

And the range of drug-related problems has steadily expanded, continuing trends that had emerged before the campaign began. Gradually increasing, the number of drug addicts went beyond the limits necessary for solving the problems of drug transportation. Since the early 1990s. drug addiction has become a big and independent problem in Russia.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the total negative problems associated with drugs, in terms of their scale, cannot be compared with alcoholic ones. Several examples can be cited by way of illustration. The first - deaths from external causes, in particular, violent, in alcoholic and drug intoxication make up 52.3% and 0.1%. Another - deaths from alcohol poisoning and drug overdose: more than 40 thousand and 3.5 thousand, respectively. The number of people registered for alcohol problems sharply exceeds the number of people registered for drug addiction problems. Even adjusted for the greater closeness of drug addiction, the severity of alcohol consumption problems is higher than that of drugs in our country. That cannot be said about other countries. Thus, in the United States, material damage from alcohol abuse amounted to $ 54.7 billion in 1986, and from drug use - $ 26.0. There is no doubt that the relative difference in material losses from alcohol and drugs in Russia is even greater due to the greater difference in the size of consumption of both in the United States and Russia.

However, the drunken traditions of Russian life, formed in the post-war period, the Russian drunkenness that became habitual, the associated seeming naturalness of alcohol damage, both material and human, for a long time pushed alcohol problems into the background. This was facilitated by the failure of the anti-alcohol campaign, as well as by a powerful alcohol lobby. In addition, the abundance of non-alcoholic problems that are completely new for Russia, in particular, the poverty of a large part of the population, the destruction of social and moral norms obscures the drama of the alcohol situation in Russia, but does not diminish its size.

In the context of the consequences of the anti-alcohol campaign, one more, very important circumstance should be noted: the campaign fell on the years of the restructuring of the country's economic and social life, the breakdown of the state apparatus and the change of leaders. As a matter of fact, there was a deep rift in the history of the country. In this historical time, significant efforts of M. Gorbachev and the state apparatus were diverted to the implementation of anti-alcohol regulations, and the attention of the population was narrowed by opposition to these measures. In the center of the consciousness of many people there was where to get a bottle, and from the country's leadership - how not to give this bottle or take it away from people. Therefore, the problem "where is perestroika leading" did not have time to think over. The reforms were half-hearted and went in the direction of democratizing society only, while in parallel or even in the first place it was necessary to carry out economic reforms, legislatively divide the three branches of government, separate power and property, make a valuation of state real estate and lay the foundation for social protection of the bulk of the population. None of this was done. This is partly due to the tremendous effort involved in the anti-alcohol campaign.

Thus, the 1985-1988 campaign. saved millions of lives of Soviet inhabitants. The birth rate has grown significantly during this time. True, at the same time there was an increase in drug use, but this increase was not associated with the ongoing activities, i.e. this is a combination of circumstances, which were written above. The thriving clandestine alcohol production has played a role of a time bomb: the incipient confusion of the 1990s. brought to naught all the efforts of the Soviet leadership - a huge increase in alcohol consumption began. Sow this day, this problem remains one of the priorities in the national policy of Russia.

Conclusion

The study of the socio-economic processes that took place in the USSR during the anti-alcohol campaign of 1985 - 1988, based on sources, research, with the adjustment and comparative analysis of information of available materials, the use of computer technologies, made it possible to come to the following conclusions and observations.

In May 1985, one after another, the resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were issued, marking the beginning of the campaign to combat drunkenness and moonshine.

However, over the course of history, the government has resorted to limiting alcohol consumption more than once. However, the government, at the same time, was one of the factors driving the growth of alcohol consumption in the country. With the growth of the production of alcoholic beverages, their consumption also grew. In other words, the authorities imposed drunkenness with one hand, and tried to put it in the framework of decency with the other. Therefore, most of the measures to limit drunkenness were of a partial nature - the easiest way to replenish the country's budget was to sell alcoholic beverages.

The creation of special public organizations for the struggle for sobriety, which began in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, turned out to be more effective. In a fairly short period of time, the members of these societies managed to develop methods of promoting a sober lifestyle, the number of followers of these societies was constantly growing.

In the Soviet state, nothing radically changed: with the outbreak of the First World War, dry law was introduced, but trying to replenish the budget, the new government canceled the dry law. The consequences were not long in coming. A new wave of the struggle for sobriety has begun. There was an active promotion of a healthy lifestyle, but at the same time, as in the previous period, the number of alcoholic beverages produced was growing, at the legislative level there was also no “working” regulation of drinking, etc. Therefore, the measures of the Soviet leadership nullify the entire positive result of the struggle. The situation in the country with alcohol began to develop into a crisis during the years of stagnation. Attempts to rectify the situation ended in failure and a new even greater surge in the growth of drunkenness. The country found itself in this state by the beginning of the 1980s.

Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the commissions, the period of preparation for the reform was fruitful, however, due to the frequent deaths of the general secretaries, only the new general secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, managed to implement the reform.

The implementation of the program has shown an incompletely thought-out scheme for the implementation of the anti-alcohol campaign. The experience of previous centuries of the struggle for sobriety was not taken into account. The timing of the campaign was also not chosen correctly: the "dry law" fell on the years of the restructuring of the country's economic and social life, the breakdown of the state apparatus, which influenced the further existence of the USSR.

The miscalculation of the organizers of the anti-alcohol campaign was that it began to be carried out entirely with prohibitive measures. In many regions of the country, party leaders were chasing the "overfulfillment of the plan" and with regard to anti-alcohol measures. Thus, on the initiative of local authorities, the number of outlets selling alcoholic beverages decreased. It is not surprising that clandestine production simply flourished in such conditions.

The massive closure of wine and vodka "outlets" was not accompanied by a parallel development of leisure infrastructure, which alone could cushion the social consequences of a large-scale anti-alcohol campaign. The state forbade people to leave the disorder of life in a drunken stupor, but at the same time did not help in the establishment of an alternative sober lifestyle.

The overall result of the campaign was its cancellation. "Prohibition" 1985 - 1988 had both positive and negative results for the country. One of the negative consequences of the anti-alcohol campaign was the rapid growth of the shadow economy associated with the "getting" of alcohol, which has passed into the category of scarce goods. There was, albeit on a smaller scale, a process similar to the formation of the American mafia during Prohibition in the United States in 1919-1933. They also point to substance abuse, on the scale of a social phenomenon, which appeared in our country at that time. Finally, another catastrophic consequence of the "law" is associated with the large-scale destruction of vineyards, including very valuable varieties, in the south of the USSR.

At the same time, in 1985 - 1991. half a million more people were born in the country every year. The average life expectancy of men has reached the highest rate in the entire history of our country. The mortality rate has dropped significantly. The anti-alcohol campaign saved nearly one and a half million lives. Crime fell by 70%. The beds that were vacated in psychiatric hospitals were transferred to patients with other diseases. The number of absenteeism decreased, in industry by 36%, in construction by 34%. Savings increased: 45 billion rubles more were deposited into savings banks. Every year, food products were sold instead of alcohol by 47 billion rubles more than before 1985, only soft drinks and mineral waters were sold 50% more.

Summing up the main result of the work, it should be noted that the experience of Gorbachev's "semi-dry law" showed that it is pointless to drastically reduce the number of outlets selling alcohol - this only leads to the development of the "black market" of alcohol with the inevitable circulation of surrogates on it. It is necessary to cultivate sobriety in a person, even from childhood.

Download: You do not have access to download files from our server.