Why did Gorbachev really start an anti-alcohol campaign? Anti-alcohol campaigns in the USSR.

Taking power into their own hands, the Bolsheviks quickly and decisively began the anti-alcohol struggle. A Committee to Combat Pogroms was created, headed by V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. On February 21, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree "The socialist fatherland is in danger!", In which paragraph 8 threatened to be shot: "Enemy agents, speculators (including alcohol - Author's note), thugs, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, German spies are shot on the spot crimes." There was also a fight against moonshining, and here the administrative prohibitive measures were reinforced by repressions, accompanied by various excesses, when, for example, an ordinary "drunkard" or "moonshiner" found himself in the category of counter-revolutionaries.

On December 19, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) adopted a decree "On approval of the list of laws that have become invalid with the entry into force of the regulation on the production of alcohol and alcoholic beverages and their trade"15. A number of researchers considered it an attempt to restore the "dry law". But there is no need to talk about "dry law" for the reason that the decree did not prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages. It was established that only nationalized or state-registered factories could sell alcohol, strong drinks and non-alcoholic beverages. It is more appropriate to interpret the decree only as the desire of the government to restore the wine monopoly, and not as a "dry law". The actions of the Soviet government in the alcohol issue were not systematic and cannot be considered as an anti-alcohol campaign. In fact, the Bolsheviks did not try to solve the problem that became a stumbling block for our country, but to give it the character of a struggle against the mythologized image of the counter-revolutionary, whose integral characteristics were: drunkenness and debauchery as symbols of the outgoing world16. On August 26, 1923, the Central Executive Committee (Central Executive Committee) of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a resolution on the resumption of the production and trade in alcoholic beverages in the USSR.

In 1929, a new anti-alcohol campaign began, which was initiated by the Soviet government and local authorities, allegedly at the "demands of the working people." This led to massive closures of beer shops and other hot spots; they were converted into teetotal canteens and tea rooms. The publication of the journal "Sobriety and Culture" was organized, which castigated drunkenness and promoted a healthy lifestyle. A sharp decline in beer consumption led to a reduction in its production and the closure at that time of a number of large breweries in Moscow, Leningrad and other cities of the USSR. Starting from 1932, the production of drinking alcohol began to decline, while the range of alcoholic beverages expanded, various varieties of vodka, Soviet Champagne, sparkling and vintage wines appeared. The authorities no longer saw anything wrong with the fact that a Soviet person would drink a little after work, they again started talking about “cultural drinking”17. The inconsistency of this campaign was also explained by the fact that from the end of the 20s. industrialization began in our country, which required colossal funds. One of the sources of financial income was income from the production and sale of alcohol. Stalin himself suggested "increasing the production of vodka, insofar as it is possible" (secret telegram 1930)18

During the Great Patriotic War, it was not customary to talk about drunkenness and alcoholism. Products were distributed according to cards, vodka was expensive, it was often replaced with alcohol or moonshine. "People's Commissar's" one hundred grams at the front were considered as a means of relieving stress. Non-drinkers were offered sugar instead of vodka, but by 1945, few people used such a substitute: “There was a shift in the psychological attitude towards it [vodka], many in the army got used to it,” writes our Togliatti local historian V. Ovsyannikov19. It is also sad that during the war the number of drinking women increased dramatically. Psychologically, this is understandable, since many of them have lost husbands, sons, fathers and other relatives.

Therefore, only N. S. Khrushchev, who started the campaign in 1958 with the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On intensifying the fight against drunkenness and on restoring order in the trade in strong alcoholic beverages”20, decided to fight against alcohol next. It prohibited the sale of vodka in all public catering establishments (except restaurants) located at railway stations, airports, railway stations and station areas. It was not allowed to sell vodka in the immediate vicinity of industrial enterprises, educational institutions, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, in places of mass celebrations and recreation. However, this company could not solve the main problem either.

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Decree No. 361 “On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism”21 was published. It was supposed to reduce the production of strong alcoholic beverages, but in return to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices of liquor were also raised; 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 (LTP) were created, where people were sent forcibly; scenes with the use of alcoholic drinks were cut from the films. In this campaign, the slogan appeared: "Drunkenness - fight!".

However, the most sensational and controversial anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR was the 1985 campaign, popularly nicknamed (again in vain) the “dry law” of 1985,

On May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On intensifying the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, eradicating home-brewing” was issued22

Corresponding Decrees were adopted simultaneously in all Union republics. The execution was unprecedented in scale. The state for the first time went to reduce revenues from alcohol, which were a significant item in the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production.

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

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

Shops that sold alcohol could only do so from 2 pm to 7 pm. In this regard, ditties appeared:

“A cock crows at six in the morning, Pugacheva crows at eight, the store is closed until two, Gorbachev has the key.”

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

Strict measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and squares, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk had serious trouble at work. Banquets associated with the defense of dissertations were banned, non-alcoholic weddings began to be promoted.

The campaign was accompanied by intense sobriety propaganda. Articles by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR F. G. Uglov began to spread everywhere about the dangers and inadmissibility of alcohol consumption under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people. Alcoholic scenes were cut out of films, and the action movie Lemonade Joe was shown on the screen (as a result, the nicknames Lemonade Joe and Mineral Secretary were firmly entrenched in M. S. Gorbachev).

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

During the years of the anti-alcohol campaign, the officially registered per capita sales of alcohol in the country decreased by more than 2.5 times. In 1985-1987, a 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.

How many Russian lives were saved by the anti-alcohol campaign of the 1980s?

The number of deaths increased fairly evenly from 1965 to 1984 (Fig. 2). During the same time, according to expert estimates, real alcohol consumption increased from 9.8 to 14.0 liters. However, at this stage it is difficult to assess the contribution of alcohol to the increase in mortality, although it is undeniable: from 1965 to 1984, not only the total number of deaths due to alcohol poisoning increased, but also their share in total mortality (from 1.1% in 1965 to 2. 2% in 1979)23. (See Appendix 1)

Thus, more than 1 million people were saved during the anti-alcohol campaign. This is the main positive result of the anti-alcohol campaign and an indication that the reduction in alcohol consumption is a significant factor in reducing mortality in Russia.

During the period of the anti-alcohol regulation, 5.5 million newborns were born per year, 500 thousand more per year than every year for the previous 20-30 years, and 8% less were born weakened. The life expectancy of men increased by 2.6 years and reached the maximum value in the entire history of Russia, and the overall level of crime decreased. (See Appendix 2)

Aimed at the "moral recovery" of Soviet society, the anti-alcohol campaign in reality achieved certain positive results. But in the mass consciousness, it was perceived as an absurd initiative of the authorities, directed against the "common people". For people 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 decrease 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 damage to the budget turned out to be unexpectedly great: instead of the previous 60 billion rubles of income, the food industry brought in 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987.

Mass dissatisfaction with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in the USSR in 1987 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 noted in one of his interviews: “Because of the mistakes made, a good big deal ended ingloriously”24.

I will give the opinions of experts evaluating the results of the 1985 campaign.

Valery Draganov, businessman, State Duma deputy of the fifth convocation:

The anti-alcohol campaign was stupid and badly organized. But then it was not customary to prepare people for various reforms. You can't even call it a reform. It was just an emotional, under the influence of all sorts of talk about change, an impulse.

The anti-alcohol campaign of the 80s in many ways laid the foundation for the future large-scale and already well-organized underground industry of spirits and alcohol in the 90s.

In general, any campaigns in our country, whether under Soviet rule or now, alas, do not have the success that is usually expected. Although I think that lately, after all, now I can already call it a reform, it is proceeding more consistently.

Boris Vishnevsky, publicist, political scientist:

In general, I remember this as the greatest stupidity. It was not dry law. Nobody stopped drinking. I just had to work with great difficulty, firstly, to get alcohol, and, secondly, it was good wine that almost disappeared, and somehow I never tried to drink bad wine. So it was a bad time.

Also, as far as I know, a lot of vineyards have been cut down in Crimea. Grapes grew there, from which vintage collection wines were made. This subsequently had a very serious impact on the development of winemaking.

Mikhail Vinogradov, political scientist:

The anti-alcohol campaign was seen as largely artificial. Its undoubted consequence was a sharp increase in queues, phrases like “stop liquor store, next stop in the middle of the line” appeared. That is, of course, there was such a rush demand. And consumption, of course, cut someone off, because it was hard to stand in line, but true fans of alcoholic beverages somehow found an opportunity to get the desired product.

In general, probably, as almost always, the fight against alcoholism and other bad habits in the history of Russia was still more with consequences than with causes. If we talk about the cultural causes of alcoholism in Russia, for example, there is often a sense of a historical impasse, it is clear that changing the system for selling alcohol could hardly change anything fundamentally here.

Although the statistics, as far as I understand, and speaks of a noticeable decrease in alcohol consumption. Indeed, it may be that what was advertised more openly in the 60s and 70s, in the 80s, alcohol somehow left the agenda in the public plane a little.

But, like any other, our anti-alcohol campaign has been quite active for a couple of years. After that, it turned out to be under the yoke of the general food shortage of the late 80s, then it was forgotten. Accordingly, there is no analysis and analysis of its lessons. And today restrictions are being introduced on the sale of alcohol, which, as in the 80s, hit, first of all, light-drinking people.

Plan
Introduction
1 Before 1985
2 1985 campaign
2.1 Impact on viticulture and winemaking
2.2 Results

Bibliography

Introduction

The anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR is a set of government measures to reduce alcohol consumption among the population.

1. Before 1985

At present, the most famous is the anti-alcohol campaign in the period 1985-1987, before and at the very beginning of Perestroika (the so-called "acceleration"). However, the fight against drunkenness was also carried out under Gorbachev's predecessors (nevertheless, alcohol consumption in the USSR grew steadily).

In 1958, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government "On intensifying the fight against drunkenness and on restoring order in the trade in strong alcoholic beverages" was adopted. It was forbidden to sell vodka in all public catering establishments (except for restaurants) located at railway stations, airports, railway stations and station squares. It was not allowed to sell vodka in the immediate vicinity of industrial enterprises, educational institutions, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, in places of mass celebrations and recreation.

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Decree No. 361 “On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism” was published. It was supposed to reduce the production of strong drinks, but in return to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices of liquor were also raised; 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 more 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 drinks were cut from the films. Campaign slogan: "Drunkenness - fight!".

2. 1985 campaign

On May 7, 1985, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU (“On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism”) and the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N 410 (“On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of home-brewing”) were adopted, which ordered all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies to and to intensify the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism everywhere, with a significant reduction in the production of alcoholic beverages, the number of places for their sale and the time of sale. On May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On intensifying the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, eradicating home-brewing” was issued, which reinforced this struggle with administrative and criminal penalties. Corresponding Decrees were adopted simultaneously in all Union republics. Trade unions, the entire system of education and health care, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.) were also necessarily drawn into the fulfillment of this task. The execution was unprecedented in scale. The state for the first time went to reduce revenues from alcohol, which were a significant item in the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production.

Shops that sold alcohol could only do so from 2 pm to 7 pm. In connection with this, there was a saying:

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

"For a week, until the second," let's bury Gorbachev. We dig up Brezhnev - we will drink as before.

Strict measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and squares, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk had serious trouble at work. For the use of alcohol in the workplace - fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets associated with the defense of dissertations were banned, non-alcoholic weddings began to be promoted. Appeared so-called. "sobriety zones" in which alcohol was not sold.

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

2.1. Impact on viticulture and winemaking

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, appropriations for laying vineyards and caring for plantings were sharply reduced, and taxation of farms was increased. The main directive document determining the paths for the further development of viticulture was the Main Directions for the 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, which stated: “To carry out a radical restructuring of the structure of viticulture in the Union republics, orienting primarily for the production of table grape varieties.

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

In Moldova, 80,000 hectares of vineyards out of 210,000 were destroyed. The current director (and then chief engineer) of the famous Moldovan winery Cricova, Valentin Bodiul, claims that in those years, people “were forced to go out with an ax and chop grapes on weekends,” and those who tried to protect the vineyards, received 14-15 years in prison.

From 1985 to 1990, the area of vineyards in Russia was reduced from 200 to 168 thousand hectares, the restoration of uprooted vineyards was halved, and the laying of new ones was not carried out at all. The average annual grape harvest fell compared to the period 1981-1985 from 850 thousand to 430 thousand tons.

Says the ex-secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Y. Pogrebnyak, who oversaw the implementation of the resolution 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:

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 destruction only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean Regional Party Committee Makarenko. Active promoters of the anti-alcohol campaign were the secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of the vineyards. During a vacation in the Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to Massandra. There, for all 150 years of the existence of the famous factory, samples of produced wines are stored - the vinotheque. All famous wineries in the world have similar storage facilities. But Ligachev said: “This wine cellar must be destroyed, and Massandra must be closed!” Vladimir Shcherbitsky could not stand it and called Gorbachev directly, they say, this is already an excess, and not a fight against drunkenness. Mikhail Sergeevich said: "Well, 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 fundamental basis for the production of alcoholic beverages. He even insisted on liquidating the famous Massandra winery. Only Shcherbitsky’s personal intervention saved her.”

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, 2 billion rubles and 5 years were needed to restore the losses of the destroyed 265 thousand vineyards. The dissertation on the management of the wine industry states that viticulture in Russia was threatened with extinction three times and one of these periods was “1985-1990. - "fight" against drunkenness and alcoholism.

However, the initiator of the campaign Yegor Ligachev claims that in 1985 (at the beginning of the campaign) the vineyard area was 1 million 260 thousand hectares, in 1988 (after its completion) - 1 million 210 thousand hectares, respectively, the grape harvest - 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, these were steps against me." In an interview in 1991, he claimed: “They tried to make me an inveterate teetotaler during the period of the anti-alcohol campaign.”)

The biggest loss was that unique collectible grape varieties were destroyed. For example, the Ekim-Kara grape variety, a component of the famous Black Doctor wine in the Soviet years, was completely destroyed. Selection work was subjected to especially severe persecution. As a result of persecution and a number of unsuccessful attempts to convince Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the destruction of vineyards, one of the leading plant breeders, director of the Magarach All-Union Research Institute of Winemaking and Viticulture, Professor Pavel Golodriga, Doctor of Biological Sciences, committed suicide. Relations with the CMEA countries - 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 the lost profits with other goods.

The anti-alcohol campaign of the period 1985-1987, which took place at the very beginning of Perestroika, when, despite the previous stages of the struggle, alcohol consumption in the USSR was steadily growing. It began two months after M. S. Gorbachev came to power and therefore received the name "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 either in the Russian Empire or in the era of Stalin, reached 10.5 liters of registered alcohol by 1984, and, taking into account clandestine moonshining, could exceed 14 liters. It is 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 accounted for about ⅓ of this volume. The rest was consumed in the form of moonshine, wines and beer).

On May 7, 1985, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU (“On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism”) and the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 410 (“On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of moonshine”) were adopted, which were prescribed to all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies to resolutely and everywhere intensify the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, and a significant reduction was envisaged in the production of alcoholic beverages, the number of places for their sale and the time of sale.

On May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of home-brewing” was issued, which reinforced this struggle with administrative and criminal penalties. Corresponding Decrees were adopted simultaneously in all Union republics.

The execution was unprecedented in scale. The state for the first time went to reduce revenues from alcohol, which were a significant item of the state budget (about 30%), and began to sharply reduce its production. After the start of the fight against drunkenness in the country, a large number of shops selling alcoholic beverages were closed. Quite often on it the complex of anti-alcohol actions in a number of regions came to an end. So, the first secretary of the Moscow city committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol stores and reported to the Central Committee that the work on sobering up in Moscow was completed. The prices for vodka rose several times: 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 k.

Shops that sold liquor could only do so from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm. In this regard, the popular spread:

“At six in the morning the rooster crows, at eight - Pugacheva. The store is closed until two, Gorbachev has the key.”
"For a week, until the second" we will bury Gorbachev. We dig up Brezhnev - we will drink as before.
“Thanks to the native party and Gorbachev personally! My sober husband came home and fell in love perfectly!”

Strict measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and squares, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk had serious trouble at work. For the use of alcohol in the workplace - fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets associated with the defense of dissertations were banned, non-alcoholic weddings began to be promoted. So-called "sobriety zones" appeared, in which alcohol was not sold.

Trade unions, the entire system of education and health care, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.) were also necessarily drawn into the fulfillment of this task.

The campaign was accompanied by intense sobriety propaganda. Articles of Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR F. G. Uglov began to spread everywhere about the dangers and inadmissibility of alcohol consumption under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people. Censorship removed and paraphrased the texts of literary works and songs, cut out alcoholic scenes from theatrical productions and movies, let the “non-alcoholic” thriller “Lemonade Joe” on the screen (as a result, the nicknames “Lemonade Joe” and “mineral secretary” were firmly entrenched in Mikhail Gorbachev)

History department

Department of Contemporary History of Russia

ANTI-ALCOHOLIC CAMPAIGN IN THE EIGHTIES IN THE USSR

FINAL QUALIFICATION WORK

(GRADUATE WORK)

majoring in history

Plan

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

Chapter I. The policy of the state and society regarding

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 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. The results of the anti-drinking campaign………………………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 at the initial stage of development, the current stage is characterized by a significant decline in various areas: in the disorder of the consumer market, the imbalance of the economy, inflation, unemployment, and weak social guarantees for people. 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 the abuse of alcoholic beverages by the population of Russia over the past decade has taken the form of an epidemic. An analysis of the statistical data of state narcological institutions in Russia indicates a consistently high level of the prevalence of alcoholism among various groups of the population. The real picture is many times higher than official statistics, since a significant part of the population that abuses alcohol, including those with alcoholism, does not seek medical help.

Understanding the causes and finding ways to overcome the current situation necessitates studying its genesis. As you know, alcoholic beverages have long played, and continue to play, an extremely ambiguous role in the life of Russians.

In this regard, the sociologist G.G. Zaigraev notes the following: “The problem of drunkenness and the consequences associated with it for Russia has always been acute, 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 society's life was especially noticeable, unlike in many other countries.

For long periods of national history, income from alcoholic products occupied a significant place in the replenishment of the budget. So, according to some reports, over the 140 years of the existence of the wine farm in Russia, the “drinking” income of the treasury has increased 350 times. In 1913, the wine monopoly gave 26.3% of the income.

The problem of immoderate alcohol consumption acquired a special dimension in the 20th century, and not only in Russia. Throughout the 20th century Many governments have repeatedly tried to reduce or even eliminate the devastating effects of drunkenness through various prohibitive measures. The range 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 resulted in significant costs and, as a rule, in the restoration of the previous alcohol situation.

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

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

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

Timeline of the study. The study of the problem begins in the 1970s, when the situation develops and the first concepts of future reform are developed, and ends in 1988, when a new resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the implementation of the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the issues of strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism" was actually issued. . 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 the experience of the implementation of the fight against alcoholism existed; show the consequences for the further development of Russia.

Territorial scope of the study. The study was conducted on the all-Russian material. The fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, which was carried out by the government, state institutions, 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 historians. It should be emphasized that the historiography of the topic was in every possible way determined by the specific historical situation, economic, socio-political, spiritual processes that took place in our country.

Immediately after the publication on May 16, 1985 of the decree "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness," there was an increase in the literature on anti-alcohol topics. Physicians addressed the problem, but their works had a highly specialized focus, historical issues were touched upon in fragments. The researchers noted the shortcomings of the sober movement, the reasons for the growth in alcohol consumption and the spread of home brewing. Nevertheless, the assessment of historical events was carried out superficially, without going into details, without comparing facts, and a limited range of sources was used. At the same time, a huge number of propaganda articles and pamphlets were being printed.

It should be noted the works of supporters of the introduction of the "dry law": P. O. Lirmyan, A. N. Mayurova, 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 at any dose, and secondly, the availability of alcohol contributes to the familiarization of people with alcoholic beverages. The works convincingly show the shortcomings of the anti-alcohol campaigns of the early 20th century, but the role of prohibitive measures that did not reduce drunkenness, but provoked it, was exaggerated.

A new phenomenon was the holding by societies of the struggle for sobriety in Leningrad on December 18, 1987, the forum of historians "People's struggle for sobriety in Russian history", based on which a collection of articles of the same name was published. During this event, the problem of combating drunkenness in the early years of Soviet power, ways to resolve the issue in the 1940s and 1960s were discussed, and the topic of increasing the effectiveness of the ongoing reform was also considered.

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. 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 dictates. A change in paradigm settings began, the subject field of research and the methodological arsenal expanded. As a result, fundamentally new opportunities have arisen for the study of alcohol problems.

The development of relevant problems was continued by sociologists - I. V. Bestuzhev-Lada, Ya. Gilinsky, I. Gurvich, G. G. Zaigraev, V. V. Korchenov, who expressed a number of considerations about the dynamics of alcohol consumption in Russia and the fight against it. Basically, the problem under study was touched upon 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 address the purely historical problems of the campaign mechanism.

AV Nemtsov was especially active during this period. Anti-alcohol campaign 1985 - 1988 provided rich material for studying the positive impact of reducing the level of alcohol consumption on morbidity, mortality, life expectancy, and fertility. The obtained data unequivocally testify to the positive impact of such a decrease on all these 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 was understood 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 more than 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 along with this - new political "flaws" in this area . In addition to a brief digression into the centuries-old alcohol history of Russia, the author studied the campaign of the 80s. All its positive sides and shortcomings were emphasized. A. V. Nemtsov also stressed that the thoughtlessness of the decisions of the leadership nullified all the advantages of the fight against drunkenness. The author condemned coercive measures to eradicate alcoholism. The researcher also connected rich statistical material, as 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", which was published in 2001, and "Alcohol damage to the regions of Russia", published in 2003.

B. S. Bratus is a supporter of the failure of only administrative prohibitive measures in the struggle to sober up the people. In his works, it was proved that in order to form a sober lifestyle, it is necessary to create in a person “effective sense-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. “It is difficult to say now what these semantic motives should be,” writes B. S. Bratus. “One thing is clear: to rely on family, work and other generally accepted values as such motives is to ignore the whole process of personality change that occurs during the course of the disease.”

Some problems of the state alcohol policy in 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, studying the results of the reform. N. B. Lebina paid special attention to the spread of alcoholism among working youth and the emergence of alcohol customs. E.G. drew attention to the spread of drunkenness among party leaders. 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 MS Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign was fragmentary. The problem was considered only as one of the elements that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among such works, the book of VV Sogrin certainly 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 under 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 should also be noted 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 numerous aspects - political, economic, national, ideological; the second focuses on the collapse of the USSR and the formation of Russian statehood proper. The anti-alcohol campaign of M. S. Gorbachev is not given much space, but the author's conclusions are of interest for this study. Thus, the author reviews the course of the campaign and notes that the time for such measures was incorrectly chosen. Also A.S. Barsenkov 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. Pikhoy are of particular interest, which provide little-known economic data that make it possible to look at the situation in the USSR from an unexpected angle. The author, like previous researchers, speaks about the campaign of M. S. Gorbachev mainly from the negative side, however, he emphasizes that the budget shortfall due to the lack of income from alcohol was compensated by the production of non-alcoholic products of these factories (juice, kvass, dried fruits, etc.). ); the death rate has fallen and the birth rate has risen; a lot of machinery and equipment was saved, which previously broke down due to drunkenness at the workplace, etc.

Among foreign authors, special studies were not carried out, however, in general works on the history of the Soviet Union, the problem of the Anti-Alcohol Campaign was considered. These works include the works of historians N. Wertu 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 has remained at the center of public attention over the past 30 years, but researchers have addressed the history of the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism episodically, there are no deep and complete works on the history of the problem, which serves as additional confirmation of the relevance of the topic of the thesis.

Source base of research 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 lies in the fact that it gives an idea of the nature of the relationship between state and public organizations and party bodies, the degree of influence of the party on the forms and methods of work of these organizations, and the direction of their activities. Party documents are also important because the role of the Communist Party was decisive, and its decisions formed the basis of the legislative and practical activities of the Soviet state and public organizations.

Of the published sources, first of all, we paid attention to the legislative acts that came out at that time, since it was in them that the requirements of the leadership for the course of the campaign were reflected, 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.

The next group of sources includes the memories of participants in events related to the history of the fight against drunkenness. These are the memoirs of E. K. Ligachev, M. S. Gorbachev, N. Matovets, Ya. Pogrebnyak, and others. in the end, it helped to present the problem more fully. Of course, in the memoir literature, distortions and falsification of facts are possible, so their comparison with the press, documents and other sources is necessary.

The last group of published sources is the periodical press. 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, Soviet Sport, the materials of which were used in the work. Newspaper articles contained socially significant information, publications helped to reveal the initial reaction of society to the events that took place, to emphasize private ways of solving problems that arose. They also published guidance materials of the Central Committee of the party, discussion materials.

All of the above documents and materials, complementing each other to a certain extent, provide the 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 determined by the state of knowledge of the topic: consider the alcohol situation and explore the process of implementing the alcohol policy of the state in the second half of the 1980s. Within the framework of this goal, it is planned to solve the following specific tasks:

characterize the policy of the state in relation to alcohol in the period from the 15th century. until 1917;
consider the legal, organizational and socio-political aspects of the struggle for sobriety during the years of Soviet power;
determine the reasons for the anti-alcohol campaign in 1985 - 1988;
study the activities carried out by the country's leadership during the years of the "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 basis research is a dialectical method of knowledge 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 and explanatory interpretation, made it possible to single out the general and the particular in the subject of research under consideration. Special-historical methods: system-comparative, synchronous, problem-chronological were used to identify and comprehensively review the facts and events that constituted the process of combating drunkenness and alcoholism.

Work structure. This work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a bibliographic list of sources and references, and applications.

ChapterI. The policy of the state and society regarding drunkenness in XV - early XX centuries.

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

The thief of reason - this is how alcohol has been called since ancient times. 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 alcoholic beverages only a means of replenishing the treasury. The myth that drunkenness is an old tradition of the Russian people is not true. Russian historian and ethnographer, expert on the customs and mores of the people, Professor N.I. Kostomarov completely refuted this myth. He proved that in ancient Rus' they drank very little. The Slavs knew how to prepare malt for brewing beer from the 5th - 6th centuries, while hops were known to them from the 10th century: Nestor mentions it. However, only on selected holidays they brewed mead, mash or beer, the strength of which did not exceed 5 - 10 degrees. The glass was passed around in circles, and everyone drank a few sips from it. On weekdays, no alcoholic drinks were allowed, 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, for Christmas, Easter, Dmitriev 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 not get drunk and keep an eye on the household." Metropolitan Photius in 1410 forbade the population to drink beer before dinner.

The exact date of the appearance of distilleries in Rus' is unknown, but the period from 1448 - 1478 can be considered the most probable. During this period of time, Russian distillation was created and the technology for distillation of grain alcohol was invented.

However, drinking in Muscovy did not begin immediately after that. Here is what Michalon Litvin wrote in the 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 Sisigmund II August: on the path of robbery and robbery, so that in any Lithuanian land in one month more [people] pay for this crime with their heads than in a hundred or two hundred years in all the lands of the Tatars and Muscovites, where drunkenness is prohibited. Indeed, among the Tatars, whoever only tastes wine receives eighty blows with sticks and pays a fine with the same number of coins. In Muscovy, there are no taverns anywhere. Therefore, if only a drop of wine is found with any head of the family, then his entire house is ruined, his property is confiscated, his family and his neighbors in the village are beaten, and he himself is doomed to life imprisonment. 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 very immoderation or brawl that arose during a drunkenness destroys drunkards. The day [for them] begins with drinking fire water. Wine, wine! they scream in bed. Then this poison is drunk by men, women, young men in the streets, squares, along the roads; and, having been poisoned, they can do nothing after that, except sleep; and whoever is only addicted to this evil, the desire to drink constantly grows in him ... And since the Muscovites abstain from drunkenness, their cities are famous for various skillful craftsmen; they, sending us various wooden ladles and staves that help the weak, old, drunk, when walking, [as well as] scoops, swords, faleys and various weapons take gold from us.

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

Since 1649, the state-owned sale of alcohol in Russia was gradually replaced by a farming system. Farmers received 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 caused protests and complaints from the clergy and the people. Therefore, on the advice of Patriarch Nikon, in 1652, at a specially assembled church council, some restrictions were introduced: “to sell vodka for one cup to a person.” It was forbidden to give out wine to drinkers, as well as to everyone during fasts, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. However, due to financial considerations, an amendment was soon made: “in order for the great sovereign to make a profit for the treasury, the roosters should not be driven away from the mug yard,” which actually supported drunkenness.

At the same time, even then the fight against the underground production of alcohol began, and violators were ordered to "cut their hands and exile them to Siberia."

In the 17th century Russia is creating its own raw material base for the production of wines. So, in 1613, by decree of Mikhail Fedorovich, a “garden for the sovereign’s court” was laid in Astrakhan, among other things, grape seedlings brought from abroad were planted in it. Already in 1656 - 1657. the first batches of domestic wine were served at the royal table. And in 1651, thickets of wild grapes were discovered on the Sunzha River, and the Astrakhan governor sent a message to Alexei Mikhailovich, in which he reported that “grape drink is made from these marvelous berries, they are brought for sale to Terek and kept to themselves.” Thus, together with the start of the production of domestic wine for export, a variety of alcoholic products was created for the local population. In other words, the process of drunkenness of the people began, and those insignificant measures to limit drunkenness were no longer effective.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that in 1716 Peter I introduces freedom of distillation in Russia, all distilleries are subject to duty. This was done to replenish the treasury and put into practice the undertakings of the king.

In 1720, Peter I pointed out to the Astrakhan governor the need to plant grapes, and on the Terek, “in addition to Persian grape varieties, start breeding Hungarian and Rhine forms and send grape masters there.” Distillation under the emperor achieved significant success, which made it possible a few 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 Rus', having issued a decree that drunkards should hang a cast-iron medal around their necks and fasten it with a chain to their necks. Russian vodka has always been low-grade, for example, Petrovskaya vodka is only 14 grades. Excessive use of alcohol was punished: beaten with a whip, torn nostrils.

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

In 1755, all distilleries were sold into private hands, since it was easier and more profitable for the state to engage in sales than in the manufacture of alcohol. “In order to increase state revenues for the present and future,” Elizaveta Petrovna introduced uniform prices for vodka: 1 ruble 88 kopecks per bucket for wholesale and 2 rubles 98 kopecks for retail sales.

In the XVIII century. There is an active growth in the production of alcoholic products. So, Paul I sent out 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, regulating the size of production in accordance with ranks and titles. This situation led to the fact that by the end of the XVIII century, almost all vodka was "home" production. Every self-respecting landowner had his own recipe for making alcohol tinctures. Ordinary people also did not lag behind the nobility - they drove alcohol, made herbal tinctures. Such a rapid flowering of folk art was facilitated by the discovery of Academician Lovitz, who was the first to describe the cleansing 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 amounted to 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 duly appreciated by the local aristocracy. For the first time in Paris, they began to serve it at the Veri restaurant, which was rented by the government for officers of the Russian army in 1814.

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

These decrees led the state treasury to great losses and had a bad effect on the spiritual and physical health of the subjects. Only in 1863, they completely abandoned the farming system, replacing it with excise duty.

Of course, it was unprofitable for the state to introduce a dry law and it was not going to do this, but in order to reassure 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-out alcohol was sold in closed bottles, which were sealed 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 for the fight against alcoholism are being created. The first of them was established in 1874 in the village of Deykalovka, Poltava province. After some time, in 1882, a "sobriety agreement" was created in the village of Tatevo, Smolensk province, in 1884 the Ukrainian Society of Sobriety was organized. Prominent cultural figures of that time began and actively supported the struggle for sobriety: in 1887, L. N. Tolstoy, together with N. N. Miklukho-Maclay, P. I. Biryukov, N. N. Ge and others, signed the “Consent against 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 sobriety society was founded, in 1891 - Odessa, in 1892 - Kazan, in 1893 - Rybinsk, and in 1895 - Moscow sobriety society. The Kazan Society of Sobriety, whose chairman was A. G. Solovyov, was especially active. Within two years, the society published many pamphlets and books.

The composition of 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, teetotaling magazines began to be published in Russia: since 1894 in St. Petersburg - "Bulletin of Sobriety", since 1896 in Kazan - "Activist", and since 1898 - "People's Sobriety", an appendix to the magazine "Our Economy " and etc.

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

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

The financial results of the wine monopoly were quite impressive. In 1914, Witte said: “When I left the post of ministers of finance at the end of 1903, I left 380 million rubles of free cash to my successors, which made it possible for them in the first months of the Japanese war to make expenses 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 the cash began to increase again 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 a rise in anti-alcohol education and sobriety training of the younger generation. In 1905 - 1908. in St. Petersburg, a free supplement to the magazine "Sober Life", "Leaf of sobriety for schoolchildren" began to appear, and in 1909 a leaflet of sober life for younger children "Dawn".

Also, with the introduction of the wine monopoly in 1895, Witte carried out a reform to establish guardianship of people's sobriety. Although, along with government agencies, public organizations continued to operate. Thus, the number of sobriety societies by January 1, 1911 was 253. At the same time, most of them were in European Russia. In Western Siberia, the first civil sobriety society was opened on April 13, 1893 in Tobolsk, but in 1910 it still remained the only organization. Thus, in contrast to European Russia, the sober movement in Western Siberia was based from the very beginning 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. So, the inspector of public schools G. F. Markov in 1912 wrote the “Draft Methodology for Teaching the Science of Sobriety”. In 1913, J. Denis translated from the French language by A. L. Mendelssohn's "Textbook of sobriety for elementary and secondary schools" in St. Petersburg. In 1914, a popular sobriety textbook for elementary schools "School of Sobriety" by S. E. Uspensky was published in Moscow, and in 1915 the first domestic anti-alcohol reader by N. V. Vasiliev "Sober Life", in which the works of G. Uspensky were used , A. P. Chekhov, N. A. Nekrasova, G. Mopasan and others.

Since 1913, blotting papers with the inscription: “The future belongs to sober nations” appeared in school notebooks, and in 1914 a book by V. F. Smirnov “Georgievsky children's circle as a measure to combat school vices” was published. Much attention was paid to the problem of drunkenness in the periodical press. In Kazan, the journal "Celebration of Sobriety" was published, in Serpukhov, Moscow Province, "Sunday Leaf", in Ostrov, Pskov Province, "Friend of Sobriety", in Voronezh - "Dawn of Sobriety", in Odessa - "Green Serpent", Ufa - "Ufa Guardianship of People's Sobriety" , Tsaritsyno - "Tsaritsyno teetotaler", etc.

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

However, in 1914, the government introduced a dry law on the territory of the country, temporarily banning the manufacture and sale of alcoholic products, being fully confident that thanks to such radical measures, the problem of drunkenness would be resolved 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 decreased by 99.9%. However, there was a huge demand for alcoholic medicines in pharmacies, and often the queues at their doors looked suspiciously like crowds at the doors of liquor stores.

So, the tsarist government was one of the factors that increased the growth of alcohol consumption in the country. With the growth in the production of alcoholic beverages, their consumption also increased. With one hand, the authorities propagated drunkenness, and with the other they tried to put it within the bounds of decency. However, most of the measures to limit drunkenness were partial. Since, a simple way to replenish the country's budget was the sale of alcoholic beverages.

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

With the outbreak of World War I, prohibition 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, life in the country had to be established by another government. Prohibition was extended. Since it did not involve the destruction of state stocks of alcohol, the revolutionaries got about 80 million buckets of vodka, as well as spacious royal cellars with a huge stock of collection wines. According to the research of historians, only the contents of the cellars of the Winter Palace were estimated at 5 million dollars.

As for the alcohol policy of the Bolsheviks, the latter did not at all intend to abolish the dry law, and they intended to sell wine stocks abroad. However, the people began to plunder the 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 snake" 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 Commissar of Food Extraordinary Powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie, hiding grain stocks and speculating in them,” according to which moonshiners were considered enemies of the people. At best, they faced a 10-year prison sentence, and at worst, execution.

On December 19, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution "On the prohibition on the territory of the Russian Federation of the manufacture and sale of alcohol, strong drinks and alcohol-containing substances that are not related to drinks." This decree provided for severe penalties for moonshining, 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 make 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 the capitalist countries, which let in such things as vodka and other dope, we will not allow this, because, no matter how profitable they are for trade, they will lead us back to capitalism, and not forward to communism ... ". In a conversation with Clara Zetkin, V. And Lenin quite definitely expressed his attitude to this issue: “The proletariat is an ascending class. He does not need intoxication to deafen him or excite him. He does not need alcohol intoxication. He draws his strongest motivation for struggle from the position of his class, from the communist ideal.

In the first years of Soviet power, when the sale of alcoholic beverages was banned in the country, the fight against alcoholism was directed mainly against moonshine and was expressed in administrative measures. However, the growth of moonshine 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 wage a most resolute and implacable fight against both vodka and moonshine.”

N. A. Semashko believed that such “a centuries-old custom as drunkenness cannot be destroyed by a simple formal ban on the sale and production of alcoholic beverages, but ultimately it is necessary to head for the cessation of the sale of vodka. It can be stopped selling only when the masses are prepared for it.”

Soon in Russia it was allowed to produce 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 government 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 the 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 resolution "On measures to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages", which provides for the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors and persons in a state of intoxication, as well as the sale of alcoholic beverages in canteens and cultural and educational institutions.

The XV 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 life, strengthening labor discipline.

Along with state measures to combat alcoholism and drunkenness, the activities of public organizations are being activated. In May 1927, a decree 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, whose task was to involve wide sections 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 , finding funds and assistance in the organization of medical and preventive and cultural and educational institutions to combat alcoholism. Such commissions and committees began to be created in many cities and large towns. Their leaders were elected experienced party and Soviet workers. The anti-alcohol movement is expanding throughout the country, anti-alcohol cells are being created at enterprises, which become centers of struggle for the restructuring of life and the improvement of the population. In Moscow in 1928 there were 239 such cells, 169 of them in factories and plants. These cells included about 5,500 workers.

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

In 1928, the "All-Union Society for the Fight against Alcoholism" was created, which played an important role in the organization and development of the anti-alcohol movement. The organizing committee of the society included N. A. Semashko, V. A. Obukh, A. N. Bakh, L. S. Minor, as well as party and government figures S. M. Budyonny, N. I. Podvoisky, E. M. Yaroslavsky, writers D. Bedny, Vs. Ivanov and others. The leaders of the society, together with employees of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR, launched an active work to attract the public to the fight against alcoholism.

An important event in the anti-alcohol movement was the First Plenum of the All-Union Council of Anti-Alcohol Societies, at which the first experience of working in the new conditions was summarized. At the plenum, it was noted that by the end of the first year of the existence of the society, almost 250 thousand people, mostly workers, became 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 gave the state about 10 million rubles of net income due to a decrease in absenteeism and an increase in labor productivity." The society considered one of the most important tasks to promote 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 individual social groups of the population. For the development of research work in the field of alcoholism in 1929 - 1930. provided for special allocations. It was planned, in particular, to study the effect of administrative restrictions on the prevalence of alcoholism, to evaluate the results and cost of treating people who abuse alcohol 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 the fight against alcoholism, holding anti-alcohol talks in schools, the widespread involvement of scientists and cultural figures in the anti-alcohol struggle, the inclusion of indicators for the fight against alcoholism in the socialist obligations of production enterprises, creation of intolerance towards drunkards in collectives, improvement of anti-alcohol propaganda, etc.

Alcohol remained a serious source of state revenue even 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 institutions of the ministries of internal affairs and health. Medical sobering stations, narcological rooms and hospitals for the treatment of patients with alcoholism are being organized. These institutions received special development in connection with the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On intensifying the fight against drunkenness and on establishing order in the trade in strong alcoholic beverages." In pursuance of this decree, an order of the Minister of Health of the USSR of December 31, 1958 “On measures for the prevention and treatment of alcoholism” was issued, which provided for the creation of drug treatment rooms at neuropsychiatric dispensaries, medical units of industrial enterprises and clinics.

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 Conference on the Prevention and Treatment of Alcoholic Diseases, at IV All-Union Congress of Neurologists 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 in the mid-60s of the teaching of social hygiene, the socio-hygienic orientation in the study of the state of public health and, in particular, in the study of alcoholism, intensified. At the II All-Union Symposium on Social Hygiene and Organization of Health Care, Academician B.V. Petrovsky noted that social and hygienic issues of combating injuries, diseases of the cardiovascular system, alcoholism and other chronic diseases should take an independent place.

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 Public Health Organization. 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 medical historians and specialists in the field of social hygiene, but also by clinicians, psychiatrists, sociologists, economists and representatives of other specialties.

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

Decrees 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 of 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 effectiveness of administrative, social and medical impact on people who abuse alcohol. They provide for the intensification of mass-political and cultural-educational work in labor collectives and at the place of residence, the holding of 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 the eradication of this phenomenon.

In order to improve the coordination of the work of state bodies and public organizations in 1972, commissions were created 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 resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Ministry of Health of the USSR, its bodies and local institutions, together with party and Soviet bodies, took organizational measures to create an independent narcological service in the country. Already by 1976, special premises were allocated and 21 narcological hospitals, narcological rooms and departments at industrial enterprises were organized, new staffing standards were approved, which made it possible to introduce additional ones. 13 thousand medical positions and 55 thousand positions of paramedical personnel for the newly created narcological service. In 1978, there were about 60 narcological dispensaries and over 2,000 narcological rooms in the country.

In recent years, the issues of organizing the fight against alcoholism have been 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 All-Russian conferences . Discussion of the issues of combating alcoholism at these forums contributed to the exchange of experience, further improvement of drug treatment for people suffering from alcoholism, and the implementation of alcoholism prevention.

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

Despite the prohibitions, people were not going to stop drinking. There was a fight against moonshiners: they lowered prices for vodka, toughened criminal penalties for moonshining. 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 of alcohol consumption has been constantly increasing. 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 they had dropped to 1.9 liters, but then a rapid increase began.

So, the Soviet government, trying to replenish the budget, canceled the dry law. However, soon the increase in drunkenness in the country worried the government. A new wave of struggle for sobriety begins. There is an active promotion of a healthy lifestyle, but at the same time, as in the previous period, the number of alcoholic products produced is growing, there is also no “working” regulation of drinking at the legislative level, etc. Therefore, the measures of the Soviet leadership negate all the positive results 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. 20th century

All attempts by the authorities to contain the developing drunkenness did not bring results. An attempt to fill the treasury with money at the expense of income from the sale of alcoholic products resulted in a catastrophic social problem in the early 80s. The 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 a 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 person.

More and more women, young people, even teenagers are drinking a glass of vodka. However, a woman in Russia has a special position, here a woman has always been the main bulwark of the struggle against drunkenness, and now the last bulwark is crumbling. As for young people and adolescents, their involvement in wholesale drunkenness means, firstly, an 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 oligophrenicization of the population accelerates.

All this, back in the early 1970s, made it possible to qualify the alcohol problem situation in Russia as acutely critical with a tendency to develop into a catastrophic one.

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

The post-war period of the USSR was characterized by high GDP growth rates, as is often the case in countries with dilapidated economies. This is what gave rise to the slogan of N. Khrushchev "to catch up and overtake America." However, in the mid-1960s the recovery period ended, and GDP growth rates 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 a few years due to the sharp increase 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 industrialized countries of the West and in Japan began, and in the 1970s the scientific and technological revolution and the transition to a post-industrial society took place. As a particular manifestation of this process, by the beginning of the 1980s, Western countries managed to modernize and rebuild their economy, make it energy efficient, and thereby overcome the oil crisis. For this, there were more general prerequisites in the form of a new organization of the world market according to rules that were beneficial for countries developing high-tech industries, and unprofitable for countries dominated by raw materials production.

The maximum oil prices were reached in 1980, after which they began to fall rapidly and after 2 - 3 years reached a level below the cost of oil produced in the USSR. The flow of petrodollars was reduced, 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 leadership has relied on internal resources, on increasing labor efficiency. The short, fifteen-month reign of Yu. Andropov was marked by a number of steps in this direction. On the one hand, the experimental introduction of cost accounting 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 through fear.

Yu. Andropov saw great opportunities for increasing labor efficiency and improving the economy in the sobering up of the country. Back in early 1982, as 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 intensify the fight against drunkenness. The Politburo quickly responded to this by creating 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 could not 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 resolution. 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, who inherited from A. Pelshe the much more important post of Chairman of the Party Control Commission, became the head of the commission on anti-alcohol legislation. The new head of the two commissions, taking into account the instructions of the new Secretary General Yu. Andropov to strengthen discipline in the country, embarked on 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 popularly dubbed "Andropovka" or "Schoolgirl", since it was introduced into trade on September 1. The initial draft of A. Pelshe's anti-alcohol resolution has undergone fundamental changes in the direction of tightening anti-alcohol measures. However, the rapid and consistent death of two leaders, Yu. 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 were as follows:

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 collector's books. Realization gave income far exceeding the income from the state monopoly on alcohol.
To develop a "leisure industry", since millions of people take a glass of vodka only for pastime, as the human psyche cannot withstand the anguish 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.
To organize effective treatment of millions of alcoholics on special agricultural farms on the principle of self-sufficiency in products with the personal labor participation of patients.
Of course, large-scale preventive work to prevent alcoholism should be launched in parallel.
Neutralize the "shadow" economy, which alone can nullify any efforts to combat drunkenness. To do this, bring alcohol prices closer to real market prices, apply ruinous fines for large underground alcohol producers - at the fear of millions of small ones, a protracted struggle against which did not give and could not give noticeable results.
Introduce harsh sanctions for appearing drunk in public places - up to the 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.
Widely promote a higher culture of alcohol consumption, explain the anachronism of traditions - remnants of the past, arouse feelings of shame in people for drunkenness, for the inability to consume alcohol without losing a sense of human dignity.

So, the history of the use of alcoholic beverages in Russia goes back into the distant past. The implementation of an anti-alcohol policy was also not unique. Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the commissions, the period of preparing the reform was fruitful, however, due to the frequent deaths of general secretaries, only the new general secretary, M. S. Gorbachev, managed to implement the reform.

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

Data on alcohol mortality has always been a state secret of the Soviet Union. According to classified data of the USSR State Statistics Committee, from 1960 to 1980. alcohol mortality in our country has increased by 47%, i.е. about one in three men died from vodka. On the other hand, the vodka trade brought huge profits to the state. Under Brezhnev, the price of vodka rose repeatedly, and the 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 alcohol consumption in the USSR exceeded 18 liters, and the figure of 25 liters was recognized by doctors as the border beyond which self-destruction of the nation 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, this problem was returned to only in 1985. So, a quarter of a century ago, a campaign against drunkenness began in the USSR.

As MS Gorbachev himself said then: “We will firmly continue the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism. The roots of this social evil go back to the mists of time, 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 multiplied and become a danger to the very future of the nation. The day before, during his first visit to Leningrad, Gorbachev mysteriously smiled at the townspeople who surrounded him: “Read tomorrow's newspapers. You will know everything."

On May 7, 1985, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism" and the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, eradication of moonshine" were adopted, which ordered all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies to decisively and everywhere intensify the struggle with drunkenness and alcoholism.

It cannot be said that the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU was unanimous in making this decision. Referring to the Georgian customs of making chacha from waste, E. Shevardnadze objected to the wording of the section on moonshining. There were other participants in the meeting who tried to soften certain, especially harsh wordings of the draft resolution: Politburo member and First Deputy Presovmin G. Aliev, Politburo member and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR V. Vorotnikov, secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU I. Kapitonov and V. Nikonov. The decisive opponent of the resolution as a whole was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. Ryzhkov, who had just become a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. He predicted "a sharp increase in moonshining, 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 and more fully revealed, strict adherence to the principles of communist morality and morality, overcoming bad habits and remnants, especially 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. Measures outlined earlier to eliminate drunkenness and alcoholism are being implemented unsatisfactorily. The fight against this socially dangerous evil is carried out in a camaraderie, without the necessary organization and consistency. The efforts of state and economic bodies, party and public organizations are insufficiently coordinated in this matter. There is no real anti-alcohol propaganda. It often bypasses sensitive issues and is not offensive in nature. A significant part of the population is not brought up in the spirit of sobriety, is not sufficiently aware of the dangers of drinking alcohol for the health of current 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 Soviets of People's Deputies, ministries and departments of the USSR "to decisively intensify the fight against drunkenness, alcoholism, home-brewing and the manufacture of other home-made strong alcoholic drinks. 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; 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; more actively involve citizens, and especially young people, in social and political life, scientific and technical creativity, arouse a deep interest in amateur art, art, physical culture and sports; apply with all severity the measures of influence provided for by law to persons who allow the drinking of 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 involved in home-brewing, sale, purchase and storage of home-made strong alcoholic beverages, as well as speculation in alcoholic beverages, and hold them accountable in accordance with applicable law."

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, leaflets on anti-alcohol propaganda, as well as those intended for use by teachers of schools, vocational schools, higher and secondary special educational institutions in educational work.

At the same time, on television and radio, the number of feature, documentary and popular science films and television films, the number of radio programs 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. It was forbidden to preach the ideas of moderate drinking, depict all kinds of feasts and drinking rituals in the media, in works of literature, in films and on television.

Here 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, the press, cinema, and radio were filled with agitation for a sober lifestyle. And it continued right up to 1988. I remember, for example, the article “For the help of the Magarych”, the author called for abandoning the tradition of displaying a bottle for any service and quite colorfully told about the detrimental consequences of such gratitude. There were also specific feature films, documentaries and animated films on the anti-alcohol theme. On television, they showed disabled children born of alcoholics, drunken villages, the population of which was degenerating, “drunk” 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 intensifying 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 set - 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, in collective farms, state farms, for the purpose of resale in fresh, dried and frozen form, as well as for processing into jam, compotes, jams and juices, which were ordered to be sold in small packaging.

Since that time, the sale of vodka and alcoholic beverages was carried out only in specialized stores or departments of food stores. It was forbidden to sell alcoholic beverages in trading enterprises near industrial enterprises and construction sites, educational institutions, hostels, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, rest houses, railway stations, marinas and airports, cultural and entertainment enterprises, in places of mass festivities and recreation of workers. The sale of wine and vodka products on working days was carried out from 14.00 to 19.00.

Narcological rooms and outpatient clinics were created locally to provide preventive medical care to people who abuse alcohol and suffer from alcoholism, as well as special narcological departments for the compulsory treatment of patients with chronic alcoholism with severe concomitant diseases. For example, the law of the Byelorussian SSR of June 4, 1985 provided that “patients with chronic alcoholism are required to voluntarily undergo a full course of special treatment in medical and preventive institutions of the health authorities. If such a person evades voluntary treatment or continues to drink alcohol after treatment, he is sent to a labor treatment 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 considered by the people's court at the place of his residence. The basis for consideration is the petition of a public organization, labor collective, state body, family members or close relatives of this person and a mandatory medical report.

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

The All-Union Society "Sobriety" was created. There were "alcohol commissions" at district councils and at enterprises. In 1986, the Moscow City Institute for the Improvement of Teachers published methodological recommendations "Anti-alcohol education of schoolchildren in the process of studying the basics of science." The authors proposed to include elements of anti-alcohol propaganda in the process of studying chemistry, biology, history, literature, social science, ethics and psychology of family life, the foundations of the Soviet state and law. Thus, the experience of teetotalers of the early twentieth century was again reproduced.

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

Measures aimed at combating drunkenness were also contained in labor legislation. In particular, for appearing at work in a state of intoxication, a worker or employee could be fired, transferred to another, lower-paid job, or shifted to another, lower, position for up to 3 months. Measures were also introduced against drunkards: deprivation of bonuses, remuneration based on the results of work for the year, vouchers to rest houses and sanatoriums, etc.

So, the campaign indulged in a mass character. An all-Union voluntary society for the struggle for sobriety was created with its own printed organ. Its members were supposed to give up alcohol and act as active fighters for sobriety. It included advanced workers, workers of collective farms, intelligentsia, i.e. people who are able to captivate others with a personal example of sobriety and active struggle for a healthy lifestyle. Trade unions, the education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.) were also necessarily drawn into the fulfillment of this task. Strict requirements for the refusal of alcohol began to be presented to the members of the Party. Party members were also required to join the Temperance Society.

The plans for economic development included, starting from 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 renunciation 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 "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of moonshine" was issued, which reinforced the previous documents with administrative and criminal penalties. So, for drinking alcoholic beverages in public places, except for trade and public catering establishments in which the sale of alcoholic beverages on tap is allowed or for appearing in public places drunk, 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 corrective labor for a period of 1 to 2 months with a deduction of 20% of earnings. In exceptional cases, the punishment was in the form of administrative arrest for up to 15 days.

For the manufacture or possession of alcoholic beverages entailed criminal liability. While, 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 away anyone whose sobriety was in doubt, sent to sobering-up stations, the number of which had to be hastily increased. Party members were expelled from its ranks. From the memorandum of the first secretary of the CPSU MGK: "During July-August alone, about 600 communists were brought to party responsibility for alcohol abuse, 152 of them were expelled from the party."

Soon the penalties were even tougher. Therefore, on November 1, 1985, the plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the practice of applying by the courts 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 the state of intoxication by a person in whose service he is, 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 bringing of a minor to intoxication was considered as involving him in drunkenness and is punishable by imprisonment for up to 5 years. Parents who brought a minor to the state of intoxication were subjected to administrative punishment in the form of a fine in the amount of 50 to 100 rubles. Moreover, parents or persons replacing them were administratively liable for drunken appearances in public places of adolescents under the age of 16, as well as for the very fact of drinking alcohol by them. In such cases, a fine of 30 to 50 rubles is imposed on the perpetrators. Chronic alcoholism or drug addiction of parents was the basis for the deprivation of their parental rights.

So, tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and squares, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk had serious trouble at work. For the use of alcohol in the workplace - fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets associated with the defense of dissertations were banned, non-alcoholic weddings began to be promoted. There were "sobriety zones" in which alcohol was not sold.

Between the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and its beginning (June 1, 1985), only three weeks passed, 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 study and the strong-willed nature of the decision testify to the outstanding personal ambitions of the two initiators of the campaign." So, on June 1, 1985, two-thirds of wine and vodka shops closed, alcohol disappeared from the shelves. The campaign was accompanied by intense sobriety propaganda. Articles of Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR F. G. Uglov began to spread everywhere about the dangers and inadmissibility of alcohol consumption under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people. “Not to allow motifs propagandizing drinking, feasts to penetrate into theaters, cinema, television and radio programs, works of art,” the Central Committee decreed. Films and performances where there were such scenes were excluded from theatrical repertoires and film distribution. Among the first to be banned was the comedy film The Hussar Ballad. Even the opera Boris Godunov had to be filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre. Some executors of the decree tried to correct the story. 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 space holds out his hand with 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 took place in Moscow, which in a few months had 13 million registered.

The company began actively and on a grand scale. A couple of months later, the capital city party committee reported: “63,000 meetings were held in Moscow, attended by almost 6 million people. Approval resolutions have been passed everywhere.”

The main focus of the anti-alcohol campaign in 1985 was to reduce alcohol consumption by reducing the state production and sale of alcoholic beverages. It was also considered important to eradicate moonshine. 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 increase in prices for alcohol.

Of the 1,500 wine outlets in Moscow, only 150 were left to sell alcohol. At the Kristall plant, expensive imported equipment recently purchased for foreign currency was sent for scrap, and huge stainless steel vats were cut at the two largest beer factories. Since it was supposed to cut production in the near future in fact by half. The state for the first time went to reduce revenues from alcohol, which were a significant 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 to be 11% per year, which would lead in 6 years 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 “improvement of production”, as well as in connection with a significant expansion in the production of consumer goods.

In the RSFSR, by 1987, the network of stores selling alcohol had shrunk 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 backdrop 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", Gorbachev, however, hoped too much for high oil prices at that time. At that time, the price of $30 per barrel was considered high.

But the most terrible misfortune 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, the Crimea, Moldova, 22% of all vineyards died. Moreover, the best, elite varieties were destroyed. In Crimea, because of this, the director of the All-Union Research Institute of Winemaking and Viticulture Pavel Golodriga committed suicide.

Of course, "golden" times have come for speculators. Taxi drivers traded vodka, traded it in private apartments, and simply on the streets - "from under the floor." Queues for alcohol at specialized stores have grown dramatically and have become many hours long, often "from the night." To cover the shortfall in the budget, the government was forced to increase the sale of expensive drinks - champagne and cognac.

The production and consumption of moonshine has sharply increased. And this is despite the fact that at the beginning of the campaign a significant part of moonshine stills was requisitioned by the police or voluntarily handed over by the population, in some regions of Russia the number of destroyed stills was almost equal to the number of houses in the villages. The growth in the production of moonshine occurred despite the fact that the number of people held accountable 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 were, of course, the benefits of the law. Already in the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU of September 18, 1985, it is said about reducing the number of offenses, hooliganism and other crimes related to drunkenness. The number of traffic accidents and various violations at work has decreased. Order is being strengthened in cities and towns. The social activity of the working people is growing, and their leisure time is becoming more meaningful. In 1985, the death rate dropped sharply and was quite low until the very end of the campaign. Mortality from alcohol poisoning decreased by 56%, and the death rate of men as a result of accidents - by 36%. And it was during this period that an unprecedented surge in the birth rate occurred. In Russia in 1987, “consumption of alcohol from state resources” decreased by 2.7 times or by 63.5% compared to 1984, which significantly exceeded the planned rate of decline in consumption: it was planned in 1985 to reduce by 11% in year, in 1987 - by 25%.

In addition, not all vineyards have begun cutting down 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, grape "juice in dry form" was obtained.

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

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

Another way of processing raw materials was the processing of berries: not by the sun and heat, but by cold. At the same time, it became more “full”, as if with the remnants of juice, soft, tasty, without losing anything useful.

At the same time, the budget deficit grew, neither the printing press nor the sale of gold helped. The debt of the state, both internal and external, has grown sharply. The country began to face difficulties in paying salaries, which was sacred to the Soviet government. In addition, in 1987 state policy began to turn from "acceleration" to "perestroika", for 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 an anti-alcohol campaign. When discussing this note, the Politburo passed the decision on the fate of the campaign to the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which, at the suggestion of its chairman N. I. Ryzhkov, decided to increase state production and sale of wine and vodka products from January 1, 1988. the production of surrogate drinks without the purpose of sale was replaced by an administrative one, and on October 25, 1988, a new resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the implementation of the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the issues of 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. Thus ended the anti-alcohol policy 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, it did not affect the needs components of this situation. Until the end, the ill-conceived struggle for sobriety was half-hearted. Many instructions of the Soviet leadership were not implemented. In the conditions of economic restructuring, the lack of money for the implementation of the cultural component of the “reform” affected.

However, along with the poor organization of measures (small number of points of sale, lack of 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 disastrous consequences. So, for example, the unique Soviet vineyards of Ukraine, Armenia, etc. were destroyed.

So, due to the lack of popularity of the campaign among the people, as well as in the face of a budget deficit, the government curtails the implementation of previously taken measures. The country met 1988 with a shattered economy, a mass of claims from the countries of the Warsaw Pact, and other problems.

Chapter III. The results of the anti-drinking campaign.

3.1. Consequences for the economy.

Despite the brevity of the campaign, it was a great shock to 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 the state sale of alcoholic beverages: by 63.5% in 2.5 years, that is, by 25% per year. Around the same time, the government of the Netherlands, concerned about 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, the decrease in consumption over three years amounted to 6%. And it 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 the prices of those years.

A significant part of these sums migrated to the pockets of underground producers and sellers of moonshine, the consumption of which by 1987 had almost doubled. The state failed to provide goods with the money that was not spent on alcoholic beverages. In 1985 - 1987 Trade in the USSR did not receive 40 billion rubles worth of consumer goods and 5.6 billion rubles of paid services provided for by the plan. The decrease 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 damage to the budget turned out to be unexpectedly great: instead of the previous 60 billion rubles of income, the food industry brought in 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987. Until 1985, alcohol provided 25% of budget revenues from retail trade, and due to its high prices, it was possible to subsidize the prices of bread, milk, sugar, and other products. The money not spent 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 pace of its renewal, already the lowest in the food industry, has decreased by more than 2 times. The anti-alcohol campaign reoriented the viticulture of the country to the cultivation of table varieties to the detriment of the technical varieties used for making wine. As a result, the area occupied by these varieties decreased by 29%, and government purchases by 31%.

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

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

Not only was moonshine 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. Increasing moonshine production led to a shortage in the retail sale of raw materials for moonshine - sugar, and then - cheap sweets, tomato paste, peas, cereals, etc., which led to an increase in public discontent. The shadow market of artisanal alcohol, which existed before, received significant development during these years - vodka added to the list of goods that needed to be “gotten”. Alcohol speculation reached inconceivable proportions, even the products of large distilleries were completely bought up by speculators who received 100-200% profit per day. However, the increase in the consumption of "illegal" alcohol did not compensate for the fall in the consumption of "legal" alcohol, as a result of which a real decrease in the total alcohol consumption was still observed, which explains the beneficial effects of the decrease in mortality and crime, the increase in the birth rate and life expectancy, observed during the anti-alcohol campaign.

Developing, moonshine turned into an underground vodka industry. By the beginning of market reforms, as a result of the anti-alcohol campaign, an all-Union infrastructure of underground production and the market for alcoholic products was formed, which therefore turned out to be the most prepared for new market relations.

The increase in the sale of alcoholic products was slow. Thus, in 1990, 0.1 million decaliters of absolute alcohol were sold 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, established in 1976, was the most receptive to the campaign among interested state structures, which also breathed new life into this branch of medicine: the number of drug treatment dispensaries increased 3.5 times in the USSR and 4.3 times in 4 years. times in the RSFSR. More than 75,000 beds for alcoholics were deployed in newly opened narcological institutions at industrial and agricultural enterprises. This apparently excessive number of places was filled, often by force, with the sick, who became 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 shifting, including night-time working conditions of enterprises.

The declaratively created narcological service was hastily filled with doctors, most of whom did not have a special narcological education. Prior to the start of the campaign, their retraining was very slow. Thanks to the anti-alcohol campaign, the qualifications of doctors and staff have increased dramatically; narcological knowledge has spread to the general medical network. It can be said that as a result of the campaign, the qualifications of practical narcologists have increased in total.

The same cannot be said about scientific addiction. In contrast to the practical service, scientific alcoholology approached the beginning of the campaign very weakly due to ideological attitudes and political restrictions. Soviet scientific narcology was represented by several dozen specialists, mostly clinicians, scattered in small groups in institutions in Moscow and in several large cities of the Union. In the closed Institute of Forensic Psychiatry. V. P. 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. Rare narcological publications of this kind, for the most part, were classified “for official use” or were classified.

At the beginning of the campaign, that is, in 1985, the only department of narcology was transformed into the All-Union Center for Narcology, but organizational troubles and erroneous goals prevented the Center from starting systematic work for several more years. In addition to this Center, several additional laboratories and small departments were created in the country.

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

The somewhat strengthened Soviet alcoholology continued its general line - the study of the problem of alcoholism, which is far from exhaustive of all alcohol problems, although in world alcoholology, at the call of WHO, already in the early 1970s. there has been a shift from an alcoholism problem to "alcohol-related problems".

Despite the creation of a "single targeted comprehensive program", almost nothing has been 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 in the program of a large number of non-core institutes and the growth in the number of publications in the field of alcoholism. And, most importantly, the great opportunities of such an "experiment" as an anti-alcohol campaign were missed.

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, appropriations for laying vineyards and caring for plantings were sharply reduced, and taxation of farms was increased. The main directive document that determines the paths for the further development of viticulture was the Basic Directions for the Social and Economic Development of the USSR for 1986-1990, approved by the XXVII Congress of the CPSU. 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 grapes."

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

In Moldova, 80,000 hectares of vineyards out of 210,000 were destroyed. The current director of the famous Moldovan winery Cricova, Valentin Bodiul, claims that “unique grape varieties were almost completely destroyed - Feteasca, Rara Neagre, even table varieties. Moldova has lost more than 80 thousand hectares of vineyards. Just over 130,000 remained, most of them 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 volumes of work, although we are making every effort. On weekends we were forced to go out with an ax and cut grapes. Particularly adamant was threatened with a prison term. There were high-profile lawsuits, the defenders of grapes received 14-15 years in prison. 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.”

From 1985 to 1990 the vineyard area in Russia decreased from 200 to 168 thousand hectares, the restoration of uprooted vineyards was halved, and the laying 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 destruction only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean regional committee of the party Makarenko. Active promoters of the anti-alcohol campaign were the secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of the vineyards. During a vacation in the Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to Massandra. There, for all 150 years of the existence of the famous factory, samples of produced wines are stored - the vinotheque. All famous wineries in the world have similar storage facilities. But Ligachev said: “This wine cellar must be destroyed and the plant closed!” Vladimir Shcherbitsky could not stand it and called Gorbachev directly, they say, this is already an excess, and not a fight against drunkenness. Mikhail Sergeevich said: “Well, save it,” says Ya. Pogrebnyak, ex-secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

The first secretary of the Crimean Regional Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Makarenko, confirms Pogrebnyak's words: “Ligachev demanded the destruction of vineyards as the fundamental basis for the production of alcoholic beverages. He even insisted on liquidating 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 70,000 hectares. Whereas, each of them at one time cost the state about five thousand rubles.

The Russian south has not bypassed the attack either. “We had terrible cuttings of vineyards in the region. People just cried when they watched all this. Our Slavyansky district of the Krasnodar Territory is still lucky. We had a smart head of the district committee. He himself advised us not to rage with clearings, he asked us to hide the equipment. We dug holes, lined them with hay, and stored equipment there. So they kept the production. But the Anapa region, for example, suffered absolutely terrible losses, ”said Boris Ustenko, chief engineer of the Slavprom winery.

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

However, Yegor Ligachev, the initiator of the campaign, claims that “in 1985, the area of vineyards 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, these were steps against me. They tried to make me a hardened teetotaler during the period of the anti-alcohol campaign.

The biggest loss was that unique collectible grape varieties were destroyed. For example, the Ekim-Kara grape variety, a component of the famous Black Doctor wine in the Soviet years, was completely destroyed. Pink Muscat survived only 30 hectares. There are almost no grape varieties left with the romantic names Pedro Jimenez, Sersial, Kefesia, Semillon.

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

The industry is losing skilled workforce. In the last three years alone, about 40% of those working have left winemaking. The release of mid-level specialists has been discontinued. In the country's universities, the enrollment of students in the specialty "Viticulture" and "Winemaking Technology" has been halved.

“Then a stupid, absurd war was declared specifically against wine varieties,” recalls Maria Kostik, who then worked 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 grapes "Moldova" were planted that then they did not know where to put 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 human consumption, and they put it under pressure, trying to make wine out of it. But these grapes did not have the necessary qualities, and the wine turned out terrible. Then came the era of cheap wine from table grapes. And the famous varieties that we inherited from the Golitsyns, the Soviet varieties and the grapes of P. Golodriga, who over the long years of breeding work created more than twenty varieties, remained on a microscopic scale.”

Thus, selective work was subjected to especially severe persecution. As a result of persecution and a number of unsuccessful attempts to convince M. Gorbachev to cancel the destruction of vineyards, one of the leading plant breeders, director of the Magarach All-Union Research Institute of Winemaking and Viticulture, Doctor of Biological Sciences Professor Pavel Golodriga, committed suicide. Its varieties were not afraid of root aphids, frosts and diseases. Our varieties were superior to the famous European ones. Pavel Golodriga managed to create the Citronny Magarach variety, very similar to the elite white nutmeg, but even surpasses it in stability and viability.

Now at all conferences and meetings they say that they are the future, 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 was uprooted: a trifle on an industrial scale, but for the future - an invaluable material. M. Kostik tried to fight, bombarding authorities with letters, and then, realizing that such was the policy of the state, she began to secretly cut the vine and send it through her own channels - across the Crimea, to the Kuban, to Chechnya. As a result, six varieties of Golodriga and the famous Citron Magaracha were saved. Now on the southern coast of Crimea it has been planted on 18 hectares and the amazing Muscatel White wine has already been obtained.

Natalya Bogomolova worked at Magarach when M. Gorbachev issued a dry law, and this is what she remembered: “Of course, it was a difficult time for us. Old vineyards were cut down and uprooted. And they didn't put new ones in their place. Not then, not later. After 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, 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 the 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 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 an interview: "Because of the mistakes made, a good big deal ended ingloriously."

In the fall of 1988, business executives managed to get Gorbachev to consider the progress of the campaign in 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 criminal penalties for this crime. So, in case of discovery of a moonshine still, a fine of 100 - 300 rubles was due (in case of repeated seizure - 200 - 500 rubles and correctional labor for up to 2 years).

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

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

3.2. Demographic situation after the end of the campaign.

The anti-alcohol zeal of the party organs, the 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 on drunkenness,” said a well-known sociologist. It was really a war of some Soviet citizens against others, also Soviet. Moral costs increased also because the belligerents equally did not see the inner meaning in such a war. So, a policeman pouring arrested moonshine into the sink, equally with the arrested moonshiner, regretted the destruction of such a desired product. A significant part of the population, if not the majority, was resolutely 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 values and motivations.

During the years of the anti-alcohol campaign, the officially registered per capita sales of alcohol in the country decreased by more than 2.5 times. In 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 regulation, 5.5 million newborns were born per year, 500 thousand more per year than every year for the previous 20-30 years, and 8% less were born weakened. The life expectancy of men increased by 2.6 years and reached the maximum value in the entire history of Russia, and the overall level of crime 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 result of the campaign.

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

There was 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 its implementation 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 reduction in the number of people with an anti-alcohol attitude. But, most importantly, the authorities did not learn from the example of the campaign that alcoholic drinks, drinking in the campaign are part of the culture of modern society.

Therefore, 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". Meanwhile, the people started a "war". Taxi drivers sold vodka "from the trunk" at a double or triple price, grandmas sold the suffering queue in endless tails to stores. Craftsmen riveted moonshine stills without rest. For persons 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 poisonings” with technical liquids has sharply increased.

The alleged increase in drug addiction in connection with the campaign is not fair. Since it began a few 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 develop the Western European market and new ways of supplying it from Central Asia. An additional incentive for this was some temporary suppression of two of the three "golden triangles" - the main regions of drug production and drug business in the world: Colombian (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia) and Thailand. Because of this, 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 detect cargo of this kind. Therefore, drugs camouflaged as neutral cargo 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 brutally cracked down on private drug business. Afghanistan has become one of the main sources of opium in our country's markets. Just at that time, a very tough repressive drug policy began in Iran. This took the country out of the third "golden triangle" and thus blocked one of the main drug trafficking routes to the West. All this led to the formation of a new powerful "triangle" (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan - Gorno-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 subsided with the increase in alcohol consumption.

And the range of drug-related problems has steadily expanded, continuing the trends that emerged before the start of the campaign. Gradually increasing, the number of drug addicts went beyond the limits necessary to solve 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 cannot be compared with alcohol in terms of their scale. By way of illustration, several examples can be given. The first - deaths from external causes, in particular, violent deaths, in alcohol and drug intoxication account for 52.3% and 0.1%. The other is death from alcohol poisoning and drug overdose: more than 40,000 and 3,500, respectively. The number of people registered for alcohol problems dramatically exceeds the number of people registered for drug addiction problems. Even taking into account the greater closeness of drug addiction, the severity of alcohol consumption problems is higher than that of drugs in our country. What can not be said about other countries. Thus, in the United States, material damage from alcohol abuse amounted to 54.7 billion dollars 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 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 apparent naturalness of alcohol damage, both material and human, associated with this, for a long time relegated alcohol problems to the background. This was facilitated by the failure of the anti-alcohol campaign, as well as the powerful alcohol lobby. In addition, the abundance of completely new non-alcoholic problems for Russia, in particular, the poverty of a large part of the population, the destruction of social and moral norms obscure the drama of the alcohol situation in Russia, but do not reduce its size.

In the context of the consequences of the anti-alcohol campaign, one more, very important circumstance should be noted: the campaign took place during the years of restructuring the economic and social life of the country, breaking up the state apparatus and changing leaders. In fact, there was a deep break in the history of the country. At this historical time, significant efforts of M. Gorbachev and the state apparatus were diverted to the implementation of anti-alcohol resolutions, and the attention of the population was narrowed by opposition to these measures. In the center of consciousness of many people was where to get a bottle, and the leadership of the country - how not to give this bottle or take it away from people. Therefore, the problem of “where perestroika leads” did not have time to think over in time. The reforms were half-hearted and went in the direction of democratization of society only, while in parallel or even in the first place it was necessary to carry out economic reforms, legally separate the three branches of government, separate power and property, evaluate state real estate and lay the foundation for social security for the main part of the population. None of this was done. Partly because of the enormous effort put into the anti-alcohol campaign.

Thus, the campaign of 1985 - 1988. saved millions of lives of Soviet citizens. The birth rate increased significantly during this time. True, at the same time there was an increase in drug use, but this increase was not related to the ongoing activities, i.e. this is a combination of circumstances, which was written above. The flourishing underground production of alcohol played the role of a time bomb: the beginning of the confusion of the 1990s. brought to naught all the efforts of the Soviet leadership - a huge increase in alcohol consumption began. To this day, this problem remains one of the priorities in Russia's national policy.

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 from available materials, the use of computer technology, made it possible to come to the following conclusions and observations.

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

However, over the course of history, the government has repeatedly resorted to restricting alcohol consumption. However, the government, at the same time, was one of the factors driving the growth of alcohol consumption in the country. With the growth in the production of alcoholic beverages, their consumption also increased. In other words, the authorities propagated drunkenness with one hand, and with the other tried to put it within the bounds of decency. Therefore, most of the measures to limit drunkenness were partial - the easiest way to replenish the country's budget was the sale of alcoholic beverages.

In the Soviet state, nothing has changed radically: with the outbreak of the First World War, dry law was introduced, but trying to replenish the budget, the new government abolished the dry law. The consequences were not long in coming. A new wave of 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 products produced is growing, there is also no “working” regulation of drinking at the legislative level, etc. Therefore, the measures of the Soviet leadership negate all the positive results 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 preparing the reform was fruitful, however, due to the frequent deaths of general secretaries, only the new general secretary, M. S. Gorbachev, managed to implement the reform.

The implementation of the program in life showed a completely unthought-out scheme for the implementation of the anti-alcohol campaign. The experience of previous centuries of 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 restructuring the economic and social life of the country, breaking 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 by prohibitive measures. In many regions of the country, party leaders were chasing "overfulfillment of the plan" in regard to anti-alcohol measures. Thus, at the initiative of local authorities, the number of outlets selling alcoholic products decreased. It is not surprising that underground production in such conditions simply flourished.

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

The overall result of the campaign was its cancellation. "Dry Law" 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" alcohol, which has become a scarce commodity. There was a process, albeit on a smaller scale, 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 that 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. in the country began to be born annually by half a million people more. The average life expectancy of men has reached the highest level in the history of our country. Mortality has dropped significantly. The anti-alcohol campaign saved almost one and a half million lives. Crime dropped by 70%. The beds 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 have increased: 45 billion rubles more have been deposited in 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 points selling alcohol - this only leads to the development of a "black market" of alcohol with the inevitable circulation of surrogates on it. It is necessary to cultivate sobriety in a person, even from childhood.

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Drunkenness in the USSR increased by 1985 to simply indecent proportions. In 1984, the average per capita alcohol consumption in the RSFSR was 14.2 liters, for comparison - in the USA - 8.6 liters, Great Britain - 7.2. And according to the estimates of the World Health Organization, already at 8 liters of alcohol consumption per capita, the irreversible extinction of the ethnic group begins.

Measures for, if not eradication, then at least a significant reduction in alcoholism, had to be taken. But the ones that were accepted turned out to be extremely stupid. Alcoholism in the USSR was a social disease that developed over many years. The desire to solve the problem at once, which had been accumulating for more than one century, was a big adventure. In all countries, including Russia, as soon as the ban was introduced, the economic situation immediately worsened to one degree or another, as soon as the ban was lifted, the situation improved. This was not taken into account at all. Gorbachev and all his entourage knew history ugly. The Bolshevik Party was led by adventurist leaders without the slightest experience in government, but with a fairly high intellect. After the terrible blunders, the Bolsheviks began to correct themselves. Starting the NEP policy after War Communism, Stalin and the leadership received an influx of money through the abolition of Prohibition. But the leadership of the CPSU, having experience, intellectually degenerated. Intellectual degeneration + adventurism = terrible result. The domestic experience of introducing the “right of local prohibition” in 1914 was not taken into account. They hoped to quickly solve the problem by the then adopted administrative-command method, of course, little came of it.

The fight against alcoholism set as its goal the solution of both social and economic problems, primarily labor discipline, and should have contributed to the growth of labor productivity and its quality. It was planned to reduce the production of vodka and other alcoholic beverages by 10% per year. By 1988, the production of fruit and berry wines was to be stopped. Instead of the planned slow reduction, in a purely Soviet way, they did not want to wait for a long time, from 1985 to 1987. production was reduced by 2.7 times.

It was planned to reduce the availability in terms of time and place of sale of alcoholic products. Instead of dragging out this process, making it less painful, everything was done very quickly, with terrible inconvenience for people. The number of liquor stores has drastically decreased, and their opening hours have been reduced. Huge queues lined up for wine and vodka, which led to great discontent among those who stood in these lines.

It was also planned to reorient a significant part of the wine industry to the production of grape juices, marshmallows, soft drinks and juices, etc. This reorientation was completely failed, the entire industry was ruined. Vineyards that had been cultivated for many years were cut down. The elementary idea did not even come to mind to put grapes on sale instead of wine production. Grapes were in great deficit in the country. Of course, wine varieties were used for the production of wine, and not table varieties that were sold in stores, but there were no problems with the sale of even wine varieties. No, it was necessary to cut and only cut!! As in a well-known anecdote, - “Sister, maybe I’m in intensive care? No, the doctor said to the morgue, so to the morgue!!!”

As a result, advertisements “Cologne is on sale from 14.00” were hung in perfumery shops, they hunted for alcohol-containing medicines. Non-alcoholic weddings became a symbol of the era - orders for their number descended from the regional committees of the CPSU and from the Komsomol. The most conscientious newlyweds were chosen there. In compensation for the lack of strong food on the tables, young people were given coupons for food that was scarce at that time. However, even then the organizers of the celebrations found a way out - cognac and wine were served to the table in tea and coffee cups.

However, some positive results have been achieved. Despite the surge in home brewing, in general, they began to drink less. There was a temporary decrease in mortality and an increase in the birth rate. Children were born 500 thousand more a year than before. In 1984, according to statistical reports, 44 thousand people were poisoned by alcohol and surrogates, in 1987 only 11 thousand people. True, moonshine poisoning is not included in the statistics, the data is not known, according to assumptions, the total is still less. In 1985-1987 life expectancy for men increased by 3.2 years, and for women by 1.2 years. In the same period, crime decreased by a quarter, and for serious crimes by one third, absenteeism, accidents, and fires decreased. The number of divorces has decreased. There was a slight increase in labor productivity. This is natural, since drunkenness at work has decreased, they began to work less with a deep hangover. But there was no significant increase in labor, and it was foolish to hope for it. The main increase in productivity can be achieved mainly by economic methods. Administrative-command methods can produce significant results only under very tough, often cruel leadership of the Stalinist type. With a weak Gorbachev, the latter could not exist in principle.

In general, the positive results of the anti-alcohol campaign were quite moderate, but the negative results were simply catastrophic. In 1985, at the beginning of the anti-alcohol campaign, the sale of vodka and wine accounted for one sixth of the total turnover. In the 1920s, during the NEP reform period, due to the abolition of Prohibition, they received an influx of revenues to the budget, during the acceleration and perestroika, everything turned out the other way around - due to the introduction of restrictions, the country's budget already suffered monstrous losses in 1985.

The cost of vodka was low compared to the price. Therefore, its sale provided the state with super profits and made it possible to cover, to some extent, the insufficient output of consumer goods. With wine, the profitability was lower, but still decent. By the end of 1986, the consumer budget was destroyed. Now there was a huge hole in it. There was nothing to replace the income from the sale of alcohol. The state had nowhere to take money for the technical re-equipment of industry, since those that remained were needed for the most urgent current needs. Well, not for urgent ones either. Fraternal gratuitous and significant assistance to the allies continued to take place. In addition to budgetary losses, the mediocre anti-alcohol campaign led to a transition to the category of a shortage of products that were previously freely available (juices, cereals, caramel, etc.), a sharp increase in home brewing, and an increase in drug addiction and substance abuse.

Sugar became scarce. In 1985, sugar consumption per person per year was 44 kg, in 1987 it was 46 kg, 2 kg more. The shortage arose partly because of moonshine, partly because of the rush demand that arose. After 1987, the sugar deficit began to increase. They began to sow less sugar beets, partly because of the general mess in the country, partly because of the policy being pursued. Without speaking openly, in this way they fought with moonshine. In the 90th year, 30% less were sown under sugar beets than in the 89th. Less sugar began to be bought abroad.

Losses grew every year. The peak of losses occurred in 1989. Vodka and wine were sold 37 billion less than in 1984. True, the country's savings banks received 45 billion more. Not all of course due to a reduction in alcohol consumption, but in general due to a drop in the production of consumer goods. But still, the alcohol share here was significant. If the state had been quicker, these billions could have been spent on lending to our economy and alleviate the crisis that has already begun. This was not done, the holes were plugged with the influx of money. This approach only exacerbated the difficulty.

In order to somehow patch up the losses, from 1986 to 1990, the cost of vodka shot up - up to 9 rubles 70 kopecks.

A poem was born

You tell Gorbach

We are ten on the shoulder,

Well, if there are more

We will arrange here as in Poland!

Strangely, the price did not rise above 10. Perhaps the rhyme became known to Gorbachev, and they did not check its veracity. For the USSR, the adventurous anti-alcohol campaign became a complete disaster, was one of the reasons for the most acute economic crisis and the collapse of the country.

In society, the fight against alcoholism was generally unpopular, although some non-drinkers supported it.

Why did Gorbachev really start an anti-alcohol campaign? Anti-alcohol campaigns in the USSR.

ANTI-ALCOHOLIC CAMPAIGN IN THE EIGHTIES IN THE USSR

FINAL QUALIFICATION WORK

(GRADUATE WORK)

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Why did Gorbachev really start an anti-alcohol campaign? Anti-alcohol campaigns in the USSR.

ANTI-ALCOHOLIC CAMPAIGN IN THE EIGHTIES IN THE USSR

FINAL QUALIFICATION WORK

(GRADUATE WORK)

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