9. The Role of Government in Russia’s Love of Vodka
The Tsarist government encouraged vodka consumption for generations, even at the price of widespread alcoholism among their subjects. Tsar Peter the Great reportedly decreed that peasant wives should be whipped if they tried to drag their drunk husbands out of taverns before they were ready to leave. He also used alcoholism to help with military recruitment: those who drank themselves into debt could avoid debtors’ prison if they enlisted in the Russian army for 25 years. Russia’s government was never known for enlightenment, and the Russian authorities’ attitudes towards vodka did improve with the passage of time. The Tsarist government was overthrown in the twentieth century and replaced with a communist one, but the encouragement of alcoholism continued. The communist Red Army issued its soldiers a daily vodka ration of 100 grams.
100 grams was not enough to get wasted, but a few days’ ration could be saved for a good drunk. It was also easy for soldiers to get their hands on more than the official ration. In the Winter War of 1939 – 1940, there were reports of wild drunken charges by Soviet soldiers. In World War II, the vodka daily ration was increased, and military authorities actively encouraged its distribution and consumption. The Soviets’ sheer grit and super courage played a key role in their triumph over the Nazi “super men” to close out the war. However, that courage was boosted by the rivers of vodka that helped fuel the Red Army’s soldiers and kept them well lubricated. In their recollections of WWII, many Soviet veterans described the daily vodka ration as having been: “as important as Katyusha rockets in the victory of Nazism“.
