Drinking in the USSR. Alcohol consumption in the Soviet Union. Soviet vodka stories. Why did Soviet people drink so much?
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That's 1 bottle week and extra 1 for new years as the neighbours might call lol
I was born in East Germany and from my childhood memories I can acknowledge that heavy drinking habits were a common problem in socialist countries. My family came from a rural part of the country and I clearly remember the many times we were visiting our relatives and former friends once we were moving to Berlin and everytime I witnessed men who passed out in public on their way home from the kolchos. I believe that one reason amongst others for why heavy drinking habits were so common in socialist countries, is the fact that many people were feeling that their life's, their work or their ambitions were so limited by the oppressive nature of these societies and thus became less meaningful. In order to cope with this reality drinking heavily allowed many people to numb themselves, making the situation a lot more bearable for those who had troubles coping with the limitations of living in an oppressive society.
Unfortunately it seems like the US is having the same sort of problem with drugs today
As Vodka goes, it is quite pedestrian; a step above industrial, IMHO.
Maybe they felt under privileged because of no way to compete within their employment area, and the solution was to turn in the direction of the cheap addiction available that appeared to be the herd immunity method for 80 percent of the males.
Wasn't there liquid rubber that would make you ill when you drank any alcohol? And that was the cure for alcoholism.
Why? I think because life under socialism is soul crushing. Socialism takes away your agency. Supposedly if you follow the rules you are taken care of, but then what is the point of life?
we are all addicts of some type – voda comrade is better than needles and pain killers – vodka is my heart med and saved me from heart events more than one time – also voda is safer than most md doctors today who also get wasted – from top to bottom we smoke weed – drink – mainline – glass pipe – etc etc – mankind never wins – cheers comrade time for stoli straight up
I think living in Russia would turn anyone to alcoholism.
Special Medical Service? haha, what a beautiful NKVD type of euphemistic name for a totally non-threatening truck with no windows and driven by the police picking up people.
One of the best moments of my alcoholic life happened in Essaouira, Morocco, where I found that exact 750ml bottle of Stoli in an underground liquor store, brought there by bright-eyed 7-year old who can tell a Western alcoholic at 50 paces.
A bottle every two days? Sounds about right. I mean it's not good, but that is probably reflective of the reality of being a functional alcoholic. Speaking from experience, drinking much more than that daily over very long of a period really runs you down and you cease to function. Like hitting rock bottom and backing off 5% so you don't die, instead of doing the rational thing and quitting entirely.
In answer to your question, cheap housing and 100% employment in some job that doesn't provide much if any fulfillment, knowing that this would be it until you were too old to do it anymore would be a good enough reason. Not so sure about the rest of the USSR, but the Russian people have had a troubled history with vodka for far longer than the Soviet Union was around. The same way the Soviets needed it as a source of revenue, so did the Tsars.
My dude. This is actually a very old statistic, by which I mean that if you look back in history even a hundred years (well after the sainted Tolstoy and Kropotkin, who both railed against it in their own ways), you will see that Russia has always had this problem. As you know. Just consider what happened when the last Tsar before Putin tried to ban it in 1914…
My friend Slava first went back to visit Russia maybe 5 years ago, after living in the US for 25 years or so, since he was a young boy.
He knew all about vodka consumption. At his wedding, even though he had actually become a huge weed smoker and didn't actually drink much at all, the older generation drank so many gallons of it that neither he nor I could believe it.
But when he went back to Moscow again for the first time since he was a kid, he was just very deeply shocked and depressed at the sight of all the vodka-men passed out at 8 am on the benches of all those lovely little parks in Moscow. Of course the answer to your question–why do Russians drink so much?–is very, very obvious. My wife grew up in Czechoslovakia in the 70s, and her stories are no different. I didn't actually even believe her (and Slava) until I lived in the wretched Khrushchoba building that was her home for so many years. In the West we have anti-depressants, many other pharmacological options and endless entertainments. When you live in a concrete shoebox and you know that you have no options at all, why not crawl into a bottle that doesn't yell at you or condemn you to a dreary, pointless existence?
The only competing explanation is the peculiar quality of the soul-killing shade of gray that only exists in Eastern Europe and Russia. It's depressing enough in the UK and Germany, etc, but this grayness in the sky, the buildings and all relationships is absolutely lethal east of the Oder. Hard to describe to people who have never lived in these places, but it's fookin' true. It's the absolute antithesis of sunny California, where anything is possible. Instead, it's gray, cold and wet there, where nothing is possible. Nietzsche would have been even darker if he had to live in the Gray Lands. As sh*tty as the consequences are, who wouldn't seek even temporary escape in a bottle of clear poison?
I have heard that the alcohol problem predated the Soviet Union so there might be a cultural component.
In Poland, police still collects drunk people off the streets and locks them up at these sober-up stations, works more less the same as what you described.
I'd say it was because it makes you be happy, it keeps you warm and takes away aches-pain from walking commutes/or work. Maybe the other things to buy like extra meat or a new shoe can't do all that.
Please check out The Venus Project the best society setup!;)
Alcoholism is a symptom of a PTSD ravaged society. If the Nazis weren't killing Russians, the Soviets (especially Stalin) were. Otherwise, for centuries, repression, incarceration, ostracism, starvation, famine, exile, imprisonment, Gulags, squalid factory employment, etc. A brutal life beyond imagining. Russia is the most PTSD ravaged society in the world. I don't blame them for being alcoholic.
What an interesting well presented show you have. Cheers from Vancouver!
People talk about self-hating Jews… there’s also self hating ex-soviets mostly the last generation, the one that grew with a huge ignorance of the capitalist western imperialism
When they say everything was free it meant everything was accessible & affordable
Socialism is the only thing you can build by drinking hard!
I think there was a lot of trauma from the massive amount of deaths in WW2 people drink to deal with it
socialism can only be build with strong nationalism
vodka is cheaper than beer
if you have a party for several people and you only server beer you can spend a lot of money
people can drink till they drop if the drinks are for free
and it can be 10-20 bottles of beer before someone drops
with vodka as was said, one bottle for three men is enough
The problem with communism is that the soul needs food too. And Communism doesn't believe in the soul so it goes without, filled with a silent starving pain. And when it gets too much, you seek a painkiller without realising yer doing it. But vodka is not a painkiller, only a number. It makes you numb. I'm a former alcoholic, and I'd rather stare into the infinite void again than drink ever again.
I'm from rural Appalachia here in the states. The lives of the older people were very similar in my opinion to that of the Soviet Union. Poverty, basically. Living close with the earth. While there wasn't any socialism, despite the hard work living conditions were pretty dire. Alcoholism and substance abuse was rampant, still is. Sometimes I just think its in our culture. People that did well in my family drank about as much as those that lived hand to mouth.
I read that since about year 2000 people became less hopeless and alcohol abuse fell. At one point “krockodile “ drug became a problem. Putin banned its sale at pharmacy. In the west the Sacklers sold OxyContin. Still not banned. So the west has an element of worse corruption than even Putin’s evil. Only Bernie Sanders was trying to get the Sacklers punished for killing millions. Wtf.
Where in Michigan? SE MI here
not much different than any former socialist country.
create a functional alcoholic, and you'll get a very cheap slave.