The history of sobriety of Russian women

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Drunkenness in Russia was never considered the norm, and women in the old days were completely forbidden to drink alcohol.

The myth of Russian drunkenness

The historian Buganov reports that “until the 10th century, the Russians did not know intoxicating grape wine, they brewed beer, made mash and kvass, and mead. These light drinks accompanied feasts and brotherhoods, were brought as refreshments at feasts, causing the drinkers to gaiety that did not turn into heavy intoxication. Even in Russian birch bark letters until the 13th century, there is no mention of wine and drunkenness.

It was only in the 15th century that the first public drinking establishments - taverns - appeared in Russia. But they existed only in large cities, for example, Kiev, Novgorod, Smolensk, Pskov.

The tradition of consuming spirits came to us from Europe. In the middle of the 16th century, under Ivan the Terrible, taverns appeared, where visitors were poured vodka. But in Moscow, for example, the tavern was intended only for the guardsmen. The rest were forbidden to drink vodka.

The sale of alcohol was also limited: it could not be sold during fasting, as well as on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. On the other days, wine trade was allowed only after mass and lasted no more than three hours.

In addition, the buyer had the right to purchase only one glass of wine, no more. Even then, drunkenness was not considered socially acceptable, despite the fact that the trade in alcoholic beverages brought significant income to the treasury.

Meanwhile, many foreigners who have visited Russia note the "drunkenness of the Russians." Thus, the envoy of the Holstein prince Frederick III, Adam Olearius, in his "Description of the journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy to Persia and back," writes that Russians "are more committed to drunkenness than any other people in the world."

And this despite the fact that in Western Europe many men and women spent their time in taverns every day, where they drank cheap alcohol without any restrictions. In Russia, at least vodka was expensive, and not everyone could afford it.

It is also worth remembering that almost a hundred years before Olearius, another foreign ambassador, Sigismund Herberstein, in his Notes on Muscovite Affairs, does not even mention drunkenness among Russians. Apparently, after all, we are talking about some kind of subjective observations, for example, associated with visiting taverns.

“Until the end of the 19th century, vodka and other alcoholic beverages in Russia could only be bought in drinking houses,” says the ethnographer Opletin in his article “The Myth of Russian Drunkenness”. "And only a very narrow stratum of the population drank, since it was allowed to drink alcohol only in the tavern itself, and it was indecent to go there."

Alcohol taboo for women

Be that as it may, women were not allowed into Russian taverns. For them, in many cases, the use of alcohol was generally taboo. Even at a wedding, young people were not supposed to drink alcohol.

Why? Because this was followed by the wedding night, and the couple could conceive a child. And what kind of child could appear from drunk parents? Our ancestors were not fools and even then knew about the effect of alcohol on genes.

Probably, they noticed the peculiarities of the effect of ethyl alcohol on the female body. As you know, the consequences of drinking alcohol for women are much more harmful than for men, up to the loss of fertility.

Even in the famous medieval “Domostroy” it was said: “My wife would never have had any intoxicating drink in any way: no wine, no honey, no beer, no treats. The drink would be in the cellar on the glacier, and the wife would drink drunken mash and kvass - both at home and in public. If women come from where to inquire about their health, they should not be given drunken drinks either …"

A woman in Russia was the keeper of the family hearth, the whole household was kept on her, she had to raise children. How would she do it while drunk? She would simply lose her role as wife and mother.

The tradition of sobriety

“They used to drink wine only on major holidays,” the researcher Charushnikov testified in 1917. - People who liked to drink were called drunkards in the village. There was no respect for them, they were laughed at. " Berdinskikh states in his book "Peasant Civilization in Russia": "Many remember that their fathers (women were not supposed to drink wine at all) drank alcohol in truly homeopathic doses."

“In Russia, just 100 years ago … 90% of women and 43% of men were absolute teetotalers (that is, they had never tried alcohol in their life!),” Opletin testifies.

So, based on many sources, we can conclude that even men in pre-revolutionary Russia consumed alcohol in very moderate quantities, and women practically did not drink it at all - this was prohibited both by law and by tradition.