The ancient Slavs did not know not only vodka, but also wine

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

“The ancient Slavs did not know not only vodka, but also wine. They drank honey, the scale of production of which cannot be compared with the production of wine from grapes. No wonder "it flowed down the mustache, but did not get into the mouth."

Due to its high cost, fermented honey was not readily available and therefore was present on the tables exclusively at the princes and boyars. Its strength is comparable to beer (beer. By the way, it also happened, and also very expensive: spending barley grown in risky farming on alcohol is a great luxury). Therefore, even the rich had honey and beer on holidays.

We do not have holidays associated with wine and drinking, there are no gods of wine and winemaking, which are abundant in European countries. In fairy tales and epics, there are no specific scenes associated with drunkenness.

Therefore, when all of Europe drank wine in the notorious Middle Ages, Russia was sober. The situation began to change only by the 15th century, when the Arab invention - vodka (alhogol is the Arabic word) through merchants began to penetrate into Western Russia - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Here is what the historian Mikhailo Litvin wrote about that time: “Muscovites abstain from drunkenness, then their cities are famous for artisans … Now in Lithuanian cities the most numerous factories are breweries and Vinnytsia. … The Lithuanians start their day by drinking vodka, while still lying on the bed, they shout: "Wine, wine!" and then men, women and youths drink this poison in the streets, in the squares, even on the roads; darkened by the drink, they are incapable of any occupation and can only sleep."

It was at this time that Luther said that Germany was plagued by drunkenness, and in London, Pastor William Kent made a helpless gesture about his parishioners: deadly drunk! Russia at that time was experiencing a religious upsurge: a person was excommunicated from the sacrament only for a single use of wine for more than half a year - this was the most severe punishment for the believers of that time. In addition, since the time of Vasily the Dark and Ivan III, a state monopoly on alcoholic beverages was introduced. They were only sold to foreigners. Russians "were simply forbidden to drink except for a few days a year," noted a contemporary S. Herberstein. The production of alcoholic beverages was also prohibited.

In the 15th century, under Ivan the Terrible, the first "Tsar's tavern" was opened.

He was only 1 per city. How many alcohol sales outlets are there now in the city?

Also, at that time in Russia there was a multilayer system that opposed drunkenness:

1. Severe weather. Doesn't contribute to the production of alcohol and makes it expensive.

2. Strict government control.

3. Active condemnation of drunkenness by the Church. 200 days a year were fasts during which it was strictly forbidden to consume alcohol.

4. Condemnation from the peasant community. The tax (quitrent) was collected from the entire economy (there was a mutual guarantee), and not from an individual. Therefore, if someone started drinking and, accordingly, worked poorly, the whole peasant community began to influence him. If a person continued to drink, he was simply expelled. Only runaways, ransom, Cossacks, landowners, townspeople could drink - and this was no more than 7% of the population. There were taverns only in cities, the distribution of which was suppressed under Alexei Mikhailovich.

Peter I - the biggest fan of booze, instilled drunkenness. And Olearius, who visited Moscow in those days, wrote: "Foreigners were more engaged in drinking than Muscovites." In "civilized" England at this time, according to Barton, "a non-drinker was not considered a gentleman." One can remember for a long time the ugly drinking parties of Peter I, but even he, realizing the harm of alcohol, issued a decree that chains should be hung around the neck of drunkards.

Catherine the Great replenished the treasury at the expense of taverns, but it took almost 100 years for alcohol consumption to reach 4-5 liters per person per year only by the middle of the 19th century (compare with the current 12 - officially and 18 - unofficially). At the same time, drunkenness flourished at the expense of the city. Engelgard wrote "I was surprised at the sobriety that I saw in our villages." From the population of the village at the end of the 19th century, according to a survey of that time, 90% of women and half of men have never tried alcohol in their lives!

And you call this "always drunk Russia"?

Even 4-5 liters was perceived as an unprecedented problem. In 1858, a whole anti-alcohol revolt (expressed in the defeat of the taverns) took place in 32 provinces, which forced the government of Alexander III to close the taverns. The result was not long in coming: alcohol consumption dropped by 2 times.

And all the same, a powerful anti-alcohol campaign began again in Russia. The people turned to Nicholas II and demanded to introduce "dry law" in connection with the outbreak of the First World War. And Nikolai responded to the call of the people. Lloyd George said then about the "dry law" of the Russians: "This is the most magnificent act of national heroism that I know." The number of "new" alcoholics decreased 70 times, alcohol consumption fell to 0.2 liters per person, crime - threefold, begging - fourfold, deposits in savings banks increased fourfold. Thanks to this "dry law" in the country they drank less than before its introduction, right up to 1963!

Someone will ask where these statistics come from? Who was counting? In the villages, they drove unaccounted moonshine.

This is where you need to think with your head: in the Stalinist USSR there was a strict monopoly, all production and sales figures - alcohol, sugar, grain passed through GOSPLAN. And for any negligence - repression, few people dared to "drive" and "sell". Therefore, the numbers are correct, and they confirm that the Stalinist USSR was one of the most sober countries in the world! A Soviet person drank 3 times less than an Englishman, 7 times less than an American and 10 times less than a Frenchman. Therefore, the GDP growth rates were such that they have not yet been surpassed by any country in the world.

Only in 1965 did we reach 4-5 liters. And over the next 20 years, the amount of alcohol consumed has doubled. In parallel, the growth rates of GDP and labor productivity declined.

And then, during the period of the gloomy reforms of the 1990s, consumption and uncontrolled production of swill only grew.

Let's fix the facts:

Throughout its history, Russia has been the MOST DRINKING COUNTRY in EUROPE and one of the most non-drinking countries in the WORLD until the last 10-15 years. The critical milestone of 8 liters, separating the drinking countries from the low-drinkers, we have overcome only 25-30 years ago.

Sobriety is a national Russian tradition!