inston Churchill, former British Prime Minister, once commented, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” From the Tsarist to the Communist and post-Communist eras, understanding the riddle of Russian social, economic, and political history is a multifaceted, complex endeavor. Adding a new perspective to the discussion on the history of Russian statecraft, Mark Lawrence Schrad, in his book Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State, addresses a prominent stereotype associated with Russian society: vodka induced inebriety. “Does that mean vodka is everything in Russia?” Schrad writes. “Certainly not…but it is a lot of things.” Far from offering a monocausal explanation of Russian history, Schrad presents “vodka politics as an alternative lens through which we can view and understand Russia’s complex political development.”
The prevalence of Russia’s excessive alcohol consumption is a major social problem, one that is recognized by both foreigners and Russians alike. When asked by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion what symbol characterized twentieth-century Russia, Russian citizens overwhelmingly responded: vodka. The people and leaders across the political spectrum understand the pressing challenge of drunkenness—Russians consume an average of 18 liters of pure alcohol per year, over twice the limit deemed safe by the World Health Organization. President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Russia’s health situation as one of his administration’s greatest political challenges. He stated, “Without any wars or calamities, smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse [alone] claim 500,000 lives of our countrymen every year.” Schrad expounds on the dire health and social consequences of vodka consumption by explaining that life expectancy in Russia more closely resembles sub-Saharan Africa than post-industrial Europe.
He writes: “Even today, the average teenage Russian boy has a worse chance of living to age 65 than boys in failed states like Somalia and Ethiopia. But unlike these desperate places, it isn’t malnourishment or famine that is to blame—nor is it the errant bullets of civil war: it is vodka, pure and simple.”
In 2009, then-President Dmitri Medvedev described alcohol as a “natural disaster,” but Schrad challenges this notion, arguing that there is nothing natural about the Russian tendency to consume vodka. “‘Natural’ suggests that Russians’ historic weakness for vodka is an inherent cultural trait—an unalienable part of what it is to be Russian, almost down to the genetic level.” Schrad explains that inebriety is neither ethnic nor genetic, but a political disaster that built the institutions of autocracy still prevalent in Russia today. “Vodka is only as ‘natural’ as autocracy is natural,” Schrad contends, “in Russia, they are woven together as part of the same cloth.” More than a major social problem, vodka runs deep in the historical, cultural, and political development of the autocratic Russian state.
Schrad’s political biography of alcohol in Russia examines the inextricable connection between vodka and Russian statecraft, from Ivan the Terrible through the present day. Vodka has been an eternal source of state revenue and a means to achieve political ends. The Tsars used vodka to dampen dissent and consolidate their control. During the Communist era, Joseph Stalin’s paranoia of being overthrown caused him to use vodka to keep his inner circle off-balance, making them drink to excess and thereby “draw-out their honest opinions and lay bare their true intentions.” Mandatory drinking binges divided Stalin’s opponents and kept them fearful. Schrad’s anecdotes across multiple time periods in Russian history illustrate the role of vodka in high politics, policymaking, diplomacy, and its influence in wars, coups, and revolutions.
“Viewing history through the lens of vodka politics actually brings things into clearer focus,” Schrad writes. His book explores the variety of ways alcohol has influenced politics—and how politics have influence alcohol—throughout the history of the Russian state. It offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on what Churchill described as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
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Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State
Photo by Felipe Simo via Unsplash.
February 27, 2015
W
inston Churchill, former British Prime Minister, once commented, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” From the Tsarist to the Communist and post-Communist eras, understanding the riddle of Russian social, economic, and political history is a multifaceted, complex endeavor. Adding a new perspective to the discussion on the history of Russian statecraft, Mark Lawrence Schrad, in his book Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State, addresses a prominent stereotype associated with Russian society: vodka induced inebriety. “Does that mean vodka is everything in Russia?” Schrad writes. “Certainly not…but it is a lot of things.” Far from offering a monocausal explanation of Russian history, Schrad presents “vodka politics as an alternative lens through which we can view and understand Russia’s complex political development.”
The prevalence of Russia’s excessive alcohol consumption is a major social problem, one that is recognized by both foreigners and Russians alike. When asked by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion what symbol characterized twentieth-century Russia, Russian citizens overwhelmingly responded: vodka. The people and leaders across the political spectrum understand the pressing challenge of drunkenness—Russians consume an average of 18 liters of pure alcohol per year, over twice the limit deemed safe by the World Health Organization. President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Russia’s health situation as one of his administration’s greatest political challenges. He stated, “Without any wars or calamities, smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse [alone] claim 500,000 lives of our countrymen every year.” Schrad expounds on the dire health and social consequences of vodka consumption by explaining that life expectancy in Russia more closely resembles sub-Saharan Africa than post-industrial Europe.
He writes: “Even today, the average teenage Russian boy has a worse chance of living to age 65 than boys in failed states like Somalia and Ethiopia. But unlike these desperate places, it isn’t malnourishment or famine that is to blame—nor is it the errant bullets of civil war: it is vodka, pure and simple.”
In 2009, then-President Dmitri Medvedev described alcohol as a “natural disaster,” but Schrad challenges this notion, arguing that there is nothing natural about the Russian tendency to consume vodka. “‘Natural’ suggests that Russians’ historic weakness for vodka is an inherent cultural trait—an unalienable part of what it is to be Russian, almost down to the genetic level.” Schrad explains that inebriety is neither ethnic nor genetic, but a political disaster that built the institutions of autocracy still prevalent in Russia today. “Vodka is only as ‘natural’ as autocracy is natural,” Schrad contends, “in Russia, they are woven together as part of the same cloth.” More than a major social problem, vodka runs deep in the historical, cultural, and political development of the autocratic Russian state.
Schrad’s political biography of alcohol in Russia examines the inextricable connection between vodka and Russian statecraft, from Ivan the Terrible through the present day. Vodka has been an eternal source of state revenue and a means to achieve political ends. The Tsars used vodka to dampen dissent and consolidate their control. During the Communist era, Joseph Stalin’s paranoia of being overthrown caused him to use vodka to keep his inner circle off-balance, making them drink to excess and thereby “draw-out their honest opinions and lay bare their true intentions.” Mandatory drinking binges divided Stalin’s opponents and kept them fearful. Schrad’s anecdotes across multiple time periods in Russian history illustrate the role of vodka in high politics, policymaking, diplomacy, and its influence in wars, coups, and revolutions.
“Viewing history through the lens of vodka politics actually brings things into clearer focus,” Schrad writes. His book explores the variety of ways alcohol has influenced politics—and how politics have influence alcohol—throughout the history of the Russian state. It offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on what Churchill described as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
