The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka & Politics in Late Imperial Russia

Patricia Herlihy

Dec 2001 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

The Alcoholic Empire examines the prevalence of alcohol in Russian social, economic, religious, and political life. Herlihy looks at how the state, the church, the military, doctors, lay societies, and the czar all tried to battle the problem of overconsumption of alcohol in the late imperial period. Since vodka produced essential government revenue and was a backbone of the state economy, many who fought for a sober Russia believed that the only way to save the country through Revolutionary change. This book traces temperance activity and politics side by side with the end of the tsarist regime, while showing how the problem of alcohoism continued to pervade Soviet and post-Soviet society. Illustrated by timeless and incisive sayings about the Russian love of vodka and by poster art and paintings, this book will appeal to Russian and European historians and those interested in temperance history.

Ratings and reviews

OLD RUSSIA PRESENTED AS A BENEVOLENT SOCIETY AT ITS CULTURAL HEIGHT OR TRADITIONAL AMERICA WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY DEVOID OF ROMANTIC FEELING AND INDEED QUITE UNHAPPY WERE IT TO ENGENDER INFINITE AND ETERNAL PROHIBITION...FROM JAMES MICHAEL AND VIVIANNE CHAPESKIE

About the author

Patricia Herlihy is Professor Emerita of Russian and Soviet History at Brown University and Research Professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies. She is the author Odessa: A History, 1794-1914.