The course of events in the USSR

Before Gorbachev

Currently, the anti-alcohol campaign is best known in the period 1985-1987, before and at the very beginning of Perestroika (the so-called “acceleration”). However, the fight against drunkenness was also waged under Gorbachev's predecessors (nevertheless, alcohol consumption in the USSR grew steadily).

In 1958, a Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and on putting things in order in the trade in spirits" was adopted. It was forbidden to sell vodka in all trade enterprises catering (except for restaurants) located at train stations, airports, at the railway station and at the station squares. The sale of vodka in the immediate vicinity of industrial enterprises was not allowed, educational institutions, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, in places of mass festivities and recreation.

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Resolution No. 361 “On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism” was published. It was supposed to cut production spirits, but instead expand production grape wine, beer and soft drinks... The prices for alcohol were also increased; the production of vodka with a strength of 50 and 56 ° was stopped; trading time alcoholic beverages with a strength of 30 ° and more was limited to the interval from 11 to 19 hours; medical and labor dispensaries (LTP) were created, where people were forcibly sent; scenes with the use of alcoholic beverages were cut from the films.

1985 campaign

On May 7, 1985, the Central Committee of the CPSU ("On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism") and Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers N 410 ("On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, and the eradication of moonshine brewing") were adopted, which ordered all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies and to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism everywhere, with a significant reduction in the production of alcoholic beverages, the number of places of sale and the time of sale. On May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of home brewing", which reinforced this struggle with administrative and criminal penalties. The corresponding decrees were adopted simultaneously in all union republics. They were also involved in this task. mandatory trade unions, the entire education and health system, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.). The execution was unprecedented in scale. For the first time, the state began to reduce income from alcohol, which was an important item in the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production.

The initiators of the campaign were the members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Solomentsev and E.K. to the labor of which mass alcoholism was guilty.

"Ligachev demanded to destroy vineyards as the primary basis of production alcoholic beverages"(V. S. Makarenko).

After the start of the fight against drunkenness, the country was closed a large number of shops selling alcoholic beverages. Often this was the end of the complex of anti-alcohol measures in a number of regions. Thus, the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol shops and reported to the Central Committee that the sobering work in Moscow had been completed.

Shops selling alcohol could only do this from 14.00 to 19.00. In this regard, there was a saying:

At six in the morning a rooster sings, at eight - Pugachev, the store is closed until two, the key is at Gorbachev

We'll bury Gorbachev for a week, until the second. We will dig up Brezhnev, we will drink as before.

Tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and public gardens, as well as on long-distance trains. Those who were caught drunk were in serious trouble at work. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, alcohol-free weddings were promoted.

The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR FG Uglov about the harm and inadmissibility of consuming alcohol under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people began to spread everywhere. The alcoholic scenes were cut from the films, and the action movie "Lemonade Joe" was put on the screen. As a result of the nickname "Lemonade Joe" and "mineral secretary" they were firmly entrenched in Mikhail Gorbachev.

Strict requirements for refusing alcohol began to be imposed on Party members. Party members were also required to "voluntarily" join the Temperance Society.

Cutting down vineyards

Many publications criticizing the anti-alcohol campaign say that many vineyards were cut down during this time. Most of the vineyards in Georgia and southern Russia were cut down.

The biggest loss was the destruction of unique collectible grape varieties. For example, the ekim-kara grape variety, a component of the famous in soviet years wine "Black Doctor". Selection work was especially severely persecuted. As a result of persecution and a series of unsuccessful attempts to convince Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the destruction of vineyards, one of the leading scientists-breeders, director Professor Pavel Golodriga, committed suicide.

According to some reports, 30% of the vineyards were destroyed, compared with 22% during the Great Patriotic War. According to the materials of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine, it took 2 billion rubles and 5 years to restore the losses of the destroyed 265 thousand vineyards.

The trouble is that during the struggle for sobriety, Ukraine lost about a fifth of its budget, 60 thousand hectares of vineyards were uprooted in the republic, the famous Massandra winery was saved from defeat only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean regional party committee Makarenko. The secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of vineyards, were active conductors of the anti-alcohol campaign. During his vacation in Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to "Massandra". For all 150 years of the existence of the famous plant, there are samples of wines produced - a wine collection. All famous wineries in the world have such storage facilities. But Ligachev said: "This wine collection must be destroyed, and Massandra must be closed!" Vladimir Shcherbitsky could not stand it and called Gorbachev directly, they say, this is already an overkill, and not a fight against drunkenness. Mikhail Sergeevich said: "Okay, save it."

Mikhail Gorbachev claims that he did not insist on the destruction of the vineyards: "The fact that the vine was cut down was a step against me."

results

During the years of the anti-alcohol campaign, the officially registered average per capita alcohol sales in the country have decreased by more than 2.5 times. In 1985-1987, a decrease in state sales of alcohol was accompanied by an increase in life expectancy, an increase in the birth rate, and a decrease in mortality. During the period of the anti-alcohol decree, 5.5 million newborns were born per year, 500 thousand more per year than every year in the previous 20-30 years, and the weakened were born by 8% less. The life expectancy of men increased by 2.6 years and reached the maximum value in the entire history of Russia, and the overall crime rate has decreased. The reduction in mortality compared to the predicted regression line excluding the campaign is 919.9 thousand for men (1985-1992) and 463.6 thousand for women (1986-1992) - only 1383.4 thousand people, or 181 ± 16.5 thousand a year.

At the same time, the real decline in alcohol consumption was less significant, mainly due to the development of home brewing, as well as the illegal production of alcoholic beverages at state enterprises. Strengthening home brewing led to a deficit in the retail sale of raw materials for moonshine - sugar, and then cheap sweets. The previously existing shadow market of artisanal alcohol received significant development in these years - vodka added to the list of goods that had to be “obtained”. Despite the decrease in the total number of alcohol poisoning, the number of poisoning with alcohol-containing surrogates and non-alcoholic intoxicants has increased (for example, the practice of adding dichlorvos to beer in order to increase intoxication has become widespread), and the number of drug addicts has also increased. Nevertheless, the growth in the consumption of “illegal” alcohol did not compensate for the drop in the consumption of alcohol of “legal”, as a result of which a real reduction in the total consumption of alcohol was still observed, which explains the beneficial consequences (a decrease in mortality and crime, an increase in the birth rate and life expectancy ) that were observed during the anti-alcohol campaign.

Aimed at the "moral recovery" of Soviet society, the anti-alcohol campaign in reality achieved completely different results. In the mass consciousness, it was perceived as an absurd initiative of the authorities directed against the “common people”. For those widely involved in the shadow economy and the party and economic elite (where a feast with alcohol was a nomenklatura tradition) alcohol was still available, and ordinary consumers were forced to “get it”.

The decline in alcohol sales caused serious damage to the Soviet budget system, as the annual retail trade fell on average by 16 billion rubles. The damage to the budget was unexpectedly great: instead of the previous 60 billion rubles of income food industry brought 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987.

Mass dissatisfaction with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in the USSR in 1987 forced the Soviet leadership to end the fight against the production and consumption of alcohol. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the anti-alcohol campaign in 2005, Gorbachev remarked in an interview: "Because of the mistakes made, a good big deal ended ingloriously."

Currently, the anti-alcohol campaign is most famous in the period 1985-1987, before and at the very beginning of Perestroika. However, the fight against drunkenness was also waged under the predecessors of A.

In 1958, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government was adopted “ On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and on putting things in order in the trade in strong alcoholic beverages". It was forbidden to sell vodka in all public catering establishments (except for restaurants) located at train stations, airports, at the station and station squares. The sale of vodka in the immediate vicinity of industrial enterprises, educational institutions, children's institutions, hospitals, sanatoriums, in places of mass festivities and recreation was not allowed.

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Resolution No. 361 was published “ On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism". It was supposed to reduce the production of spirits, but instead to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices for alcohol were also increased; the production of vodka with a strength of 50 and 56 ° was stopped; the time of trade in alcoholic beverages with a strength of 30 ° and above was limited to the interval from 11 to 19 hours; medical and labor dispensaries (LTP) were created, where people were forcibly sent; scenes with the use of alcoholic beverages were cut from the films. Campaign slogan: “ Drunkenness - fight!».

After 1985

On May 7, 1985, a Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee was adopted (“ On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism") And Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers N 410 (" On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, to eradicate moonshine brewing "), which instructed all party, administrative and law enforcement agencies to decisively and everywhere strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, and provided for a significant reduction in the production of alcoholic beverages, the number of places of sale and the time of sale. On May 16, 1985, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued “ On strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of moonshine”, Which reinforced this struggle with administrative and criminal penalties. The corresponding decrees were adopted simultaneously in all union republics. Trade unions, the entire education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions were also involved in the fulfillment of this task. The execution was unprecedented in scale. For the first time, the state decided to reduce income from alcohol, which was an important item in the state budget, and began to sharply reduce its production.

The initiators of the campaign were members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Solomentsev and E.K. Ligachev, who, afterwards believed that one of the reasons for the stagnation of the Soviet economy was the general decline in the moral and ethical values \u200b\u200bof the "builders of communism" and the negligent attitude mass alcoholism was to blame.

After the start of the fight against drunkenness in the country, a large number of shops selling alcoholic beverages were closed. Often this was the end of the complex of anti-alcohol measures in a number of regions. Thus, the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol shops and reported to the Central Committee that the sobering work in Moscow had been completed.

Shops selling alcohol could only do this from 14.00 to 19.00. Therefore, there were sayings:

A rooster sings at six in the morning, Pugachev at eight, the store is closed until two, the key is at Gorbachev's

“For a week, until the second,” we'll bury Gorbachev. If we dig up Brezhnev, we will continue to drink.

Tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and public gardens, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk were in serious trouble at work. For consuming alcohol in the workplace, they were fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, alcohol-free weddings were promoted. The so-called. "Zones of sobriety" in which alcohol was not sold.

The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences FG Uglov about the harm and inadmissibility of drinking alcohol under any circumstances and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people began to spread everywhere. Alcoholic scenes were cut from the movies, and the action movie "Lemonade Joe" was shown on the screen (as a result of the nickname "Lemonade Joe" and "Mineral Secretary" they were firmly entrenched in their favor).

Strict requirements of refusal from alcohol began to be imposed on the members of the Party. Party members were also required to "voluntarily" join the Temperance Society.

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, the allocations for planting vineyards and caring for plantations were sharply reduced, and the taxation of farms was increased. The main directive document defining the ways of further development of viticulture was the Main Directions of Social and Economic Development of the USSR for 1986-1990 and for the period up to 2000, approved by the XXVII Congress of the CPSU, in which it was written: “ To carry out a radical restructuring of the structure of viticulture in the Union republics, focusing it primarily on the production of table grape varieties».

Many publications criticizing the anti-alcohol campaign say that many vineyards were cut down during this time. Vineyards were cut down in, on, in and other republics of the USSR.

A decree was issued on the resumption of production and trade in alcoholic beverages in the USSR.

1929 campaign

1958 campaign

1972 campaign

The next anti-alcohol campaign began in 1972. On May 16, Resolution No. 361 “On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism” was published. It was supposed to reduce the production of strong alcoholic beverages, but instead to expand the production of grape wine, beer and soft drinks. The prices for alcohol were also increased; the production of vodka with a strength of 50 and 56 ° was discontinued; the time of trade in alcoholic beverages with a strength of 30 ° and above was limited to the interval from 11 to 19 hours; medical and labor dispensaries (LTP) were created, where people were forcibly sent; scenes with the use of alcoholic beverages were cut from the films. Campaign slogan: "Drunkenness - fight!"

1985-1990 campaign

At present, the most famous is the anti-alcohol campaign of the period - years., Which took place at the very beginning of Perestroika (the period of the so-called "acceleration"), when, despite the previous stages of the struggle, alcohol consumption in the USSR was growing steadily. It began two months after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and therefore was called "Gorbachev's".

By the end of the 1970s, the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the USSR reached a record level in the history of the country. Alcohol consumption, which did not exceed 5 liters per person per year, neither in the Russian Empire, nor in the era of Stalin, reached by 1984 the mark of 10.5 liters of registered alcohol, and taking into account underground moonshine brewing, it could exceed 14 liters. It was estimated that this level of consumption was equivalent to about 90-110 bottles of vodka per year for every adult male, excluding a small number of teetotalers (vodka itself was about of this volume. The rest of the alcohol was consumed in the form of moonshine, wine and beer).

The initiators of the campaign were members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee M. S. Solomentsev and E. K. Ligachev, who, following Yu. V. Andropov, believed that one of the reasons for the stagnation of the Soviet economy was the general decline in the moral to the labor of which mass alcoholism was guilty.

The execution was unprecedented in scale. For the first time, the state began to reduce income from alcohol, which was a significant item of the state budget (about 30%), and began to sharply reduce its production. After the start of the fight against drunkenness in the country, a large number of shops selling alcoholic beverages were closed. Often this was the end of the complex of anti-alcohol measures in a number of regions. So, the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, Viktor Grishin, closed many alcohol shops and reported to the Central Committee that the work on sobering up in Moscow had been completed. The prices for vodka were raised several times: the popular vodka, popularly nicknamed "Andropovka", which cost 4 rubles before the start of the campaign. 70 k., Disappeared from the shelves, and since August 1986 the cheapest vodka cost 9 rubles. 10 r.

Shops selling alcohol could only do this from 14:00 to 19:00. In this regard, the folk spread:

Tough measures were taken against drinking alcohol in parks and public gardens, as well as on long-distance trains. Those caught drunk were in serious trouble at work. For consuming alcohol in the workplace, they were fired from work and expelled from the party. Banquets related to the defense of dissertations were banned, alcohol-free weddings were promoted. The so-called "zones of sobriety" appeared, in which alcohol was not sold.

In the fulfillment of this task, trade unions, the entire education and health care system, all public organizations and even creative unions (unions of writers, composers, etc.) were also involved without fail.

The campaign was accompanied by intense propaganda for sobriety. Articles by FG \u200b\u200bUglov, Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, about the harm and inadmissibility of consuming alcohol under any circumstances, and that drunkenness is not characteristic of the Russian people, began to spread everywhere. Texts were removed and paraphrased by censorship literary works and songs, alcoholic scenes from theatrical performances and films were cut, the “non-alcoholic” action movie “Lemonade Joe” was shown on the screen (as a result of the nickname “Lemonade Joe” and “mineral secretary” they were firmly entrenched in Mikhail Gorbachev).

Impact on viticulture and winemaking

The campaign had an extremely negative impact on the wine industry and its raw material base - viticulture. In particular, allocations for planting vineyards and caring for plantings were sharply reduced, and taxation of farms was increased. The main directive document defining the ways for the further development of viticulture was the Main Directions of Social and Economic Development of the USSR for 1986-1990 and for the period up to 2000, approved by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, in which it was written: “To carry out a radical restructuring of the structure of viticulture in the it is primarily for the production of table grape varieties. "

Many publications criticizing the anti-alcohol campaign say that many vineyards were cut down during this time. Vineyards were cut down in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and other republics of the USSR.

From 1985 to 1990, the area of \u200b\u200bvineyards in Russia decreased from 200 to 168 thousand hectares, the restoration of uprooted vineyards was halved, and the establishment of new ones was not carried out at all. The average annual grape harvest has fallen in comparison with the period 1981-1985 from 850 thousand to 430 thousand tons.

The former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Yakov Pogrebnyak, who oversaw the control over the implementation of the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU on strengthening the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism through the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine:

The trouble is that during the struggle for sobriety, Ukraine lost about a fifth of its budget, 60 thousand hectares of vineyards were uprooted in the republic, the famous Massandra winery was saved from defeat only by the intervention of Vladimir Shcherbitsky and the first secretary of the Crimean regional party committee Makarenko. The secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who insisted on the destruction of the vineyards, were active conductors of the anti-alcohol campaign. During his vacation in Crimea, Yegor Kuzmich was taken to "Massandra". For all 150 years of the existence of the famous plant, there are samples of produced wines - a wine collection. All famous wineries in the world have similar storage facilities. But Ligachev said: "This wine collection must be destroyed, and Massandra must be closed!" Vladimir Shcherbitsky could not stand it and called Gorbachev directly, they say, this is already an overkill, and not a fight against drunkenness. Mikhail Sergeevich said: "Okay, save it."

The first secretary of the Crimean regional committee of the CPSU Viktor Makarenko confirms the words of Pogrebnyak. According to him, " Ligachev demanded to destroy vineyards as the primary basis for the production of alcoholic beverages. He even insisted on the liquidation of the famous Massandra winery. Only Shcherbitsky's personal intervention saved her» .

Ligachev himself, in his 2010 interview, denied the cutting down of vineyards according to instructions from “above,” said that the campaign itself and he had been slandered in connection with it, including that “Ligachev, while vacationing in Crimea, came to Massandra and personally closed the winery. One of the leaders died of grief. I want to declare: Ligachev has never been to Massandra. "

According to some reports, 30% of the vineyards were destroyed, compared with 22% during the Great Patriotic War. According to the materials of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine, it took 2 billion rubles and 5 years to restore the losses of the destroyed 265 thousand vineyards. The dissertation on the management of the wine industry states that viticulture in Russia was threatened with extinction three times, and one of these periods is “1985-1990 biennium - "fight" against drunkenness and alcoholism. "

However, the initiator of the campaign, Yegor Ligachev, claims that in 1985 (at the beginning of the campaign) the area of \u200b\u200bvineyards was 1 million 260 thousand hectares, in 1988 (after its completion) - 1 million 210 thousand hectares, respectively, the harvest of grapes - 5.8 and 5, 9 million tons. Mikhail Solomentsev in an interview in 2003 to the question "Why were many vineyards cut down in the south of Russia, Crimea and Moldova?" answered: “We grew 92% of the grapes technical grades and only 2% - canteens. It was recommended to increase the production of table grape varieties. And the vines are cleared and cut down constantly. If before the decree 75 thousand hectares of vineyards were cut down, then after - 73 thousand. "

Mikhail Gorbachev claims that he did not insist on the destruction of the vineyards: "The fact that the vine was cut down was a step against me." In an interview in 1991, he stated: "They tried to make me an inveterate teetotaler during the anti-alcohol campaign."

The biggest loss was the destruction of unique collectible grape varieties. For example, the “Ekim-kara” grape variety, a component of the famous Soviet wine “Black Doctor”, was completely destroyed. Selection work was especially severely persecuted. As a result of persecution and a series of unsuccessful attempts to convince Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel the destruction of vineyards, one of the leading scientists-breeders, director, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Pavel Golodriga, committed suicide.

Relations with the CMEA countries - Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, in which most of the wine was produced for export to the USSR - deteriorated sharply. Vneshtorg refused to buy wine in these countries, offering to compensate for lost profits with other goods.

results

The growth in consumption of “illegal” alcohol did not compensate for the decline in consumption of alcohol of “legal”, as a result of which a real reduction in the total consumption of alcohol was still observed, which explains the beneficial consequences (reduction in mortality and crime, an increase in the birth rate and life expectancy) that were observed during the anti-alcohol campaign.

Aimed at the "moral recovery" of Soviet society, the anti-alcohol campaign in reality achieved completely different results. In the mass consciousness, it was perceived as an absurd initiative of the authorities directed against the “common people”. For those widely involved in the shadow economy and the party and economic elite (where a feast with alcohol was a nomenklatura tradition) alcohol was still available, and ordinary consumers were forced to "get it".

The decline in alcohol sales caused serious damage to the Soviet budget system, as the annual retail turnover fell on average by 16 billion rubles. The damage to the budget turned out to be unexpectedly great: instead of the previous 60 billion rubles in revenue, the food industry brought 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987. Until 1985, alcohol accounted for about 25% of budget revenues from retail, due to high prices for it, it was possible to subsidize the prices of bread, milk, sugar and other products. Losses from the reduction in the sale of alcohol were not compensated, by the end of 1986 the budget had actually collapsed.

At the same time, it strongly stimulated the growth of the shadow economy. V.F. Grushko (former first deputy. Chairman of the KGB of the USSR) in his memoirs "The Fate of a Scout" commented on the results of the anti-alcohol campaign as follows:

Mass dissatisfaction with the campaign and the economic crisis that began in the USSR in 1987 forced the Soviet leadership to curtail the fight against the production and consumption of alcohol. Although the decrees restricting the sale and consumption of alcohol were not canceled (for example, the formal ban on the sale of alcohol until 2 p.m. was canceled only on July 24, 1990 by the decree of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 724), active propaganda of sobriety was stopped, and alcohol sales went up. It is estimated that average per capita alcohol consumption significantly exceeded baseline levels by 1994, resulting in a completely catastrophic rise in mortality in Russia.

In culture

The last Soviet anti-alcohol campaign was reflected in the culture. So, Andrei Makarevich for the movie "Start over again" was forced to replace the words "Conversation on the train" (1987) [ ] :

When there's nothing else to drink.
But the train goes on, the bottle is empty
And pulls to talk.

But, due to the campaign, Andrei Makarevich had to write another version:

Carriage disputes are the last thing
And you can't cook porridge from them.
But the train goes, it got dark in the window,
And pulls to talk.

During the anti-alcohol campaign, methods of secretly storing alcohol in kettles, cans and others were common. unusual things... In the song of the Lyube group "Guys from our yard" there were the words: " Remember, beer was carried in a can, Oh, the whole yard swore at this ... »

The rock group "Zoo", in turn, created and recorded the satirical song "Sobriety is the norm of life", in which it cynically ridiculed the propaganda clichés of that time (non-alcoholic bars, weddings, etc.).

Also, the song of the Leningrad group "Situation" "Prohibition" is dedicated to the Soviet anti-alcohol campaign and its consequences.

A hidden allusion to the anti-alcohol campaign and typical phenomena thereof (the use of alcohol-containing surrogates, home brewing and the sale of moonshine from under the floor) is present in the song "Cucumber Lotion" by the group "Automatic Satisfaction".

see also

Notes (edit)

1. G. G. Zaigraev.

On March 11, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took over as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and became the last head of the then still large and powerful state. He began his activity with a global restructuring of the system, one of the first stages of which was the anti-alcohol campaign.

The goal of Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign

Gorbachev immediately took a course to actively accelerate the socio-economic development of the state and set about implementing an anti-alcohol program, which the Central Committee began to prepare jointly under Brezhnev. However, Leonid Ilyich himself did not consider it a priority task and did not support it.

It must be admitted that Gorbachev had the best intentions. In an interview, he said that the situation with massive drunkenness had reached a critical point by that time. Almost half an adult male population stepped over the line of alcoholism, addicted to a glass and women. Drunkenness at work, a large number of accidents, children abandoned by alcoholic parents to the mercy of fate - all these problems demanded an immediate solution. And then Mikhail Sergeevich decided to deal with the situation radically, as they say, cut from the shoulder.

Global plans and their implementation

On May 16, 1985, the Presidium under the leadership of Gorbachev issued a decree "On strengthening the fight against drunkenness." The global anti-alcohol campaign began to gain momentum abruptly.

The main ways of implementation, tangible for the population:

● increase in alcohol prices by 2 or more times;
● widespread decrease in the number of alcoholic beverages retail outlets;
● limitation of the time of sale (only from 14.00 to 19.00);
● tougher punishment for drinking alcohol in public places (including city parks, railway trains).

The campaign was launched on a grand scale. There was propaganda everywhere healthy way life, non-alcoholic weddings, anniversaries and other festive events. Non-alcoholic champagne appeared on the market, which was offered to replace the present. But the excesses did not end there either, it was just the harmless tip of the "non-alcoholic" iceberg.

Consequences of the 1985-1990 anti-alcohol campaign

The people were not ready, by decree of the Central Committee, to part with the addiction and quit drinking. Simultaneously with the beginning of Gorbachev's non-alcoholic campaign, development began soviet era moonshine, clandestine alcohol trade and speculation in alcoholic beverages. Moonshine and vodka from under the floor were traded by enterprising citizens and taxi drivers. The main "raw material" for home brewing - sugar, which soon began to be sold on coupons, disappeared from the shops, and long queues lined up at the alcoholic beverage departments.

The use of dubious alcoholic surrogate led to massive outbreaks of poisoning. Drank industrial alcohol, cologne, denatured alcohol and other hazardous substances containing degrees. Drug traffickers tried to fill in part the "vacuum niche" - it was then that the growth of drug addiction, which became a global problem, began.

But the biggest damage was done to the vineyards. According to reports, about 30% were destroyed, which is a third more than the losses during the Second World War. In Moldova, in the Crimea, in the Kuban, in the North Caucasus, some unique collection grape varieties were completely exterminated, and breeding work was prohibited. The persecution of talented breeders began, who devoted their entire lives to this.

And also anti-alcohol shock therapy caused serious damage to the economy of the country, which was not in the best position from the very beginning of perestroika.

Positive results or embellished facts?

After the start of the anti-alcohol campaign, local people happily reported about the increase in the birth rate, the decrease in crime and the increase in life expectancy. However, in reality, everything did not look quite like that. It was in those years that a real rampant criminality began, so it would be more correct to call the data on the reduction in crime as wishful thinking. And the rise in the birth rate and the increase in life expectancy, historians and political scientists are more inclined to associate it with the fact that people were promised a beautiful life and they believed the slogans, and perked up their spirits.

Let's summarize

The anti-alcohol campaign in no country in the world has yielded the expected results. It is necessary to fight drunkenness not by prohibitions, but by raising the standard of living.

On May 7, 1985, a resolution was adopted "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, and the eradication of moonshine." All newspapers published the text of this document. The slogan "Sobriety is the norm of life" became the motto of the anti-alcohol company. In parallel, there was an increase in alcohol prices and a sharp restriction of its sale. They began to sell vodka on coupons.

Administrative measures led to the emergence of kilometer-long queues and, worst of all, to an increase in the illegal production of alcoholic beverages. The decision to "sober up" the country, taken without due historical and economic study, without taking into account the psychology of consumers, put the domestic wine and distillery industry in a difficult position, inflicted moral damage on it, and aroused widespread discontent among the people. Absurd orders were issued to uproot vineyards, which led to tragedies: people who linked their lives with winemaking died of heart attacks or committed suicide. Distilleries everywhere have been converted into non-alcoholic beverages. All this also had financial consequences, and serious ones, speculation and theft sharply increased. Soviet trade did not give the Soviet state 12 billion rubles in 1986, and 7 billion in 1987. Due to losses in wine production and grape cultivation, another 6.8 billion were missing. Then new times came - the abolition of the state monopoly on the alcohol trade. Anti-alcohol fight gradually faded away.

An attempt by M.S. Gorbachev, 2 months after coming to power in 1985, to force the population of the USSR to significantly reduce alcohol consumption.

The first campaign of M.S. Gorbachev's presidency was a campaign to combat alcoholism. The prices for vodka were raised three times, the wine-making state farms in the south of the USSR were ordered to cut down all the vineyards. The scenes of the feast were removed from the films, alcohol-free weddings were promoted. The campaign, carried out impudently and ineptly, caused great discontent among the population, which languished for hours in long lines of wine. The use of colognes and denatured alcohol was widespread, which led to poisoning of people, despite the deficiency of yeast and sugar, home brewing flourished. During the campaign, the budget suffered significant losses. The anti-alcohol campaign was carried out in a country that had not yet experienced the shock of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In May 1985, speaking at the party and economic activists in Leningrad, the general secretary did not hide the fact that the country's economic growth rates had declined and put forward the slogan "accelerate social and economic development." The anti-alcohol campaign was quickly phased out without achieving any results.

The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) presented data on the attitude of Russians to the fight against alcoholism, launched 20 years ago by the initiator of perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, and on what they think about the problem of alcoholism in modern life... The majority of Russians (58%) as a whole positively assess the anti-alcohol campaign in the second half of the 1980s. Among them, 15% believe that this campaign was necessary and much has been achieved within its framework; 32% believe that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe campaign was correct, but significant excesses and mistakes were made during its implementation; 11% are inclined to believe that the idea was good, but under the pressure of opponents, it was not possible to complete the plan. More than a third of respondents (37%) negatively assess that anti-alcohol campaign as a mistake from the very beginning.

If an anti-alcohol campaign were announced today, 58% of Russians say that they would support it (including 32% - certainly, and 26% would rather support it), and 36% would not support it. Most supporters of the new anti-alcohol campaign rate Gorbachev's 20-year-old initiative with a plus sign (+77 and -17%), most opponents - with a minus sign (+28 and -67%). Among women, almost two-thirds have a positive attitude towards both "perestroika" and the hypothetical current anti-alcohol campaign (+65 and –29%), men's opinions on both campaigns were divided in half (+48 and -47%).

As if suggesting the possibility of a negative view of the struggle against alcoholism in 1985-1988, Gorbachev writes in his memoirs: “The anti-alcohol program adopted in May 1985 is still a subject of bewilderment and conjecture. Why did they decide to start with this measure, risking complicate the possibility of reform? "

The former secretary general explains the adoption of the anti-alcohol program by the fact that it was impossible to put up with drunkenness - "the people's misfortune" any longer, although he immediately notes that "drunkenness in Russia was a scourge since the Middle Ages." In an effort to ease the burden of personal responsibility, Gorbachev argues that the initiative to introduce measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism "belonged to the public." Therefore, he is here, one might say, as if it had nothing to do with it. In addition, the overly zealous high-ranking controllers who followed the implementation of the party's plans (control over execution was entrusted to Ligachev and Solomentsev), having taken up the matter with irrepressible zeal, "brought everything to the point of absurdity." Again, it seems to have nothing to do with it. However, Gorbachev still does not refuse the "share" own guilt... Only he has, though "big", but somehow strange: "Well, I must repent: I have a large share of the blame for this failure. I should not have completely entrusted the implementation of the adopted resolution. And in any case, I was I was obliged to intervene when the first imbalances began to be discovered, but I heard alarming information that things had gone wrong, and many serious people paid attention to this in personal conversations. I was hindered by the desperate preoccupation with an avalanche of affairs, both internal and external, and to some extent excessive delicacy. And I will say one more thing to myself in defense: our desire to overcome this terrible misfortune was very great. Frightened by the negative results of the campaign, we rushed to the other extreme, completely curtailed it. The floodgates are open, and what a pitiful state we are in now! How much more difficult it will be to get out of it! "

So, "trusted", "did not intervene", "did not listen", "was busy", "wanted the best" - this is what Gorbachev reproaches himself for, saying that now we are in an even worse situation. All this is a verbal veil that hides the true meaning of the anti-alcohol campaign of 1985-1988, turning it into an annoying mistake of a man led by the noble idea of \u200b\u200bhelping his people in trouble. But, alas, it didn't work out.
And there's nothing you can do about it ...

Decrees, articles in newspapers and magazines reflecting the course of the anti-alcohol campaign 1985-91:

• On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU on May 7, 1985
• On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism, to eradicate moonshine distillation Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on May 7, 1985
• On strengthening the fight against drunkenness Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 16, 1985
• On measures to strengthen the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, the eradication of moonshine brewing Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR May 16, 1985
• On the progress of the implementation of the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism" Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU September 18, 1985
• The fate of the grape vine "Pravda" on May 31, 1986
• Powdered Muscat "Pravda" June 24, 1986