Description
Book SynopsisRussia is justly famous for its vodka. Today, the Russian average drinking man consumes 180 bottles of vodka a year, nearly half a bottle a day. But few people realize the enormous-and enormously destructive-role vodka has played in Russian politics.In Vodka Politics, Mark Schrad reveals that almost every Russian ruler has utilized alcohol to strengthen his governing power and that virtually every major event in Russian history has been tinged with alcohol. The Tsars used alcohol to dampen dissent and exert control over their courts, while the government''s monopoly over its sale has provided a crucial revenue stream for centuries. In one of the book''s many remarkable insights, Schrad shows how Tsar Nicholas II''s decision to ban alcohol in 1914 contributed to the 1917 revolution. After taking power, Stalin lifted the ban and once again used mandatory drinking binges to keep his subordinates divided, fearful, confused, and off balance. On such occasions, a drunken Khrushchev routinely
Trade Reviewa powerful critique of the effect of the levels of vodka consumption and of government policy ... this book has real value ... [which] principally lies in its laying bare the effects of excessive vodka drinking on the course of development of Russian society and the responsibility of the Russian state in allowing this to develop * Graeme Gill, Australian Journal of Politics and History *
Schrad is an engaging writer. He ranges across Russian history with ease, zeroing in on countless striking anecdotes and developing his story within a competent and well-researched narrative. The author brings to bear vast scholarly literature as well as published and unpublished (including archival) primary sources ... Vodka Politics draws upon vast research, tells a lot of great stories, and advances a provocative thesis. * Jonathan Daly, American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction ; Chapter 2: Vodka Politics ; Chapter 3: Cruel Liquor-Ivan the Terrible and Alcohol in the Muscovite Court ; Chapter 4: The Weird World of Peter the Great ; Chapter 5: Russia's Empresses: Power, Conspiracy, and Vodka ; Chapter 6: Murder, Intrigue, and the Mysterious Origins of Vodka ; Chapter 7: Why Vodka? Russian Statecraft and the Origins of Addiction ; Chapter 8: Vodka and the Origins of Corruption ; Chapter 9: Vodka Domination, Vodka Resistance ; Chapter 10: The Pen, the Sword, and the Bottle ; Chapter 11: Drunk at the Front: Alcohol and the Imperial Russian Army ; Chapter 12: Nicholas the Drunk, Nicholas the Sober ; Chapter 13: Did Prohibition Cause the Russian Revolution? ; Chapter 14: Vodka Commies ; Chapter 15: Industrialization, Collectivization, Alcoholization ; Chapter 16: Vodka and Dissent in the Soviet Union ; Chapter 17: Gorbachev and the (Vodka) Politics of Reform ; Chapter 18: How Vodka Politics Killed the USSR, and Why That's Not Funny ; Chapter 19: Ladies and Gentlemen: Boris Yeltsin ; Chapter 20: Alcohol and the Demodernization of Russia ; Chapter 21: The Russian Cross ; Chapter 22: The Rise and Fall of Putin's ChampionChapter 23: Medvedev Against History ; Chapter 24: An End to Vodka Politics?
