The Russians began to drink almost half as much

On the last day of January, some of us can once again celebrate a truly national holiday – the birthday of Russian vodka.

There is a widespread opinion that the “father of vodka” is the great scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. It was he who conducted research more than 150 years ago and prepared the scientific work “On the combination of alcohol with water”, where he substantiated the correct proportion laid down in the production of “little white”.

However, confusion has arisen about the exact dating of this event, which is associated with the reference 40-degree drink for Mother Russia. Many reference materials indicate that the official presentation of Mendeleev’s work to the scientific community took place on January 31, 1865, and therefore this date was chosen as the birthday of Russian vodka. But in reality, we should have celebrated such a holiday almost two weeks later. After all, Dmitry Ivanovich defended his legendary “vodka” dissertation at a meeting of the Council of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial St. Petersburg University on January 31, according to the old style, which corresponds, according to the Gregorian calendar now adopted in our country, February 12.

However, for most citizens, these calendar “tricks” probably do not matter. The main thing is there is a reason to remember the epoch-making event.

And if there is a reason…

On the topic of the day, we talked with a former employee of the museum, created under one of the firms that produce strong drinks. Here is what Elena Davydova shared with us:

– Although Dmitri Mendeleev happened to substantiate the correct proportions of vodka from a scientific point of view in 1865, the drink itself, consisting of alcohol diluted with water, appeared in our country long before that. It is known from historical chronicles that this “jolly drink” was first brought to Russian soil in 1429 from Genoa. Then, almost 600 years ago, the authorities, having seen the sad results of tasting such an overseas product, immediately banned the further import of the “potion” into the country. For almost a century after that, “fire water” in Rus’ was used only as a medicine. Doctors gave a maximum of half a spoonful of “little white” to patients suffering, for example, from abdominal colic, headaches …

And the very word “vodka” the Russians borrowed from their Polish neighbors. True, they pronounced it a little differently – “vodka”. In the original version, our great-grandfathers called this term such strong drinks that had color. That is, various kinds of tinctures – on herbs, on berries … And for several centuries we called the colorless “gorloder” “bread wine”.

In 1982, the International Arbitration Court at its regular meeting decided to recognize the USSR as the priority in the field of vodka production. The judges confirmed that it should be considered the original Russian alcoholic drink.

– Russia, according to a long-established opinion, is a drinking country …

– Now it’s time to make some important clarifications based on statistical data in such a categorical formulation. And these clarifications allow us to assert that modern Russia is a country that drinks less than before.

Employees of the World Health Organization in their report, which fixes the state of affairs on the alcohol front in 2019, indicated that over the past decade and a half, alcohol consumption in the Russian Federation has decreased by almost 43%

This is confirmed by the research data of our specialists, to which the head of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, referred last fall. For the period from 2008 to 2021 the amount of pure alcohol consumed per capita decreased quite significantly – it was 15.7 liters, it became about 9 liters (in more understandable “half-liters” for citizens – accordingly, almost 40 bottles were drunk earlier, and only 23 began to be drunk). Probably, this indicator would have been even better, but first, forced covid seclusion, and later, the onset of the sanctions crisis caused some growth in consumption. The people began to more actively “fill in” the problems that had arisen with alcohol. Here I came across some interesting data collected by a group of deputies from one of the parliamentary factions. According to them, by the spring of last year, compared to the same period in 2021, the sale of vodka increased by 8.2%, and alcoholic beverages – by almost a quarter.

– But this is the “average temperature in the hospital.” There are regions in our country that are more and less sober…

– Of course, there are differences in the activity of consumption of “fire water”. Traditionally, the most anti-alcohol in our country are the republics of the North Caucasus – Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya. They confirmed their leadership at the end of 2022 as well. And in the tail of the rating were Sakhalin Oblast, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

At the same time, one should not forget about the presence of a market for counterfeit alcohol. Here it is almost impossible to carry out quantitative accounting for statistical research. But according to some experts in certain regions of the country, the share of such a “scorched” “potion” can reach a very significant share of the volume of sold legal products of our factories. It is no secret that in some Russian villages and villages the main “source of inspiration” for the local public is wine and vodka of completely incomprehensible origin, but sold at a low price.

– Are there many countries now that are ahead of us in the commitment of their citizens to the “green snake”?

– So far, I have official data only for 2021. According to data published by WHO, the rating of the most drinking countries in the world was headed by Moldova, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. Germany, Nigeria, Latvia, Romania are also among those who are catching up with them… And our Russia is located in this list in 16th place, leaving behind France, Portugal, Belgium and… the Seychelles. For comparison, the Belarusian brothers occupy 27th place, and the inhabitants of Azerbaijan completely provided this former Soviet republic with the 166th position: the Transcaucasian state is one of the most sober places on Earth.