ABSTRACT: The failure of Gorbachev's attempt to limit the use of vodka in the USSR by means of probitionist measures. ("Panorama" n. 1247 of the 11th of March 1990 taken from "The Economist")

"The Soviets have always drunk vodka. They cannot do without it". With these words, Leonid Breznev reconfirmed a widely-spread commonplace for the West: the tendency of the Soviet people to drink. A clinical answer, which betrayed the fatalism of the old leader as regards the evils of the country. At the time no one realized how much truth there was in that common place, not even the Westerners who were using it as the evidence of the social dissatisfaction on the part of the Soviet citizens. For over 50 years, before the advent of Gorbachev's glasnost, the Soviet regime had always kept the statistics concernong alcoholism accurately hidden away. Statistics that were very approximate, because of a concrete technical difficulty in collecting precise data. A large part of alcoholic beverages, both vodka and the terrible mixture called samogon, are produced clandestinely at home. The problem of alcohol addiction of million of Soviets returned once again on the agenda with the advent, in 1985, of Gorbachev. The

leader of the new trend immediately transormed it into one of the essential points of his project of reformimg Soviet society. But today, five years after launching the campaign against liquor and vodka abuse, Moscow gives up and admits to having been defeated.

The story of Gorbachev's desperate battle against vodka strated with the diffusion of the first official figures on the phenomenon. When the new Secretary was elected the alcoholics in the USSR amounted to over 20 million (on a population of 280 million), of which 4,5 million where chronic alcoholics. In average, all Soviets above the age of 15 were consuming at least 15,5 litres of alcohol a year, especially vodka and alcoholic beverages containg over 40% of alcohol. At the time, like today, the stronger drinkers were the Russians, BieloRussians and Ucranians. The Baltics preferred beer; Georgians and Armeninas, on the other hand, preferred wine. Only in the Caucasian and Asian Republics (where the majority is Muslem) was the consumption scarce, and still is today.

The consequences of the consumption of liquor were alarming. For the health above all. Life expectancy, which in 1965 was 66 years for males, in 1984 had dropped to 62 years (also owing to the very serious deficiencies of the sanitary system). In the list of the 20 main causes for death in the Soviet Union the consumption of liquor was at the third place, following cancer and heart disease. One out of three car accidents was caused by drunk driving. Alcoholism was believed to be one of the main causes for the high rate of infant mortality and of innate defects in babies.

The consumption of alcohol also had heavy repercussions on the productive actuvuty, being it one of the main causes for absences from work and accidents during work. A third major problem was that of social morality and security, in a country in which the main causes for divorce were, and still are, fights and violences produced by an alcoholic husband or wife, and where three murders out of four are committed by drunk people.

CLANDESTINE TRAFFIC

An alarming situation, in actula fact tolerated in the past by the State above all to protect specific economic interests. In the first years of the '80s taxes on trade represented about 13% of the state budget in the USSR, and the production of alcohol was constantly increased in order to fill the gaps of the public deficit.

Confronted with this situation, in March 1985 the newly-elected General Secretaty of the Pcus Gorbachev decided to act drastically, the party was divided between those who advocated a dissuasion campaign to induce Soviet citizens not to abuse of alcohol, and those who, on the contrary, advocated the urgency of resorting to repressive and drastic measures. The supporters of the hard line prevailed, and immediately tackled the problem. In April the Politburo passed a series of important anti-alcohol measures, ratified by the Supreme Soviet on the 17th of May. The new legislation among other things envisaged immediate firing for the leaders of the party, the State and the productive structures who were found to be alcoholics. The police received the order to rid the streets of drunkards, eliminate samogon distilleries and destroy clendestine alcohol traffic. Above all, drastic reductions of the production of vodka and liquors were decided, the sale of which was prohibited to persons under 21 and limited to very

few public shops.

The repressive measures were accompanied by intensive propaganda, and government decided to create a popular Association for the promotion of abstinence from alcohol, which was joined by 14 million "voluntaries".

In the beginning it seemes that Gorbachev's efforts had produced the wanted effects. Around the middle of 1986, the authorities declared with satisfaction that crimes had dropped by a fourth, and that absences from work had decreased by at leats one third.

HOME-MADE VODKA

But the Soviet government's optimism turned out to be groundless. The state production of vodka and liquors reduced by 50% has has given rise to hundreds of thousands of new clandestine distilleries. Alcohol traffickers have made huge profits (20 rubles for a bottle costing one and a half rubles) and have no scruples as to the product's quality. Home-made vodka is distilled using just about everything: tomato preserve, fruit juices, sweets and huge quantities of sugar.

The anti-alcohol campaign had lead to other and more serious consequences. It has been dicovered that the million of alcoholics who cannot buy liquor in the very few public shops or from the clandestine peddlars resort to the most terrible surrogates: eau de cologne, after-shave, nail polish, window-cleaning detergents, hair lotions...People steal and drink alcohol meant for industrial use or denatured alcohol, stolen from hospitals. The consequences froma sanitary point of view: tens of thousands of poisonings and thousands of deaths.

For a long time Gorbachev refused to acknowledge his defat, but in the end has been forced to look for remedies. First of all, with hardly any propaganda, the government authorized the production of vodka in the State factories once again, and has re-opened the liquor shops which had been closed. Then the police received the order to take a milder approach toward consumers. Lastly, an increase by 25% of the production of liquors for 1989 and 1990 has been publicly announced.