Living Water: Vodka and Russian Society on the Eve of Emancipation

ISBN-13: 9780198222866 / Angielski / Twarda / 1990 / 462 str.

David Christian; Deborah Christian

Opis

This is a study of the social, economic, and political role of vodka in nineteenth-century Russia. Since the "Green Serpent" first appeared in sixteenth-century Muscovy, it has played a vital part in Russian life. Vodka became an essential ingredient in all working class celebrations--personal, religious, and commercial. By the nineteenth century, it was generating one third of government revenue. The individual and governmental dependence on vodka has endured into the Gorbachev era, yet until now, the phenomenon has largely been ignored by historians. Drawing on original research in Soviet archives, this lively volume will provide an indispensable analysis of the importance of the vodka trade to all aspects of Russian life.

Recenzje

This is a work of admirable scholarship on a subject of immense significance in Russian history, and one that has been scandalously neglected.

Spis treści

List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Part 1: Vodka & Russian Society: Introduction: Vodka & Russian Society; Vodka before the Nineteenth century; Part 2: Drinking Vodka: Vodkas and pseudo-vodkas in the 19th century tavern; Drinking Vodka - Russia's drinking cultures; Part 3: Making money from Vodka: Selling Vodka (A) Taverns and tavernkeepers; Selling Vodka: (B) Tax farming; Selling Vodka: (C) The tax farmers; Taxing Vodka - the government's share; Making Vodka - The nobility's share; Part 4: Vodka and emancipation; Upper class protest - press attacks on the tax farm; Working class protest - boycotting Vodka; Working class protest - smashing taverns; Killing the hundred-headed hydra - the abolition of tax farming; Appendices; Glossary: measures and conversions; Bibliography; Index