10. How the Russian Government Actively Promoted Alcoholism for Centuries
No nation is as closely associated with a particular alcoholic drink as Russia is associated with vodka. It is now as symbolic of Russia as matryoshka dolls, brown bears, and caviar. Aside from rum and the British Royal Navy, no military in the world is as closely associated with a particular drink as Russia’s military is associated with vodka. It is not merely a popular perception based on little more than myth and legend. Russian armies and alcohol do go back a long way. From the perspective of military leaders, one of alcohol’s greatest positive effects is its ability to make warriors brave. It might be liquid courage, but it’s still courage, while it lasts. However, to strike the right balance between enough alcohol for liquid courage, and not overdo it, can be tricky.
In 1223, a small Mongol army crushed a much larger Rus army at the Battle of the Kalka River. The Mongols had genius commanders, but they were helped by their enemy’s alcoholism. Many Rus had gotten drunk, then launched themselves at the Mongols in a reckless charge that ended in disaster. In the 1500s, Russia’s tsars noticed their subjects’ love of booze, and set up establishments to distill and sell vodka. By the 1640s, vodka had become a government monopoly. The tsarist tax system was regressive, in that it fell proportionally heaviest not upon the richest, but upon the poorest. Much of that tax revenue came from sales taxes. By the 1850s, nearly half of Russia’s government revenue came from the taxes and duties on vodka sales. By the start of the twentieth century, the Smirnoff Vodka brand alone accounted for a full third of the Russian army’s budget.