Encyclopedia of Russian History

From the outset, the government exercised control over the trade in spirits. Beginning in 1544, the state owned and regulated drink shops (kabaki) that distilled and sold vodka in the towns. The Law Code of 1649 extended state control to all the Russian provinces and established a monopoly over production, distribution, and sale of spirits, from which the nobility were exempt. In the mid-sixteenth century, the state began farming out the rights to collect taxes on vodka, and by 1767 liquor tax farming spread throughout the empire as the primary means of extracting revenues from vodka until an excise system was set up in 1863. The excise system, however, made regulation difficult, so in 1892, Minister of Finance Sergei Witte introduced a reformed state monopoly. Except for a brief experiment with prohibition from 1914 to 1925, the state retained a monopoly over the vodka trade until 1989. Throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, liquor taxes comprised between 26 and 33 percent of all state revenues.

Historically, peasants drank mead, ale, and beer on festive occasions. Since vodka involved distilling, peasant households did not have the equipment, technology, or resources to produce their own. In its quest for revenues, the state expanded commercial production and sale of vodka to the rural population throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With the expansion of the vodka trade, the use of beer was increasingly replaced by vodka as the favored ceremonial drink among the lower classes.

By the nineteenth century, vodka was the single most important item in lower-class diets. In the villages, peasants drank vodka at church festivals, rites of passage, family celebrations, weddings and funerals, and any special occasions in the life of the rural community. Such ceremonial drinking was as much an obligation as it was a pleasure. Tradition and custom demanded drunkenness on certain occasions, and those failing to respond dishonored themselves before the community. In order to avoid this stigma, families often spent their last pennies, and even sold property, to purchase vodka for an upcoming event. A funeral could not be arranged, a wedding conducted, or a bargain sealed without the required amount of vodka. To be binding, every type of transaction had to conclude with all parties wetting the bargain-sharing a drink of vodka. Custom established firm norms on the amount of vodka to be provided, below which a peasant family could not go without being shamed.

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Vodka was also a valuable exchange commodity used to maintain networks of patronage and manipulate village politics. Often decisions concerning the levying of taxes, election of officials, or the punishment of offenders depended upon who bought whom how much vodka. A defendant or petitioner could ply village elders with vodka to insure a favorable outcome; this was known as softening up the judge. Once a punishment had been decided upon, the perpetrator often treated the village to vodka in order to win forgiveness and read-mittance into the community. It was also common for the victim to treat the community to vodka, thereby affirming his or her acceptance of the punishment.

The political and economic uses of vodka were linked in the important village institution of work parties. Seeking to gather as many people as possible to get an urgent task done, such as repairing a road or bridge, building a church, or bringing in the harvest, the host would supply copious amounts of vodka. The provision of drink signaled his respect for the peasants, and they reciprocated by working for respect. Vodka was the reward for their labor, but more importantly, it symbolized the mutuality of the exchange, reinforcing the web of interdependent relationships in the community.

From the 1890s, as Russia embarked upon a course of modernization, vodka retained its cen-trality in the everyday lives of the working classes. With the beginning of industrialization, millions of peasants entered the urban workforce bringing their traditions with them, especially the practice of wetting the bargain. In the village, sharing a drink of vodka signified an equitable economic arrangement had been made. In the hiring market, former peasants forced potential employers to wet the bargain before they would agree to the terms of employment. The toast was a type of social leveling, forcing employers (at least symbolically) to respect the workers’ dignity and humanity.

Practices at the workplace centered on drinking vodka strengthened shop solidarities, reinforced hierarchies among workers, and symbolized a rite of passage into the world of real workers. Among male workers in shops, commercial firms, and factories, each new man underwent an initiation rite, which involved obligatory buying and drinking of vodka. Often, a newcomer was not addressed by name but called “Mama’s boy” until he provided the whole shop with vodka.