Russian Siberians of the 18th century and Alcoholism.

А. Ch. Elert

Generally speaking, nothing in history happens by accident. Any event is linked to other events of the past and of the future with numerous threads; all the occurrences are interconnected and interacting. And yet, you may have an impression that some decisive historic situations spring up all of a sudden, as though by pure chance… Somebody said or did something, or led the troops to a wrong place, or woke up in a bad mood one morning — and this becomes a starting point of a new epoch. There have been a lot of such situations in Russia’s history; in fact, such a situation marks the very beginning of the Russian state — choice of the official religion. According to the “Tale of Time Years” 1, Russia could just as well have accepted Judaism or Islam. It was the legendary words said by Vladimir Krasno Sonyshko 2 to the effect that we, Russians, drink to make merry and cannot live without it that made us Christians of the Greek type.

Vladimir died when his time came; but his “drinking manifesto” has been chanted for hundreds of years and became an inexhaustible source of myths, new theories and their disproval, and regrets. “Merrymaking” does not appear that merry, after all, and smells strongly of squabbling, grief, decline and tragedy. Moreover, they say that Russians become hopeless drunkards, and because of it the country’s future is a problem, if there is a future at all.

More information on these and other subjects you can find in the printed version of our journal.