The beginning of the anti-alcohol campaign during perestroika. Anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR
Anti-alcohol campaign
They drank bitter in Rus' always and at all times. As they say, you cannot escape this fact. But here’s the question: “How much do we drink? And how much can you drink? Doctors and scientists in their numerous studies have proven that per capita the maximum permissible level of consumption is 8 liters of pure alcohol per year. And then all the “delights” of alcoholization of the population begin, first of all, the degradation of the gene pool and, as a consequence, a sharp decrease in the birth rate. In 1959, in the USSR the population drank 5 liters of pure alcohol per person. The figure, of course, is an underestimate, because this is the so-called “registered consumption,” that is, the amount of alcoholic beverages that passed through state trade. Outside of this figure remain moonshine, all sorts of wine liqueurs - in general, alcoholic drinks produced at home. According to scientists’ calculations, to obtain true data on alcohol consumption, you need to add 2–3 liters of pure alcohol produced at home per person per year to the registered level. That is, by the beginning of the 60s, the level of consumption of alcoholic beverages in the USSR was high, but did not reach a critical level.
In the 60s the situation worsened every year. According to official data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the State Statistics Committee of the RSFSR (by the way, these data were secret and published only in 1988), in 1970 the consumption level was 8.3 liters per year, and this does not take into account handicraft production, which was also growing from year to year. By the mid-80s, the situation became critical - the registered level of consumption: 10.6 liters, taking into account production at home - more than 14 liters. It was already a disaster, the country was simply drinking itself to death. “Sometimes it even got to the point,” recalled one of the “fathers” of perestroika, Alexander Yakovlev, “that in some factories those caught drinking were not given wages - they were paid straight to their wives. Otherwise, some husbands did not have time to bring the money home on payday.”
Of course, the Kremlin knew about the current situation. The problem of alcoholism was considered under Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. But the country’s economy was already bursting at the seams, and without the huge “vodka” money it would have completely collapsed. The monopoly on vodka gave the state incredible profits. The population was not stopped even by the constantly rising prices for forty degrees. By the way, these prices were remembered better than the multiplication tables. If a person approached the cash register and said: “three sixty-two,” the cashier did not ask what exactly the buyer wanted to buy and which department to send the check to.
The situation was, so to speak, mutually beneficial: the people, or rather the male part of them, continued to wage an undeclared war with themselves, while the state, receiving super profits, did not interfere with this. Finally, the new government that came to the Kremlin in the mid-80s made up its mind. On May 16, 1985, a decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism and the eradication of moonshine” was published, as well as a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On strengthening the fight against drunkenness.” Thus began the famous anti-alcohol campaign.
At first, the initiative from above was generally greeted calmly by the people. “We survived the devastation, we survived the war, we will survive this too.” The female part of the population wrote letters of gratitude to the Kremlin, television and newspapers. That's right, they say, the party took up the men. The men grumbled, but didn’t stop drinking because of it. However, then everything went according to the well-known saying: “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.” For some reason, the initiators of the campaign decided that if the sale of vodka was sharply limited, then the people would also suddenly lose the desire to drink this very vodka. To begin with, prices for alcoholic beverages were sharply increased (by 50% or more). Then they began to sell alcohol only from two o'clock in the afternoon and no more than two bottles per person.
The combination of high prices and shortages led to the fact that people began to look for a replacement for their usual product. In the morning, queues of sufferers lined up outside the perfume departments. “Chypre”, “Triple Cologne” and “Cucumber Lotion”, especially revered by “connoisseurs” for its special taste, were sold out within an hour or two of the store’s opening. Just like in wine and vodka stores, dispensing standards were established in perfume departments - no more than two bottles per person. It must be said that cologne and other alcohol-containing perfumes are not the worst option. At worst, people drank denatured alcohol, polish, window cleaning liquid, the so-called “befovka”, that is, alcohol obtained from BF glue - in general, everything that smelled at least a little bit of alcohol. And as a result, the number of poisonings has increased several times.
Handicraft production of alcoholic beverages, mainly moonshine, has also increased sharply. If previously moonshine was distilled mainly in rural areas, now city dwellers have also joined this process. Sugar and yeast immediately became scarce and were distributed using coupons. Moonshiners responded with hundreds of new recipes for making moonshine. The ingenious designs of moonshine stills were worthy of publication in the pages of the magazine “Inventor and Innovator”, or even a prize in the field of science and technology. The authorities tried to fight moonshiners: if previously they looked at moonshine, by and large, turning a blind eye, then after the start of the anti-alcohol campaign, the moonshiner turned out to be almost the main enemy of the state. Raids were carried out daily and nightly, moonshine stills were confiscated in hundreds and thousands. But all these measures did not produce much results.
The state attracted powerful propaganda forces to the anti-alcohol campaign. Newspapers denounced drunkards and moonshiners, and the film industry produced feature films, documentaries and even animated films on anti-alcohol themes. Television was not recommended to show films with scenes of feasts. The so-called “Komsomol” non-alcoholic weddings were widely promoted, at which tea was drunk instead of vodka and champagne. They tried to fight the “green serpent” by creating a supposedly “popular and voluntary” association of supporters of a healthy lifestyle. In September 1985, the All-Union Voluntary Society for the Struggle for Sobriety was established in Moscow. The first founding conference of the newly created society took place not just anywhere, but in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Yu. A. Ovchinnikov was elected Chairman of the Society. Within a few months, more than 12 million people joined the Temperance Society, and about 400 thousand primary cells were created throughout the country. Above the primary cells were 3,800 district and 900 city councils. The numbers looked very impressive, if not for one “but” - there was no smell of voluntariness here. They were driven into the Temperance Society under pressure; heads of any rank and simply party members were obliged to become adherents of a healthy lifestyle. As soon as the anti-alcohol campaign began to wind down, the Temperance Society actually ceased to exist.
Just a few months after the start, it became obvious that the anti-alcohol campaign was doomed to failure. The country's budget suffered colossal losses. Hundreds of distilleries were repurposed to produce fruit juices and soft drinks, but could not ensure the same profitability. A terrible blow was dealt to winemaking. In order to report to higher authorities and portray the struggle for a sober lifestyle, vineyards, on which specialist winemakers had worked for decades, were mercilessly cut down throughout the country. But the cutting down of vineyards in republics such as Moldova or Georgia, where winemaking is not just a branch of the food industry, but part of the culture of the inhabitants, was perceived as a personal insult to an entire people.
By 1988, the anti-alcohol campaign had virtually faded away and, as one might expect, ended in resounding failure. The authorities tried to wean the people from drinking bitter drinks, relying on administrative methods, using harsh pressure. “Egor Kuzmich Ligachev (at that time the second person in the party leadership, was considered the main initiator of the anti-alcohol campaign. - Auto.), who had a very strong character, sought to tighten the implementation of the decree,” said Alexander Yakovlev. - At every secretariat he scolded someone - either Georgia or Moldova. The Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee, who was in charge of food issues, also received reprimands. The pressure was enormous. Our state is generally a theater of the absurd, and there’s nothing to talk about here. God forbid if someone drank champagne on the occasion of someone’s wedding or birthday, and even while being a member of the party. He was called to a meeting and worked through. In general, some kind of anti-alcohol oprichnina was introduced.” This happened everywhere. Some district chief called his subordinates “on the carpet” and angrily asked why the plan to hand over moonshine stills to the population had not been fulfilled and how it was possible that during the screening of a film about the dangers of drunkenness, the hall was not filled to capacity.
What were the results of the anti-alcohol campaign? Over two years, from 1985 to 1987, registered alcohol consumption decreased by 51%; taking into account artisanal production, the decrease in consumption was 27–29%. However, these seemingly optimistic figures did not affect the health of the people; rather, on the contrary, they weaned people from drinking high-quality alcoholic beverages. As Mikhail Gorbachev said in one of his interviews, recalling the anti-alcohol campaign: “Because of the mistakes made, a good big deal ended ingloriously.” And it’s hard to disagree with this opinion...
This text is an introductory fragment. From the book Secret Wars of the Soviet Union author Okorokov Alexander VasilievichLEBANESE CAMPAIGN. 1982 Brief historical background Lebanon is a state in Western Asia, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders on the north and east with Syria, on the southeast with Israel. In the south, Lebanon is adjacent to part of the territory allocated by the UN for the creation
From the book Lawyer Encyclopedia by the authorElection campaign ELECTION CAMPAIGN (French campagne - campaign) - a system of campaigning events carried out by political parties and independent candidates in order to secure maximum voter support in the upcoming elections, In I.k. Also
TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BA) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (LE) by the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (FR) by the author TSB author Apalkov Yuri Valentinovich From the book Warships of the Japanese Navy. Battleships and aircraft carriers 10.1918 – 8.1945 Directory author Apalkov Yuri Valentinovich From the book Warships of the Japanese Navy. Battleships and aircraft carriers 10.1918 – 8.1945 Directory author Apalkov Yuri Valentinovich From the book Warships of the Japanese Navy. Battleships and aircraft carriers 10.1918 – 8.1945 Directory author Apalkov Yuri Valentinovich From the book Basic Special Forces Training [Extreme Survival] author Ardashev Alexey NikolaevichOn May 16, 1985, Gorbachev’s famous decree “On strengthening the fight against drunkenness” was issued. Despite the fact that the anti-alcohol campaign was curtailed after 2 years, its consequences were felt until the end of the 90s.
Urgent measures
When starting to implement the anti-alcohol program, the authorities, as they say, hit the ground running: prices for alcohol jumped 2.5-3 times, 2/3 of the points selling alcohol were closed, and the maximum fine for drinking strong drinks in public places reached 100 rubles .
It must be admitted that the draconian measures had a basis. The situation with drunkenness in the USSR reached a critical level by the mid-80s. According to official data alone, there were about 5 million alcoholics in the country, many of them women. Drunkenness caused low levels of labor productivity, an increase in the number of road accidents, an increase in the number of abandoned children and many other problems.
According to the Institute of Sociology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the annual damage to the national economy from alcohol abuse was estimated at 80 to 100 billion rubles. The situation required urgent intervention from the country's top leadership.
Is there a result
Despite significant excesses, the anti-alcohol campaign brought a number of positive results. Over two years of restrictive and prohibitive measures, it was possible to increase the birth rate (by an average of 500 thousand per year), with 8% fewer weakened newborns, and also to increase life expectancy (by 2.6 years). According to demographers, prohibition helped save the lives of at least a million people.
Thanks to the fight against drunkenness, it was possible to establish labor discipline: absenteeism and technical downtime were reduced by approximately 41%. Statistics on traffic and industrial accidents have improved markedly - the number of incidents has decreased by approximately 30%, and crime has decreased by an impressive 70%.
If we don't get drunk, we'll get poisoned
And yet the anti-alcohol campaign did more harm than good. A sharp decline in the production of alcoholic beverages led to huge queues, in some regions coupons for vodka appeared, and due to the growing scale of moonshine production, coupons for sugar were also introduced.
Due to the total shortage of alcohol, the use of surrogates has become widespread: pharmaceutical tinctures, cologne, industrial alcohol, antifreeze. The shortage of sugar and yeast did not in any way affect the production of moonshine, which was often of the lowest quality.
Despite the fact that the number of people poisoned by alcohol has noticeably decreased, these indicators were more than compensated for by intoxication from the use of surrogates and non-alcoholic intoxicating substances. It was at this time that the drug trade flourished and quickly filled the resulting vacuum.
The consequences of Prohibition would reverberate with renewed vigor in the 90s, when the former republics of the Soviet Union were overwhelmed by the “alcohol tsunami.” The unrestrained flow of imported alcohol of dubious quality will lead to an unprecedented increase in alcohol consumption - 16.2 liters per year per capita, which will be perhaps the highest in the world.
Dependent Budget
The anti-alcohol campaign stimulated the growth of the shadow economy, and, as a result, led to the accumulation of initial capital by speculators, whose daily profits could reach an astronomical 200% percent.
But the state economic sector suffered only losses from Prohibition. By 1985, the turnover of alcoholic products accounted for up to 25% of budget revenues; due to the high cost of alcohol, the state could subsidize the prices of bread, milk, and sugar. In the first year of the anti-alcohol campaign alone, the treasury lost at least 37 billion rubles.
In addition to economic problems, the USSR experienced complications in international relations. Due to the refusal to purchase wine, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary presented claims to the Soviet leadership, proposing to replace alcoholic products with other goods in order to somehow compensate for the losses.
Vine at the root
In just a few years of a decisive fight against drunkenness, irreparable damage was caused to the domestic wine industry. According to official data, up to 30% of grape plantations were destroyed - a third more than they died during the Second World War.
By 1990, the area of vineyards in the RSFSR decreased from 200 thousand hectares to 168 thousand, and the annual grape harvest, compared to the period 1981-1985, fell from 850 thousand to 430 thousand tons. Moldova suffered more - over 80 thousand hectares of vineyards out of 210 thousand were uprooted there.
In Crimea, the famous Massandra winery with the world's largest collection of wines is under threat of closure. One of the ideologists of the anti-alcohol campaign, Yegor Ligachev, said during a visit to the plant: “This wine library must be destroyed and Massandra closed.” And only a call from the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine Vladimir Shcherbitsky to Gorbachev made it possible to save the unique plant.
Massive cutting down of vineyards led to the complete destruction of some collection grape varieties in Moldova, Kuban and the North Caucasus, for example, Ekim-Kara, from which the Black Doctor wine was produced.
Breeding work was also dealt a big blow. Many talented breeders were persecuted by the party nomenklatura. One of them is Pavel Golodriga - professor, doctor of biological sciences, director of the All-Union Research Institute of Winemaking and Viticulture "Magarach". Unsuccessful attempts to convince Gorbachev to stop destroying vineyards forced the scientist to commit suicide.
Massive discontent among the population and the economic crisis that began in 1987 forced the government to gradually curtail the anti-alcohol campaign. And although the fight against drunkenness continued until 1990, the volume of sales and consumption of alcohol began to grow steadily.
In May 1985, a new massive anti-alcohol campaign began in the Soviet Union. To eradicate drunkenness, all means were used: from promoting a healthy lifestyle to cutting down vineyards. However, the results were very contradictory, the population was dissatisfied, and the campaign soon had to be curtailed. The author of the site, Nikolai Bolshakov, recalls how this campaign took place.
New campaign
Anti-alcohol campaigns were carried out more than once in the Soviet Union. 1918, 1929, 1958, 1972 - all these years were marked by a massive fight against drunkenness. But the most famous campaign was initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev. Having come to power, the Secretary General understood that alcohol consumption had become widespread. On average, ten liters of alcohol was consumed per capita per year, and this had to be dealt with somehow. This was well understood not only by the newly appointed head of the USSR, but also by Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who became the ideological inspirers of this campaign. Gorbachev shared his upcoming plans with citizens when he visited Leningrad during his first trip as Secretary General in May 1985. And on May 7, decree No. 410 “On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism and eradicate moonshine” was officially issued from the Council of Ministers. It was with this resolution that the anti-alcohol campaign in the USSR began.
Mikhail Gorbachev with Yegor Ligachev, one of the instigators of the campaign
Offensive on all fronts
The campaign immediately had its own slogan: “Sobriety is the norm.” And the loudest mouthpiece of this large-scale movement was the newspaper Pravda. “The consumption of alcoholic beverages at work or in public places should be considered completely unacceptable, such cases should be regarded as immoral, antisocial behavior, using the full force of the law and public opinion against drunkards,” the editorial of this publication wrote.
Now scenes of feasting were carefully cut out of films and non-alcoholic weddings were welcomed. Alcohol itself could only be obtained at strictly certain times, which was from two to seven o’clock in the afternoon, and strictly in special stores. Fines for appearing drunk were increased, and drinking while working was prohibited. And sobriety and healthy lifestyle societies were organized throughout the country. In general, it was planned to gradually reduce the production of vodka by ten percent every year, and to stop producing wine products altogether by 1989. Therefore, the anti-alcohol war caused great damage to the wine industry.
Queues at liquor stores broke all records
Anti-alcohol campaign hits wine industry hard
In Moldova and in Abrau-Durso, where wine is a traditional commodity, and in many other places, vineyards were cut down en masse. According to official data, 80 thousand hectares of grape plots were destroyed in the Moldavian SSR alone.
Conflicting Results
The most active phase of the campaign occurred from 1985 to 1987. It will be announced that such actions have prevented more than a million deaths. In fact, the production of alcoholic beverages was halved, and the output of wine products was cut by two-thirds. But all these actions to combat drunkenness had a negative impact on the population. First of all, speculation increased sharply, the demand for sugar and other goods, including toothpaste, cologne, and other alcohol-containing products, increased many times over. Every tenth trade worker was accused of profiteering, and more than 60 thousand people were held accountable for violating the sale of alcohol.
There were fights and long queues everywhere near stores. Many people switched to moonshine. There are also many drug addicts and substance abusers among both adults and youth. According to the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the use of moonshine and other intoxicating substances led to the poisoning of more than forty thousand people, of whom eleven thousand died. The number of drug addicts doubled from 1985 to 1987.
During one of the anti-alcohol rallies
The campaign was declared to have saved the lives of a million people
The campaign hit not only the population, but also the Soviet budget, which was already suffering from a deficit at that time. In total, the state treasury lost 19 billion rubles from the trade sector. And due to losses in wine production, another 6.8 billion were missing. Discontent throughout the country eventually forced Mikhail Gorbachev to slow down the anti-alcohol campaign. The state monopoly on the trade in alcoholic beverages was soon abolished, and the fight against drunkenness gradually went nowhere. Ivan Laptev, chairman of the All-Union Society for the Struggle for a Sober Lifestyle, will later write: “They didn’t drink less in Rus', the drinking culture didn’t improve, the green serpent, having rested in basements and cellars, remained the best friend of Soviet people.”
Mikhail Gorbachev was dubbed “Lemonade Joe” due to his fight against drunkenness
Mikhail Gorbachev himself will be popularly called “mineral secretary” and “lemonade Joe.” However, the campaign was highly appreciated by the international community. “It delayed the deaths of millions of people who were at risk of losing their lives due to accidents, alcohol poisoning or suicide,” one UN report said.
Under the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union, a change of leader and a general change of leadership in the country occurred, as a rule, not in an atmosphere of calm continuity of power, but in a state of deep political and economic crisis. Not only a significant part of the people, but also many people from the administrative apparatus looked at the new leader not just as a successor and continuer, but almost as the savior of the country and nation.
Under these conditions, it was important for the new leader and the new team not only to carry out their initiatives or reforms across the entire front of problems, but also to determine the main direction of their efforts. Also V.I. Lenin gave advice to his students and followers - not to waste time on everything, but to identify the main link, by clinging to which it would be possible to pull out the entire heavy chain of problems. In 1921, Lenin considered such a “main link,” as we know, to be the establishment of trade, and first of all, normal commercial trade between city and countryside. I will not remember here about Stalin, who had different priorities in different years of his almost 30-year reign. N.S. Khrushchev began his “great decade” with attempts to dramatically raise the level of agriculture, including the rise of virgin lands and the introduction of corn, the cessation of political repression, rehabilitation, and then the condemnation of the “cult of personality” and its consequences. L.I. Brezhnev began his 18-year rule with calls for stability, a rejection of unnecessary and overly radical reforms, a condemnation of “subjectivism” and “voluntarism,” and new calls for the rise of agriculture. Yu.V. Andropov began his short reign with calls for order and discipline, a fight against corruption, and a slight reduction in vodka prices. Therefore, everyone was waiting to see how Mikhail Gorbachev would begin his reign; his calls for acceleration and for working in new ways were too abstract and meaningless.
The first Soviet minister who was invited to report and talk to the newly elected General Secretary was the highly experienced 74-year-old USSR Minister of Finance Vasily Fedorovich Garbuzov, who had held his post since 1960; he headed the country's finances longer than any other finance minister in the history of Russia and the USSR. The main instruction that the Ministry of Finance received from the new party leader was a proposal to find additional sources of income for the budget that could replace income from the sale of alcoholic beverages. Garbuzov was not used to arguing with party leaders, and he honestly tried to come up with something together with his deputies. However, all the numerous proposals for some new sources of income turned out to be ineffective. In 1980 – 1984 the budget received about 70 billion rubles in income from the sale of alcoholic products, and there was simply nothing to replace this huge income item at that time. This did not stop M. Gorbachev. On May 17, 1985, the first Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism was published, which was soon supplemented by many resolutions of the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The notorious anti-alcohol campaign began, which became both in the minds of the country's citizens and in reality the main event that was associated with the name of M. Gorbachev in the first three years of his leadership. The mocking nickname “mineral secretary” stuck to Mikhail Gorbachev for a long time.
The main method used to carry out this campaign was administrative pressure. Sales of vodka, all spirits, and wine were reduced many times. If previously alcoholic beverages could be purchased in unlimited quantities at any grocery store, now the stores that sold alcoholic beverages were strictly defined, there were few of them, and each buyer had the right to purchase only one or at least two bottles at a time . Of course, huge queues immediately appeared near all such stores, in which hundreds of people stood from morning to evening. The production of alcoholic beverages has decreased several times. Vodka factories and wineries simply closed. In Crimea and Moldova, vineyards began to be uprooted, since there was nowhere to put the grapes. Party leaders and all other bosses at any level were removed from work and expelled from the party if they were found and detained in a public place while intoxicated. In addition, the price of alcoholic drinks was increased, and their sale was limited in all restaurants, cafes and bars. Alcoholic drinks were prohibited at all official receptions. Of course, some kind of propaganda campaign was carried out, various kinds of “temperance societies” were created, but administrative methods played the main role, and all directives were aimed primarily at strict administrative pressure. The campaign to eradicate alcoholism caused a strong surge of discontent among the majority of citizens, who felt humiliated by the brutal coercion used against them. A person who had to queue for a bottle of vodka for several hours or was forced to buy it at exorbitant prices from a speculator almost automatically became a critic and opponent of the new Soviet and party leader.
For me, as a historian, carrying out such a tough administrative anti-alcohol campaign seemed an absurd and stupid undertaking. Prohibition enforcement campaigns have been attempted in the past in various countries around the world, all of which have failed. A long-term campaign of this type in the United States led to the emergence of an extensive mafia in that country and was eventually canceled. Prohibition in Russia was introduced during the First World War, and it continued to operate in the early years of Soviet power. The production and sale of vodka in the USSR was resumed by the state precisely in order to replenish the budget, and not the pockets of speculators and moonshiners. Various restrictions on the production and consumption of strong alcoholic beverages are still in effect today in Sweden and Finland, but this is not “prohibition”.
There is no need to prove harm from alcoholism. However, it would be extremely naive to see vodka as the root cause of the vices of Soviet society. Alcoholism is a symptom of social ills, but not their cause. The famous Russian satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote 150 years ago: “Why does our man wear bast shoes? Why does such complete, general ignorance reign in the villages? Why does a man hardly eat meat or even butter? In response to all the questions, the historiographers agreed on one thing: everything was from her, everything was from the damned barnacle... Oh! If only it were so! If only it were possible, by simply limiting the number of taverns, to instill in people confidence in their fate, to raise their moral level, to impart to them that strength and vigor that helps them fight and overcome the iron adversities of life! How easy it would be to put an end to all the outrages of the past, all the failures of the present, all the dubious prospects of the future!” Large texts from Saltykov-Shchedrin circulated from hand to hand in Moscow in 1986 as “samizdat” texts.
There was not a single social layer in the country that would support the crude and primitive anti-alcohol campaign launched in the USSR. Yes, statistics showed based on the results of 1986 and 1987. a slight decrease in mortality and an increase in birth rates. Some types of crime have also decreased. But at the same time, the number of poisonings and deaths from drinking low-quality vodka increased. In 1985, about 100 thousand people were brought to criminal liability for moonshine, and in 1987 there were already more than 500 thousand. Sugar began to disappear from sale. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 1987 more than 1.5 million tons of sugar were used in moonshine production. Budget revenues from the sale of alcoholic beverages decreased in 1986 to 36 billion rubles - 2 times compared to 1984. However, in both 1986 and 1987. the authorities continued to increase administrative pressure and repression. Measures were taken to completely stop the production of fruit and berry wines. Beer production was reduced by 4 times, and many breweries were shut down. Previously purchased imported equipment for beer production was sent for scrap. But at the same time, organized crime—the Russian mafia—was rapidly developing in the country. The smuggling of alcoholic beverages also grew: they were brought to the USSR from both China and Canada. It would be difficult to imagine a worse start to perestroika.
Celebrating almost like a holiday the 10th (in 1995), 15th (in 2000) and 20th (in 2005) anniversaries of perestroika, most of the authors simply remain silent about M.’s “prohibition law”. Gorbachev, who was then the main undertaking of the new leader. One of the German authors, Wolfgang Haug, in his speeches and publications, on the contrary, tried to prove that the anti-alcohol campaign was not only appropriate and correct, but even an ideal inception for perestroika, an attempt to break with the past, legitimize future reforms and even unite the entire people for achieving democratization on the opening path to the future. Strongly objecting to this German apologist for M. Gorbachev, the Russian publicist Leonid Ionin rightly noted that even with the most abstract reasoning from afar, such an obvious failure of the most important of the undertakings of perestroika in 1985-1986 cannot be justified. “How can you not notice how this campaign was really carried out,” wrote L. Ionin. – Don’t notice the gigantic queues where you had to stand for many hours to buy even a bottle of wine. Don't notice fights over a place in line or just over a bottle of vodka. Ignore the need for insulting certificates about the death of a relative in order to buy vodka for the funeral. Not to notice broken biographies when a person walked out of a party and caught the eye of a policeman. Not to notice at all that the authorities have dealt us all - both drinkers and non-drinkers - a mortal insult, putting us in the humiliating position of alcoholics, ready to do anything just to get a glass. The government's response could be nothing but anger and passive resistance. The authorities soon had to retreat. But they did not retreat to the same positions in which they stood before the start of the fight against alcohol. Perestroika propaganda was discredited. The authorities demonstrated both stupidity and impotence. The belief that she knew what she was doing and could do it was undermined. A worse start to the reforms could not have been imagined. I think that from that time on both perestroika and its leader were doomed to defeat.” This is harsh, but mostly true. Egor Kuzmich Ligachev only in the last sections of his extensive memoirs tried to somehow justify his persistence and determination in the fight against alcoholism. “We had to respond,” he wrote, “to a flood of letters—mostly from wives and mothers—in which grief-stricken women cursed the drunkenness that was taking the lives of their sons and husbands. It was no longer possible to ignore the loud groans of the people. Without sobering up the people, it was impossible to carry out social reforms. Yes, the anti-alcohol campaign brought not only benefits, but also considerable costs. It became clear that it would not be possible to overcome the long-standing illness at once. I do not absolve myself of responsibility for the fact that our practical measures turned out to be overly harsh and administrative. Apparently, something personal was at work here: as a non-drinker, I was psychologically not ready to come to terms with the fact that someone cannot “quit” drinking if the possibilities of obtaining alcohol are sharply limited. It seemed that if you worked hard, you could quickly stop drinking. This whole harsh campaign did not last long, only about two years. Then an epiphany came, and the party began to change tactics, shifting the emphasis to explanatory work designed for the long term. I don’t see anything terrible in this evolution – from directiveness to clarification; it is natural. Our opponents had reasonable arguments. However, the political aim of the false democrats in the anti-alcohol campaign was also clearly visible. “Everything can be forgiven, but not gloating over the failure of another attempt to overcome a long-standing national illness.” It is difficult to comment on these kinds of explanations and justifications. The largest politician and the second person in the party and in power suddenly discovered that he had not only subordinates, including the unreasonable people, but also political opponents who would not be inclined to forgive him for such obvious mistakes and stupidities.
Mikhail Gorbachev admitted in his memoirs that the anti-alcohol campaign was very crude, that this campaign had very serious consequences, which also affected his reputation. “No matter how much they scolded the authorities, it was the Secretary General who got the worst of it, who, according to tradition, was considered to be responsible for everything. That’s how I got the nickname “mineral secretary.” However, here M. Gorbachev tried to justify himself; he blamed Yegor Ligachev and Mikhail Solomentsev, who in 1985 - 1987, for all the excesses. served as Chairman of the Party Control Committee of the CPSU Central Committee. These people were entrusted with monitoring the implementation of decrees and decisions, but they took up the matter with irrepressible zeal and brought it to the point of absurdity. Yes, of course, he is also to blame, he should have intervened at the very first distortions, information about them reached him, and very serious people told him about unacceptable distortions. “But I was prevented,” notes M. Gorbachev, “by the desperate preoccupation with the avalanche of affairs that befell me - internal and external, and to some extent by excessive delicacy.”
Nikolai Ryzhkov wrote in most detail about all the vicissitudes of the anti-alcohol campaign, which lasted more than three years, in his memoirs. According to his testimony, three members of the Politburo - N. Tikhonov, G. Aliev and he, N. Ryzhkov - quite strongly opposed this campaign. The main initiators of the campaign were M. Gorbachev, E. Ligachev and M. Solomentsev. “We understood that we were doing something stupid, we saw that this campaign had turned into a farce, we objected, but they didn’t want to listen to us. We wanted to defend at least the beer. Not so! The new Secretary General and his closest associates in the anti-alcohol campaign, using the morale around the new leader, fought to the death.” N. Ryzhkov and others had to retreat. The Council of Ministers of the USSR not only regularly carried out all the directives of the Central Committee on the fight against drunkenness, but even held meetings on how to increase the effectiveness of this entire campaign, and on whether kefir was also an alcoholic drink. Only the severe economic and financial crisis that began to develop in 1986 - 1987, among the causes of which were the fall in world oil prices, the Chernobyl disaster, unsuccessful economic initiatives, but also the consequences of the anti-alcohol campaign, forced M. Gorbachev to again raise the issue with the Politburo about the progress of this campaign. They were talking, in particular, about the drop in trade turnover in the country and the doubling of queues, which took tens of billions of hours from the population a year. On the agenda of the Politburo meeting on Thursday, September 8, 1988, this issue was somewhere at the end, in the “Miscellaneous” item. However, the controversy was long and stormy. This time N. Ryzhkov was supported by V.I. Vorotnikov, L.N. Zaikov, N.N. Slyunkov and V.P. Nikonov. Ligachev and Solomentsev fiercely objected to them. Things escalated to swearing and personal attacks. Some of the members of the Politburo were silent, and Gorbachev was silent. However, when voting, he also spoke in favor of weakening the anti-alcohol campaign. “Of course,” he said, “the correct policy with the implementation of the May 1985 decree must be maintained. But what to do with queues and speculation? Let drunkards curse the Soviet regime and me personally. But the reaction of society is confusing. And most importantly - moonshine, a colossal speculation. It affected the sales of perfumes and even sweets. They are no longer in Moscow. In general, when drawing the right line, we overdid it, as always. Now we already have 400 thousand people convicted of moonshine, and there is no end in sight. Vodka production must be left at the level established in the Decree. But there are no restrictions for beer, for dry wine, for champagne, for cognac.” This entire discussion was not published, and changes in the sale of alcoholic beverages occurred very slowly. It took several more years to restore the previous order and level of income in the industry, which included hundreds of enterprises, as well as wine-growing farms, and this work was not completed even by the time of the collapse of the USSR. The total losses of the Soviet budget in terms of hard currency amounted to 1985–1990. about 100 billion dollars.
The Japanese name for Japan, Nihon (日本), consists of two parts - ni (日) and hon (本), both of which are Sinicisms. The first word (日) in modern Chinese is pronounced rì and, as in Japanese, means “sun” (represented in writing by its ideogram). The second word (本) in modern Chinese is pronounced bӗn. Its original meaning is "root", and the ideogram representing it is the ideogram of the tree mù (木) with a dash added at the bottom to indicate the root. From the meaning of “root” the meaning of “origin” developed, and it was in this sense that it entered the name of Japan Nihon (日本) – “origin of the sun” > “land of the rising sun” (modern Chinese rì bӗn). In ancient Chinese, the word bӗn (本) also had the meaning of “scroll, book.” In modern Chinese it is replaced in this sense by the word shū (書), but remains in it as a counting word for books. The Chinese word bӗn (本) was borrowed into Japanese both in the sense of "root, origin" and "scroll, book", and in the form hon (本) means book in modern Japanese. The same Chinese word bӗn (本) meaning “scroll, book” was also borrowed into the ancient Turkic language, where, after adding the Turkic suffix -ig, it acquired the form *küjnig. The Türks brought this word to Europe, where it from the language of the Danube Turkic-speaking Bulgars in the form knig entered the language of the Slavic-speaking Bulgarians and, through Church Slavonic, spread to other Slavic languages, including Russian.
Thus, the Russian word book and the Japanese word hon "book" have a common root of Chinese origin, and the same root is included as a second component in the Japanese name for Japan Nihon.
I hope everything is clear?)))