Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society

Description

Russians today are the world's heaviest drinkers. The consumption of alcohol permeates family life, shapes the economy, and plays an occasional but striking role in the political leadership. It was in Russia in the 1980s that the most sustained attempt of its kind was made to eliminate alcohol abuse, and even drinking itself. Drawing upon a wide range of original sources, including interviews, surveys and the local press, Stephen White provides the first full-length study of this extraordinary campaign. He traces the profound influence of alcohol through Russian history, and charts the campaign from its initiation under Mikhail Gorbachev to its disappointing aftermath in the post-communist 1990s. Attractively written and fully illustrated, Russia Goes Dry is an entertaining as well as instructive guide to a changing society and a classic case study of the limitations of politically directed social reform.

'Stephen White ... has written a fascinating and highly readable account of this ludicrous campaign. The book is illustrated with Soviet cartoons of the era and a few photographs, which capture very succinctly the sheer brutishness of Russian drinking.' The Sunday Telegraph '... Russia Goes Dry is a joy to read and offers experts and non-experts alike a rare insight into a key policy of the Gorbachev era.' Europe-Asia Studies 'White ... has given us a memorable and fascinating study that acts as a case study paradigm of Soviet society at large ...White clearly knows his subject and has good mastery of the detail of the campaign and its context.' Political Studies