Prohibition and The Fall of the Russian Empire

[Music] when we use the word prohibition americans tend to think about that period in our history between 1920 and 1933 when we banned the production importation transportation and sale of alcohol but many americans don't realize that prohibition wasn't just an american thing it was a worldwide movement we weren't even the first to do it in 1914 zard nicholas ii of russia proclaimed his empire dry a response to a new period of modern warfare and despite the best hopes of zarus russia prohibition in the empire if anything turned out to be even more a disaster there than it was here in the united states it's history that deserves to be remembered the united states actually passed a national prohibition law prior to the 18th amendment the 1918 temporary wartime prohibition act banned the sale of alcoholic beverages having an alcohol content of greater than 1.28 percent and was justified as a measure to save grain for producing food during the great war its passage was part of the growing movement that would eventually result in the 18th amendment prohibition in imperial russia was similarly related to wartime measures russia's most famous liquor of course is vodka the origins of vodka are debated and the earliest versions were considerably less alcoholic tasted nothing like modern vodka and were used mostly as medicine it wasn't until the eighth century invention of the still that vodka became more alcoholic the first written mention of the drink comes from a recorder of deeds in the palatinate of sendamirs in what is today poland in 1405 from which it made its way to russia according to legend a monk in the moscow kremlin came up with the first recipe for russian vodka which was originally called bread wine but with many names reflecting quality alcohol content and other varieties over the centuries the russian state maintained a monopoly over the production of vodka and widely promoted its drinking this helped to make vodka the drink of choice among russians in 1863 reforms included with the emancipation of the serfs changed the system which led to much wider production and a crash in vodka prices making it widely available to even the poor citizens the repeal of monopoly also allowed the state to tax vodka sales which became a vital part of the government finances tradition sprung up regarding the drink and it became the single most important item in the peasantry's festival diet it was a basic ingredient of all celebrations and a sort of a seal of ceremonials it's also given to soldiers as part of their ration which would become something of an issue later on at the turn of the 20th century the imperial ambitions of japan ran into russia's own interests in the far east specifically russia wanted a warm water port on the pacific ocean which could be operational year round or basic vladivostok could only be operational during the summer since 1897 russia had leased a base at port arthur from china giving them the port their eastern navy needed japan saw russia's interests in the region as a threat to their efforts to establish a sphere of influence throughout korea and manchuria when japan offered to recognize russia's influence in manchuria in exchange for recognition that korea fell into japan's sphere russia refused negotiations broke down in 1904 on february 9 1904 the japanese navy launched a surprise attack on the russian eastern fleet at port arthur japan's attack caught the russians off guard and while the initial battles were indecisive it was becoming quickly clear it would not be a short or easy war as the russians had believed the most decisive land battle of the war was fought in 1905 slaves to the city of mood kitten today known as shenyang it was possibly the largest battle in history up to that point involving some 610 000 combatants the russians outnumbered the japanese but were badly defeated reports were that alcohol in vodka specifically had helped to bring the russian army down papers in saint petersburg reported that the japanese found several thousand russian soldiers so dead drunk that they were able to bayonet them like so many pigs war correspondents wrote that in the retreat beastly drunk soldiers lost their rifles shouted songs and fell down and rolled into the dust in vienna another paper said that the japanese did not conquer but alcohol triumphed and that wasn't the only place where vodka seemed to have caused a problem all over the country peasant conscription often done at the point of a gun turned into drunken riots where buildings were burned and recruitment officers killed defeats at sea prompted russia to send the baltic fleet around the world to fight the japanese navy led by grand duke alexei alexandrovich romanov known for spending less time on the fleet than he did on drinking bouts and various affairs the fleet ran into trouble before it even got out of europe when it mistook british fishing trawlers for japanese torpedo boats in the north sea between denmark and england the paranoid russians killed several fishermen the incident nearly brought england and russia to war one reporter wrote that the belief was confidently expressed that the only possible explanation was to be found in the undisciplined and probable drunken frenzy of the russian naval officers it's not clear that the sailors were actually drunk but rumors that the japanese had sent ships to europe were commonplace and the sailors were so poorly disciplined and trained that they fired several more times on instant ships the baltic fleet was defeated spectacularly by the japanese when it finally arrived it was clear that alcohol played a role in the defeat of imperial russia's mighty armies wasn't even a new complaint as early as the 1870s some officers were concerned about the ill effects of alcohol a doctor surv advocated for withholding the vodka ration claiming that troop morale comportment discipline and performance would all be improved social drinking made drinkers out of non-drinking recruits one group conscripted in 1878 had 43 refusing the ration and only 10 drinking more than the ration on the side five years later that same group was drinking much more only seven percent refused the ration and more than half were drinking more than just the ration perhaps surprisingly statistically the russians actually drank less than france and italy but when the russians did drink they did it to excess the worldwide temperance movement had been growing throughout the 1800s and by 1890 temperance groups in russia were calling to have vodka removed from the russian military altogether but many in the russian military believe that vodka improved morale and even had medicinal effects imperial navy commanders argued that naval life sometimes calls for level of energy that could only be gained by a glass of vodka a europe was shocked that an imperial power could be defeated by upstart easterners and they saw alcohol as the cause kasha wilhelm ii announced in 1910 that the winner of the next european war would be the army that remained the most sober the problem remained however that the russian state relied on the taxes from vodka but after russia's defeat by japan's our nicholas traveled the country and with great grief he witnessed sad pictures of infirmity family poverty and neglected businesses the inevitable consequences of life that is other than sober in january of 1914 the tsar appointed a new finance minister who he directed to make the treasury no longer dependent on the ruination of the spiritual and economic forces of the majority of my faithful subjects that is no longer reliant on tax revenue from vodka the beginning of world war one and russia's entrance in july and august of that year hastened the tsar's plans he banned the sale of vodka in districts of mobilization and at the front in the hopes of preserving food stocks and more importantly to ease mobilization hoping to avoid the drunken riots that accompanied mobilization in 1904 the ban has been cited as helpful in driving relatively quick mobilization in russia but tensions remained high the porous conscripts were unable to buy vodka but the wealthy were still able to drink from their wine cellars and despite the ban conscripts still rioted at mobilization points ransacking closed liquor stores one governor begged the czar to sell alcohol for two hours a day to avoid bloody clashes the fateful moment that would lead to full prohibition in russia was on september 27 1914 the russian army was chasing retreated germans on the lithuanian front when platoon commander prince oleg konstantinovich romanov was shot oleg was our nicholas's cousin son of his favorite uncle grand duke constantine oleg would die of his wounds the only romanov to die in battle during the war and the duke was deeply affected constantine was a teetotaler in support of prohibition shortly after son's death the tsar said a telegram that announced that they had decided to abolish forever the government sale of vodka in russia russia became the first country to implement prohibition on earth but it came with dire consequences the sudden ban turned many against the tsar and instantly an illegal liquor industry exploded over 1800 illegal distilleries were found that year and 707 were uncovered in 1915. the loss of revenue would be disastrous but the russian elite treated it with perhaps typical care the russian prime minister wrote so what if we do lose 800 million rubles in revenue we shall print that much paper money it's all the same to the people it was not the same and hyperinflation would be one of the drivers of the revolution that led to the dethroning of the czar in 1917. the head of the legislature's finance committee boasted that never since the dawn of human history has a single country in time of war renounced the principal source of its revenue as if that was something to boast about the government created fully fictitious reports claiming that productivity leaped following the ban while printing paper money hastened to spiral of inflation which burdened the entire country abroad british politician david lloyd george called it the single greatest act of national heroism to say that prohibition caused the downfall of the russian empire is to oversimplify the situation but in general historians point to three important factors in the zardam's fall discontent with nicholas hyper inflation and the breakdown of russia's infrastructure of course vodka was at that point an enormous part of russian culture cutting it out amidst the largest war in history to that point when there's our few supporters the government made inflation worse by printing paper money and even infrastructure was affected as vodka distilleries tried to ship their entire supplies of alcohol to ports where it could be shipped to countries that could drink it meant to save grain for food instead grain was taken to make moonshine helping to cause food shortages that bred protests dozens of other issues were combined to lead to the collapse of the russian empire nicholas stayed at the front while general strikes and riots roiled the home front the russians were doing badly in battle and some 1.7 million were killed in the war men had been taken away from the farms and food prices soared and between the severe winter and the continual breakdown of locomotives supplies couldn't be moved police and soldiers fight upon rioting civilians in saint petersburg then known as petrograd the garrison sided with the moths on march 15 1917 zar nicholas ii was forced to advocate his throne his family would be held during the few months of the provisional government which would fall in october 1917 with the rise of the bolsheviks and vladimir lenin lyndon would pull russia out of the war eventually signing a treaty in 1918 with the central powers but though the provisional government and london massively changed russian policy one thing all three maintained was prohibition linen opposed excessive drinking on ideological terms and said that we should not follow the example of the capitalist countries and put vodka and other intoxicants on the market because profitable though they are they will lead us back to capitalism he took violent measures against moonshiners in order to preserve grain to feed the masses vital in ensuring their loyalty but russia's experiment with prohibition ended with lennon's death in 1924. stalin revived the old monopoly of the czars to profit the state of course russia wasn't the only country to experiment with prohibition in the era iceland finland norway canada and of course the united states would all pass some version of national prohibition in roughly the same era virtually all of which were mostly repealed within just a few years historians will continue to argue over the many causes of the fall of the russian empire but russian prohibition is certainly indicative of many of the problems of the era it showed how out of step the russian elite were with the people and the decision to cut essentially a third of your national revenues just as you are entering a large war is very indicative of the ill informed and ill-timed decisions that were part of the reason that russia fared so poorly in that war so while prohibition was certainly not the only cause it's difficult to discount russian prohibition as being a major factor in the fall of the romanov dynasty it's just another example about how russian culture and history is inextricably linked to vodka i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 118,564

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, russia, prohibition, russian empire, Tsar Nicholas II, world history

Id: vg-GguMaweo

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 02 2021