Those generations born after 1991 may or may have not heard about the Soviet Union, a once so powerful country that counterbalanced the influence of the mighty United States during the Cold War.
The competition between the two was known as the Cold War. This East-West confrontation as described in history books began to disappear in the middle 80’s when Mikhail Gorbachov, a Soviet reformist, became the leader of the country.
By acknowledging that the USSR was doing bad in economic terms and that political reforms were necessary, he introduced perestroika and glasnost. These reforms, the former destined to deal with the poor performance of the Soviet economy, the latter aimed at promoting to a certain extend democracy did not work as expected and the country experienced an implosion, not as dramatic as in the former Yugoslavia but it was not a “velvet breakup” as in Czechoslovakia either.
Boris Yeltsin, a well-known alcoholic, became the leader who opposed a coup d’état against Gorbachov in August 1991 by the hardliners. Even though the coup failed, the viability of the Gorbachov administration was compromised and he no longer was in control of a stressed country. Then, on December 8, in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha forest in Belarus, Presidents Yeltsin of Russia, Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine and Belarus leader Stanislav Shushkevich, under the influence of vodka decided to sign the Belovezshkaya agreement that shut down the Soviet Union. It is said that Yeltsin was so drunk at that time that he was not able to go to bed and needed help to be taken to his bedroom. He later made a phone called to George Bush senior, then US President to inform him that the Soviet Union no longer existed. It seemed Bush did not like the news since he feared a disastrous process where new countries would come into existence from the Soviet Union ashes. He was also concerned about who would be controlling the country’s nuclear arsenal. In fact, some historians argue that even though the faith of the Soviet Union was doomed, Bush would have wanted the country to exist for a longer period to avoid political turmoil and strategic convulsions.
Yeltsin had a reputation as a heavy drinker and he may have developed a conflict with Gorbachov, not only on political matters, but on the control of alcohol by the last Soviet leader, who wanted to diminish the health problems and productivity decline developed by the population, especially men, from alcohol consumption. It is believed that alcohol and its consequences cost the Soviet Union around ten percent of its national income. This was not the first time the Soviet Union introduced a prohibition on alcohol, since between 1919 and 1925 the Bolsheviks established stringent anti-alcohol policies.
Between 1985 and 1988, Mikhail Gorbachov led an Anti-Alcohol Campaign, which included raising the effective price of drinking and subsidizing substitutes for alcohol consumption. On the supply side, the Gorbachov campaign prioritized the reduction of state production and even vineyards were destroyed; liquor stores could not sell vodka or wine before 2 pm on business days; the official drinking age rose from 18 to 21; restaurants could not offer hard liquors; sales near factories, schools, hospitals, and airports were prohibited; prices of alcohol dramatically increased; heavy new sanctions for public drunkenness and other alcohol-related offenses were introduced; and both home production of alcohol and possession of home-brew equipment were punishable by large fines or imprisonment.
At the height of the campaign, official alcohol sales had fallen by as much as two-thirds. Russian death rates declined abruptly with the start of the campaign in 1985 and remained below the pre-campaign trend throughout the latter 1980s, then rosing rapidly during the early 1990s after the end of the Soviet Union, to a temporary peak in 1994.
But as Prohibition in the US during the first decades of the 20th century has shown, when access to alcohol is restricted, there are forms to either illegally produce it or smuggle it. Same happened in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Supreme ended these provisions in 1988 first because they were very unpopular and second because they impacted public finance by reducing dramatically revenues. This happened at turbulent times and after prohibition came to an end, alcohol consumption increased and was even higher at the time the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Many historians and health specialists consider that when the Soviet Union vanished, anxiety, incertitude, unemployment, personal and labor expectations in the population increased, not only alcohol consumption but especially deaths provoked by strokes, cirrhosis and hearth attacks, mostly in men. Male life expectancy declined enormously and the first years of the 90’s showed Russia as a country where hope was vanishing. Within the Russian Federation the War in Chechnya opened the possibility of the implosion of the Russian Federation itself. On the international front Russia was humiliated by the West, which quickly moved toward full membership of former Warsaw Pact member countries at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Although Russia maintained the control of the former Soviet Union nuclear arsenal, Moscow and Yeltsin had to accept the so-called negative guarantees of security toward former Soviet Republics like Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, so that Russia would never threaten them with using nuclear weapons nor invade/take their territories.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin’s alcoholism was perceived as an opportunity for the West to obtain concessions a stronger and sober leader would no accept. Contrary to Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, his successor, is reportedly not much of a drinker and generally avoids alcohol, unless the drink is part of a formal reception or ceremony. Instead, Putin has promoted an imaged of a sports man who plays judo and enjoys rising horses and playing with dogs and other animals.
Considering the role played by Yeltsin in dismantling the once mighty Soviet Union and this link to his drunkenness, Putin has stated several times that fall of the Soviet Union was the "major geopolitical disaster of the century" and a "genuine tragedy" for the Russian people. He primarily regrets the collapse not for ideological reasons (he has criticized Bolshevik policies) but as a historical and geopolitical setback for Russian power. Yet, Putin did not blame Yeltsin directly, but Gorbachov. Putin even denied Gorbachov a State funeral for his contribution to the shutdown of the Soviet Union. But when Yeltsin died, he was honored with a State funeral by Putin and other dignitaries like George Bush Senior and his son.
Yet the views of Putin on alcohol are ambiguous. Of course, he says that people in Russia must develop better habits, for instance, by embracing sports, but on the other hand he has supported the alcohol sector for state revenues and to secure his power. Putin understands that to increase the life expectancy of the population, it is necessary to diminish alcohol consumption, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) caused 2. 6 million deaths worldwide in 2019. But alcohol helps the national income.
Despite a very impressive decline in alcohol consumption in Russia between 2003 and 2016 - by 43 percent - recent developments like the war in Ukraine have pushed elites and officials to heavy drinking, possibly due to the conflict itself and also the incertitude about the economic perspectives.
One final comment on alcohol about Donald Trump, who seems to get along with Putin. Although he owns vineyards in Virginia (in fact they are administered by his son Eric), Trump is a teetotal and has said that he has never drunk alcohol in his life, as he attributes the death of his brother Ted to alcoholism. At least Trump seems to be aware about the impact of alcoholism not only on the family but, more importantly, on geopolitics. He prefers to stay sober.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by María Cristina Rosas, a professor and researcher in the faculty of political and social sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Rosas can be reached via email at: mcrosas@prodigy.net.mx
