Towards the XXVII Congress of the CPSU
The documents of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government repeatedly noted the urgency of combating drunkenness, which is a serious social problem. To combat this ugly phenomenon, the XXVI Party Congress said, " the efforts of all labor collectives, all public organizations, and all communists must be directed."1 . It is necessary "to give this work, "the CPSU Central Committee resolution" On measures to overcome drunkenness and alcoholism "emphasizes," a truly mass, nationwide character, and to create in every labor collective an atmosphere of intolerance to drunkenness, to any violations of labor discipline and order. " 2 This struggle must be waged systematically, purposefully, implacably, through both persuasion and the use of the strict force of the law.
Extensive journalistic and scientific literature is devoted to this problem. In recent years , 3 doctors and 4 lawyers have written a lot about it . But in the historical plan of work on the problem under consideration, there is almost no 5 . Meanwhile, the main tasks of state institutions and public organizations in the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism were defined in the early years of Soviet power, when the position of the young Soviet state was developed, most fully formulated in the decisions of the party and government in the late 1920s. Therefore, in the light of modern requirements, the experience of combating drunkenness accumulated in the 20-30s needs to be carefully studied and understood.
This article attempts to tell about the history of the anti-alcohol movement of the mid-20s-early 30s, to recreate the history of the emergence and activity of a voluntary public organization - the Society for Combating Alcoholism. This experience is interesting both in itself, and for understanding the socio-psychological atmosphere of that time, and for studying methods of dealing with survivable forms of consciousness and behavior in new social conditions.
1 Materials of the XXVI Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1981, p. 64.
2 Pravda, 17. V. 1985.
3 See, for example, Lotova E. I., Pavluchkova A.V. On the history of the creation and activity of the All-Union Society for Combating Alcoholism. - Sovetskoe zdravookhranenie, 1972, No. 2; imi. Experience of anti-alcohol education at school in the 20-30s. - Soviet Healthcare, 1976, N 9; Pavluchkova A.V. From the history of fighting drunkenness. - Paramedic and midwife, 1975, N 4; and others.
4 Parkhomenko A. G. of the State-legal activities in the fight against alcoholism in the first years of Soviet power. - Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo, 1984, N 4; et al.
5 For the only publication, see: Kann P. Ya. The struggle of Petrograd workers with drunken pogroms (November-December 1917) - History of the USSR, 1962, No. 3.
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"Alcoholism and socialism are incompatible!" Under this slogan, a massive anti-alcohol movement has been taking place in our country since the mid-20s. It was precisely a teetotal movement. His slogans smacked of asceticism. On the pages of newspapers and magazines, posters and leaflets were written: "Get out the moonshine!", " Kick out those who drink, kick out those who drink!", " Give a salary without wine!", " For a sober life!", "All for the fight against alcoholism!" and so on. it was absolutely clear to its participants: the struggle is not with abuse, but with use in general, i.e. the struggle for sobriety. How can this maximalism be explained?
The October battles died down, and the hardships of the civil war ended. The workers have begun a great creative work. And, like fetters, illiteracy, religious prejudices, "drinking" customs, which are closely related to religion, bound this work. To get rid of this legacy as soon as possible, and only by joint efforts - this was the goal of the temperance movement.
One of the most difficult and complex tasks of the cultural revolution was to transform the public consciousness of the broad strata of the population, the entire structure of their spiritual life and everyday life. In January 1919, speaking at the Second All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions, V. I. Lenin said:: "The worker has never been separated from the old society by a Chinese wall. And he still has a lot of the traditional psychology of capitalist society. Workers build a new society, not by becoming new people who are clean from the dirt of the old world, but by standing up to their knees in this mud. You can only dream of getting rid of this dirt. It would be utopian to think that this can be done immediately. " 6 One of the manifestations of this "traditional psychology" was drunkenness.
At the beginning of the First World War, the sale of alcoholic beverages in Russia was stopped, first for the period of mobilization, then for the entire period of military operations. All the alcohol storage facilities were soon overflowing, and in 1915 the production of alcohol was suspended due to the lack of storage facilities. Its reserves amounted to more than 70 million buckets (in terms of 40°) 7 . In the first days of October, the counter-revolution tried to organize "drunken" riots, but detachments of the Red Guard stopped "drunken" pogroms and took measures to strengthen the protection of warehouses. Lenin's address to the Population of November 5 (18), 1917, pointed out the need to establish the strictest revolutionary order and suppress attempts at anarchy on the part of drunkards and hooligans .8
The Supreme Economic Council was faced with the issue of restoring alcohol production in the autumn of 1918, when, with the temporary loss of oil fields in the Caucasus, it was necessary to replace petroleum products with alcohol as a liquid fuel: motor fuel had to include 89.5% ethyl alcohol. In October 1918, the vast amount of alcohol seized by the White Army and looted during evacuations totaled only 3.5 million buckets (40° C) throughout the republic, while requests for motor transport alone amounted to more than 2 million buckets. By mid-1920, 953 distilleries had been nationalized. Alcohol was released exclusively for technical purposes, 75% of the total alcohol produced was spent on the manufacture of gunpowder 9 . The production of alcohol for drinking was prohibited.
In the context of the civil war, in order to prevent the processing of bread for moonshine, on May 9, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree "On the pre-production of bread for home-made alcohol".-
6 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 449.
7 TSGANKH SSSR, f. 733, op. 1, d. 24, l. 3.
8 See Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 35, p. 66.
9 TSGANKH SSSR, f. 733, op. 1, d. 6, l. 1; d. 26, l. 4; d. 50, l. 4.
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delivering extraordinary powers to the People's Commissar of Food to combat the rural bourgeoisie, which harbors grain reserves and speculates on them, "which stated:" Declare all those who have a surplus of bread and ...those who squander their grain reserves on moonshine-enemies of the people, bring them to a revolutionary court, so that the perpetrators are sentenced to prison for a term of at least 10 years, are expelled forever from the community, all their property is confiscated, and moonshiners, in addition, are sentenced to forced community service"10 .
December 19, 1919 The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree "On prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol, strong drinks and alcohol-containing substances that are not related to drinks" 11, which is often called the "dry law". However, this act in the full sense of the word was not such, because it did not prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages in general and all, but was mainly aimed at preserving bread. The decree forbade the sale of alcohol for "drinking consumption", for grape wine, the fortress was allowed no higher than 12°. The decree established liability for smoking alcohol (confiscation of alcohol, apparatuses, all property, imprisonment for a term of at least 5 years). "For drinking... in public places, in all kinds of institutions, as well as for allowing such drinking and for appearing in a public place in a state of intoxication,"the decree said," those guilty of this are subject to imprisonment with forced labor for a period of at least one year." On August 9, 1921, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the sale of grape, fruit and raisin wines" allowed the sale of grape wine with a strength of no more than 14°12 to the population .
Due to the large difference in the price of industrial and agricultural goods, it was profitable for the peasants not to sell the surplus bread on the market, but to distill it for moonshine. In 1922, more than 500,000 criminal cases on moonshine brewing were initiated in the republic .13 However, in determining the measure of punishment, the courts usually proceeded from class positions, taking into account the "cultural backwardness" of offenders, assigning relatively short terms or fines and warnings. Lenin expressed his attitude to this question more than once. So, on May 27, 1921, in his closing speech on the report on the food tax at the X All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b), he said:: "In trade, you have to take into account what is asked. They ask for the lipstick we need to give. We can also establish a large-scale industry on pomade, if we manage it properly... (Voice from the spot: "And icons, they ask for icons"). As for icons, I think that unlike capitalist countries that use such things as vodka and other dope, we will not allow this, because no matter how profitable they may be for trade, they will lead us back to capitalism, and not forward to communism whereas lipstick doesn't threaten that"14 .
On March 28, 1922, in his closing speech at the XI Party Congress, Lenin said:: "If the peasant needs free trade,.. then we should give it to them, but this does not mean that we will allow them to trade in sea buckthorn. We will punish you for this."15 Lenin even in the most difficult times
10 SU RSFSR, 1918, N 35, Article 468.
11 SU RSFSR, 1920, N 1-2, art. 2.The statement that "during the civil war, in the first peaceful years... in our country, there was a "dry law" (see Lirmyan R. Justification is not subject. Kommunist, 1985, No. 8, pp. 112, 117).
12 Izvestiya VTsIK, 12. VIII. 1922.
13 Gernet M. N. Criminality abroad and in the USSR, Moscow, 1931, p. 76.
14 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 43, p. 326.
15 Ibid., vol. 45, p. 120.
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times and thoughts did not allow the country's budget to improve due to the sale of alcoholic beverages. And it can be considered as a testament to the line written on his initiative in the GOELRO plan: "The prohibition of alcohol consumption should continue to be implemented, as absolutely harmful to the health of the population" 16 .
However, the urgent need for additional sources of internal accumulation led to the fact that in August 1925 the sale of vodka was allowed and at the same time a monopoly on its production was established, carried out by the State Alcohol Committee of the Supreme Economic Council .17 The vodka monopoly was introduced as a temporary measure, in order to find additional resources for the implementation of industrialization of the country. It was assumed that it would be abolished as soon as new sources of income were found in our national economy.
At the 15th Party Congress, there was already a question of gradually curtailing the production of vodka and expanding such sources of income as radio and cinema. However, neither radio nor cinematography had yet reached such a level of development as to become financially profitable sources of income .18 In its directives for drawing up a five-year plan, the Congress emphasized the need to "raise the cultural level of the city and rural population" as one of the conditions for industrialization. "An energetic struggle is necessary," it went on,"for a decisive reorganization of everyday life, a struggle for culture, against drunkenness, for the persistent elimination of illiteracy, for the labor consciousness and labor discipline of the working and peasant masses." 19
The need to combat drunkenness was caused not so much by an increase in the consumption of alcoholic beverages (according to the Central Executive Board of the RSFSR, the average annual consumption of alcoholic beverages per capita was 8.6 liters in 1913 and 8.7 liters in 1927)20, but by a serious concern about the consequences of alcoholism. Statistics of the State Alcohol Committee and the Central Executive Body of the RSFSR showed that the movement of sales of alcoholic beverages during the entire period from the introduction of the wine monopoly to 1929 showed sharp fluctuations, but in general there was a slight increase. In turn, the impact of drunkenness on labor productivity in the USSR in 1927 was expressed in eloquent figures: absenteeism on the basis of drunkenness brought 135 million rubles. loss, reduced labor productivity - 600 million rubles. loss 21 .
Having set the task of resolutely combating drunkenness, the 15th Party Congress drew attention to the fact that success in this struggle can be achieved only if state, party, Soviet and public organizations, and above all the Komsomol, trade unions, Soviets, and co-operatives participate in it .22 Participants in the temperance movement also understood this. A long anti-alcohol campaign was launched in the press. It was initiated by doctors. Moszdravotdel and the Bureau of the health section of the Moscow City Council in 1925 began to publish a bi-weekly magazine "For a new life". For the first time, the magazine drew public attention to the fight against alcoholism, placing in the December no-
16 Plan of electrification of the RSFSR. Report to the VIII Congress of Soviets of the State Commission for Electrification of Russia, Moscow, 1955, p. 174.
17 NW OF the USSR, 1925, N 57, Article 425.
18 Three months after the congress, an All-Union Meeting on Cinematography was held, at which A. Krinitsky's report gave the following figures: in 1927, there were only 7,000 film installations in the country (for more information, see: Ways of Cinema. The First All-Union Party Meeting on Cinematography, Moscow, 1929, pp. 41-42).
19 CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee. Ed. 8. Vol. 4, pp. 46-47.
20 CSR of the RSFSR. Alcoholism in the modern village, Moscow, 1929, pp. 14-17.
21 Deichman E. Alcoholism and the fight against it. Moscow-L. 1929, p. 124.
22 CPSU in resolutions, vol. 4, pp. 48, 68.
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at least for 1925, the editorial "Forty degrees and the workers". For two years, he regularly published materials on this topic: "On the anti-alcohol front", "To fight dope","For a sober life".
The medical community considered the fight against alcoholism in a number of other tasks related to the improvement of everyday life: the fight against homelessness, tuberculosis, etc. Back in 1924, in a number of regions of the country, "groups for the fight against drug addiction" began to be created on a voluntary basis, which then grew into public Commissions for the improvement of work and life (KOTIBs), and the members of these commissions were called "drug sprinters". The latter organized "demonstration trials" over alcoholics, anti-alcohol evenings, in the program of which there was always a report and a "live newspaper" of the local amateur collective.
The Soviet authorities were actively involved in the fight against alcoholism. On September 11, 1926, the RSFSR adopted a decree "On immediate measures in the field of medical prevention and cultural and educational work to combat alcoholism" 23 . The People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR was asked to strengthen the study of prevention and treatment of alcoholics through a network of neuropsychiatric institutions. Three People's Commissariats (the People's Commissariat of Health, the People's Commissariat of Justice, and the NKVD) were asked to develop measures for compulsory treatment, and the People's Commissariat of Health and the People's Commissariat of Education, with the participation of the All - Russian Union of Labor Unions, were asked to develop measures to strengthen educational activities, meaning: introducing basic information about the dangers of alcohol into school programs at all levels and types; issuing relevant manuals and literature; creating films about the fight against moonshine brewing and alcoholism.
On February 16, 1928 in Moscow, in the Column Hall of the House of Unions, a meeting of enthusiasts of anti-alcohol struggle was held 24 . The association created on it adopted the name " Society for Combating Alcoholism "(OBSA)25 . Its founders were Soviet, party, Komsomol workers, representatives of the People's Commissariat of Health, Moszdravotdel, People's Commissariat of Trade, scientists, etc. E. I. Deichman, L. G. Politov (employees of the Institute of Social Hygiene), Director of the Institute A. Molkov, I. D. Strashun (later Professor, full member of the Academy of Medical Sciences), Professor of the First Moscow State University P. B. Gannushkin, V. A. Obukh, A. N. Bach, E. M. Yaroslavsky, N. I. Podvoisky, S. M. Budyonny, writers D. Bedny, Vs. Ivanov and others. Yu was elected Chairman of the Society. Larin 26, his first deputy - S. M. Semkov (metal worker, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b)), secretary E. I. Deichman.
In April 1928, the Society published an appeal to the population explaining its goals and objectives: to help the Soviet government develop a culture of everyday life and fight alcoholism as a social evil. 27 At first, the society intended to concentrate its activities only in large industrial centers and then move them to the countryside. The goals of the Society, as they were understood by the founders, were similar to the goals of all Soviet organizations, and the meaning of creating the Society was "to have a special institution from an anti-alcohol asset that would excite public opinion.",
23 SU RSFSR, 1926, N 57, Article 447.
24 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5465, op. 10, d. 189, l. 8.
25 In the documents of those years, it was sometimes called the "Narcological Society","Anti-Alcohol Society".
26 Larin Yu. (M. A. Lurie-1892-1932) - economist, writer, worked in the Supreme Economic Council, State Planning Committee. Author of works on NEP and trade issues.
27 For the new Life, 1928, N 7-8, p. 22.
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it created a mood among the masses, passed laws " 28 . Membership in the Society was first individual, then there are collective members. He was one of the first to join the Company as a legal entity of MGSPS.
During the first year of the Society's existence, more than 150 local (provincial, district) societies for combating alcoholism were created, the total number of OBSA grew to 200 thousand members. The first cells began to appear in March 1928. Skirmishers in their creation were the workers of the Sickle and Hammer plant, who appealed in March 1928 with the appeal " United Front in the fight against alcoholism and tobacco." They called on all cultural organizations and citizens to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages to children and not allow children and teenagers to light their cigarettes .29 Then the cells appear in AMO factories, workshops of the Kursk Railway, etc. in early 1929. The Society develops and publishes special instructions for factory cells of the OBSA. It defined the general line of work of the cells: creating the right public opinion on alcoholism in enterprises. Members of the cells were supposed to study the issues of drug addiction and the fight against it, organize lectures, reports, debates, rallies on anti-alcohol topics, and conduct individual work with individual workers.
Gradually, cells and societies are emerging in other cities. At the beginning of 1929, the Leningrad OBSA was created, and in just a year it organized 220 factory, 99 institutional, and 30 front cells . The Moscow OBA also took shape: in April 1930, the first regional congress was held. He made a decision to increase the number of members of the society and to consolidate its membership organizationally. By May 1931, the Moscow OBSA had 398 cells with 17,500 members. Among them were 2,350 members of the CPSU (b), 1,088 Komsomol members; 12,873 men and 4,437 women .31
The first year of the Society's activity was successful, although the temperance movement itself has not yet reached the mass proportions that the Society's leaders dreamed of. On November 30, 1928, it gathers the first meeting of all cells conducting anti-alcohol work in different cities, and on May 30, 1929, the first meeting of the All-Union Council of Anti-Alcohol Societies (VPO) of the USSR was held, which was attended by more than 100 delegates, including representatives of Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Turkmenistan. The VSPO included representatives of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the Central Committee of the Komsomol, the All-Union Central Committee, the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR, the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, Glavpolitprosvet of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, etc. By that time, the movement already had more than 250,000 members .32 In terms of age, they were mostly workers with long industrial experience, and there were few young people in the society.
The activities of the Society in 1928-1932 consisted of the following main directions: measures to restrict the production and trade of alcoholic beverages; the fight against moonshine and shinkarstvo; cultural and domestic distraction of the population from drunkenness; medical care for those suffering from alcoholism.
One of the first activities of the Society was to draft a decree, which it intended to submit for discussion to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. Previously, the project was discussed for several months-
28 Larin Yu. Alcoholism and Socialism, Moscow, 1929, p. 33.
29 For the new life, 1928, N 3-4, p. 21.
30 Kul'tura i byt, 1930, N 19, p. 16.
31 Ibid., 1931, N 13-14, p. 24.
32 Larin Yu. Uk. soch., p. 37-38.
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Syatsev at the workers ' meetings, received the approval of the workers and in June 1928 was represented in the Council of People's Commissars 33 . This document is interesting, as it fairly fully reflects the position of the Society34 .
In the first section of the project, it was planned to reduce by 10% annually the volume of production of alcoholic beverages and beer set for 1928/29 and instruct the State Planning Committee in the 1-5-year master plan to provide for the complete cessation of production and sale of wine, vodka products and beer; to prevent investment of capital construction funds in the production of alcoholic beverages and beer; to prohibit the import of alcoholic beverages and "prohibit completely" the production of moonshine. In the second section of the project, the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR was proposed to develop a program to increase the production of non-alcoholic fruit and berry drinks, bread kvass, increase sugar production and import of tea, and plant only those grape varieties that are suitable for processing into pastilles, raisins, and sweets. The third section of the project contained specific proposals of the Society: to prohibit the opening of new places of sale of alcoholic beverages in cities and towns, as well as their sale in resorts, in places of excursions, in clubs, in state and public institutions, in cinemas, theaters, in shops of workers ' cooperatives, in the exclusion zone of railways; the sale of alcoholic beverages on all non-working days and at all Soviet, trade union, cooperative and public celebrations; the sale of these beverages to persons under 17 years of age; alcohol advertising, local councils should be given the right to close places where alcoholic beverages are sold and oblige them to close if the workers so wish and if the place of such sale is closer than half a kilometer from the school, club, barracks, labor exchange, rest home, sanatorium, institute, factory.
The fourth section of the project talked about measures to help Society, suggested introducing the teaching of" anti-alcoholism " in courses, schools, and universities. The fifth and seventh sections dealt with the financial side of the case: it was proposed that the People's Commissariat of Finance allocate 45 million rubles for the development of socio-cultural institutions at large industrial enterprises, including 10 million rubles. to organize a network of anti-alcohol dispensaries with medical detoxifiers for cities with a population of 75 thousand people or more; to reduce the price of books. In the sixth section ("repressions"), it was proposed: to amend the criminal codes of the republics, recognizing as a criminal offense the appearance in a drunken state at an enterprise or institution; if a crime is committed in a drunken state, the penalty should be increased; to strengthen the punishment for the production of moonshine.
Thus, the project provided for radical measures to combat alcoholism, covering a wide range of issues - economic, social, legal, educational. The main provisions of the draft were included in the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of January 29, 1929"On measures to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages" 35 . The decree prohibited the opening of new outlets for the sale of vodka in industrial cities and working settlements, their sale on all holidays and pre-holidays, rest days and on the eve of them, and in areas where enterprises are located - and on salary days; the sale of vodka and vodka products in the buffets of clubs, state and public organizations, theaters, cinemas,etc. in dormitories, baths, gardens, parks, places of public administration-
33 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5467, op. 11, d. 179, ll. 4-12.
34 Published in: Deichman E. I. Uk. soch., pp. 175-193.
35 SU RSFSR, 1929, N 20, Article 224. With its publication, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of March 4, 1927 "On measures to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages" (SU RSFSR, 1927, N 16, Article 107) was canceled.
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the sale of vodka to minors and drunks, as well as alcohol advertising in the press and in public places were prohibited. City councils and councils of workers 'settlements were granted the right to close any place of sale of vodka and beer both at the request of workers' organizations and on their own initiative. City councils were obliged to close all places of sale of vodka in the immediate vicinity of barracks and labor exchanges; taking into account local conditions, the City Council could limit the hours of sale of vodka, prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages during regular conscripts .36 Later, similar decrees were adopted in Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
After the adoption of the decree, the Company's activities are not only activated, but also significantly facilitated. A major role in the development of the temperance movement was played by the circular letter of the APPO of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) dated February 21, 1929, which stated: "The activities of anti-alcohol organizations are encountering significant difficulties. It is absolutely not enough for cooperatives and trade unions to participate in the fight against alcoholism. City councils and their bodies in some cases show red tape and inattention to the insistence of mass meetings of workers to close vodka and wine sales and beer shops in the area of their work and to open tea shops and other cultural and domestic institutions that do not require even large expenses in the vacant premises. The press should actively promote a change in this attitude to the fight against alcoholism. " 37
In the first months of its existence, the Society organized more than 100 special street mass anti-alcohol demonstrations, more than 60 working conferences. At the insistence of the Society, 120 cities adopted resolutions of city or provincial executive committees on alcoholism, and the first among them was Leningrad, where the decision of the Leningrad City Council on August 5, 1928 banned (even before the decree was published on January 29, 1929) the sale of alcoholic beverages on holidays. Thanks to the efforts of the Society, 300 new cultural and domestic establishments were opened in cities and villages: tea shops, dairy shops, etc.Since the second half of 1928, at the insistence of the Society, the trade in vodka in the workers ' cooperative begins to curtail. The society achieved from the cooperative what it had already achieved in 1929. it halved the sale of vodka 38 .
In an effort to reduce the sale of vodka by all possible means, especially in large industrial centers, the Company managed to make the Moscow City Council decide to reduce the sale of vodka by 30 thousand hectoliters .39 In the area of reducing the production of alcoholic beverages, the Company sought to take into account the experience gained by that time of replacing some budget sources of income with others. At the beginning of 1929, a meeting was held in the State Planning Committee of the USSR in connection with the revision of the five-year plan, which was also attended by representatives of the OBSA. Investments in the national economy, in accordance with the plan, were to amount to 64.5 billion rubles. According to the budget, the state was supposed to receive about 900 million rubles a year from the sale of alcoholic beverages. OBSA economists estimate that 728 million rubles were raised from the sale of vodka in 1927/28, and 1,270 million rubles were lost from absenteeism due to drunkenness .40 At the insistence of the Society, the Presidium of the State Planning Committee formed
36 The stipulated restrictions on grape wine did not apply to areas of industrial winemaking (SU RSFSR, 1929, No. 39, Article 403).
37 Published in: Larin Yu. New laws against alcoholism and the anti-alcohol movement, Moscow, 1929, p. 36.
38 Ibid., pp. 8, 16.
39 Ibid., p. 20.
40 See Dudochkin P. Sobriety - norm of life. - Nash sovremennik, 1981, N 8, p. 138.
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a special commission consisting of representatives of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR and the Society to consider the issue of vodka income in the five-year plan. OBSA representative E. I. Deichman made the following proposal: to avoid damage to the budget, increase the production of sugar and soft drinks. As a result, social and cultural measures were developed to displace alcohol 41 .
At the end of June 1929, a representative of Glavselprom VSNKh was invited to the meeting of the Society with a report on the plan for the production of soft drinks for 1930-1933. At the insistence of the Company, Glavselprom planned to triple the production of soft drinks during this period. According to the report of the Society, on July 12, 1929, the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR decided to increase the production of narzan by 2 times.
The fight against moonshine brewing was more difficult. It was dangerous for two reasons: first, from the point of view of public health, and secondly, acquiring a wide scale, it caused difficulties in the grain market, causing some damage to the national economy. The introduction of the vodka monopoly led to a decline in moonshine production. But a 50% increase in the price of alcoholic beverages since December 1925 has pushed the rural consumer back to moonshine. In July 1926, prices were reduced - moonshine production fell again. Further price cuts could increase "urban" drunkenness, and higher prices would cause cheap country wine to flow into the city. Since January 1, 1927 The Government of the RSFSR considered it possible to concentrate all the police forces on the fight against obviously industrial moonshine 42 . And on January 2, 1928, by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On measures to strengthen the fight against moonshine"43, the manufacture and storage of moonshine and moonshine apparatuses, even if without the purpose of marketing and not in the form of fishing, were finally banned. The fight against moonshine brewing in 1928 became the most important task of the police (with weekly reports on it to the NKVD of the RSFSR) and Society. The police and the OBA showed exceptional energy, and according to local reports, the moonshiners were dealt a serious blow.
The Society also played a significant role in the fight against shinkarstvo. The secret sale of alcoholic beverages, mainly state-owned wine, increased from year to year. According to the NKVD of the RSFSR, cases of shinkarstvo were found: compared with the second half of 1926, which was taken as 100%, the first half of 1927 was 103.6%, the second half of 1927 was 124%, the first half of 1928 was 278%, and the second half of 1928 was 307% .44 In 1928, the OBSA developed a draft law on the fight against shinkarstvo, on the basis of which, together with the police, it identified shinkars. On April 3, 1929, the administrative department of the Moscow City Executive Committee, in coordination with the Society, approved a special "Instruction for groups to assist the police in combating alcoholism"45 . In factories, factories, and institutions, assistance groups were created from volunteer members of the OBSA. They were formed on a territorial basis. Their main task was to identify cases of shinkarstvo, report them to the police, and participate in searches. The general management of this work was carried out by the administrative departments of the Gubernia executive committees.
A large part of the Company's activities was occupied by various types of employees.
41 Sobriety and Culture, 1929, N 2 (8), p. 1.
42 Voronov D. N. Alcoholism in modern life, Moscow, 1930, p. 101.
43 SU RSFSR, 1928, N 7, Article 60.
44 Voronov D. N. Uk. soch., p. 121.
45 Published in the appendix to the book: Larin Yu. New laws against alcoholism and the anti-alcohol movement.
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measures to distract the population from drunkenness. By the time of the creation of the OBSA in Moscow, for every 10 thousand inhabitants there were: 0.13 theaters, 0.22 cinemas, 0.36 libraries, 0.81 clubs and 4.5 places of sale of alcoholic beverages 46 , i.e. places of cultural recreation were 3 times less than places of sale of alcoholic beverages. The society has shown great ingenuity in organizing various campaigns, monthly events, and movements for the culture of everyday life. Especially popular were anti-alcohol months, during which extensive explanatory work was carried out. Since November 10, 1930, the OBSA together with the Central Committee of the Union of Railway Workers, the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR and the editorial office of the newspaper "Gudok" held an anti-alcohol month on transport 47 . Together with Goizdat, the Society organized the First win-win book lottery: 2 million tickets were issued for 30 kopecks, which were distributed by OBSA, Goizdat, consumer cooperation and Komsomol. In 1930 alone, the Moscow OBSA organized 1,705 reports and talks at enterprises on anti-alcohol topics, 32 debates, 39 "questions and answers" evenings, and 14 anti-alcohol exhibitions at enterprises and parks .48
The Society held many events together with other public organizations and government agencies. In April 1930, together with the Union of Atheists, it launched an anti-Paschal campaign. If in 1929 the two-day Christmas downtime took away the "three Dneprostroi", then in 1930, thanks to the efforts of these two companies, all the factories and factories worked on Christmas Day and gave tens of millions of rubles to the industrialization fund 49 . Together with the Society " Down with illiteracy!" The OBA carried out the elimination of illiteracy, together with the trade unions - work among seasonal workers, and on January 13, 1928, a "radio meeting" was organized - "Trade unions in the fight against drunkenness"50 . In the Tretyakov Gallery, the OBSA, together with the People's Commissariat of Education, organized an anti-alcohol exhibition that attracted public attention.
The Komsomol also helped the Society. The cultural campaign, announced by the Komsomol in August 1928, raised a wave of children's demonstrations against the drunkenness of their parents. In Moscow, Leningrad, Vologda, Rybinsk, Perm and other cities, thousands of children took to the streets with the slogans " We demand sobriety from parents!", "Down with vodka!", " Against the drunkenness of fathers!". In the 1930s, the OBSA began setting up young Friends of the OBSA cells in 51 schools . However, the main task in this area was considered by the Society to be the organization of tea, dairy, health resorts, clubs, the organization of literary circles and interest groups. At the initiative of OBSA, the State Planning Committee of the USSR provided for the allocation of 200 million rubles for the five-year plan to combat alcoholism, of which 150 million rubles were projected with the consent of the Society for the expansion of the cinema network, the development of physical education and the construction of sports facilities .52
OBSA cells at enterprises issued special leaflets with photos of drunks and truants, with cartoons and corresponding text, organized industrial courts, exhibitions of defective products produced by drunks. Starting in January 1929, the Trud newspaper published articles under the heading "Fight drunkenness in an organized way", which published suggestions from workers: not to give out wages on Saturdays, to give it out through savings banks, to truants, etc.
46 Deichman E. I., Uk. soch., p. 162.
47 Kul'tura i byt, 1930, N 24-25, p. 20; 1931, N 2-3, p. 18.
48 Ibid., 1931, N 13-14, p. 24.
49 Godless man at the machine, 1930, N 3, p. 8.
50 TSGANKH SSSR, f. 5451, op. 12, d. 645, l. 31.
51 Kul'tura i byt, 1931, N 20, p. 16.
52 Larin Yu. New laws against alcoholism and the anti-alcohol movement, p. 29.
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In many cities, on the initiative of the Society, competitions were organized for a "non-drinking enterprise" or workshop (in Tula, Kiev, Nikolaev, etc.). Summing up the results of such a competition at the end of 1929 showed that vodka consumption significantly decreased: in Omsk-by 39.8%, Stalingrad-by 26.2%, etc. 53 .
Komsomol members showed a lot of initiative in the fight against drunkenness. At some enterprises ("Emancipated labor", "Trekhgornaya manufactory", factory named after him. Nogina et al. ) issued printed bulletins "Combat reports against vodka", held a kind of competitions "for a drunk", after which absenteeism usually decreased. In the" Peasant's Houses "and reading huts," anti-alcohol corners " were created, and demonstrative trials of shinkars were held. An important activity of the Society was the development of issues of anti-alcohol education of children and adolescents. Glavprofobru People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR was instructed to introduce anti-alcohol information in the program of teaching in schools of the first and second stages (for the 1929/30 academic year), and in pedagogical and medical universities - a special course of anti-alcohol education.
Despite the fact that the Society had limited resources, it was actively publishing, producing many posters, leaflets, developing and publishing various theses for agitators and propagandists to help the cells .54 In order to create public opinion around the fight against alcoholism and to help enthusiasts, the Society published special books, brochures, anthologies in mass circulation, and since this anti-alcohol weapon needed to be given emotionality and brightness, fiction was also published. In 1930, a anthology was published, composed of works by classical and contemporary poets and writers from I. A. Krylov to V. V. Mayakovsky .55
The Society published the magazine "Sobriety and Culture" 56, where it published official materials and local reports, 57 and published official materials about the life of the Society under the heading "In the center and in the field". The magazine's cover was often used for politically relevant slogans and ads. So, in one of the numbers you could read: "190,000 apartments could be built or 720000 tractors could be bought with the money that was drunk in the USSR in 1927"58 . This not only drew attention to the magazine, but also gave the reader food for thought. Not without extremes. Once the magazine tried to organize a "public rebuff to doctors who use alcohol as a therapeutic agent", and another time it demanded that members of the Society ensure that "not a single Komsomol member, not a single girl, agrees to kiss the guy who drinks."
The medical community actively participated in the anti-alcohol campaign. Doctors and medical professionals often spoke in the press with
53 Sobriety and Culture, 1929, No. 9, p. 3.
54 See, for example, OBS 'Theses" The drinker is the enemy of socialist Construction "(Kul'tura i byt, 1930, No. 9, p. 19).
55 Alcoholism in Fiction, Moscow, 1930.
56 A total of 6 issues were published in 1928, 24 issues in 1929, and 8 issues in 1930 (volume of 12 pages). Since April 1930, the magazine was renamed "Kultura i Byt", in 1931 it was published as an organ of the All-Union Central Council of Labor Unions and the OBSA, in 1932 it merged with the magazine " Kulturnaya Revolyutsiya "(organ of the All-Union Central Council of Labor Unions) and from April 1932 it became known as"Za Zdorovyi Byt". The content of the magazine has also changed: the issues of combating alcoholism occupy less space in it, the topic becomes wider - the struggle for culture in general, and so on.
57 In Ukraine, since 1929, the magazine "Za Sobriety"was published.
58 Sobriety and Culture, 1929, N 2 (8), cover.
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lectures and presentations to a wide working audience 59 . But the main attention of the medical community was focused on studying the causes of alcoholism, its consequences, and its impact on the economy. All these issues were handled by the Institute of Social Hygiene, many of whose employees were active members of the OBSA. Through the efforts of the medical community and the OBA, the first detox center in the country was opened in Moscow at the end of 1928. The notice said that "patients" would be taken there by the police and held there for no more than 60 days . By mid-1929, about 30 special anti-alcohol dispensaries were opened in Moscow.
In June 1929, the VSPO convened a meeting at which the results of the fight against alcoholism were summed up, and a plan for further work was outlined. The Meeting considered it necessary to review the number of drug dispensaries previously outlined in the five - year plan of the People's Commissariat of Health, increasing it in the RSFSR to 300, in Ukraine - to 75, and in other republics-to 50. In all cities with more than 400 thousand inhabitants, it was proposed to introduce a full-time position of narcologist 61 . At the initiative of the OBA, the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR in July 1929 submitted to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR a draft resolution on the opening of 200 detoxification centers, 300 dispensaries, and 20 inpatient anti-alcohol hospitals in the next four years in the RSFSR. A large role in the deployment of anti-alcohol propaganda was played by sanprosvet houses and clubs. They competed in inventing new forms of anti-alcohol work. Leningrad House of Culture. Plekhanov was given a staged report based on facts from the life of the district.
In June 1930, the magazine "Culture and Life" published a letter from a reader about the need to create a unified society that would comprehensively deal with the elimination of the "three legacies": religious obscurantism, illiteracy, and drunkenness. To do this, it was proposed to unite three organizations into one society: the Union of Atheists, the OBA and the Society " Down with Illiteracy!", since religion and alcoholism are satellites of illiteracy. The letter expressed an urgent need.
Leaders and participants of the temperance movement, many cultural workers understood that it was time to expand and expand its scope. They were also called upon to do so by special decisions of the party and the Government, in particular by the June (1931) Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party, which stated that in the struggle for the five-year plan and the success of all socialist construction, questions of everyday life and health protection of the working people are of great importance. 62
In April 1932, the OBSA ceased to exist, dissolving into the broader Society "For a healthy life". The activities of the OBA contributed to the wide spread of the temperance movement. Its participants showed perseverance and ingenuity in organizing methods and forms of combating alcoholism. This case attracted the attention of state and non-governmental organizations (trade unions, Komsomol, medical workers, People's Commissariat of Health, Councils, Gosizdat, women's councils). According to the existing legislation at that time on societies and unions that do not pursue the goals of extraction-
59 See, for example, speeches in the press of the People's Commissar of Healthcare: Semashko N. A. The release of vodka and our tasks. - Pravda, 3. XII. 1925; same name. On the fight against drunkenness. M. 1926; ed. 2-E. M. 1927; his. Physical education and fight against drunkenness. - Izvestiya fizicheskoy kul'tury, 1926, N 5-6; his. Clubs and the fight against alcoholism. Komsomolskoe prosveshchenie Publ., 1928, No. 6.
60 For the new life of 1928, N 23-24, p. 19.
61 For more information, see: Transcripts of reports of the Central Union of the USSR, the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR at the meeting of anti-alcohol societies in the USSR. Moscow-L. 1929.
62 CPSU in resolutions, vol. 4, p. 546.
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However, in the case of non-profit organizations (and the OBA belonged to this category of societies), no voluntary society had the right of legislative initiative. Despite this, the OBSA developed a draft, the main provisions of which were almost verbatim included in the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of January 29, 1929. This testified to the authority of the Society and the importance that the Soviet state attached to its activities.
The key to the success of the anti-alcohol movement was also that the majority of its participants believed in the feasibility of the task and worked with great enthusiasm. The teetotaler movement played a role in the struggle for the improvement and culture of everyday life of the Soviet people. His experience shows that success in solving the problem under consideration depends primarily on a flexible combination of government measures and a broad and diverse form of participation of the public and public organizations in the fight against alcoholism in every enterprise, in every labor collective.
Alcoholism is an insidious enemy. The fight against it requires consistent, systematic and coordinated work. A number of party and government documents have already pointed out that this struggle is a matter for the entire public. Meanwhile, the activities of temperance societies and clubs that have emerged in recent years have not been coordinated, generalized, or controlled by anyone. Attaching great importance to the development of the mass anti-alcohol movement, the Central Committee of the CPSU considered it expedient to create an All-Union Voluntary Society for the Struggle for Sobriety and publish the magazine "Sobriety and Culture"as its printed organ. The new society should take into account the shortcomings that were characteristic of the OBSA: the lack of strict membership and hence the vagueness of the movement, the disunity of its cells; the well - known maximalism of its slogans, which sometimes scared off even the loyal supporters of the temperance movement - the OBSA clearly lacked flexibility. As its chairman, Academician Yu. A. Ovchinnikov, emphasized at the meeting of the Organizing Committee of the new society, its creation is a direct response to numerous wishes, to the sincere interest and initiative of the workers themselves .63 Past experience suggests that the new society will have many willing helpers.
63 Cm. Sovetskaya kul'tura, 17. VIII. 1985.
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