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hand, the government, just as in
czarist days, is dependent upon the
sale of alcohol for more than
1O
per–
cent of all tax revenues. Taxes com–
prise roughly
80
percent of the price
of a bottle of vodka.
Drinklng Customs and Causes
The main reason alcohol abuse is
such a deeply rooted problem is
directly related to the
approach
to
alcohol taken by the vast majority
of Soviet citizens. Western Euro–
peans, for example, generally pre–
fer wine or beer, often as a comple–
ment to a mea!. Soviet Slavic and
Baltic populations relish consuming
the far stronger vodka or brandy in
straight shot gulps either without
food or early in a mea!.
The ordinary vodka glass con–
tains
100
grams, or roughly three
ounces- the equivalent to a '·'dou–
ble" by American standards.
By Russian tradition, hard
drinking is accepted, even encour–
aged.
lt
is considered unmanly to
sip a drink (only women do it), a
manner of pride to drain a bottJe.
1t
is almost impossible' not to do
so anyway since domestic Soviet
-· --vodka bottles do not have corks or
screw tops, only discardable foil
caps. Once the bottle is opened it
must. by custof!'l and design, be
finished . There is no such thing as
putting it back on t he shelf, a
notion that am u ses Russians
whenever a Westerner mentions
the idea. Few Russian homes have
such things as liquor cabinets or
wine cellars.
The overall approach to alcoholic
beverages is quite simple: Drink to
get drunk, or at least very high. In
this regard, alcohol becomes noth–
ing but a drug, an escape from the
rigors, real or imagined, of life.
In his authoritative work
The
Russians.
author Hedrick Smith
writes:
"Russians drink, essentially, to
obliterate themselves,
to blot out
the tedium of life, to warm them–
selves from the chilling winters,
and they eagerly embrace the
escapism it offers."
,
Young and old alike abuse alco–
hol, treating it as though it were
like one of the expensive mind–
warping drugs common to the
Western world.
12
"The drug action on Soviet cam–
puses [does] ... not begin to com–
pare with the West," continues
author Smith. "Far more of a prob–
lem is alcohol- the vodka which
Soviet students. like their elders,
drink with the self-obliterating
intensity of Western drug addicts
who seek oblivion on a high."
Communism No Cure
The late Premier Nikita Khrush–
chev once called drunkenness "one
of the harmful remnants of t'he
past." He professed that he was
confident that under communism it
would soon wither away.
That is still the official Commu–
nist Party line. According to Soviet
ideology, socialism has destroyed
the " social foundation" of alcohol–
ism, which is said to be capitalist
exploitation.
But the facts are far different
from the unattainable Marxist–
Leninist ideal. More than 64 years
after the Revolution, the authori–
ties are force.d to concede that
drunkenness remains communism's
number one social problem-and
that it is on .the increase, particu–
larly among the young.
Religion may no longer be the
opiate
of the people, as Lenin pro–
claimed in setting up the Soviet
Union's atheist society, but hard
liquor certainly is. And communist
ideology has not been able to
remove the underlying causes for
widespread addiction.
The ideal of the "new commu–
nist man" strivlng confidently-'
and soberly- toward materialistic
perfection has been lost in the
reality of contemporary Soviet
life.
Pressures of everyday living
make resorting to vodka's seductive
qualities even more tempting.
Cramped living conditions in over–
crowded cities, lengthening queues
for consumer goods, money to
spend but not enough to spend it
on, a shortage of leisure-time faciLi–
ties- aH these are contributing fac–
tors to the rise in alcoholism.
Soviet authorities acknowledge
that major factors behind the
increase in drinking by young
people are sheer boredom and the
lack of any sense of purpose in their
classless society-factors that could
describe youths in many differing
societies as well.
How to Provide for " Spiritual
Needs"?
Two authors of an article in the
Soviet journal
Uterary Gazette
recently probed the U.S.S.R.'s alco–
holism crisis. To combat the prob–
lem they propose a "real system of
struggle" employing the tools of
education, punishment and p.reven–
tion. The authors concluded:
"An extremely important role
belongs to raising the population's
cultural leve! , increasing cultural
requirements and
spiritual
needs.
. .. "
Spiritual needs in an atheist
society?
In another journal, this time one
devoted to economics, writer Vasili
Belov blamed Soviet drunkenness
on
"the primitive leve/ of spiritual
/ife
in sorne people and
their lack
of any clear moral ideal,
the psy–
chological and material debasement
of their jobs and the monotony of
their daily life."
Atheistic communism cannot
provide the Soviet Union or any
other country adopting such a phi–
losophy with the "spiritual needs"
and "moral ideals" to cope with the
curse of alcoholism. Atheists deny
the spiritual and have only human
definitions of morality.
And so-called Christian coun–
tries in the Western world also
ignore the clear instructions of the
Bible with respect to dealing with
such morality-debasing dilemmas.
For example, Finland, the Soviet
Union's prosperous pro-Western
neighbor, also suffers from serious
vodka-fueled alcohol problems.
While the Bible does not forbid
the temperate use of alcohol
(Christ's first miracle was to turn
water into wine fQr a wedding cele–
bration), it clearly counsels moder–
ation (Phi!. 4:5) and absolutely
condemns drunkenness
(1
Cor.
6:10,
1
Tim.
3:3, 8,
Titus
1
:7).
What all people the world over
need_js a clear understanding of the
real purpose of life, a p1,1rpose so
astounding that, when compre–
hended, will totaliy eliminate the
desire to drop out of life, via the
use of drugs or the abuse of alco–
hol. o
The.
PLAIN TRUTH