Cultural Anthropology - Russians and Vodka

Fabricio Guerra
Mr. Roddy
IHSS
15 September 2019
Russians and Vodka
     When people think of Russia or Russians they usually picture a rather tired looking man with an awful stubble wearing nothing but Adidas merchandise and a ushanka drinking straight from a bottle of hard vodka. Alas this is not what your average Russian looks like. Russia, despite losing 19 million kilometers squared of its territory since 1917, is a massive country, spanning multiple cultures such as the Slavic culture to the west and native Siberian culture in the east and from cities like St. Petersburg all the way to Vladivostok. However despite your average Russian not looking like a hard bass music producer, Russia is still plagued with over 5 million people suffering from alcoholism. In the article, alcoholism is defined as "one of the most severe health consequences of harmful drinking, which characterized by a loss of the ability to control use of alcohol, increased tolerance to the effects of alcohol, and withdrawal syndrome" (Razvodovsky). Along with those five million, 20 million are estimated to be heavy drinkers. It isn't a surprise that alcoholism is something that is common in Russia. It was first brought there from Poland in the 16th century and when they began to make it out of potatoes (Russia should definitely be more famous than Ireland for potatoes) it became a significant figure in their culture. Now, the problem with alcoholism is that is can cause certain incidences, mostly concerning violence. The Russian government, wanting to avoid an increase in alcoholism incidences after the fall of the Soviet Union decided to increase tax and the price of vodka. However when they first implemented these reforms the average Russian salary at the time was able to buy 12 liters of vodka. Today the average Russian salary can buy closer to 100 liters of vodka, but there are far less alcohol incidences due to  the rise of "disposable wages" in the mid-2000s.

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