Skip to main content

The Vodka Question


I’ve just read an article by the BBC entitled ‘Russian alcohol consumption falls steeply’. According to a recent WHO survey, it fell by 43% from 2003 to 2016. Isn’t that mental? 43%! And it comes just as I was about to write an entry on Russian drinking culture. How thoughtful of them.

I remember sitting in my neighbours’ kitchen a couple of days before I left for Krasnoyarsk, and being asked how I was planning on getting around the centrality of heavy drinking to Russian culture. I’d already been warned by friends (and professors) that not drinking wasn’t an option in Russia. Leaving a full bottle on a table, they said, is considered offensive. So if someone gets out a bottle of vodka, you’d better chug it before you leave or you might have some angry-ass Russians following you out. Now this may well have been the case in the Soviet Union, and even in the early days of the Russian Federation, but it seems to be the precise opposite case now. Much like beards (which are disappointingly scarce over here given the hype), heavy drinking seems no longer to be an accurate stereotype of modern Russia.

In fact, Russia is an easier place to be teetotal than England. Honestly. Four of my friends don’t drink at all, others drink very rarely. And they don’t drink vodka. I haven’t found one person here who admits to being fond of vodka. It’s g&t or samogon (which still probably isn’t a particularly healthy choice).

Back in First Year, my Russian conversation teacher tried explaining Soviet drinking culture to me. She was an incredibly learned Russian professor, like a wise old owl. It was rather unexpected when she said ‘what you need to understand is that in France, they drink wine socially. If you’re going to drink socially, then you want to drink slowly, and you want a drink that tastes nice. We Russians don’t want a drink that tastes nice, because we don’t drink socially. We drink to pass out, so we have a national drink that tastes of nothing.’ I can’t fault her logic. And it was even more surprising when I found myself recycling her argument to explain British student drinking culture to Russians. ‘Well in Britain, students drink a LOT. It’s not like here, where you sometimes catch up with a friend over a glass of something. In Britain, people go out to clubs and they get BINNED.’

The BBC article explained the sharp decline in alcohol consumption over here as a result of alcohol-control measures introduced under Medvedev, including recognising beer as alcohol (yeah that’s probably a good shout). But I wonder if it’s just a reaction to the heavy drinking culture of the Soviet Union, which begat a nation where alcohol is recognised as the main cause of death. I feel like, with the gentle encouragement of the new control measures, Russian society is changing its attitude to alcohol of its own accord, which has got to be a good thing.

Although a couple of people have also suggested that I reserve judgement until winter hits… apparently people get bored in -40C and heavy snow. Fair enough I suppose.
Just a nice picture really, nothing to do with the blog

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No Animals were Harmed

There's someone I still haven't told you about. One of the most supportive, positive influences in my life right now. In fact, he may well be my best friend in Krasnoyarsk, although sometimes he pisses me right off. He's small, grey, furry, and has four legs. I'm talking, of course, about Syoma the kitten. I didn't need to go straight to work on Friday morning, so I decided to make a celebratory pilaf. As soon as I left my bedroom, Syoma was all over me like a rash. He likes trying to do figures of eight around my legs while I'm walking, and isn't remotely discouraged when this ends up with him being accidentally kicked halfway across the room. I've never lived with a cat before, and I was really struck by just how resilient they are. You could probably do a full-on NBA slam dunk with Syoma, and he'd just pick himself up and start doing figures of eight around your legs again. He's also incredibly stubborn. Like, mad stubborn. Back home...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lucky Ticket

In Russia , bus tickets have six numbers on them. If the sum of the first three is equivalent to the sum of the second three, it’s a lucky ticket. And if there is a difference of one between the sums of the first three and second three numbers, that means you’re going to meet someone new. Flawless logic imho. On Wednesday morning, I got my first lucky ticket. I wondered how exactly this luck would manifest itself. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what kind of luck I’d order if I got the choice. A free cinnamon bun would be very welcome. Or instant fluency in Russian. That would be nice too. Actually, I think this has been the most challenging aspect of my Year Abroad so far – I’ve got a whole year with no academic work and very few commitments, and I don’t know exactly what I want out of it. I mean I want a lot of things. I want to make friends for life in Krasnoyarsk, but do I want to just have fun with them or to try to learn Russian through them too? Or is the best way to ...
4 comments
Read more

Torgashinskiy Khrebet

On Friday, I took a bus all the way to the other end of town – a place called Oktyabrskaya. I was meeting some friends here, and then walking to a place called ‘Torgashinskiy Khrebet’. It took an hour and a half. Only here’s the thing – everywhere in Russia is called Oktyabrskaya. It became obvious that I’d got the wrong Oktyabrskaya as soon as I got off the bus and saw that none of the ten people I was meant to be meeting was in fact here. Not one. I opened the transport app on my phone and typed ‘Oktyabrskaya’ again. Then I scrolled past about fifty Oktyabrskaya cafes, hotels, bridges, and districts, before finally finding ‘Oktyabrskaya bus stop’. But, to my dismay, I now saw that there was not just one ‘Oktyabrskaya bus stop’, but three. Three ‘Oktyabrskaya bus stops’. Which town planner could possibly have decided that it would be a good idea to build three bus stops with the exact same name – a name, by the way, which is also used for bus stops in every other Russian city as fa...
Post a Comment
Read more