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150th ANNIVERSARY OF INCIPIENCE OF THE ORGANIZED TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA
A.N. Mayurov, Professor
Sobering movement in Russia is a centuries-old history. The first-ever in the Russian history preachment “Discourse of drunkenness” has been drawn up by Feodosiy Petchersky yet in the XIth century. It read that through the use of alcohol a man drives the Guardian-Angel away and calls up the demon.
The year 2008 is abounding in anniversary celebrations of the world and national sobering movement. 400 years ago (April 1608) an active struggle against korchemstvo got started at the national level. This year international community celebrates the 200th anniversary of incipience of the modern-day international sobering movement. In April 1808 the first-ever in the present-day history temperance association was established in Morso, Saratoga (New York State). 150 years ago the first powerful organized sobering movement in Russia sprung up under the leadership of a bishop Moteyus Valanchus. The wave of sobering indignation at the ruining the Russian nationalities by drinking raged first over the Baltic provinces and then all over the Old country. And 100 years ago (December 1908) the mass sobering movement began in the Russian army where by order of the Military Department the cup rationing of soldiers was discontinued and the sale of alcohol in barrack-shops and refreshment-rooms was also prohibited.
In the XIXth century the Russia, USA and a number of European countries enacted legal instruments on the ban on alcoholic beverages import to places of the origin residence of ethnic groups whom the ingestion of alcohol due to their physiological nature caused fast degeneration and extinction. These acts are as follows: “On the yasachny non-Russians“ (native-born nationalities) of Siberia and the Far East (1822 and later) - in Russia; on the First Americans and Esquimaus - in the USA. In 1885 the Russian tsar by his order imposed a local ban on the trading of alcohol and thus saved many the few-in-number nationalities of the North, Siberia and Far East. The Brussels international treaties: On the ban on alcohol import to the German East and North-East Africa (Tanganyika and Cameroon) of July 1890, English Nigeria, Italian Somalia and on June 8, 1899 - On the introduction of heavy alcohol import duties for all of the rest Central African countries.
In the XIXth century the Russian drunkenness completely swept not only urban communities but also peasants’ farmsteads. Inns and taverns started lining up by roadside of the every road: in 1860 there were 77’386 inns in Russia. As it would be expected - a drunken action all the way results in sober counteraction.
During the industrial boom of 1810-1870 sobering movements opposed to drunkenness, for the abstinence from ingestion of alcohol - vodkas - spring up in the USA, the majority of European countries (except for some vine-making countries
in the South Europe), in Russia. In 1830 - 1870 at the end of industrial boom the movements for the absolute soberness,
abstinence from ingestion of any alcoholic products - vodka, vine and beer get going.
By the beginning of 1911 according to estimations made by the historian A.L. Afanasyev more than 3.7 Million people participated in the sobering movement in 9 countries in the Europe, Russia and USA. Temperance associations and individual participants were found in Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and some other American, German, French colonies in Africa, Asia and America. That was one of the most numerous and authoritative international movements.
Though nowadays the most significant for us are events of 1958-1961 when under the guidance of the Russian clergy and progressive intelligentsia all the Russia clamoured against alcohol. And the first we would like to be named is one of apostles of the sobering movement the bishop Moteyus Valanchus.
Moteyus Valanchus was born in Lithuania in the family of a free peasant. He studied at the Vamyaisk seminary, later he polished up his knowledge in the Vilnius seminary where he was a professor when it was moved to Saint Petersburg.
On the 24th of February 1850 he was episcopize as the bishop of Zhemantiysk. The Zhemantisk diocese then comprised not only the west Lithuanians - Zhemanchay but also inhabitants of Kaunas, Panevezhis, Ukmerge, Utene, Obyalyaya and Zarasaya. About 1 Million Catholics lived on the territory of the diocese: the Zhemantians, Aukshtaitians, Letts.
The bishop Valanchus has clearly understood that seeds of virtue, education and literacy would only yield fruits if planted into the soil of soberness and spirituality. Since summer 1858 he actively started speaking in favour of soberness. The following is as recalled by the bishop in his testamentary missive: “In 1858 during a regular trip round the diocese an urge to commit a pleasing to God act on the propagating of soberness came to my mind through the prompting of the Holy Spirit and I commenced to perform this good deed. In the village of Palevyane me myself was the first who enlisted a few dozens people into sobriety books. Later on this book was pronounced by me and my priests all over the diocese”. Sporadic attempts to introduce soberness in certain parishes were made even before Valanchus. In 1846 Roman Catholic priests of the Shaulyai parish S. Shtakhas (1796-1854) and A. Kibartas (1795-1860) seek to register each in his respective parish people who wished to get through with drinking and lead a sober life. But such idea in those days did not meet with much support. Moteyus Valanchus distinguished himself by the ability to perceive the time-spirit, historical moment. Being sensible of the inward turning point in his people and their longing for sober life he made strong efforts to lead them up on the way to sobriety. Officials of the Russian Empire in one of their letters on the M. Valanchus’s experience in the development of the sobering movement wrote as follows: “A few words were now enough while the most painstaking moral teaching before was to no effect”.
At this particular time the tsar Alexander II on his way to Warsaw called at Kaunas. During the audience M. Valanchus informed him of expansion of the sobering movement in the Zhemantisk diocese. The tsar accorded thanks to the bishop.
Having received the tsar’s benediction Valanchus had no longer applied to the tsarist government for the official permission to carry legitimate activities of then created temperance associations.
The formal date of incipience of the sobering movement is considered to be October 11, 1858 when M. Valanchus in a special letter appealed to deaneries exhorting priests to initiate setting up sobriety as the mode of life all over the Zhemantisk diocese and first of all by way of giving a personal example. He addressed to parish priors who were slow in the setting up sobriety with special letters where he strictly admonished of the ingestion of alcoholic beverages, stringently commended to make personal vows of soberness and in case that alcohol was taken prohibited the service. In November 1858 the sobering movement spread almost all over the Kaunas province. It happened exactly when the Rules of tempering association prepared by M. Valanchus in the Lithuanian language was propagated. The enlistment in association was held as a solemn occasion. Entrants on their knees in front of the alter and icon of the Holy Mother had to take the pledge to abstain from alcohol. Each of them was enlisted into the “Sober Person Book”. The prior of the kostel presented them with the teetotaller certificates and badges of the tempering association. The Rules required that entrants would not ingest alcohol all through their lives. The celebration of the liturgical warship of sobriety was held especially solemn in the chime of bells. The relatives were first of all explained the aberrant pattern of such intemperance which requires Christian mercy and the understanding of one’s neighbour.
During the very first days of Alexander II reign he was informed that out of almost 70 million people there were only 216 publicans who practically managed the potatory business in Russia. When the buy-out reached its utmost limits and heavy drinking was already raging throughout the whole Russia the back-talks on the abstinence and soberness started growing up among the Russian intelligentsia.
News spread that the first tempering association was established in the Lithuanian land. In one of the companies the shoemaking and woodworking shops entered in an agreement on the putting a stop to ingestion of alcohol. A new stage of fighting the alcohol expansion started in Russia. In August 1858 in Vilensk and Kovensk provinces one of the first tempering associations in Russia were created. At the end of 1859 almost all the Kovensk province went in with the abstentionists from alcohol and in three months the Vilensk and then the entire Kovensk provinces joined them.
In token of the victory of the sober mode of life people raised crosses by road sides and at their houses and then holily sanctified them. In 1860 Valanchus let V. Nazimov - Governor-general of Vilnius - know that there were 718 520 diocesans in his diocese who abide by soberness which totaled to 84% of the whole number of the believers (855 230).
Already by the mid of 1860 the abstentionists in the Kaunas province comprised 83.2% of the whole Catholics. In the Kurshsk province which inhabitants on the 14th of March 1859 were addressed to by M. Valanchus with the “Exhortation of soberness”, the sober mode of life was adhered to by 87.1% of its residents. At the same time A.S. Krasinskis - the bishop of Vilnius (who governed the Vilnius diocese in 1859-1863) - went in for the advocacy of soberness. Due to his efforts 51.5% Catholics in the Vilnius province enrolled in the tempering association. The soberness spread also over the Grodnensk province; rumours about it flew through the whole Russia. That was a great success in the sphere of development of spirituality and culture of the Lithuanian, Byelorussian and Polish peoples. In one of his letters the shepherd thus narrated of his joy “In Heaven judgement I shall show all my sheep sober”.
In order to uphold soberness and keep control of it Valanchus has regularly read the “Exhortations of soberness”. In it he expressed his confidence in the virtue of people, admired the unflinching determination to part with drunkenness and at the same time angrily railed at and admonished those who still continued to ingest alcohol.
In 1859 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church by order blessed the clergymen “.. .by giving a living example of one’s own life and frequent preaching in the Church of God the benefits of temperance encourage the determination arisen in some certain urban and rural classes to abstain from the ingestion of wine.”.
Further on temperance associations were created in another 32 north-west, central, Uralian and privolzhsky provinces of Russia. The mass sobering movement rose in our Motherland as a public protest against the buy-out alcohol distribution system through almost 80 000 public houses. At first participants of the sobering movement were state-owned peasants who were joined by the landlord-owned and appanage peasants, urban gutter and retired solders. The mass sobering movement was one of the most serious elements of the peasants’ anti-villeinage struggle during the period of a revolutionary situation in 1859-1861. The boycott of public houses was carried out through the created tempering associations. The issue of taking alcoholic beverage was decided at peasants’ congregations of tempering associations. In May 1859 a mass destruction of public houses owned by publicans was organized by tempering associations mostly in Povolshzhye and the Urals. A pledge not to drink wine was taken in the Zaraisk district of the Ryazan province; and on the 7th of January (Christmas!) in Nikopol of the Ekaterinoslavsk province a priest (archpriest) Ivan Korolev spoke of temperance in public. In Nizhny Novgorod in the epiphany market where up to ten thousand people gathered the public did not drink wine (!) making to publicans proposals to drink it themselves (It would do no hurt if we also declare - “Directors of wineries and tobacco-making plants, drink and smoke your muck yourselves, it would clear your bodies of chemical waste and radiation”). In the mid January associations are being created in the Kursk province and by the end of the month in Saratov. In the first part of February in Tula and by the end of the month tempering associations existed already in the Vladimir, Penza, Ekaterinoslavl and Twer provinces and in a year it spread to dozens of others. The publicans at first consoled themselves that soberness would not last long. But the people kept temperance. What is to be done? Place yourself in publicans’ shoes. You have invested a whaling sum so to obtain a license, in the construction of a plant etc. but your product is not selling. The publicans hand out bribes to officials in order to make people drink! For example, an ispravnik (Head of a district police office since 1775 till 1862 elected by the gentry (all of publicans are naturally noble) then appointed by the government) sends his men so that “to study out what’s up”. The following is how the police arrival is described by the historian Ivan Pryzhov - “Upon the arrival to a count’s estate the police squad starts persuading muzhiks to drink vodka (!!!)”.
The higher-ups summon peasants with the collector of potatory dues (i.e. the person who pays money to the proprietor -a publican) and inquire - “Why do they not take wine?”
- Just don’t want to, the peasants answer.
- Why don’t they want then?
- They have perceived - the peasants answer - that wine is nothing but the destruction of property!
Then the collector himself offered money to the muzhiks so it&s all being kept dark but the money from him was not taken. The collector brought forward a tierce of wine for free but no one touched it and then it was carried away like that. Well the income is none; what is to be done? That’s where the sellers found the most cunning move.
In April 1859 one of the publicans solicited the Minister of internal affairs so that clergymen would announce in public that the pledge given by people may relate to the drunkenness only but safe drinking is the need; but the Minister considered such a request as inappropriate.
The first stage of the sobering movement was then mastered by force. Many makebates of potatory pogroms were imprisoned at penal servitude. However in October 1860 due to the impact of the sobering movement the buy-out system had been abrogated the one that in 1863 was changed for the excise system; and in 1861 the serfdom itself was abolished. But as it was popularly noticed there is small choice in rotten apples. The tsarism happened just to find out a new method of pumping money out of the public purses in the form of an excise. The alcoholising of people has continued.
Nevertheless in his social selfless labour Valanchus had to surmount very hard difficulties both on the part of the administrative government that raised immense revenues from the sale of vodka and on the part of local landlords owners of wineries and taverns and who were selling alcoholic products.
As it was already mentioned Valanchus succeeded in finding agreement with the administrative government (at least at the commencement of his sobering activities). It was far more difficult to overcome the opposition of landlords. They were keeping wineries, produced vodka trying their best to sell as much as possible of it to the population of their possessions. What can be done against landlords? The bishop had no immediate power over them. It was rather difficult to rely upon the personal authority only. Indeed all the bishops before Valanchus descended from the noble and him along came of the “muzhiks”. There was nothing for it but to resort to clever diplomacy - on the 14th of March 1859 when the first yields of enlightenment activities were already evident, after the address to all clergymen and the people of diocese with an appeal to abstain from alcohol the bishop wrote the “Exhortations to landlords”.
His appeal does not sound edifying but persuading - “Respected landlords wide known by your deeds, power or prominence, reputation or wealth. Treating your people with love, wishing them unending welfare, abstain from ingestion of alcohol and selling it in your house and district. It is damnable and improper to avoid mutual actions and move counter. There is no way to raise people from the moral lapse other than your own total and overall abstinence from alcohol”.
The landlords understood clearly the meaning of a non-intrusive allusion “to avoid mutual actions and move counter”; these were days before the mutiny of 1863 and such an allusion piqued ambitions of the Poles and landlords modelling themselves on them. After that it was really improper “to avoid mutual actions”. The bishop’s appeal in the second edition of the “Exhortations to landlords” sounds yet more rigorous - he expresses hope that landlords would be “sons but not black sheep of the Church and Motherland”.
Soberness was given support by the prince I. Oginsky, count Chapsky and others. But those who did not hurry to follow the lead of them were personally encouraged by the bishop to take that path. For many of the landlords though it was not quite easy to refuse the profitable business. The most vigorous resistance was offered by the landlord Naryshkin and officials of excise departments (excise is a government duty levied on the production and sale of vodka). Fictitious complaints started pouring wherein the preachers of soberness were accused of their alleged resort to force and even application of punishment with regard to drunkards. In the beginning of 1859 in order to deprive the local and tsarist administration of any grounds to interfere with the strengthening of the sobering movement Valanchus gave notice to everyone not to trespass against the principle of free expression of one’s own will, to teach soberness by educational methods - “Would anyone resort to force he may show that he is running short of enough spirit.”.
Tavern-keepers were those who most aggressively argued against the sobriety. Valanchus in his testamentary prescription wrote - “Tavern-keepers offered me a lot of money so that I would command the priests not to any more rail at drunkards. I rejected the money”.
Publicans consoled themselves saying that soberness would not last long. “They’ll drink again anyway” - the manufactures and sellers of vodka were saying. But as ill luck would have it the vows and pledges were strictly held to. It happened ones though that a peasant in the Shavelsk district all the same fuddled himself in spite of the given vow. The fellow villagers court him, hanged a signboard “Drunkard” on his back and drag him twice around the village.
In the Vilensk province vodka started selling at 8 grosz per quart instead of the previous 14. No one took it. The price then was brought down six fold. Not a single desirous! After all a local publican ordered to put free wine before the inns - no one even touched it.
Some took the verbal pledge. The others draw up written commitments and signed it by whole villages, towns, districts. The third went to a church so before the icon to swear alcohol off.
In the long run the government did not sustain the role of a casual observer. Not only a tear appeared in the treasury but the muzhik’s behaviour itself was incomprehensible, alarming and fishy. The response did not keep waiting. In March 1859 three ministers at a blow - of finance, internal affairs and the government properties simultaneously issued an order for the prohibition of village judgements in favour of sobriety and for the debarment of taking such thenceforth.
The needless cruelty to “public mutineers” was noted by almost all the newspapers - from very moderate to conservative. The “Kolokol” wrote - “Kabak was raised to the rank of a church or palace and an offence of kabak becomes the contempt of majesty”.
The unprecedented public war against the government aggression brought forward its martyrs and its heroes.
The Church alone only approved the policy of sobriety within the people. But publicans complained even to the Minister of internal affairs against the orthodox priests who by all means tried their best to withhold people from drinking. The only left was hope that - the set free people should have to adhere to heavy drinking. But 1861 came and the serfdom was abolished and the people ones again failed to justify prognoses and channelled its energy to the improvement of the new household.
And then publicans changed the tactics. In certain provinces they through offering bribes and gifts succeeded in concerting with the local government so that people were forcefully made to frequent kabaks. And in a moment the prices were changed for exorbitant. The drink ones again became expensive and as ever repugnant.
Civil commotions and discontent took rise. A cautious recommendation was rendered from the “above” - sell the polugar at a firm fixed price; no more than three Roubles per pail. As a rule the said may not at all presume the unconditional fulfilment. The stinking slop as usual was sold at 8-10 Roubles per pail.
The people somewise heard about the tsar’s benevolence. Making reference to the monarch’s directive the muzhiks started smashing down kabaks as if punishing the obstinate publicans. Within a few days commotions encompassed the major part of the povolzhsky and perhaps all the central provinces. In spite of a destructive ardour the rioters touched nothing but the kabaks’ property that with amazement was reported to by the police officials.
The government reaction was immediate and cruel - “Potatory mutinies” as nicknamed by the official historiography were mercilessly stifled. For example, in Ostrozhsk of the Voronezh province the governor-general upon the arrival to the place of mutiny has immediately laid on the mass flogging of peasants; some instigators were put in chains.
In 1863 the buy-out system in Russia was superseded by the introduction of excises. It is significant that the realization of this measure had to tail out almost on fifteen years for the publicans refused to voluntarily cede their positions. Even when they were boycotted by public, even when tavern-keepers - the sellers of vodka and customers themselves joined together against them the publicans could anyway find the way to foul things up and mislead their opponents. Thus on certain occasions they provoked or immediately staged the peasants’ riots so as to cause the use of force against the insurgents; in other cases they initiated the unprecedented delivery of free vodka so to win their favour or wreck some or other seasonal works and inflict damage to masses that made the boycott. In short the publicans violently and all out struggled for their “rights”.
However the abolition of serfdom having given the way to the development of capitalism in Russia made the tsarist government not to square up interests or requirements of any single class but take actions in concordance with the market laws. That is why the choice was made not in favour of state monopoly but in favour of the excise system accommodated to the capitalist economy and working in the countries of West-Europe that was regarded as an example.
The excise system “did not progress” but more often than not started skidding and after all “failed” from the view point of its economic expedience. First of all it has notably squeezed the prices on spirit and vodka down; the potatory revenue of the treasury dropped from 100 million down to 85 million Roubles. The drunkenness first crumpled during the peoples struggle against the buy-out system has ones again grown to the breathtaking scale; and at that not only as an increase in the size of consumption but also as the social and health aftermath so far as the cheap hebenon “for the people”, uncontrolled “new” “nowadays” formulations of some certain vodka-making companies accounted altogether for the catastrophic growth of alcoholism and the emergence of chronic alcoholics that had been never noticed in Russia before the epoch of capitalism.
Since 1868 only five years after the excise system came into effect new efforts start taking place to reform it, make amendments of those distortions that emerged in a social sphere. All those attempts of reforms in the 1870th as it rather often happened in the second part of the XIX-th century in Russia intensely savour of the “intelligensism” and “idealism” and were oriented not to the point but to particulars. So it was proposed to “democratize” the excise system, “regulate” it by way of placing a limitation on the quantity of public houses, handing the sale of vodka over to the general public (zemstvo), setting up the appointment by-election of sideletzs and by according the village community assemblies the right to ban the sale of vodka in their village, district etc. Except for the last item (local ban system) all of those mentioned were impracticable projects incapable of yielding whatever actual positive results.
In 1881 the ministers meeting on the vodka issue on the agenda was taken. As a result it was resolved to make successive sacrilegious changes - to replace the kabak with the tavern and inn i.e. places where not only “bare” vodka but also snacks were traded. At the same time it was first ever allowed to sell takeout vodka portionwise no less than a pail. Properly speaking the retail trading was established. Indeed no one before would ever start talking of buying vodka in the volume of less than a pail. Whereas the decision to change over for the sale of vodka in bottles pursued the objective to allow taking vodka anywhere including homes. The new mass drinking set in.
The sobering movement in Russia was in particularly heavy conditions all along of the counter stand of the state (that were drawing up a significant part of the revenue for account of the sale of drinks), distillers and wine merchants all because of inadequate rights of the local government and representative bodies. The mass peasants and clergymen sobering movements of 1837-1839 (in the East-country) and 1858-1859 in the European part of the Russian Empire were stifled by the government that had never happened in any other country.
One of the first highlighted by historians was a wide peasants sobering movement of 1858-1859 in the Russian, Lithuanian-and-Byelorussian and Ukrainian provinces. It was opposed to the ripping-off workpeople through the selling of low quality vodka at overcharged prices and compelled the government to abolish wine buy-outs. A historian I. Pryzhov following N.A Dobrolyubov underlined the public nature of actions in which course judgments of refusal to ingest formal wine (vodka) were taken, tempering associations were created and kabaks more often than not fell under destruction - “And now without whatever blandishments, without any walk-outs, without any extraneous interference the people of their own accord stop taking wine. And all that - as it has to be nowadays acknowledged -had been done on the only initiative of people”.
The results of sobering movement speak for themselves. Surely M. Valanchus has not exaggerated when in his fourth ““Exhortations of soberness”” (October 28, 1861) noted - “In many parishes it may be hard to find at least a single drunkard”. The highest per cent of drinkers was made up of the aristocracy, especially tsarist officials but amidst the general public the atmosphere of total intolerance of drinking was reigning. The sobriety became even a source of inspiration for some Lithuanian writers and poets. For example, the poet A. Baranauskas wrote a few poetic compositions - “The song of drunkenness”, “The song of gratitude to sobriety” and even a poem “The scourge of God and favour” that was re-written and passed round by people. I.C. Dovidaitis was the author of a collection of didactic stories in several parts - “Grandfather from Shaulyai” and also “Lives of Styapasa-Copper Nose” and other soul-stirring works.
For the propaganda of sobriety M. Valanchus also hoped to use a periodical publication “Pakeleivingas” (A fellow traveller) perceived then by M. Akalyaitis, L. Ivinskis, C. Daukantas. So far as the authority did not consent to the publication Valanchus began to agitate priests so that they should write booklets advocating soberness.
Valanchus enjoying glorious results of sobering movement continued to appeal - “having ones learned the spiritual and corporeal delight of sobriety, continue to rejoice in it up to the end that is until the time when the drunkenness is vanished forever and a new generation unfamiliar with the taste of vodka is grown. Can it be true that for two hundred years our Zhemantians and Lithuanians have not yet enough suffered of vodka?” And in 1861-1862 having been informed that drunkenness in some parishes occurred again Valanchus immediately strictly admonished - “I, the Bishop and Shepherd yours, tell you that not a single drop of vodka is allowed to be taken and you ought to obey me”. Such admonitions were received by the parishes Skapishkis, Kamaiya, Kupishkis, Veivirshenai and Plunge.
Somewhile later the authority started resorting to repressive methods against the sobering movement. In 1950-1862 after the commencement of sobering movement the state from only one Kaunas province received 3 731 102 currency notes less. When the sobering movement was only at the initial stage A. Knyazhyavichus - the Minister of Finance - and S. Lonskoyus paid their attention to the “Rules of tempering association” published in 1858. By order of V. Nazimov - the Governor-general of Vilnius - the “Rules” was confiscated and the publishers punished; Valanchus had to write explanatory notes not only to the Governor-general of Vilnius but to the minister of internal affairs as well. On the 31st of December 1858 the Governorgeneral of Vilnius received a secret directive to have activities of the clergymen who support the sobering of people shadowed. Same A. Knyazhyavichus suggested the tsarist government that the sobering movement was prohibited and Valanchus sent in exile. Fortunately it has never been done.
It was not quite long, for only four and a half years that Valanchus waged the war against drunkenness. After the riot of 1863 M. Muravyov the then governor-general of the krai threatening with heavy fines and military tribunal prohibited execution of the sobering programme as a political action. But the idea of sobering continued to exist. Valanchus cherished it even unto his death.
Some tempering associations did not cease its activities and remained clandestine centres of spirituality. For example, in 1867 the prior of the Salantaisk kostel wrote Valanchus that “until nowadays his parish has not turned away from sobriety; people at weddings, christenings, wakes do not take vodka, do not even keep it in their houses”. In 1868 Obolensky -the Governor of Kaunas - reported to Saint Petersburg that people were still under the influence of tempering associations and that to his astonishment he has not in that krai found the vice of heavy drinking that so deeply rooted in central Russia. The bishop M. Valanchus himself in his sobriety advocating letters to intelligentsia often named sobriety the “reform of good morals” and even “reform of national estate”. He was a real reformer - “a little time may pass and every one will become convinced in the usefulness of fruits yielded by this reform: old people will sink into the grave, a new sober and powerful generation will grow and no doubt that the revival in all aspects will come” that is why “our hopes are first of all turned towards the young generation: it should be encouraged and forwarded to soberness”.
In a few years in 1889 in Russia by order of the Holy Synod the clergymen were newly officially offered to engage in the organization of tempering associations.
We know how high the Russian revolutionary democrats rated the first sobering movement. So that people expressed its readiness and ability to lead its life sober was where N.A. Dobrolyubov found the value of boycott to alcoholic products. In his article “People’s Affairs. Expansion of Tempering Associations” (Dobrolyubov N.A., Collected works in 9 volumes, v. 5, M-L., 1962, p. 285) he wrote - “In divers places of the vast kingdom hundreds thousand people within some five - six months without any preliminary agitations and proclamations refused vodka”.
In connection with the sobering movement and its suppression K. Marks wrote - “Any attempt to raise their (peasants) moral level is punished as a criminal act. Suffice it to mention government repressions against tempering associations that strived to save Muscovites. from vodka”. (Marks K., Engels F. Works, v. 16, p. 207).
So what are the lessons of the first sobering movement for our contemporaries?
First - A sobering movement is easily started but it is more difficult to bring it to the logical end - total soberness of the whole people.
Second - One should be utmost cautious with traitors and agent provocateurs inside a patriotic sobering movement.
Third - The problem of alcoholising can be not solved in a swoop; people need to be properly and systematically
prepared for the enactment of the law on sobriety. Knocking off thistle tops will not lead to positive results. The actual grubbing of the problem is required.
Fourth - One should have a permanent creative and matter-of-fact dialog with the power to be on the reestablishment of the total sobriety in the country.
Fifth - One must not let to dissociate; on the contrary confessional forces for the sobering of masses need to be consolidated.
Sixth - At the enactments of the law on sobriety one should make explicit provisions for the economic component of
this complicated issue.
Seventh - Activist of the sobering movement should provide for a consistent and qualitative work in all the party and public organizations.
Eighth - Wherever it may deem possible activists of the movement should boldly come into power: legislative, informational, executive, judicial and religious.
Ninth - The present-day business should be more consequentially and specifically engaged in the dealing with problems of the sobering of Motherland.
Tenth - All the deputy corps of the country need to be mobilised for the course of sobering people.
Eleventh - The problem can be not solved without the exact scientific sobriological attitude.
Twelfth - Nowadays when the nation is perishing, people sinks to history the moves for the sobering of our society similar to the revolutionary ones are required. And the leading role at that belongs to the headship of our countries.
Маюров А.Н., профессор
Трезвенническое движение в России имеет многовековую историю. Первую в русской истории проповедь "Слово о пьянстве" составил ещё Феодосий Печерский в XI веке. В ней говорилось, что через потребление алкоголя человек отгоняет от себя Ангела-хранителя и привлекает беса.
В XIX веке Россией, США, рядом европейских стран были приняты юридические документы о запрете ввоза спиртных изделий в места проживания народов, у которых в силу их физиологических особенностей потребление алкоголя вызывало быстрое вырождение и вымирание. Это законы: России о «ясачных инородцах» (коренных народах) Сибири и Дальнего Востока (1822 г. и позднее); США - об американских индейцах и эскимосах. В 1885 году русский царь, своим указом, ввел систему местного запрета на торговлю алкоголем, чем спас многие малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока. Брюссельские международные соглашения: 2 июля 1890 г. о запрете ввоза алкоголя в германские Восточную и Северо-Западную Африку (Танганьику и Камерун), английскую Нигерию, итальянское Сомали и 8 июня 1899 г. - об установлении для всех других стран Центральной Африки обязательной высокой ввозной пошлины на спирт.
В XIX веке российское пьянство полностью охватило не только город, но и крестьянские усадьбы. У всех дорог стали выстраиваться корчмы и трактиры: в 1860 году в России насчитывалось 77 386 трактиров. Как и следовало ожидать: пьяное действие всегда приводит в трезвому противодействию.
В 1810-1870 гг., в период развития промышленного рывка, в США, большинстве европейских стран (кроме некоторых винодельческих в Южной Европе), в России возникают трезвеннические движения, направленные против пьянства, за воздержание от употребления крепкого алкоголя - водок. В 1830-1880-е гг., в период завершения промышленного рывка, начинаются движения за полную трезвость, отказ от употребления любых алкогольных изделий - водки, вина, пива.
По подсчётам историка Афанасьева А. Л., к началу 1911 г. в 9 странах Европы, в России и США в трезвенническом движении участвовало более 3,7 млн. человек. Общества трезвости и отдельные участники имелись также в Австралии, Канаде, Южной Африке, Индии и ряде других английских, германских, французских колоний в Африке, Азии, Америке. Это было одно из наиболее многочисленных и влиятельных международных движений.
Но особенно для нас значимы сегодня события 1958-1961 годов, когда под руководством российского духовенства и прогрессивной интеллигенции против алкоголя выступила вся Россия. И первым нам хотелось сегодня назвать одного из апостолов трезвеннического движения литовского епископа Мотеюса Валанчуса.
Мотеюс Валанчюс родился в Литве, в семье свободного крестьянина. Он учился в Варняйской духовной семинарии, позже совершенствовал свои знания в Вильнюсской духовной семинарии, в которой работал профессором в период ее перевода в Санкт-Петербург.
Отдельные попытки введения трезвости в некоторых приходах были еще до Валанчюса. В 1846 году ксендзы Шяуляйского прихода С. Штахас (1796-1854) и А. Кибартас (1795-1860) попытались регистрировать в своих приходах людей, желающих покончить с пьянством и вести трезвый образ жизни. Но в те времена эта идея большой поддержки не получила. Мотеюс Валанчюс отличался способностью ощущать дух времени, исторический момент. Чувствуя духовный перелом своего народа и жажду трезвого образа жизни, он принял решительные попытки вести его по пути трезвости. В одном из писем об опыте М. Валанчюса по созданию движения трезвости и его успехах чиновники Российской империи писали следующее: «Нынче хватило и нескольких слов, а раньше и самые усердные нравоучения не помогали».
Именно в это время по пути в Варшаву в Каунасе остановился царь Александр II. Во время аудиенции М. Валанчюс проинформировал его о расширении движения за трезвость в епископстве Жемайтийском. Царь выразил епископу свою благодарность. Получив царское благословение, Валанчюс больше не обращался к царскому правительству за официальным разрешением для легальной деятельности создаваемых обществ трезвости.
Официальной датой начала движения за трезвость считается 11 октября 1858 года, когда М. Валанчюс специальным письмом обратился к деканатам, призывая священников приступить к введению трезвости как образа жизни, в первую очередь личным примером, по всему епископству Жемайтийскому. К настоятелям приходов, которые не торо1 пились вводить трезвость, он обращался специальными письмами, в кото! рых строго предостерегал от употребления спиртных изделий, настоятельно
< рекомендуя давать личные обеты трезвости, а в случае приема спиртного 1 запрещал служение. В ноябре 1858 года движение за трезвость уже охватило
* почти всю Каунасскую губернию. Именно в это время был распространен 4 подготовленный М. Валанчюсом на литовском языке Устав обществ трез-& вости. Вступление в общество трезвости проводилось в торжественной об* становке. Вступающие должны были на коленях перед алтарем и иконой
* Матери Божьей давать зарок не употреблять спиртного. Каждый из них
< заносился в «Книгу трезвых лиц». Настоятель костела вручал им свиде-, тельства трезвенника и значки общества трезвости. Устав требовал, чтобы
< вступившие в общество не употребляли спиртного на протяжении всей своей жизни. Богослужения за трезвость проводились особенно торжественно, под звон колоколов. Родственникам в первую очередь разъяснялся болезненный характер этого пристрастия, требующий христианского милосердия и понимания ближнего.
В первые же дни царствования Александра II донесли, что среди семидесятимиллионного населения было всего лишь 216 откупщиков, которые практически и заведовали всем питейным делом в России. Когда откуп достиг крайнего предела, а пьянство уже бушевало по всей России, среди интеллигенции стали ходить разговоры о воздержании и трезвости,
Дошли вести, что в Литовском крае было открыто первое общество трезвости. На одном предприятии сапожный и столярный цеха заключили договор о прекращении потребления алкоголя. И в России начался новый этап борьбы с алкогольной экспансией. В августе 1858 года в Виленской и Ковенской губерниях возникли одни из первых обществ трезвости в России. В конце 1859 к воздерживающимся от алкоголя перешла почти вся Ковенская губерния, через три месяца к ним присоединилась Виленская, а затем вся Гродненская.
В знак победы трезвого образа жизни люди ставили у дорог и своих домов кресты, торжественно их освящали. В 1860 году Валанчюс сообщил генерал-губернатору Вильнюса В. Назимову, что в его епископстве 718 520 прихожан соблюдают трезвость, что составило 84% от числа верующих (855 230).
Уже к середине 1860 года в Каунасской губернии трезвенники составили 83,2% всех католиков. В Куршской губернии, к жителям которой 14 марта 1859 года М. Валанчюс обратился с «Наставлением трезвости», трезвый образ жизни соблюдали 87,1% там проживающих. В то же время пропагандой трезвости занялся и епископ Вильнюсский А.С. Красинскис (он управлял епископством Вильнюсским в 1859-1863 гг.). Благодаря его усилиям, в Вильнюсской губернии 51,5% католиков записались в общество трезвости. Трезвость также распространилась и по Гродненской губернии, слух об этом прошел по всей России. Это было большим достижением в области развития духовности и культуры литовского, белорусского и польского народов. В одном из писем пастырь так говорил о своей радости: «На Божьем суде всех своих овечек я покажу трезвыми».
Для поддержания трезвости и контроля за ним Валанчюс регулярно оглашал «Наставления трезвости». В них он выражал свою веру в нравственность народа, восхищался твердой решимостью людей отказаться от пьянства, в то же время сердито браня и предупреждая тех, кто все еще продолжал потреблять алкоголь.
В 1859 году Святейший Синод Русской Православной Церкви своим указом благословил священнослужителей “.живым примером собственной жизни и частым проповедованием в Церкви Божией о пользе воздержания содействовать возникшей в некоторых городских и сельских сословиях решимости воздерживаться от употребления вина.”.
Затем общества трезвости были созданы еще в 32 северо-западных, центральных, уральских и приволжских губерниях России. Массовое трезвенное движение возникло в нашем Отечестве как протест населения против откупной системы распространения алкоголя через почти 80000 питейных заведений. Участниками трезвеннического движения вначале были государственные крестьяне, к которым присоединились помещичьи и удельные крестьяне, городские низы и отставные солдаты. Массовое трезвенническое движение явилось одним из серьезных элементов антикрепостнической борьбы крестьянства в период революционной ситуации 1859-1861 гг. Через образовавшиеся общества трезвости повсеместно осуществлялся бойкот питейных заведений. На крестьянских сходках при обществах решался вопрос об отказе от употребления спиртных изделий. В мае 1859 года общества трезвости, особенно в Поволжье и на Урале, организовали массовый разгром питейных заведений, принадлежавших откупщикам. В начале января 1859 г. приняли зарок не пить вино в Зарайском уезде Рязанской губернии, а 7 января (в Рождество!) в Никополе Екатеринославской губернии священник (протоиерей) Иоан Королев публично говорил о воздержании. В Нижнем Новгороде на крещенском торгу, где собиралось до десяти тысяч народа, народ не пил вина (!), предлагая его пить самим откупщикам (Вот и нам бы так не мешало заявить: «Директора табачных и винных заводов пейте и курите сами свою гадость, она у вас выведет все шлаки и радиацию из организма!») В середине января создаются общества в Курской губернии, к концу месяца в Саратове. В первой половине февраля в Туле, а к концу месяца общества трезвости уже существовали во Владимирской, Пензенской, Екатеринославской, Тверской губерниях, а через год распространилось на десятки других. Откупщики вначале утешали себя тем, что трезвость не продержится долго. Но народ хранил трезвость. Что делать? Представьте себя на месте откупщиков. Ты вложил огромные деньги на выкуп лицензии, на строительство завода и т. д., а твою отравляющую продукцию не берут! Откупщики дают взятки властям, чтобы заставить пить людей! Например, исправник (глава уездной полиции с 1775 до 1862 избирался дворянами (естественно все откупщики дворяне), затем назначался правительством) посылает своих людей, чтобы «разобраться, в чем дело». Вот как историк Иван Прыжов описывает приезд полицейских «. Отделение, прибыв в имение одного графа, начинает убеждать мужиков, чтоб они пили водку (!!!) Начальство собирает крестьян при управляющем питейными сборами (т. е. человек, который платит деньги хозяину - откупщику), и спрашивает: «Почему они не пьют вина?»
- Так не желают, - отвечают крестьяне.
- Отчего же не желают?
- Очувствовались, - отвечают крестьяне, - это вино один разор хозяйству!
После уже управляющий предлагал деньги мужикам, чтобы все было шито-крыто, но денег у него не взяли. Управляющий выставил даром бочку вина, но никто до нее не дотронулся, так назад и потащили. Итак, доходов нет, что же делать? И вот тут продавцы нашли самый хитрый ход.
В апреле 1859 г. один откупщик ходатайствовал у министра внутренних дел, чтобы обязать священников, объявить публично, что данные народом обеты относятся только к пьянству, а умеренное употребление вина необходимо, но министр нашел такое требование неуместным.
Первый этап трезвенного движения был усмирен тогда войсками. Многие организаторы питейных погромов попали на каторгу. Тем не менее, под влиянием трезвенного движения, в октябре 1860 года была отменена откупная система, которая к 1863 году была заменена акцизной, а в 1861 году в России было отменено и само крепостное право. Но, как метко подмечено в народе, хрен редьки не слаще. Царизм просто нашел новый способ выкачивания денег из народных кошельков в виде акциза. Спаивание народа было продолжено.
Однако в своем общественном подвижническом труде Валанчюсу приходилось преодолевать очень серьезные препятствия как со стороны административной власти, получавшей огромные доходы от продажи водки, так и со стороны местных помещиков, владевших винокуренными заводами и трактирами и торговавшими алкогольными изделиями.
Как уже говорилось, с административной властью Валанчюсу удавалось договориться (по крайней мере, в начале его трезвенной деятельности). Значительно сложнее было преодолеть противодействие помещиков. Они держали винокуренные заводы, производили водку, стараясь при этом как можно больше ее продать населению своих владений.
Что можно было предпринять против помещиков? Непосредственной власти над ними епископ не имел. На один только авторитет надеяться было трудно. Ведь до Валанчюса все епископы происходили из знатного сословия, а он один был из «мужиков». Оставалось применить хитрую дипломатию: 14 марта 1859 года, когда уже были очевидны первые плоды просветительской деятельности, после обращения ко всем священникам и жителям епископства с воззванием отказаться от спиртного епископ написал «Наставления помещикам».
Его обращение звучит не назидательно, а с увещеванием: «Уважаемые помещики, известные всем своими делами, властью или значимостью, уважением или богатством. Обращаясь с любовью к своему народу, искренне желая ему вечного благополучия, откажитесь от употребления и продажи спиртного в вашем доме и волости... Осудительно и неприлично избегать совместных действий и идти вспять. И нет другого пути, чтобы поднять народ из нравственного падения, кроме как полный и всеобщий отказ самим от алкоголя».
Помещики понимали, что означают этот ненавязчивый намек и слова «избегать совместных действий»: время было перед восстанием 1863 года, и такой намек задевал амбиции поляков и подражавших полякам помещиков. После
этого на самом деле неприлично было «избегать совместных действий». Во втором издании «Наставлений помещикам» обращение епископа уже звучит более строго: он выражает надежду, что помещики будут «сыновьями, а не выродками Церкви и Родины».
Трезвость поддержали князь И. Огинский, граф Чапский и др. А тех, кто не торопился последовать их примеру, епископ сам лично поощрял ступить на этот путь. Все же многим помещикам было трудно отказаться от прибыльного дела. Особенно сильно трезвости сопротивлялся помещик Нарышкин и чиновники акцизных (акциз -государственная пошлина за производство и продажу водки) управлени?
