On Drinking

There's a pretty prevalent stereotype held by Americans – that Russians love to drink. After about three weeks of living in a Russian city, I can't say that the stereotype is inaccurate. Maybe it's because there isn't much else to do in the cold winters, maybe it's just because it's so cheap, but the Russian people as a whole do seem to love the sauce. It's really amazing to me how drinking is accepted and perhaps expected – kiosks scattered all over the city emblazoned with the Baltika logo (Baltika is the largest Russian brewer of beer, and is owned by Newcastle and Carlsberg, two western European breweries) sell bottles of beer of all different varieties for very low prices, and as far as I can tell are open all night. One can buy a bottle of Baltika Nine for as little as 20 rubles, which is less than a dollar, on the street. Another popular option is the big plastic bottle of cheap beer, which can be bought for around 70 rubles. That's less than 4 dollars for as much as three litres of beer. It's sort of strange to be on the trolleybus at 2:00 in the afternoon and seeing younger men sitting on the bus drinking from their jugs of beer. And at pretty much any time of day, it's a good bet that there'll be someone walking around with a bottle or can of Baltika in their hand. What's interesting to me is that beer seems to be much more popular than vodka, which is more or less the national drink. I'd say that when people think about Russia, one of the first things that comes to mind is a bearded man in a fur hat drinking from a bottle of vodka (and perhaps watching a dancing bear). I'm not trying to say that vodka isn't popular here, don't get me wrong. Perhaps it's just because I usually only see people drinking when they're on the street, as I don't frequent bars, but beer seems to be the drink of choice among the younger crowd. Among the older crowd, however, I get the impression that vodka is still the preferred drink. Any grocery store will have a large wall absolutely packed with bottles of vodka, ranging from the $5 half litre bottles, to the bottles costing upward of $50, which are usually imported. Even in cafes vodka is quite cheap, with bottles being available for under $10, usually. No wonder there seems to be such a problem with drunkenness.

Anyways, this all leads me to the more important question: why is it that drinking is such a big thing here? In class a few weeks ago, we were discussing the Russian concepts of optimism, soul, and fate, and someone asked our professor about depression. Specifically, she asked if a man who spent all of his time drinking and doing little else would be considered “depressed.” Her answer really surprised me: she said that sometimes such a person would be considered to be depressed, but generally it would just be thought that he was “pouring vodka on his soul” in order to keep it from getting sick. That doesn't translate very well, but I was really taken aback. Coming from the US, where any dependence on alcohol is seen as a sickness, and a problem that seriously needs to be resolved, it was somewhat of a shock to hear alcoholism described as something less than terrible. Overall though, I can't say I am terribly surprised that there is so much drinking here – the reputation is well earned. It is worth noting, though, two things. First, is that women don't seem to drink very much. At celebrations and gatherings at people's houses, vodka is pretty much always drunk. The women, though, are usually not expected to take any more than the first shot of vodka, and often drink wine instead. Maggie – I don't see too much support for your “every good Russian women can drink a litre of vodka without batting an eye” theory. I'm terribly sorry. The second thing is public drunkenness is often seen in a very poor light. One reason (among many) that Russians didn't seem to like Boris Yeltsin is that he was often drunk at public gatherings, and not a few times made a fool of himself. Vladimir Putin, however, does not drink much, and this is by no means seen as a personality flaw. I should note, though, that pretty much anything Putin does is hailed as being wonderful. It's easy to be loved, it turns out, when you control the media.