About Drinking Culture

In the second half of the 19^th century, despite the fact that the Golden Fever had already gone, and all the money excess was drunk away, pubs and taverns in the Yenisey province kept on prospering. And they worked with profit even during the leanest years.

Well, firstly, it was so because every year there were 2-3 great holidays, and each of them was celebrated during three days. Weddings, village meetings and the end of works did not do without alcohol. Exactly as it is now.

Secondly, there was not many entertainments in the towns and villages, so pubs were always popular, even among very honourable people.

Thirdly, even that time there was a habit to pay or thank for someone’s services with vodka: to hire a coachman costed a bucket of vodka, a village sсribe'services – two buckets, to issue a license – a bucket; shepherds, hired by the village councils, had to “give a bucket”.

And fourthly, according to the financial turnover of the pubs and taverns the officials judged about the welfare of the population. If taxes didn’t come to the budget, and things in taverns went well, it meant it was necessary to take some measures to make people pay arrears.

In 1881 there were 12 distilleries,13 vodka and 3 beer factories working in the province. The number of wholesale warehouses reached 86, and there were about 1400 saloons. By the beginning of the 20^th century Krasnoyarsk had 35 officially registered public drinking enterprises, that wasn’t little for a regional capital  with the population of a bit over 70 000 people.

Even Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote about Krasnoyarsk in his travel notes “From Siberia” on this issue: “The local intellectuals, thinking and not thinking, drink vodka from morning till night, drink inelegantly, rudely and stupidly, without measure and without getting drunk; after the very first two phrases the local intellectual will do ask you a question: “Shall we drink some vodka?” And the exile drinks with him because of boredom, at first he wrinkles, then he gets used to it and finally, of course, he is taken by drink. If to talk about drunkenness, these are not the exiles, who demoralize the local population, this is the population who does it”.

Based on the materials by the Local Studies Department of the State Universal Scientific Library of the Krasnoyarsk region.