The Soviet government and moonshine, 1917-1929 - article ; n°3 ; vol.27, pg 359-379

Helena Stone

Description

Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique - Année 1986 - Volume 27 - Numéro 3 - Pages 359-379
Helena Stone, Le gouvernement soviétique et l'alcool fabriqué clandestinement, 1917-1929.
Cet article se propose d'expliquer l'épidémie de distillation domestique que connut la société soviétique dans les années 20, en reliant la production clandestine d'eau-de-vie aux fluctuations des prix des céréales et à la politique du gouvernement soviétique à l'égard des paysans en général. Cet alcool apparaît comme un dérivé de la confrontation entre les paysans et le gouvernement.
Helena Stone, The Soviet government and moonshine, 1917-1929.
The article attempts to explain the epidemic of homebrewing the Soviet society experienced in the 1920's by linking the production of moonshine with the fluctuation in the grain prices and with the Soviet government's policy towards the peasants in general. Moonshine is interpreted as a byproduct of the confrontation between the peasants and the government.
21 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_ET_SOVIETIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1986
• Nombre de lectures: 30
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Helena Stone
The Soviet government and moonshine, 1917-1929
In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 27 N°3-4. Juillet-Décembre 1986. pp. 359-379.
Résumé
Helena Stone, Le gouvernement soviétique et l'alcool fabriqué clandestinement, 1917-1929.
Cet article se propose d'expliquer l'épidémie de distillation domestique que connut la société soviétique dans les années 20, en
reliant la production clandestine d'eau-de-vie aux fluctuations des prix des céréales et à la politique du gouvernement soviétique
à l'égard des paysans en général. Cet alcool apparaît comme un dérivé de la confrontation entre les paysans et le
gouvernement.
Abstract
Helena Stone, The Soviet government and moonshine, 1917-1929.
The article attempts to explain the epidemic of homebrewing the Soviet society experienced in the 1920's by linking the
production of moonshine with the fluctuation in the grain prices and with the Soviet government's policy towards the peasants in
general. Moonshine is interpreted as a byproduct of the confrontation between the peasants and the government.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Stone Helena. The Soviet government and moonshine, 1917-1929. In: Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique. Vol. 27 N°3-4.
Juillet-Décembre 1986. pp. 359-379.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1986.2086
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1986_num_27_3_2086HELENA STONE
THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT AND MOONSHINE
1917-1929
"I remember a conversation with an old-
time moonshiner who was discussing the
advisability of setting a still in a
community... 'The main thing,' he con
cluded, 'is the people. Air they fur hit
or air they agin hit ?■"
(David W. Maurer, Kentucky moonshine
(Lexington, KY, 1974): 54.)
As is well known, in the early weeks of its existence the
Soviet Republic had to strain itself to the utmost to struggle
with the legacy of the accursed past. The Old Regime left
behind among other things abundant supplies of alcoholic
beverages. The revolutionary tide reached its peak in the fall
of 1917, culminating in the plundering of wine cellars through
out the country. V.I. Lenin detected the working of counter
revolutionary forces behind the drunken riots; on December 6,
1917, he wrote to the chief of the political police, F.E. Dzer-
zhinskii: "The bourgeoisie commits the most heinous crimes,
bribing the scum of society and the declasse elements, getting
them drunk for pogroms. "(1)
The party delegated the task of combatting the bourgeoisie
on the alcoholic front to the workers' militia. The Red Guard
codes required members of the Red Guard to be "sober and
loyal to the revolution," and further provided: "The duty of
the Red Guard... includes the struggle with drunkenness so as
not to allow liberty and revolution to drown in wine."(2)
However, as the workers' militia could not resist the temptation
to drink, a special commission under the chairmanship of
V.D. Bonch-Bruevich put an end to the drunken riots through
the generous use of machine guns.O) In the provinces especially
reliable units dealt with the looters of liquor storages in a
similar fashion. (Л)
To maintain law and order, as well as to promote the
moral regeneration of the people, the Soviet Government decided
to preserve the dry law introduced by the Imperial Government
in August 191ЛЛ5) In the spirit of War Communism the Council
of People's Commissars nationalized the liquor industry and
Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique, XXVII (3-4), juil.-déc. 1986, pp. 359-380. HELENA STONF. 360
declared the existing stock of alcoholic beverages state
property. (6) Whatever the Government's motives and intentions
were, its economic policy led to a dramatic increase in the
production and consumption of alcohol in the country.
In early 1918, the village of Staraia Tishanka of the
Voronezh province distilled enough grain daily to supply the
ration for a town of nine to twelve thousand people. In
February 1919, the peasants of the Skopin county of the
Riazan' province channelled nearly 5,000 poods of grain a day
into moonshine. In Siberia 25 million was converted moonshine in the spring of 1918 - compared to only 12
million forcibly requisitioned and shipped to European Russia
in the first half of that yeari In the Saratov province home-
brewing was endemic. Peasants throughout the country conscious
ly chose to distill grain or feed it to cattle rather than to
"make a free gift to the city freeloaders. "(7)
Already in the beginning of 1918 Soviet Government agents
in the provinces saw that the production of moonshine was a
form of protest against the state monopoly on grain. In
January 1918 the Western Siberia Extraordinary Food Supply
Congress declared the bootleggers to be enemies of the
revolution for sabotaging the policy of food-supply dictator
ship. (8) The chief of the Lower Volga food-requisitioning
army, V.A. Radus-Zenkovich, considered the halting of illicit
distillation his official duty: "Burying the grain surplus |or|
wasting it on moonshine or speculation is not te be allowed. "(9)
The Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the
Soviets and the Secretary of the Central of the
Communist Party, Ia.M. Sverdlov, was convinced that home-
brewing presented a political challenge to the Government. He
blamed the distilling of moonshine on the kulaks. On May 20,
1918, Sverdlov told the Central Executive Committee:
"The kulak elements I ... I lure the poor strata to
their side |...| by inviting them to share in the
profits from moonshine. |...| Entire villages, entire
rural districts are captured by the spirit of
drunkenness. |...| The Government should impose the
strictest punishment for wasting grain, distilling
moonshine, and rising against the Soviet power..."
He reasoned: "According to the calculations of the
Commissariat for Food Supply, the Tula, Voronezh,
Kursk, Orel, and Tver* provinces have surpluses
amounting to 12 to 15 million poods. This grain is
rapidly distilled into alcohol, moonshine, and all
those nasty things that are being served up |...|
to the population for inebriation. |...| If only we
could really take inventory of this grain right in
the much." village |...| our situation would improve very
Sverdlov asked the Central Executive Committee for
"punitive expeditions (...toi be sent from the cities" to stop
homebrewing . ( 10) THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT AND MOONSHINE 361
The proliferation of moonshine belonged to the vicious
circle of problems engendered by War Communism. From 1917
until 1921 the Soviet Government sought to eliminate the market
and replace it with a centralized system of food collection and
distribution. The penalty for selling grain on the free market
was execution. The Government created committees of poor
peasants throughout the country, who, among other things,
gathered intelligence about the amount of food produced by
each peasant family, on the basis of which food-requisitioning
armies forcibly confiscated everything they regarded as surplus.
In response, peasants grew less grain, fed whatever they did
not eat to their livestock, or converted it into alcohol. The
more grain was converted into moonshine, the more grain the
Governement requisitioned. Thus, homebrewing was both a
consequence and a cause of socialist agrarian policies.
On December 19, 1919, the Government at last codified its
policy on liquor in a decree that provided:
"The distilling of alcohol, in unlicensed places,
from any raw materials, by any method, in any
amount, and of any strength, is punishable by
(a) confiscation of the alcohol, raw materials, stills,
and related equipment; (b) confiscation of all of
the offender's property; and (c) imprisonment with
forced labor for not less than 5 years."
Accessories to a crime and those who bought, stored, or trans
ported moonshine were to receive the same punishment. Persons
who built, transported, or bought stills made of "samovars,
cauldrons, or any other vessels," and those who drank moon
shine or appeared drunk in public were to be imprisoned for
not less than one year. (11)
The same decree, however, authorized the state production
of alcoholic beverages up to 16 proof, thus representing a quiet
retreat from the dry law. Shortly thereafter, a series of
decrees increased the maximum alcoholic content of state liquor.
The maximum alcoholic content was raised to 2Л proof on
January 3, 1920, to 28 proof on August 9, 1921, and to Л0 proof
on December 8, 1921.(12) During the same period, the Govern
ment reaffirmed its resolve to punish those who continued to
produce hooch. On January 20, 1920, the Commissariat for
Justice urged provincial executive committees and local
judiciary branches to fight moonshine relentlessly; in October
1920, it instructed the courts to crack down on the crimes that
were thwarting the current food