RUSSIA

PROHIBITING THE SALE OF ALCOHOL1

In the far from reassuring picture of the financial situation of Russia during the war there is yet one bright spot. I refer to the prohibition of the sale of vodka.

And it must be understood that the initiative of this measure came from the people itself. For a long time the more thoughtful elements of the population have demanded the cessation of the sale of alcohol by the state. But the government ignored these demands, and continued to draw hundreds of millions of roubles from the intoxication and brutalization of the masses of the people, taking no notice of the resolutions forwarded by the municipalities and rural communes concerning the abolition of the vodka traffic. The only means of action remaining to those who strove to combat alcoholism was a moral propaganda. And in this connection we have of late years witnessed an interesting phenomenon: in the various Russian cities "abstainers' clubs" have been formed, managed by bratzy, or "little brothers," whose members give a solemn promise to abstain from the consumption of alcoholic drinks. "This movement had a slightly mystical or sectarian character," writes a Russian publicist. And for some years the moral impulse of this propaganda has opposed itself to the policy of popular alcoholization practised by tsarism for many years past. The criticism of the democratic press, the protests of labor organizations, medical societies, etc., have finally overcome the resistance of the government, and on the 31st of January, 1914, a rescript of the tsar was published which ordered local administrators to take into consideration the will of the people as expressed in the resolutions concerning the suppression of the vodka traffic, and to close the vodka shops where the population so demanded. After the publication of this imperial rescript a wave of anti-alcoholic propa

1 From "Russia and the Great War," by Gregor Alexinsky. Copyright, 1915, by Charles Scribner's Sons and reprinted here by permission of the publishers.

ganda swept through all Russia. Between February and July of 1914 one-tenth of the total number of vodka-shops maintained by the state were closed by the wish of the local population. In certain districts the movement was remarkable in its dimensions; in the government of Riazan no less than 309 vodka-shops out of a total of 391 were closed, or 79 per cent.

On the 17th and 18th of July (old style), when the Russian army was being mobilized, the sale of alcoholic drinks was discontinued over practically the entire territory of the empire. But this was only a temporary measure, and the government had the intention of recommencing its disastrous trade after a brief period of delay. However, the people, seizing a favorable moment and pretext, expressed its desire to see the sale of vodka completely discontinued. Labor associations, municipalities, zemstvos, rural communes, and cooperative societies demanded that the sale of alcohol should be prohibited “for the whole duration of the war, and if possible for ever."

The government was once more forced to give way before the popular pressure. On the 16th of August the Russian journals published an official communications, according to which the emperor "indicated to the minister of finances that the existing situation demanded a change in the point of view concerning the means tending to the diminution of alcoholism, and that in place of palliatives the question of more decisive measures must be confronted-notably the question of a reconstruction of the whole budget on the basis of a gradual elimination therefrom of the enormous revenues derived from the monopoly of alcohol."

The ministry of finances conducted an inquiry into the results of the temporary suppression of the sale of alcohol. In Moscow, according to the data of the examining magistrates, "the number of crimes and misdemeanors in common law for the period included between the 17th of July and the 13th of August had diminished by 47 per cent. compared with the normal." In the city of Simbirsk "the criminality diminished by one-half; in Orel by 80 per cent; in Odessa by 75 per cent; and in Kostroma by 95 per cent."

Industrial employers stated that "the suppression of wineshops has increased the productivity of labor." This fact is verified by one of the contributors to the Journal des Débats. "In the Russian factories and foundries," he writes, "the returns of labor very sensibly increased [after the suppression

of the sale of alcohol]. In this respect figures are cited which we have not the courage to reproduce, so great is the difference between the two sets of figures. But in a coal-mine with which we are well acquainted the verified increase in the yield is 15 per cent. The figures for Monday's work, which used to be

bad in the extreme, are now normal."

In spite of all these facts the superior financial bureaucrats were ill-pleased by the suppression of the drink traffic, which had yielded them ample revenues. A member of the finance committee, M. Migulin, asserted in his articles that "the absolute suppression of the sale of alcoholic drinks will probably not be successful if it is long persisted in," etc. But the people continued its protests against alcoholism. The jury of one of the provincial Courts of Assizes inserted in one of its verdicts the declaration that alcoholism is one of the principal causes of crime. "Drinking," it said, "is worse than the present war. The devastation of war can be repaired, but nothing can be expected of alcoholism save a general peril."

On the 22d of August an ordinance of the tsar was published relating to the suppression of the sale of alcohol and alcoholic drinks "until the end of the war." A month lateron the 28th of September-at a meeting of the "Union of Christian Abstainers of Russia"-a telegram from the tsar to the president of the union was read in which Nicholas II made the declaration: "I have already decided to suppress forever the sale of vodka by the state in Russia."

A few groups of manufacturers-distillers, wine-merchants, etc.-attempted to protest against the suppression of the drink traffic. But the press put them in their place. "No compromises, no half-measures. . . . The ruin of whole branches of industry? So be it! What else can be done? Ought we to poison the people in order to benefit the revenues of 3,000 distillers of vodka and a few thousand owners of vineyards and breweries? Can we compare the losses of the distillers, owners of vineyards, and breweries, with the great and net profit which will accrue to Russia from her complete sobriety?"

The Polish Problem

The process of capitalistic development has united Poland to Russia by the indestructible bonds of commercial exchange. The annual produce of the factories and workshops of Poland represents a value of 1,000 million roubles, and two-thirds of

this is consumed by the Russian market. And in spite of all the errors and horrors of the policy of reactionary tsarism, the forces of economic evolution have cleared the ground for a new ideology, as far as the propertied classes in Poland are concerned. This new ideology manifests itself today in this "Russo-Polish" patriotism, which at times perhaps seems even too Russophile and too enthusiastic.

As for the poorer classes of Polish society, as for the proletariat, the political tendencies of this, the most revolutionary element of modern Poland, are of another kind. For a long time now the more thoughtful of the Polish workers have abandoned the idea of a Polish war of independence, and have dreamed rather of a conflict of classes. There is only one very small group of Polish Socialists which holds a different opinion; this group, even before the war, was conducting a propaganda inciting to a national insurrection of the Poles against Russia. But this propaganda had no success among the populace-firstly, because its utopian character was too obvious, and, secondly, because the propaganda was supported by the Austrian government.

The Armenian Problem

Naturally, the revolutionary proletariat of Poland, as well as that of Russia, does not wish to preserve the Russian state in its present form, with an autocracy, a system of government by police, etc. It desires to transform it into a democratic state, but by means of its own efforts, and not by the help of the German and Austrian monarchies. Not with Austria and Germany against Russia, but with the Russian people against the Russian reaction-such is the creed of the best and most thoughtful elements of the popular masses in Poland.

If we now turn our attention from Poland to the Caucasus or rather to the Trans-Caucasian region-we shall there find a political situation analogous in many ways to that existing in Poland. In the Trans-Caucasian country there is a people as unfortunate as the Polish, or perhaps even more unfortunate; for while Poland has been divided among three European states, all more or less civilized, Armenia has been divided between three states, of which one-Russia-is halfEuropeanized, while the other two-Persia and Turkey-were and still are almost completely barbarous. Every one remem

bers the horrors of the Armenian massacres organized by the Turks-not only by the old Turks in the days of the Red Sultan, Abdul Hamid, but more recently also by the Young Turks, the friends of the German emperor.

Finland-The Ukraine

Among the greatest blunders of tsarism during the war we must emphasize its Finnish policy.

In November, 1914, three and a half months after the beginning of the war, the Russian government issued an imperial ukase relating to the Finnish problem, the tenor of which was as follows:

'His Imperial Majesty has sanctioned a program of legal measures relating to Finland, a program which has been drawn up by a Commission specially appointed by his Majesty to that effect. The Commission finds that the program in question includes two prinicipal groups of measures.

"1. Measures designed to fortify the authority of the Government in Finland, so that the law may be executed and order maintained.

"2. Measures designed to establish closer political relations and economic unity in respect of Finland and the rest of the Empire.

"The measures which follow are enumerated in the first group:

"Revision of the laws relating to the disciplinary responsibility of the authorities of Finland. Removal to the Imperial Courts of all causes dealing with offences committed by Finnish civil functionaries in the exercise of their duties; revision of the Finnish law relating to the status of civil functionaries, in particular those which relate to their immovability, the modification of their oath, and their right to attach themselves to political parties; the training of a staff of officials destined to fill vacancies in the administration of Finland and in particular the institution of Chairs of Finnish Law in the Universities of the Empire; the introduction of the teaching of Finnish and Swedish in the schools of the Empire, and the addition of Russian to the subjects of the matriculation examination at Helsingfors University; the promulgation of a law touching the application to Finland of the measure known as the Exceptional Law; the revision of the regulations of the police and