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B. M. LEVIN

Principal Factors of the Spread of Alcoholism in Society in a Time of Social Changes

Over the past five-year period major changes have taken place in Russia’s course toward a new societal structure and way of life. But none of these have had much effect on the traditional model of alcohol consumption, which, with certain nuances, is evidently likely to retain its character for the foreseeable future as well.

Everyday behavior that includes the consumption of alcoholic bev- erages is affected not only by the life situation of the specific individual (dissatisfaction with work or inability to make use of free time, poor housing conditions or unrequited love, celebrations, glad events, and so forth) but also by social, economic, and political changes in society.

The economy in this country has departed from one shore but has not yet reached the other shore. The volume of production has fallen by more than half and continues to decline inexorably. The national income has fallen by half, inflation is rampant, and the budget defi- cit is astronomical.

English translation 0 1998 by M.E. S h q e , Inc. Translated from the Russian text 0 1997 by B. M. Levin and the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Glavnye faktoIy alkogolizatsii obshchestva v usloviiakh sotsial‘nykh peremen,” Sotsiologi- cheskie issledovaniia, 1997, no. 4, pp. 1 0 2 4 .

Boris Mikhailovich Levin is a professor, a doctor of economic sciences, and chief scientific associate at the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences.

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The crime situation is horrifjing--millions of crimes (for the most part unsolved) and a rampant rise in the worst kinds of crimes such as murder (including murder for hire), armed robbery, and rape. In the social sphere are the impoverishment of most of the population (tens of millions of people), unemployment, an increase in the number of Lumpen, a lack of any guarantees whatsoever, disillusionment and apathy, despair and a lack of confidence in gov- ernment protection, and rising tension in society.

Under these emergency conditions, the country finds itself in a state of acute anomie. What Emile Durkheim meant by “anomie” was a state of society in which there is no precise regulation of individual behavior, a moral vacuum, a state in which the old norms and values are no longer in accord with new relations, which have yet to be formed. His definition reflects the present picture of to- day’s Russia.

The changes taking place are having a substantial impact on vari- ous forms of d e v i a n c 4 e spread of alcoholism in society, the catastrophic rise of narcotics addiction, and the increase in all kinds of crime. What are the directions of probable changes in the foresee- able future, and what influence will they have?

It is difficult to answer such questions if only because it is far from clear what the fate of the changes taking place will be. Never- theless, in spite of the contradictory nature of the processes taking place and evaluations thereof, certain characterizations are indeed possible. Let us venture to make a prediction, inasmuch as certain tendencies have begun to emerge quite clearly.

Rapid social shifts, regardless of their direction, always bring about an increase in deviant behavior, including the spread of alco- holism in society. Durkheim considered this functional relation to be a natural one. In society there is an inherently high correlation of the interaction of the constituent “elements,” which is true of all aspects and directions, for example the interaction of people and social insti- tutions, the correlation of morality and social policy, the correlation of the superstructure to the base, and so forth. But in a time of abrupt changes this sort of correlation breaks down. This leads to unusual effects, which is especially obvious in the field of deviance.

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Precipitous changes in social reality cause norms and customs (both individual and group) to lose their effectiveness to some ex- tent. This p h e n o m e n o d e devaluation of customs-is universal and touches on various kinds and levels of activity, but the devalu- ation of customs has especially far-reaching consequences in inten- sifying all deviant phenomena. This signals a substantial increase in people’s inner readiness to change the model@) of their behavior. One aspect of this shift is a growing involvement with alcohol (consumption), a tendency to forget the invisible boundary be- tween moderation and abuse, and increasing narcotic dependency in society.

In the alcohol situation of today’s Russia, the dynamics, struc- ture, forms, and tendencies in the consumption of alcoholic bever- ages and, consequently, the magnitude of drunkenness and alcoholism continue to be greatly influenced by the alcohol reform of May 1985. This reform was carried out at a time when a totali- tarian regime was able to exercise unlimited and absolute power and citizens were expected to obey without question. The all-powerful state, which controlled all resources and aspects of life and was unconstrained by either legal or moral norms, resorted to its favorite method-coercion-being firmly convinced that a submissive popu- lation would obey all the commands of the authorities.

In the first three years of the reform, a number of alcohol distill- eries were closed down, while those that remained cut back their production drastically. Most of the distilleries converted to the pro- duction of nonalcoholic beverages. A substantial number of brewer- ies were closed down or converted to produce bas. Vineyards were cut down mercilessly. It is no exaggeration to say that the trade in alcoholic beverages was destroyed. All beer taverns and bars were closed, and alcoholic beverages were prohibited in cafes and in many restaurants. As a result, legal drinking was replaced by illegal drinking.

During those three years-1985 through 1 9 8 7 - t h e volume of the state production and sale of alcohol declined by over 50 percent. One might have thought that by early 1988 there would be a 2.3-fold decline in the per capita consumption of alcohol. But the level of

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consumption in Russia and the other former Soviet republics re- mained what it had been before, because everything that the state’s alcohol industry failed to provide was more than made up for by homemade liquor.

The amateurish alcohol reform of 1985 did not solve a single problem. On the contrary, it gave rise to a multitude of new ones that have yet to be solved. It led to chaotic financial disarray and an enormous deficit in the state budget. It gave a strong impetus to rising inflation, a worsening of the crime situation, the growth of organized crime, an unprecedented increase in narcotics addiction, and homemade liquor distillation on a massive scale.

It will not do to pronounce anathema on moderate alcohol con- sumption, which is widespread worldwide. However, the abuse of alcohol leads to antisocial behavior, to economic losses and moral degradation, to a deterioration of the nation’s health. It is necessary to make use of social control; it is the duty of the state to adopt an active position in the interests of the people and law and order, a position that needs to be appropriate to the alcohol situation.

In Russia, nothing of this kind can be observed on the part of the authorities-just one more negative factor that is having a devastat- ing impact on alcohol consumption in this country.

It is reasonable to state that Russia’s leaders are not implement- ing any alcohol policy whatsoever. Governmental measures with respect to the population’s consumption of alcoholic beverages over the past five-year period have been so few that it is easy to count them. Economic reforms in Russia started in 1992 with the liberali- zation of prices. An exception was alcoholic beverages, for which a stable price was set by the state. While the price of vodka was included in the price lists of the liquor stores, it did not show up on the counters. This led to months of fabulous enrichment for mafia outfits. Only later did the state decide to liberalize the price of alcohol.

The next measure was the president’s edict eliminating the state’s monopoly on alcohol, which had been in place in Russia for dozens of years. It took just one year for the authorities to assess the results of this measure. In the summer of 1993, an edict by Russia’s presi-

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dent reinstated the state’s monopoly on alcohol. Finally, a presiden- tial edict prohibited the advertising of alcoholic beverages on televi- sion. This list exhausts the whole “alcohol policy” of the Russian state.

These are the principal long-term factors that define the character of alcohol consumption in Russia. Now let us take a look at typical features and tendencies thereof.

Typical features and characteristics of the consumption of alcoholic beverages in post-totalitarian Russia

The consumption of alcoholic beverages in Russia has become even more widespread than formerly. According to our 1994 survey in Moscow, 9 percent of the respondents are t e e t o t a l e d u t the sam- ple included a lot of pensioners. According to our rough estimates at the present, among the adult population teetotalers account for not more than 4 or 5 percent; 80 to 84 percent drink alcohol in moderation; 10 to 11 percent abuse alcohol; and 4 to 5 percent are alcoholics.

Russia is one of the few countries in Europe where the consump- tion of alcoholic beverages is rising substantially.

Table 1 shows the chronological figures of per capita sales of alcoholic beverages in Russia, expressed in pure (1 00-percent) alcohol.

The figures reflect per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages and include only beverages produced in state distilleries. As we see, by 1992 this source alone accounted for the fact that five years after the lowest level, in 1987, consumption had increased by more than 1.5 times. If we include alcoholic beverages from other countries, homemade liquor, and adulterated beverages, per capita annual con- sumption of alcohol, according to expert estimates, is at least four- teen or fifteen liters.

In the first quarter of 1995, more than 5 million decaliters of alcohol were imported into Russia-hiefly from the near abroad.

The official reported volume of alcohol products that are pro- duced in Russia at the present time is 122.2 million decaliters per

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Table 1

Chronological Figures of Per Capita Sales of Alcohol in Russia Years: 1984 1985 1986 1987 1992 1994 1995

~ ~ ~ ~ ~~

titers: 10.2 8.3 5.6 3.8 5.8 6.8 7.1

year. But the illegal production of homebrew and vodka in Russia is estimated at 50 million decaliters. In 1994, however, more than 200 million decaliters of alcohol products were consumed in our coun- try, including alcohol products that were illegally produced, smug- gled in, or imported on favorable terms. In other words, all the imported and illegally produced Iiquor comprised two-thirds of the state production of alcohol. It follows, then, that official figures on per capita consumption of alcohol in Russia are extremely approxi- mate.

According to reliable estimates by experts, the total consumption of pure alcohol per capita also added up to fourteen to fifteen liters in 1994; this exceeds the level of consumption in all of the Western countries, with the exception of Latvia. Moreover, the lowest levels are recorded in the south of Russia and the highest levels are re- corded in the north and west of Russia.

An important qualification must be stated here. From the find- ings of the surveys we can conclude that per capita consumption of pure alcohol in Russia at present stands at eight to nine liters. However, experience all over the world, as well as in Russia, indicates that during polls and questionnaire surveys respondents tend to understate their consumption of alcohol by significant amounts-ranging between 50 percent and 60 percent of their actual consumption. Therefore one can assume that in Russia, the estimated actual consumption of alcohol per capita is as much as fifteen to sixteen liters per year.

One might think that the decline of people’s real incomes in Russia and the drastic decline in people’s standard of living ought to bring about a decline in demand for alcoholic beverages and the

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consumption thereof. But there is another functional relation: when prices are low, the consumption of intoxicating beverages goes up. What’s paradoxical about the Russian situation is that the second functional relation seems to be stronger. In the case of former (pre- reform) prices and incomes, the consumer had a choice-for the same amount of money he could either buy two kilograms of good sausage or one bottle of vodka. Now the consumer has a different choice-he can either purchase one kilogram of sausage for a given amount of inflated rubles, or five bottles of vodka. Some consumers who cannot afford to buy either one give preference to vodka alone. In the centuries-long history of alcohol we can hardly find cases in which the least expensive of all commodities-and, hence, the most affordableis alcohol. This kind of price-formation in Russia for alcoholic beverages stimulates demand for them, and thus results in drunkenness.

One indisputable confirmation of this is the fact that with the curtailment of the most important kinds of food products in Russia there has been a steady rise in the production of domestic alcohol products (the sale of food products has fallen by 11 percent, non- food products by 5 percent, and all retail trade turnover by 8 per- cent).

In the first half-year of 1995, meat production fell by 29 percent, sausage production by 18 percent, the output of whole milk products by 23 percent, and baked goods production by 12 percent. During the same period, the production of vodka products increased by 29 percent, cognac by 2 1 percent, champagne by 11 percent, and wine by 5 percent.

The structure of alcohol consumption, while remaining overall true to the traditional Russian model, has undergone a number of changes for the worse. Beer is not crowding out other beverages. There is not enough Russian-made beer, and what is available is not of good quality. Good beer has to be brought in from other coun- tries, but it is more costly than vodka, wine, or even cognac. It used to be that wine was brought in from Transcaucasia, Moldova, and Central Asia, as well as from Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Nowadays, practically none of these kinds of wine, or cognac either,

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come into Russia. What remains in the meager assortment of bever- ages? Vodka of all varieties and qualities, produced both in Russia and abroad, plus homemade liquor. Overall, vodka and moonshine now account for 80 to 85 percent of alcoholic beverages in the structure of consumption.

As we evaluate the structure of alcohol consumption as a whole we need to point out that vodka has not lost its popularity in Russia, in spite of the fact that often it is of low quality. Many women who used to prefer wine or champagne now have to give preference to vodka along with their men (and we are not talking about drunks but people who use alcohol in moderation).

Drastically changed social and domestic conditions of everyday life are also having an influence on alcohol consumption. Exupery said that interacting with people constitutes a great happiness. By their nature, Russians are sociable people; they love to spend time in the company of their friends, go to other people’s houses and invite them to their own, go to the theater and the concert hall, attend movies and sports events. But that’s all in the past. Now things have changed drastically. Friendly meetings have become rare, nobody goes visiting, and people are even afraid to take walks at night or go out to the theater or the movies. Sociable interaction and cultural leisure pursuits have been hampered by the severe crime situation and people’s meager incomes versus steadily rising prices. Not many people go to cafes and restaurants in the evening any more. It used to be that dinner parties (with various beverages on the table) would last for hours, with toasts, singing, and dancing. What mostly happens now in the family circle is the drinking of bitters, and not much in the way of appetizers. People are much more likely to resort to the bottle-and, increasingly, it is not for com- pany but just to get drunk. Time that people used to spend taking walks or going to the theater or movies is now increasingly devoted to intoxication.

To a large extent, the consumption of alcoholic beverages de- pends on the state of trade and the rules of alcohol sales. There are no rules now in Russia regulating these things, nor do we have a civilized system of alcohol trade such as the country used to have.

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All of this was destroyed by the alcohol reform in 1985. I have had occasion to visit a number of countries, but I have never seen this kind of disgracefui trade in alcoholic beverages. At all the subway stations, near the train stations, in the squares and parks, and even at the crosswalks of crowded streets we find vodka, beer, and wine being peddled by people who are not concerned about the quality of what they sell. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, alcoholic beverages are being peddled day and night in tens of thousands of street booths. The same thing can be observed in other cities as well.

The state trade in alcohol also looks pathetic in terms of the number of stores and departments as well as the assortment. Very few stores sell ordinary vodka. To be sure, in the supermarkets and specialized stores (of which there are four or five in the center of Moscow) it always looks fairly civilized, but these stores have fabu- lously high prices for imported beverages, and they try not to keep Russian-made products. For this reason, the customers here are the “new” Russians-millionaires, not ordinary citizens.

There are two characteristics of the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Russia that have far-reaching consequences: first, the contingent of drinkers is growing increasingly younger. This is due to the fact that adolescents are being introduced to the consumption of alcoholic beverages at an increasingly younger age. Second, women’s attitudes toward alcohol are changing.

The alcohol reform of 1985 took drinking out of the streets and drove it into people’s homes. From an early age, children were able to observe adults drinking alcohol past all moderation; out on the streets they would encounter intoxicated people and see them stag- gering blind drunk.

Most of the kindergartens, summer camps, and other places of rest and recreation intended for children were closed down. Children’s parents now are mostly engaged in the constant pursuit of rubles that are declining in value. Children’s principal teachers are the streets. Children’s lack of supervision is leading some adoles- cents-both boys and girls-to acquire a taste for alcohol at a very early age. By the time young men and women come of age, their “alcoholic education” can be considered complete.

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Our latest surveys c o n f m the conclusion that in Russia, every succeeding generation begins to consume alcoholic beverages at an earlier age than the previous generation did. This functional relation may in the future constitute the prerequisite for a worsen- ing of the problem of drunkenness and alcoholism in this country.

Our surveys, covering many years, have shown that when it comes to the consumption of alcoholic beverages women are not only taking the same route as men, but at an accelerated rate. For this reason, they are gradually catching up: in 1966 the percentage of women at sobering-up centers was 2.6; in 1976 it was 4.0 per- cent; in 1986, 7.9 percent; and in 1990, 10.0 percent. Later figures are meaningless owing to the poor work being done by the sobering- up stations. We do have some other figures concerning this matter: among the people registered as chronic alcoholics women added up to 8 percent in 1960, 12 percent in 1983, 15 percent in 1991, 17 percent in 1993, and 18 percent in 1994. As we probe further into these data we need to keep in mind women's inborn (not true of all women, alas) caution, secretiveness, and a desire to conceal their vice. For this reason, by no means all women who should do so wind up being registered or treated in the sobering-up station.

We selected 100 women and 100 men at random and asked them just one questior+"Are you a teetotaler?"; women proved to be not far behind men, and in the next few years this difference will disap- pear. With respect to this indicator, Russia is going to have complete equality between men and women. The emancipation of women is a progressive phenomenon, but like any kind of progress it has its dark side. The eminent German researcher E[mil] Kraepelin be- lieved that if a passion for alcohol spread to women to the extent that it has among men, our descendants would be threatened with extinction. I am apprehensive that in the future Russia will have good cause to remember this prediction.

There is not much reason to speak of any high cultural level of consumption of alcoholic beverages in Russia; it does not exist. At the time of the alcohol reform in 1985, the word hZ'tur-piteishchik [enlightened or cultured drinker] came to be a term of abuse. This was the name given in the press, at scientific conferences, and in

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speeches and articles by leaders of the party and the g o v e m e n t to people who ever dared to speak of culture in connection with the consumption and moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages. Such people were accused of trying to hinder the reform, of being opposed to sobriety, and of helping to foster the growth of drunken- ness and alcoholism through their own statements.

At the present time, the terms “cultured consumption” and “mod- erate consumption” are no longer banned; you could even write a book on the subject. Perhaps, after a relatively lengthy period in Russia, as in many other countries, a culture of alcohol consumption will emerge. Even now among the 150 million inhabitants of Russia you can find people who do know the rules of cultured consumption of alcoholic beverages and who follow these rules on their travels and in their homeland. But how many such people are there? Prob- ably relatively few.

Widespread forms of mass consumption of alcohol in Russia have been studied in numerous sociological surveys, books, and articles, which frequently present such a repugnant picture that it is not worthwhile to present a single description, however brief.

The abuse of alcoholic beverages-drunkenness and alcohol- ism-is a frightful social evil, one that has devastating conse- quences for all society. This is true of any state where the population uses alcohol beyond all moderation, but it is doubly so for Russia, because the Russian model, with its predominant proportion of hard liquor, is the most dangerous model. We could write a great deal about losses from drunkenness in Russia, but we will confine our- selves to pointing out three kinds of losses.

In 1988, when the ruble was “holding steady” and the national economy was still functioning, we calculated the economic losses to the country due to drunkenness and alcoholism at about 80 to 90 billion rubles per year. That represents a substantial portion of the national income, more than all the annual revenues to the state from the sale of alcoholic beverages (and such sales were the principal item of the revenue portion of the state budget). But not all losses can be easily formalized or expressed in terms of money. It is not possible to carry out this kind of calculation today. But even without

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Table 2

Crimes Registered in Russia (in thousands, according to the Ministry of internal Affairs)

Years: 1991 1995

Number: 2,180 2,750

Including crimes committed while in a state of intoxication

Years: 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995

Number: 35.0 36 .O 36.5 37 .O 37.3

calculations it is possible to assert that the economic damage to the state due to drunkenness in 1995 is not less than it was in 1988, except that the calculations have to be made in the trillions rather than billions.

Drunkenness and alcoholism are not the cause of crime, but there is an indelible connection between them, and an increase in the consumption of alcohol is accompanied by an increase in crime [see Table 21.

Most often, crimes committed against an individual are commit- ted in a state of intoxication: hooliganism-70 percent; premedi- tated murder-78 percent; severe bodily harm-79 percent; rape-75 percent.

It may be that the most alarming indicator of the crime situation in Russia is that more than half of the criminals (54 percent) are young people between the ages of 14 and 30, and one-seventh of all people committing crimes are minors between the ages of 14 and 18.

According to estimates by experts of the World Health Organiza- tion, drunkenness and alcoholism are ranked in third place in the world among causes of death. This is also true of Russia, but with one essential amendment: in the extreme north of Russia, alcohol- ism is the principal cause of death.

According to official figures of the Central Statistical Admini-

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Table 3

Life Expectancy of Men in Russia Years: 1984 1987 1993 1994

Age : 61.7 64.9 59.0 59.0

stration of Russia, total deaths in the country in 1993 exceeded births by 804,800. To be sure, drunkenness and alcoholism are not the only cause of death in Russia, but they are one of the main ones [see Table 31.

For women the decline in life expectancy is not so drastic, but such a decline is observable. One reason is the increase in the con- sumption of alcoholic beverages, whose structure is dominated by the most socially dangerous kinds of hard liquor.

The number of children in Russia is declining as a result of de- clining birthrates and increased rates of infant mortality. As a result, there has been a decline in the number of children of preschool and school age over the past few years. Experts have estimated that this process will increase each year: in the autumn of 1995 there were around 8 million children between the ages of 3 and 6 in Russia; by 1997 this number had declined to 6 million, or by more than 26 percent.

All of these factors constitute alarming symptoms of the alcohol situation in this country and demand that the authorities work out an effective antialcohol policy and strengthen social control.

Selected by Anthony Jones Translated by Kim Braithwaite

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