River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-05-22
Pictures of Russian Life.

The Sennaya (hay market is in the actual
centre of st. Petrsburg's working popula-
ton. Itis bounded ON all sides by tene-
ment-houses, cheap taverns, eating houses
and especially gin shops. There is
scarcelg house in which one Of the latter
is not to be found. During the early
morning hours they are usually de
serted; only occasionally moujik or two
drop into warm themselves. But after
market time these dingy palaces of liquor
begin to fill with visitors. The tzclovani-
di, (barkeeper) clad in flaring red shirts,
fly from one end of the bar to the other,
scarcely able to answer all the calls for
vodka" which resound around them,
keeping an eye in the meanwhile on each
of the guests, lest some smart moujlk
might, in quitting the place, forget to put
his 5-cUpeck piece on the counter. Let us
enter one of these dingy, dark, and smoky
dens. Here is the place to study that
cardinal vice which all observers attribute
to the Russian tion-drunkeness The
fact is beyond doubt that the Russian
peasants, artisans, working men-in short
all those classes of society which are com
prised in one denomination, "the Black
PeoplcH-are, as a rule, addicted to
drinking liquor so much so, indeed,
that from the excise taxes the exchquer of
the Russian Empire derives its greatest
revenue And yet, if we were to
infer from the fact that drunken
ness is Russian national vice,
paraIyzing the moral and intellectual de-
velopment of the people and brutalizing
its character, We would commit serious
error. Why does a Russian peasant
drink He has two excellent reasons for
doing so-first, the climate, and second,
the fact that drinking on holidays is al
most the only recreation afforded him. In
countries possessing so severe climate as
Russia, the food of people must necessar-
lily be stronger and of a better quality
than in a more moderate zone. Now UNI
fortunately, the customary food of the
Russian working classes is extremely in
sufficient; it consists chiefly of bread,
cabbage soup, and buckwheat Cruel. Meat
is rarely seen on Russian peasants ia
bic, and even tea, the chief national relish,
is mostly too expensive for the miserable
yearly budget of a Russian working man.
Thus, it becomes for him peremptory
physical necessity to find some equivalent
for the missing food, and alcohol he be-
sieves furnishes him, to a certain extent,
This equivalent This alone would suffice
to explain the necessity of a moderate
absorption of liquor As to the excess OF
it, into which the Russian peasant is I'M
deniably apt to fall, his past life and
present condition sufficiently exs
plain it. In Judging the moral stand
ard of the Russian peasant one
main fact must not be forgotten; that
less than 20 years ago he was still a serf,
a being without human rights thing that
could be bought and sold, and in which
moral and intellectual faculties v ere hard
ly recognized Less than 20 years ago
you would have vainly sought in most
Russian villages for man who could read
and write. The life of serf was an end
less, hopeless drudgery. a night without
dawn, life like death, a misery the more
kecnly felt as the people subjected to it
were at all times naturally intelligent, inn
aginative, and imprcssionable. Oblivion,
on occasional insensiblity toward all tive
ordinary surroundings, such has been for
centuries the only relief, the only amuse-
ment, (if sucha thing may be called by
that name,) which the Russian peasant
could enjoy. What could he become but
drunkardl Indeed, to all who aIe
familiar with the past history of the
Russian people, it may appear incompre-
hensiblc how drunkenness has not really
taken the proportions of an incorrigiblc
national vice, instead of a bad habit,
gradually waning away, or a malady, los
ing daily some of its intensity. That
drinking has become more national
malady than a vice, is clearly shown by
the fact that cases Of drinking mania
(z0pop) are nowhere so frcqTert as in
Russia Among the artisans the servants
and coachmcn in the cities, or among the
laborers in the country, hundreds of
steady sober men are to be found, who
lead in every respect an orderly. respect
able life, and for months consccutively
never touch drop Of any Intoxicating
liquor, but who suddenly almost uncon-
sclously, against their will and without
having the power to resist the strange
spell, as if a demon had possessed them,
drink necessarily for days and nights.
They generally feel some time in advance
the approach Of the "ft' 1t often hap
that a u sufferer Of that kind imporcs
his cmpl yer or his fellow working men
to lock him up, or to watch him closely,
and to stop by force every attempt on his
part to procure liquor. But all such pre-
ventivc measures are generally truitless.
In one way or another he contrives to
ciuumvcnt them, and drinks drinks,
until he falls into heavy sleep, from
which he awakes again a sober, orderly
man.