Life’s Essentials: Water, Oxygen and… Vodka?

Big. Scruffy. Usually clad in a parka and speaking with a heavy Slavic accent. So goes the character typically present in the countless funny Smirnoff vodka ads that have been airing since the start of time. The stereotype of Russians being notoriously heavy drinkers of hard liquor is a pretty common notion – although I definitely wasn’t aware of just how deeply entrenched in the culture it really is.

According to a recent NY Times article written by Clifford Levy, the average Russian consumes around 18 litres of pure alcohol per year – let’s break that down. At 40 per cent alcohol volume, a 750 mL bottle of vodka contains 300 mL of alcohol. To consume eighteen litres of the straight stuff, you’d have to drink sixty bottles of vodka per year. SIXTY! That’s ridiculous!

I mean, SIXTY?!

And as Levy goes onto describe in the article, crazy-heavy drinking has had equally-incredible impacts on the health of the population. The life expectancy among males in Russia is now just a meager 60 years – and studies have shown that alcohol is a factor in as much as 50 per cent of young deaths in the country. Alcoholism runs rampant.

With all these statistics stacking up against the people and putting huge pressures on the Russian healthcare and law-enforcement systems, the government has once again turned its attention to tackling the issue. In a panel discussion last summer, President Dmitry Medvedev declared that tougher measures need to be put in place to cut down the production and sale of alcohol. Among his suggestions are a crackdown on underage purchasing, stricter rules regarding the sale of low-alcohol drinks, and a proposed ban of the selling of alcohol around schools and rec centers. Another big idea is a mass-media educational campaign targeting youth.

It seems pretty obvious to me that these changes need to happen – but it’s also pretty obvious that the Russian people, as a whole, aren’t going to be that happy with any government-placed regulations. No, not all Russians wear parkas, and not all of them are scruffy – but it’s an established fact that they do love their vodka. And prying hard-liquor away from the culture will do a lot of damage to the social atmosphere.

The Gorbachev government tried to do it during the 1980s – and measurable health improvements were made when he took booze off the shelves, but the huge public outcry that followed was more than enough to stall the program. There’s some validity to that – the purchase of alcohol is a personal freedom. Historically and for obvious reasons, I feel that the Russian people deserve to be a tad protective over their liberties.

What do you think – at the costs of alcoholism in Russia, is government intervention in its sale justified?

I still can’t get over it – SIXTY?!