Historical records show that it was roughly 1,000 years ago when Russian Prince Vladimir, deciding to convert Russia from paganism to a monotheistic religion, made his choice in favor of Christianity. Rejecting proposals of Muslim ambassadors who tried to persuade him to adopt Islam for Russia, Vladimir said: "Let Russia henceforth live in revelry and drinking – something we can’t deprive ourselves of."

As a drink produced by diluting grain alcohol with water, vodka appeared in Russia in 15th century. Before that, Russians drank mostly low-alcohol drinks called medovukha or braga with an alcohol content of 5-8 percent. The word "vodka" appeared much later: The first manuscripts mentioning vodka date back to the 16th century, while the first official document containing the word was issued in 1751 by Empress Yelizaveta I. Finally, the "national drink" was patented in 1894 by Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev – famous as the creator of the periodic table of elements.

The first anti-alcohol campaign in Russia was launched in 1914, when Russia entered World War I, by Russia’s last Tsar Nicholas II. Initially, it brought about some positive results, but turned out to be a failure by 1916 due to increased production of moonshine and massive drinking of surrogates, such as solvents and lacquers. Nevertheless, by 1917 per capita consumption of alcohol in Russia equaled 3.4 liters per person per year – one of the lowest in the world.

By 1987, when the last Communist Party head, Mikhail Gorbachev, launched a decisive anti-alcohol campaign in the Soviet Union, the country’s annual per capita consumption of alcohol was estimated to be 11 liters per person. The campaign shared the fate of all other attempts of its kind and was gradually wrapped up in 1988.

Though Russians are pictured as hard drinkers in numerous anecdotes, movies and books, the truth is that Russia has never topped the list of alcohol consumers, falling behind Portugal, Scandinavian countries, France, Germany and Hungary, according to different estimates. In fact, it is very difficult to calculate the indicator precisely because one cannot properly account for such things as illegal production, smuggling, etc.

In terms of comparable prices, alcoholic beverages are much more affordable these days compared to the Soviet era. Back then, a 0.5-liter bottle of vodka cost five rubles (3.3 percent of the average monthly wage), while currently the same bottle costs 50 rubles (1.6 percent of the average monthly wage).

According to available statistics, the average Russian currently drinks 44 liters of beer and 15 liters of vodka a year, which means the alcohol budget roughly equals $100 per year, or 8 percent of income.

Apology

I would like to apologize to my readers for two mistakes that were introduced into my previous column by the editors:

1. Middle-class families in Russia are those with an income of more than $200 per family member per MONTH, not per year.

2. The third paragraph should read: "Ask those lucky (or unlucky) car owners whose only topic in the smoking room is whining about traffic jams, gasoline price hikes, bribe-hungry traffic police, flat tires, costly repairs, etc." I meant it as a joke, not as a statement.