Author Description

This is the first book on the history of public policy on alcohol in Russia from medieval times to the present. Has Rus always been drunk? Why does the world think of Russians as drunkards, when many other nations can compete with them? What was the policy of the Russian princes on alcohol, and what were the consequences of prohibition under Gorbachev and El'tsin for the country and her citizens? This book by historian Irina Takala addresses all these questions.