Word: vodka
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Peter the Great - who was rumored to drink up to half a gallon (2 L) of vodka a day - cracked down on home-brewed alcohol by creating liquor licenses, which were required in order to sell vodka. Catherine the Great made it illegal for anyone other than the aristocracy to purvey it, which boosted the drink's quality - and the Czarina's coffers. By 1860, more than 40% of government revenue came from vodka. The distillation process had improved (vodka was now filtered with charcoal and occasionally flavored), leading to increased consumption. By 1913, Russian citizens could boast one unlicensed...
...understand the grip vodka has on Russian culture, one need only to look at its name: vodka is a diminutive form of the word voda - Russian for water. The average Russian drinks 4.75 gal. (18 L) of pure alcohol a year, mostly in the form of vodka. Distilled from grains or potatoes, it has no real taste. It is not sipped; it is not savored. In fact, there's no real reason to drink it except to get drunk. With an alcohol content of between 40% and 55% (80-110 proof), vodka is consumed as a shot, usually...
...Vodka's origins are murky, but the favored legend traces its arrival in the country to Genoese merchants who traveled to Moscow in the 14th century and met with Prince Dmitry Ivanovich. Monks in the Kremlin's Chudov Monastery began distilling the first Russian spirits some time in the 15th century. Ivan the Terrible served vodka to his oprichniki - the special police force that carried out his violent and, well, terrible orders. To facilitate their drunken revelry, Ivan opened kabaks, or taverns, that served vodka and other alcohol (no food). By 1648, with Russians developing a strong taste for drink...
Russia has made an unofficial New Year's resolution: this year, it's time to cut down on the booze. On Jan. 1, the Kremlin adopted new minimum-price standards for vodka that will nearly double the cost of a half-liter bottle of the national spirit, from $1.69 to $3. The move, part of President Dmitri Medvedev's anti-alcoholism campaign, is designed to curb Russians' excessive drinking. With a per capita alcohol consumption twice as high as that of the U.S. and an active underground market for homemade alcohol (known as samogon), Russians aren't about to give...
That year, the Russian army revoked shops' liquor licenses and confiscated over 140 million gal. (530 million L) of vodka. (Unsure what to do with the oversupply, the government gave the vodka to scientists, who used it in experiments - one of which led to a new kind of synthetic rubber.) Prohibition remained in effect during the 1917 revolution and subsequent civil war. But when the teetotaling Bolsheviks ran low on funds, they rethought their stance; by 1925 vodka was back on the shelves of state-run dispensaries. In World War II, every Russian soldier at the front was given...