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East Oregonian : E.O
Pendleton, Umatilla County, Oregon
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Soviet Health Commissar H. Semashko urges moderation in Russian drinking, blaming festivals and bourgeoisie; Tomsk to reinstate state vodka monopoly amid failed anti-moonshining campaign. Reported from Riga, Nov. 20.
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RIGA, Nov. 20.—(A. P.)—H. Semashko, the Soviet Commissar of Health, has issued a plea for the moderation of drinking in Russia, particularly among the peasant class, according to information reaching Riga.
"In Russia the real subject for discussion should be drunkenness," he says, "not a moderate consumption of spirits, as is known in Europe, but the sporadic drinking of very great quantities of strong liquor."
The Commissar places the blame for present conditions partly on religious customs, which provide the people with a great number of festivals as an excuse for drinking, and partly on the bourgeoisie, who drive the poor man to drunkenness, he says.
He does not advocate total abstinence, but urges the state to adopt moderation measures.
Other information on this same subject sets forth that the Tomsk government has decided to reintroduce, as a state monopoly, the sale of vodka containing 35 percent alcohol. The fight against illicit distilling in Tomsk does not appear to have been successful, as the people are in sympathy with the "moonshiners."
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Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Russia
Event Date
Nov. 20
Key Persons
Outcome
urges state to adopt moderation measures; tomsk government decides to reintroduce state monopoly on 35 percent alcohol vodka; fight against illicit distilling unsuccessful due to public sympathy for moonshiners
Event Details
H. Semashko, Soviet Commissar of Health, issued a plea for moderation of drinking in Russia, especially among peasants, criticizing sporadic heavy drinking unlike moderate European consumption. He blames religious customs providing festivals as excuses for drinking and the bourgeoisie for driving the poor to drunkenness. He does not advocate total abstinence but urges state moderation measures. Separately, Tomsk government to reintroduce state monopoly sale of 35 percent alcohol vodka, as efforts against illicit distilling failed due to sympathy for moonshiners.