[robowombat]

Russian drunkenness is amazing and every Russian leader from Peter the Great to Stalin and Putin have tried unsuccessfully to combat it, We were about as drunken in the era of the Early Republic but did dramatically cut down on per capita consumption after 1830.

[jmacusa]

While in and of itself alcoholism is largely genetic, I've read quite a lot of the history of Russia, especially it's Communist past. Alcohol consumption was an obsession with Russians at every level. The consequence no doubt of a bleak, harsh and repressive life in a police state. And of course with the ineptitude, incompetency , inferiority and scarcity of a socialist command economy , Russians didn't always have access to vodka. This often led to ‘’home brew’’ remedies using various kinds of chemicals, even denatured alcohol. Which at best made someone very sick and at worst left them blind or dead.

I remember reading Viktor Blenko’s “Mig Pilot'' and how he wrote that when he was stationed at a remote air base in Siberia men were so desperate for alcohol they would drain the coolant from Mig 29 fighter jets because it contained alcohol. However it was glycol primarily which left quite a number of men sick and one went blind. It also caused a number of Mig 29's to be grounded from burnt out jet engines. By and large Russian are a slovenly and devious bunch.