RUSSIA'S TEMPERANCE EXPERIMENT 125 



cases where the order of prohibition takes effect before 

 the expiration of a retailer's licence. 



With surpassing unanimity the country districts, 

 and even the cities, have availed themselves of this 

 form of local option. Petrograd and Moscow were 

 among the first cities to take advantage of entire 

 prohibition. Thousands of communes banished all 

 forms of drink, and great stretches of the country 

 became absolute prohibition territory. Prohibition 

 in Russia is not an autocratic decree, as some would 

 have us believe, but a movement of the people as 

 well. The appetite for drink gave place to a desire 

 for sobriety; and, enacting the role of Oliver Twist, 

 the Russian people petitioned their Czar for "more.' 

 They wanted perpetual prohibiton. The ;< Little 

 Father" and his subjects were of the same mind, 

 for he quickly responded with the famous telegram: 

 "I had already decided to prohibit for ever in Rus- 

 sia the government sale of vodka.' 1 



