THE GOVERNMENT VODKA MONOPOLY. 273 



necessary to have recourse to the writings of other 

 travellers in Russia and Siberia. Mr Henry Norman, 

 for instance, writes of the Russian peasant that " he 

 gets wildly drunk at Easter for joy to think that 

 Christ is risen, and at other times for no reason at 

 all " ; 1 while Mr Simpson, in his ' Sidelights on Siberia,' 

 records that " Sunday evening is usually spent in 

 rioting and drunkenness. . . . From Tomsk onwards it 

 was not once or twice merely that we passed men lying 

 in the centre of the village road ; and often late in the 

 evening small groups of inebriates stumbled along the 

 uneven track, unduly emphasising with each loss of 

 balance sundry snatches of their weird minor airs." 



It has been suggested by some that the Government 

 vodka monopoly, which is gradually being introduced 

 throughout the Russian Empire, will tend to lessen 

 drunkenness. I am bound to admit that I am quite 

 unable to agree with this far too sanguine expectation. 

 To begin with, where the monopoly is in force, vodka 

 may not be consumed on the premises where it is sold. 

 Result : the peasant cannot buy a glass of vodka, so 

 he buys a bottle, walks outside, empties the bottle 

 (down his throat!), returns to the shop, and receives 

 back value in money for the empty bottle. At the 

 settlement of Novo Nicholaewsk — of which more anon 

 — the monopoly came into force in November 1902. 

 In the course of the first ten months the takings 

 amounted to Ij million roubles ! That is to say, 

 taking fifty kopecks a pint as the average price paid 

 for vodka, the amount consumed in ten months was 

 375,000 gallons! I have secured the figures for the 

 province of Moscow, with a population of just under 

 24 millions, during the year 1902, which are equally 

 instructive. Six hundred and eleven Government 



1 All the Eussias. 



