Download Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State AudioBook Free
Russia is well-known for its vodka, and its culture of extreme intoxication. And vodka is central to the lives of several Russians, it is also central to understanding Russian record and politics. In Vodka Politics, Symbol Lawrence Schrad argues that devastating societal alcoholism is not hard-wired into Russians' genetic code, but rather their autocratic politics system, which has long wielded vodka as a tool of statecraft. Through a series of historical investigations stretches from Ivan the Terrible through Vladimir Putin, Vodka Politics reveals the secret record of the Russian talk about itself - a brief history that is drenched in liquor. Scrutinizing (alternatively than dismissing) the role of alcoholic beverages in Russian politics yields a more nuanced knowledge of Russian record itself: from palace intrigues under the tsars to the drunken antics of Soviet and post-Soviet authority, vodka is there by the bucket load. Beyond stunning anecdotes, Schrad scours original documents and archival evidence to answer provocative historical questions. How have Russia's rulers used alcoholic beverages to solidify their autocratic guideline? What role did alcoholic beverages play in tsarist coups? Was Nicholas II's ill-fated prohibition a catalyst for the Bolshevik Trend? Could the Soviet Union have grown to be a world vitality without liquor? How did vodka politics donate to the collapse of both communism and general public health in the 1990s? How can the Kremlin overcome vodka's hurdles to create greater interpersonal well-being, prosperity, and democracy into the future? Looking at Russian record through the bottom of the vodka container helps us to comprehend why the "liquor question" remains important to Russian high politics right now - almost a century after the concern have been put to bed in most every other modern talk about. Indeed, recognizing and confronting vodka's destructive politics legacies may be the greatest political challenge for this generation of Russia's authority, as well as the next.
