For lunch in the canteen of the former Temperance Society.
The temperance societies of 19th-century Russia represent a unique and in many ways paradoxical phenomenon, in which popular protest, ecclesiastical mission, and state interest became intertwined. The history of this movement is not merely a chronicle of the struggle against drunkenness, but a profound drama about how power, religion, and society sought common ground yet ultimately failed to reach a full understanding.
The emergence of temperance societies dates to 1858, arising as a spontaneous reaction to the flagrant abuses of the tax-farming system. At that time, the state entrusted the alcohol trade to private entrepreneurs who, driven solely by the thirst for profit, sold extremely low-quality vodka to the population at inflated prices. The tax-farmers opened drinking establishments in virtually every village, making the tavern not just a place for drinking but the very center of peasant social life. Wearied by ruin and witnessing how drunkenness destroyed families and households, peasants began to gather at village assemblies and collectively take a pledge not to drink. It is important to note that this was truly a grassroots initiative — the people themselves were trying to find salvation from the calamity that was destroying them from within.
The initiators and organizers of these spontaneous societies were most often Orthodox priests. They gave the movement a coherent form and a spiritual foundation. Joining the society was accompanied by a solemn vow — a pledge made before the Gospel and the cross. For a believer, breaking such a promise meant committing a grave sin, and therefore the period of abstinence, usually no less than a year, was strictly observed, while many took lifelong vows. But the Church did not limit itself to sermons alone. Parish temperance societies developed a broad range of cultural activities: they organized tea parties, which became a worthy alternative to the tavern, held public readings, established choirs, and arranged excursions. Gradually, a new environment took shape around the church, where the peasant could spend time beneficially and without humiliation, finding joy in companionship and enlightenment.
However, the reaction of the secular state to this movement proved deeply contradictory. On the one hand, the authorities could not fail to see the benefit in peasants renouncing drunkenness. On the other hand, they felt serious alarm. The tax-farmers, losing enormous revenues, actively complained and reported that the peasants, growing accustomed to unanimity and collective decision-making, might turn their organization against the existing order. In government circles, there was genuine fear that temperance societies would develop into political strikes and refusals to work for the landowners. Moreover, the economic factor could not be dismissed: the sale of vodka brought colossal revenue to the treasury, and the state was not prepared to sacrifice this source of income for the moral well-being of its subjects. Consequently, any form of popular solidarity, even such well-intentioned ones, was viewed by the authorities with suspicion.
The first powerful surge of the movement subsided after the abolition of the tax-farming system in 1863. At that point, the state took control of the alcohol market into its own hands, and the acute social cause for protest disappeared. However, the movement was revived two decades later, and this was linked to the activities of the remarkable educator Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky. In 1882, on his estate of Tatevo in Smolensk Governorate, he established a model temperance society that became a true example to emulate. Rachinsky, a professor of natural sciences who had left the university for a rural school, was convinced that temperance and education were inseparably linked. His experience attracted the attention of the Over-Procurator of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev. This influential conservative saw in church temperance societies not so much a means of combating alcohol as a way to strengthen patriarchal foundations and divert the people from revolutionary ideas. Thanks to his support, in 1889 the Synod officially called upon the clergy to intensify the fight against drunkenness through parish societies.
The results were not long in coming. By 1911, more than 1,800 temperance societies were operating in the Russian Empire, the vast majority of which — about 95 percent — were church-based. Now the societies' activities expanded considerably: they established libraries, Sunday schools, organized theatrical performances and public festivities. The Church sought to create a genuine alternative to the tavern, offering people not merely a prohibition but a new, dignified, and joyful way of life. Yet even at the peak of its development, the movement remained a hostage to state policy: the authorities continued to view any form of public activism with suspicion, and the budget remained dependent on liquor revenues.
Thus, the temperance societies of the 19th century became not merely a struggle for a healthy lifestyle but also a mirror of the complex relationships between the people, the Church, and the state. This was an experiment in popular self-organization which, born of desperation, was taken up and given spiritual purpose by the Church, but never received full support from a power that feared losing control and revenue. The history of this movement shows that in Russia, even the most noble undertaking inevitably collided with the tension between moral and economic interests, between the aspiration for human dignity and cold state calculation. And although the temperance societies were unable to overcome drunkenness, they left behind an important lesson: genuine change is possible only when grassroots initiative meets understanding and support from above, rather than suspicion and resistance.
For lunch 1 Kopek.
The canteen of the former Temperance Society.
