Correspondents' Correspondence A Soviet Addiction
LAND, THOMAS
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. A Soviet Addiction Vienna—Public health and law...
...According to official figures more than 70 per cent of all assaults are committed by people who are intoxicated...
...The average family spends 230 rubles a year on vodka—and only two on books...
...And juvenile drinking is only one dramatic aspect of a situation affecting the whole society...
...The survey noted that 75 per cent of randomly selected 12-year-old children and nine out of 10 16-year-olds were regular drinkers...
...Employes who show up at work drunk are also being summarily fired and their cases are being publicized locally...
...A Soviet Addiction Vienna—Public health and law enforcement authorities in the Soviet Union are launching a gigantic campaign against alcoholism—a growing source of crime, accidents and industrial inefficiency...
...Local commissions to organize and oversee the drive are being set up, linking various civic groups and youth organizations...
...As a result of the special session, lower courts were instructed to carefully investigate juveniles coming before them because of drink-related difficulties, and to severely punish adults "found to be party to the crime...
...During the hearings a report was presented stating that heavy drinking, traditionally accepted and often ever expected of adults at all levels of society, is spreading to young people...
...The authorities acknowledge that the Soviet Union's generally low industrial productivity is at least partly related to the high level of alcohol consumption...
...The celebrations last for several days...
...Communist authorities, rejecting that view, attribute the problem to growing affluence and social irresponsibility...
...65 per cent of murders are blamed on drink...
...This, however, would require precisely the kind of dispassionate sociological investigation, disregarding ideological implications, that the Soviet system of government cannot afford to permit—Thomas Land...
...Alcohol consumption is estimated to be increasing by 5 per cent a year, compared with about 3 per cent in most other major industrial countries...
...Nearly a third of the country's industrial accidents are caused by drinking...
...In addition, a special part-time police force is being recruited and trained to deal specifically with alcoholism...
...and people compete as to who can give the bigger reception or drink more or make the most drunken noise...' What are the reasons for such widespread heavy drinking...
...The nationwide campaign was triggered by the Soviet Supreme Court...
...Denouncing heavy drinking in agricultural areas, Pravela has observed: "Instead of perhaps 60 to 80 guests at a wedding, as was the case a decade ago, there are now several hundred...
...vodka, wine and homemade brandy flow...
...In many areas the government is establishing "drying-out" stations for the compulsory detention of drunkards...
...Soviet citizens pay out $40 billion annually for alcoholic drinks?10 per cent of their total disposable personal income, or proportionately twice as much as the British...
...The statistical testimony was hardly a surprise, though, since in recent years tens of thousands of minors have been punished for drink-related offenses...
...Indeed, a spot check in a Moscow factory recently, conducted in connection with the current campaign, found 281 out of a total staff of 410 workers either drunk or so hungover that they were incapable of carrying out their duties safely and efficiently...
...Concerned about the magnitude of the problem—reflected by an estimated 600,000 drunken driving offenses annually, according to the Lileraturnaya Gazeta—the court devoted a session late last year to alcoholism and drug addiction...
...Western commentators point to the many frustrations inherent in Soviet life and the lack of consumer goods...
...At the very least, the excessive drinking and the much-publicized current drive to suppress it indicate a desperate need to accurately pinpoint the underlying causes of alcoholism in the USSR...
Vol. 59 • November 1976 • No. 22
