There are many jokes made about the amount of alcohol a Irish, German, or Russian can drink and many people, college students in particular, rant and rave that they can drink just as much as a Russian can. The manhood of college males seems to be directly tied with how much he can drink. There is a lot information in the internet that should discourage people from drinking, but we give in to peer pressure, our emotions, and our desires to drink. Russia as a country was wounded by the treatment that it had at the end of World War II and the violence of the Cold War, so it is no surprise that Russia was a drunken nation.

Not long after Gorbachev took office, he launched an anti-alcohol abuse campaign. He was trying turn around the economy of the country, but he needed workers to do so. Men showing up drunk to work, drinking during lunch breaks, and leaving early from work because the bars were opening, created a serious decline in production and the economy. Gorbachev wanted to decrease alcohol consumption and decrease that amount of alcohol that was produced.

Gorbachev increased the price of vodka as well as put a rationing on the amount of vodka that a person can buy. These laws or dry laws cause many Russians to start brewing their own vodka and alcohol. During his time as president, Gorbachev was met with a lot of retaliation. There were illegal stills found all over the Soviet Union. The amount of sugar that was in demand to make the alcohol was making the Russian economy worse.

There have been songs and videos created for the anti-alcohol campaign the most famous song by Vladimir Vysotskii called Anti-Alcohol Song.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Alcoholics Anonymous was introduced and took roots in Russia. This was the first step to getting Russians to stop drinking. Even recently, Russia still has a problem with the amount of alcohol per capita drank. As of 2008, the life expectancy of the average Russian male has increased to 62 years.

Alcoholism is a disease that can infect anyone. Once your body becomes dependent on alcohol, you no longer have control over your own life. Remember there is a line between having fun and excess.

Work Cited:
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/statssummaries/snapshot.aspx
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1985dryrules1&SubjectID=1985drylaw&Year=1985
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1985boikova1&SubjectID=1985drylaw&Year=1985
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/111079302/60FAE0D2409A4AA7PQ/13?accountid=14826
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/110574944/60FAE0D2409A4AA7PQ/11?accountid=14826
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/109379094/60FAE0D2409A4AA7PQ/4?accountid=14826
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/1458349653/60FAE0D2409A4AA7PQ/1?accountid=14826
https://apps.who.int/infobase/CountryProfiles.aspx
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1985drylaw&Year=1985&navi=byYear
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&show=music&SubjectID=1985drylaw&Year=1985&navi=byYear

The summer of 1962 was difficult for the Russian people and workers due to the increase in food prices. Workers from Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Works spoke out against the rise in prices, but were met with hostility. There were guards outside of the Communist Party headquarters in Novocherkassk where the protests came to make their petitions heard. The protesters did not stop when the commander of the troops warned them and the troops opened fire on the civilians. Reports have said that twenty-four people died and many were wounded and many were arrested.

The authorities that were fearful of a revolt attempted a cover up of the shooting. The workers that were in protest did not provoke the soldier by throwing mud or stones or trying to take their weapons. The workers were protesting peacefully and the troops were given the order to open fire upon them. According to the official report, twenty-three died. Fifteen were identified and the rest still remain unknown.

Many years later as the Soviet Union started to crumble, the public found out about the coverup. An investigation was opened to uncover the truth about what happened. The investigation uncovered that there were seventeen deaths at the protests in the city square, another five during the demonstrators’ attack on the city police department, and another two were shot during curfew. All of these killings were covered up. The official report said that the bodies were dumped outside the city in abandoned cemeteries and in huge mass graves.

Many people have eye witness account of the events that happened in June 1962. They did not come out until after the story was leaked to the public. Now the world knows about the Novocherkassk Massacre that ensued during a protest for a better standard of living and the coverup which took over twenty years to be uncovered.  A monument was built there after the investigation was finished.

Work Cited:

http://dlib.eastview.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu:8080/search/simple/doc?art=2&id=13610544
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1961nvkhrus1&SubjectID=1961novocherkassk&Year=1961
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1961novocherkassk&Year=1961&navi=byYear
http://su8bj7jh4j.search.serialssolutions.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu:8080/?sid=sersol&SS_jc=TC0000460802&title=Current%20digest%20of%20the%20Russian%20press
https://libcom.org/library/1962-novocherkassk-tragedy

With the revolution in February, the socialist youth movement emerged out of young workers throughout Russia. They pushed for more education opportunities and education for everyone. This youth movement join with the Bolsheviks Party and they helped to create policies that would educate the youth of Russia.

At the end of 1917, there was a state commission on education. This brought about all different types of schools for the youth and a few for adults. These schools had great influence on the people on this time. With Bolsheviks giving more attention to the youth of Russia, they were focusing on the future opposed to trying to fix the issues of the present.

There was other focuses on education in the beginning on the Bolsheviks reign. Labor education and agriculture education were important for the continual growth of the agriculture systems so that there would be a reduced chance of famine and hunger with the growing population. This focus continued as the Soviet Union was formed and even after Lenin died.

Education continued to be a focus into the Cold War time but the government started to have more of a stress on science and technology because of the arms race with the United States. Higher education became easier to obtain with the desire to have a bigger and better military. An article from Nature says, that “professional knowledge does not correspond to the increased requirements for science and industry.”

With the education system that was created for the future of Russia, children became the “privileged class” of the Soviet Union. Education in the Soviet Union was free and mothers were able to stay home with their children until they were 18 months old to take care of them and start their education. Formal Education started when children were 7 years old and ended at 18 years old. During their education, children were integrated into the Communist Party and became a member Komsomol when they were 14 years old. The Soviet Union had all of the children taught the exact same way with the same information.

The education system in Russia was progressive in many ways. Before the revolution of 1917, the masses were uneducated and ignorant of how the government really affected them. After the Bolsheviks took power and implemented an education system that incorporated everyone, the ignorance decreased. There were more people who were able to do the basic of reading and writing and were able to be an active member of society. With the variety of schools that were created, society become more varied and people were able to move classes, become a specialist, and openly share new ideas with the community.

Work Cited

http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917youth&Year=1917&navi=byYear

James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 201-202.

James Bunyan, ed., Intervention, Civil War, and Communism in Russia, April-December 1918 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1936), pp. 534-535.

Soviet Education Today
Richard E. Werstler and Wilma P. Werstler
The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 62, No. 10 (Jun., 1981), pp. 710-712
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20386108

State Children: Soviet Russia’s Besprizornye and the New Socialist Generation
Alan Ball
Russian Review, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 1993), pp. 228-247
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review
Article DOI: 10.2307/131345
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/131345

The Socialist Youth Movement in Revolutionary Petrograd
Isabel A. Tirado
Russian Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Apr., 1987), pp. 135-155
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review
Article DOI: 10.2307/130623
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/130623

Soviet Correspondent. “Soviet Education Policy.” Nature 239 (1972): 62. Print.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v239/n5367/pdf/239062b0.pdf

Photos:

http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&show=images&SubjectID=1917youth&Year=1917&navi=byYear

The October Manifesto was created out of the hope for changed, signed out of fear, and not fully used until the “Fundamental Laws” was written almost 6 months later.

The year of 1905 proved to hold the biggest trouble for the Russian Tsar. To kick off the year with Bloody Sunday, then continue it by the losses in the Russo-Japanese War, then massive strikes all over Russia, with the closing of factories, schools, and theaters. The autocracy needed to fix the unrest which was prevalent throughout his country. He turned to Sergei Witte for an answer. Military action or reform?

Sergei Witte was the “architect of the manifesto,” who had felt the “Russia had out grown its existing order and is striking towards a legal order based on civil liberty.” The October Manifesto was a means to give the people hope without taking too much power away from the autocracy. The Manifesto, which was signed on October 17, 1905, promised the people civil liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and that no laws would be implemented without the agreement of the Duma. Though it does not say anywhere in the Manifesto that the Duma can create new laws or act like a normally functioning legislative body like we know it in the West.

The Manifesto was well received at first, but the broadness of the Manifesto sparked more conflict. The workers and peasantry felt that they were not getting the proper change. They wanted immediate “practical social and economic change.” The Manifesto was a short term fix of the chaos that was erupting all over Russia. Nicolas II put a cork in the bottle of the Revolution without realizing that the bottle was going to shatter under the pressure. But the Tsar’s “failed implementation of the Manifesto” was the driving force in the Revolution of 1917.

Work Cited:

“The October Manifesto”. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2005. Web. 7 Sept 2014. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/october_manifesto.htm>.

“The Explosive October Manifesto.” Proquest. Proquest, Sept.-Oct. 2010. Web. 7 Sept. 2014. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/749234680?pq-origsite=summon>.

“The October Manifesto of 1905.” The October Manifesto of 1905. Durham, n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2014. <http://community.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/octmanif.html>.

Kropotkin, G. M. “The Ruling Bureaucracy and the “New Order” of Russian Statehood After the Manifesto of 17 October 1905.” Get VText Search Results. Russians Studies in History, 2008. Web. 07 Sept. 2014. <http://su8bj7jh4j.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+Ruling+Bureaucracy+and+the+%22New+Order%22+of+Russian+Statehood+After+the+Manifesto+of+17+October+1905&rft.jtitle=Russian+Studies+in+History&rft.au=Kropotkin%2C+G.+M&rft.date=2008-04-01&rft.issn=1061-1983&rft.eissn=1558-0881&rft.volume=46&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=6&rft.epage=33&rft_id=info:doi/10.2753%2FRSH1061-1983460401&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_2753_RSH1061_1983460401&paramdict=en-US>.

“Tsar Nicolas and the October Manifesto.” Cgscrussianrevolution2011. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2014. <http://cgscrussianrevolution2011.wikispaces.com/Tsar+Nicolas+and+the+October+Manifesto>.

The Russian Orthodox Church has been a major factor in Russian culture, economics, and politics since its origin in 988 AD. In 1589, Moscow was named the patriarch for the Russian Orthodox Church, but there would be no separation of church and state. This can be seen with Tsars being “appointed from God.” In 1721, Peter the Great modernized Russia and opened many doors to Europe. With that, he abolished the patriarch in Moscow and put in a Holy Synod, who could be controlled by the government, to work between the church and the state.

In 1900, after the reforms of the late 19th century, there was a movement for a “restoration of church autonomy and organizational reform.” This was a time of unrest throughout all of the Russian empire. The lack of a proper and substantial economic system make the peasantry and nobility look to alternative ways to increase their living. When Nicolas II took power, he started to make some changes. In 1905, there was an attempt to industrialize, which failed miserably with terrible living conditions and widespread famine. With the losses in the Russo-Japanese War, protesters took to the streets on January 22nd in the hope of fixing conditions but many were killed by guards. January 22nd was known as Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday was the spark that started the Russian Revolution. As the conditions worsened, many people started turning to new ways of thinking and change like Marxism. With the introduction to Marxism in the early 20th century, religion become a force that could oppose Lenin’s growing power over the people.

Religion become an enemy of the revolution. The golden gates (above) that have been taken off the hinges are a testament to the almost anti-religion movement that started before the revolution even began. They have been propped up against a building (at least off the ground) to be moved out of public view. The tarnish and wear that has started, shows the neglect that they have been under. The gates symbolized entering into the house of God, now they are an unwanted piece that has been push off to the side. This picture was also taken with a collection of sights along on the Mariinskii canal and river, which is in St. Petersburg. There are many picture of churches in the collection, but nothing that resembles the conflict and revolution in Russia than this picture.

Welcome to Blogs@VT Sites. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!