M. A. Davydov “Proof by contrary”: the first nine  months of the “Alcohol Prohibition”  of 1914 and the well-being of the  Russian population

Abstract: The article examines the alcohol sales prohibition, at the same time with the Imperial Decree of 16 July 1914 on military mobilization, and its prolongation (22 August 1914) until the end of the war, in the context of an on-going historiographical discussion on the population’s level of well-being in post-reform Russia. One of issues subject to controversy is the question of alcohol consumption by the population after 1861. The article demonstrates, based on both statistics and narrative sources, that the attempt to diminish alcohol expenditures per household and, more generally, the sense itself of alcohol consumption within the population is not seriously founded. In particular, after the introduction of the alcohol prohibition law the population’s deposits in government savings banks dramatically increased, various types of personal debts decreased, nutrition improved, as well as living and housing conditions, and purchases of agricultural machinery augmented, and so on. At the same time, diseases, fire accidents, poverty, unjustified workplace absenteeism, and more – decreased.

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