The history of drunkenness in Russia: from the "Tsar's tavern" by Ivan the Terrible to the "dry" law of Nicholas II. Classification of drinking establishments of the world

Drunkenness is a huge social problem that has been fought in Russia for a long time and not always successfully. There is even an opinion that Russians drink the most in the world, that this is their genetic feature. Is it so? And has Russia always been the personification of a drunken frenzy?

Ancient Russia - intoxicating drinks

Everyone in childhood read Russian folk tales, so the saying about honey and beer, which flowed down the mustache, but never got into the mouth, is familiar to everyone. What was meant by the expression "did not get into the mouth"? And the point is that intoxicating drinks were not drunk just like that, they were served as a pleasant addition to a generous meal.

There were plenty of drinks and they were all very tasty. Starting from the reign of Vladimir the Great and until the middle of the 16th century, intoxicating drinks based on fermented honey or grape juice were used. These were kvass, sieve, birch, honey, wine, beer, strong drink, mentioned above and which became national drinks of mead and mash.

It should be noted that there is no written evidence that drunkenness was considered a serious social problem in Ancient Russia. The old people of the time of Kievan Rus told the youth to drink wine for the sake of fun, but not in order to get very drunk: "drink, but do not get drunk."

It is believed that the Grand Duke of Kyiv Vladimir chose Orthodoxy as a religion for Russia, since it did not directly prohibit intoxicating drinks.

The beginning of the "drunken era"

A little earlier, in 1533, Ivan the Terrible issued an order to open the Tsar's Tavern, which became the country's first drinking establishment. The beginning of the XV century for Russia was marked by the appearance of such drinks as bread, boiled and hot wine. And these were no longer harmless intoxicating drinks made from grapes or honey, but real moonshine, which was obtained by distillation.

Ordinary people could not afford to get drunk every day, as did the royal guardsmen. Working people indulged in alcohol on Holy Week, at Christmas, on Dmitrov Saturday. The first attempts to combat drunkenness also belong to the same period: if a commoner got drunk at the wrong time, he was mercilessly beaten with batogs, and a prison shone for those who crossed all boundaries.

If we consider drunkenness as a way to make a profit, then it was under Ivan the Terrible that this phenomenon began to spread. After the "launch" of the first tsar's tavern, a few years passed, and in 1555 the tsar allowed taverns to be opened throughout the territory of Russia. It seems that nothing particularly terrible happened, but food was not served in these establishments, and it was forbidden to bring it with you. A person who has reached for alcohol, drinking alcohol without a snack, could lose everything that he had with him, up to clothes, in a day.

The impetus for the development of drunkenness was also given by the fact that all peasants, commoners and townspeople were officially forbidden to make intoxicating drinks and moonshine in their homes. Naturally, people began to visit drinking establishments more and more often. A drunken era began, when taverns received huge profits that went to the State (Tsarev) treasury.

Boris Godunov made a contribution to the development of drunkenness, during which all taverns were ruthlessly closed on the territory of Russia, where they served not only alcohol, but also food. The state monopoly in the vodka trade was legalized. In 1598, the tsar issues a decree that states that private individuals do not have the right to sell vodka under any conditions. Only a hundred years have passed, and drunkenness grabbed Russia by the throat with its iron hand.

Title="(!LANG: Nikolai Nevrev. Protodeacon proclaiming longevity at merchant name days. 1866
Merchants were allowed to drink and eat at home." border="0" vspace="5">!}

Nikolai Nevrev. Protodeacon proclaiming longevity at merchant name days. 1866
Merchants were allowed to drink and eat at home.

According to the Prussian diplomat Adam Olearius, who wrote the famous Description of a Journey to Muscovy, he was amazed at the number of drunks lying on the street. Drinking men and women, young and old, priests and secular people, commoners and titled persons. Unfortunately, such Russian national traits as hospitality played an important role in the spread of drunkenness. In Russia, it was customary to welcome a guest cordially, with a meal and alcohol. If a guest could drink everything that was poured to him, then he was treated better than the one who drank “badly”. This was noted by the diplomat Peter Petrey in his Moscow Chronicle.

The fight against drunkenness

This fact did not pass by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who in 1652 convened the Zemsky Sobor, which received the historical name "cathedral about taverns." The result was a decree on limiting the number of drinking outlets in Russia and the definition of prohibited days for the sale of alcohol. I must say that there were quite a few of them, as many as 180. The tsar also forbade selling vodka on credit. The prices for this product have been raised three times. One person could buy only one glass of vodka, which then had a volume of 143.5 grams.

Patriarch Nikon, who has a great influence on the tsar, insisted on a ban on the sale of alcohol to "priests and monastics". Sermons were intensively read in churches that drunkenness is a sin and harm to health. This had a positive effect; a negative attitude began to form towards drunkards, and not as tolerant as before.

Everything would be fine if the royal decree was unquestioningly observed for many years. No, that didn't happen. The number of taverns did not decrease, and the remaining points of the decree worked for about seven years.

Unfortunately, economic benefits did not allow much to reduce the alcohol trade. When vodka revenue quickly crept down, the state interests outweighed. However, before Peter 1 came to power, mostly poor people who drank alcohol in taverns became drunkards. It was possible for merchants and aristocrats to enjoy wine at home, using a plentiful snack, therefore among them there were much fewer drunkards.

Peter I also tried to fight drunkenness. For example, he ordered the release of medals weighing more than 7 kg and handing them out to anyone who was seen in heavy drinking. It was necessary to wear such a medal for seven days, it was forbidden to remove it.

The sobriety campaign and its results

The effect exceeded all expectations. The royal decree was supported in most regions, and in just a year the consumption of alcoholic beverages decreased by 24 times. There was a decrease in patients diagnosed with alcoholic psychosis, the number of absenteeism and "drunken" injuries decreased. Agitation campaigns directed against drunkenness were widely launched.

However, this did not last long. Gradually, the achieved effects began to come to naught, moonshine and the production of clandestine alcohol increased very strongly.

The production of alcohol continued, and there was a problem of its storage. In September 1916, the Council of Ministers banned it, and the stocks of the product had to be destroyed, which led to a significant decrease in state revenues.

To compensate for the losses from Prohibition, taxes were raised. Firewood and medicines, matches and salt, tobacco, sugar and tea - everything has risen in price. Passenger and cargo duties were increased. And the people continued to drive moonshine and drink.

Drunkenness began to overtake not only commoners, but also the nobility, the intelligentsia. The so-called zemstvo hussars (security officers who did not participate in hostilities) turned around with might and main, stealing and speculating in alcohol. Between the city dumas and zemstvos, a struggle arose for the expansion of influence, taking place under the sign of a company for sobriety, which turned dry law into the cause of undermining the socio-economic situation of the Russian Empire.

And in continuation of the theme, the story of

Series: Cases of bygone days. Traditions of antiquity deep

(essays on the history of the Russian tavern industry from the beginning of its inception)

Everyone who is more or less familiar with the history of the emergence and further development of our tavern industry knows very well that none of the trade sectors that existed in Russia underwent so much persecution and harassment as the ill-fated "tavern - tavern"! Even at the beginning of its emergence and until the time of Ivan the Terrible, it could exist harmlessly, but, with the advent of the first "Tsar's Tavern", all troubles and misfortunes began to fall on it!

Brutally pursued by the “pravezh”, the tavern - the tavern was expelled from the centuries-old place and disappeared into hiding places - cellars. The tavern pursued him everywhere and everywhere. Death was inevitable, and if he did not completely disappear from the face of the Russian land, then only thanks to his especially stubborn vitality!

Being since ancient times - Russian, at the same time the only "public" place to which people flocked for "food, drink and conversation", the tavern - the tavern has always enjoyed special people's love! It was in this love that he drew his amazing vitality!

Having started a historical review of the tavern industry in Russia, we, first of all, should dwell on the ancestor of the modern tavern - the tavern, as the only and that quite original, ancient Slavic drinking establishment. The origin of the word tavern (originally kormocha) is interpreted differently. Some of the researchers of antiquity, going into deep antiquity, are looking for the root of this word in the Persian, Zend, Arabic and Turkish languages, while others, on the contrary, stop only in Slavic, arguing that the name of the tavern is nothing more than a derivative of the word "fodder". The latter interpretation is considered by many to be more plausible, if only because it comes closest to the immediate tasks of the tavern, which consisted mainly in feeding and watering the people visiting it. Whatever the origin of this word, the tavern is still a primordially Slavic institution. This is a historical fact against which there are no objections.

As for ancient Russia, the free tavern was considered the most fundamental institution in it. Where she appeared, there was a large population and wide trade, and vigorous activity. Kyiv is the cradle of the tavern. Novgorod, Pskov and Smolensk, the main centers of its location. Here the need for social life was in full swing, while in Suzdal, Vladimir and Moscow, where there was still no tavern, even the slightest movement was imperceptible. But over time, the tavern also captured North-Eastern Russia, immediately raising its interest in public life.

So the free tavern flourished in Russia until the beginning of the 12th century, when for the first time its liberty was dealt a painful blow. Already in the annals of 1150 there are direct indications that the tavern was subject to a princely tax. From this moment the transitional state of the tavern begins. From free, it becomes princely or public-city, then state-owned, and then already passes into the hereditary property of tenants. The last dependence greatly changes the original appearance and, little by little, it loses its former meaning. It should be noted, however, that the free inn, not without a fight, ceded its rights and tried in every possible way to get away from the shackles imposed on it. The result of this struggle was secret taverns, which, despite the most severe punishments, not only were not translated, but increased from year to year. The secret tavern built a strong nest in Russia, and it took centuries to eradicate it.

Korchma was brilliantly filmed by director Boris Ivchenko in the film The Missing Letter (1972):

By the beginning of the 11th century, the gradually increasing profitability of the tavern industry reaches such grandiose proportions that it immediately attracts the attention of not only sovereign princes, but also the communities of free cities!

Both those and others begin to look at the tavern as a completely serious and very significant help to tax collections. The position of the free tavern is becoming precarious! She secretly fights for her rights, but the year 1150 comes and the statutory charter of the Smolensk prince Rostislav deals a mortal blow to her existence! True, the decree does not establish the exact amount of the tax, but for that the idea of ​​a new tax system is clearly and definitely carried out. The rest of the sovereign princes immediately begin to follow the example of their relatives, hurrying in letters and decrees to secure the right to this new source of income. The Free Cities are also keeping up with their neighbors and taking even more drastic measures! They take the tavern into full ownership of the urban communities, do not allow the princes to touch the tavern industry, into the city), prohibit the sale of any drinks to princely people (Pskov charter of 1397), in a word, they finally and irrevocably destroy all the rights of free tavern management.

Simultaneously with the imposition of taxes on taverns, the issue of increasing the tax on imported taverns is also being resolved. For the correct monitoring of actions and the uniform collection of duties, a special kind of checkpoints are arranged, which from 1417 begin to operate so successfully and energetically that, in a relatively short time, they lead the imported tavern to complete destruction.

Already the first attempt to tax the free tavern trade caused the emergence of the so-called secret tavern. With the introduction of an increased local tax, secret taverns began to develop with extraordinary speed and by the end of the 14th century covered all the princely possessions. The physiognomy of the tavern has changed dramatically, its tasks have become different ... All the good things that have long been associated with this word have disappeared without a trace! The title of a tavern keeper has turned from a high, honorary into a low, shameful one! The secret tavern, in pursuit of quick profits, began to solder and corrupt the people. Often serving as a collection of unkind people, in addition to the damage done to the government, it was dangerous for civilians. Secret innkeepers were cruelly persecuted, terrible punishments were imposed on them, they were excommunicated from the church, but nothing helped! Passion for profit put up with everything! In some places the situation became critical and required urgent measures!...

Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich of Tverskoy was the first to openly and successfully fight the secret tavern. He began to eradicate this evil so energetically and skillfully that in the shortest period of time within his principality, there was not a single secret tavern left!!!

The good example of Prince Michael was followed by other princes. A general persecution began at the secret tavern, and she was forced to reduce her appetites and move to places that were more remote and inaccessible to persecution! There she was already safe, and could not threaten the well-being of the people!

The development of the secret tavern, in addition to the direct evil brought to the people, was also reflected in the sense of damage in the profitability of the tax tavern. This circumstance, of course, did not pass unnoticed and even more compelled the ruling princes to the most energetic and merciless persecution of secret innkeepers!

By the end of the 14th century, when the secret tavern-keeping partly completely disappeared, and partly migrated to places more deaf and remote from shopping centers, the profitability of the tax tavern increased so much that it even exceeded the most greedy expectations of the tenants. These lucky ones, in spite of year by year increasing taxes, oppression, and so on. yet they grew exorbitantly rich, acquiring fortunes in a short period of time. The sovereign princes saw all this, but, fearing to lose a certain income, they did not dare to finally lay their hands on the richest tavern fishing!

Only in the first half of the 15th century, the Moscow prince John III risked destroying the tax-paying tavern and making it state-owned. Such a grandiose revolution in the tavern business caused a lot of misunderstandings, and although, in the end, the transition from the tax tavern to the state tavern took place, it did not cost the treasury and the people cheaply!

The state tavern, wanting to make up for lost time and get as much income as possible, no longer cared about maintaining its original purpose - first of all, to feed, and then to water the people, and turned all its attention exclusively to the sale of drinking, as the most profitable article. In turn, the people, encouraged to drink, ceased to take into account both the time and the place and the amount of wine they consume. In a word, ten years had not passed, when general drunkenness began around the state tavern. The tavern, as if anticipating the imminent appearance of the all-powerful tavern, was preparing the proper ground for it!

The government, which at first looked through its fingers at the systematic soldering of the people, finally started up and began to issue a number of decrees restricting the consumption of wine, mead, and so on. But decrees remained decrees and hardly touched life, and if they penetrated into it, then very, very slowly. Only a formidable letter banning the trade in any drinks on weekdays had an effect and somewhat sobered the people who had drunk to disgrace. Now only on holidays he could indulge in drunken revelry with impunity! On weekdays, a great punishment awaited him! It was hard after the holiday hangover! There was a great drunken feud! But the prospect of a whip and torture seemed even harder! I had to obey the new rules! To put up with them and... the people dutifully put up with them!...

Until the first half of the 16th century, there were no other drinking establishments in Russia, except for the tavern. But the year 1545 dealt a decisive blow to this ancient drinking establishment, and it was replaced by the Tatar "tavern". The beginning was laid by Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible. Taking Kazan and learning about the existence of the Khan's tavern in it, he became terribly interested in this new type of drinking establishment and decided to cultivate it in Moscow. Arriving at the capital, he ordered to arrange for the archers. The Tsarev tavern, which differed from the Khan's in that it was forbidden to sell any food. The appearance of such a tavern was met with sympathy, and with the light hand of the archer Tsarev, taverns began to appear everywhere and everywhere. The people and townspeople, not being able, due to the prohibition, to prepare drinks at home, involuntarily rushed to the tavern and carried pennies into it. The tavern began to give a huge income. But over time, this income increased even more, since the prohibition passed from the people to the boyars and monasteries. From that moment on, taverns became the only place where you could get drinks with impunity. All taverns were considered state institutions and were managed by tavern heads. Tselovalniks were given as assistants to tavern heads. The latter were elected by the population.
In the future, when the management of taverns became very complicated and difficult, the government, wanting to keep the income and at the same time remove supervision from itself, decided to hand over all drinking establishments to the “farming”. Tavern heads "on faith" appeared. This era in the history of drinking establishments can be considered the most terrible and unbridled. Keeping the promise given to the reader not to consider the issue from any special point of view, but to present only a rigorous historical review, we still cannot but say a few words about the so-called "taxes". Even in comparison with the “secret tavern”, the farmed tavern was something even more destructive and terrible!!!

A secret tavern surreptitiously soldered the people, on the contrary, a ransom tavern acted openly! Unheard-of, boundless drunkenness seized the population. The tavern soldered the people as he wanted. The kabatsky head enjoyed unlimited power. With her, only a huge income was required. For him there was no trial, no punishment.

In addition to the fact that the tavern head corrupted the people, accustoming them to hopeless drunkenness, he was also cruel and inexorable in those cases when he opened a secret tavern.

"Pravezh" acted in full. Once secret drinking establishments were opened in the village, even on the smallest scale, the retribution was inexorable and cruel. The groans and cries of the beaten were drowned out by the cries of drunken revelry.

This difficult time in the life of a disfigured tavern should be noted especially vividly. Useful institutions, which enabled the people to receive food and drink and have rest from their day's work, turned into a den of insane revelry. The chroniclers of that time in such terrible colors describe the situation of the people who have drunk to the end, that you involuntarily become at a standstill and ask yourself a question. "Is it true?" Unfortunately, this is historically proven to be true. The tavern became stronger, the tavern grew, and for many centuries, although it was greatly changed, it successfully existed and much more will have to be said about it. And a lot.

As soon as the tavern was established in Russia, the government immediately took care that the income received from this new type of drinking establishments was immediately subjected to the most strict control. The royal letter, sent to all tavern heads, demanded the steadfast implementation of the methods indicated in it for collecting and handing over money to the treasury, threatening the violators of it with the death penalty. According to the decree, the heads located in the mug yard were supposed to collect drinking profits necessarily in small money, and everything received was immediately placed in a box and without a trace, so that part of the income would not fall into pockets, purses, for the sake of a dish, or would not be “accidentally” dropped into the very drink. The boxes were sealed with a head and opened either every week or monthly. The seized money was checked and entered into the books "so that there would be no damage to the Sovereign's treasury" - clerks specially assigned to this case, elected by the world. It would seem that with such strictness, the treasury should not have been “ruined”, but in reality it turned out completely different!

In the first place, the tavern heads robbed the treasury - as they wanted, and secondly, the governors, who were entrusted with the supervision of the report, did not lag behind them. In those cases when clerks turned out to be “unsuitable” people, the governors opened persecution against them and, deftly bypassing the Tsar’s charter, through various ambitious ones, ensured that the appointment of clerks was entrusted to them, and not to the world!?! Of course, "their own people" did not forget the benefactors and generously paid for the places received through them!!!

At each mug yard, depending on the turnover, sometimes such clerks were recruited by several people, and then they already formed a whole office, the deeds of which were beyond the power of the tavern heads themselves to understand. Until the middle of the 17th century, tavern collections were sent to Moscow on a monthly basis, but since 1660, in view of the fact that the removal of money fell too heavily on the elected and kissers, it was ordered to send money twice a year - in February and August. For a general check of the accounts, the tavern heads themselves went out once a year - after Semyonov Day, and, before their departure, they were obliged to hand over to the governors exact copies of the report they submitted. In Moscow, the tavern heads appeared at the “Order of the Great Parish” and remained here until the end of the check. Such was the general procedure for checking the accounts of the tavern. In areas too remote from Moscow (Siberia), in order not to tear the tavern heads from work and not to introduce them into unbearable expenses, it was ordered, in the form of experience, that the heads themselves should not go to Moscow, but to go to Moscow, but to submit reports to the governors , which, upon verification, and send them to the Order, but this experience had to be abandoned very soon, since the new order caused cruel abuses. The government was forced to return to the old system. But in order to somehow help the "distant" heads, a decree was issued prohibiting excessive "red tape". But the decree remained empty.

As before, so now, the tavern heads had to pay for their every step, wait for an answer for whole weeks, look for “moves” to the higher authorities, and so on. Even when the report had already been submitted by them and all that remained was to bow out, delays again appeared and the heads of the leave were not received. I had to pay a second time. In the end, “the pockets were turned out”, the purse was “empty” and the ill-fated distant guests, having borrowed pennies from acquaintances, were serving “home”, with the firm intention of quickly catching up all the protori and losses. The tavern heads were greatly burdened by the supervision of the governor and tried in every possible way to push this burden off themselves. The voivodship duty was too expensive and unprofitable for them! But for that, the governors did their tricks too cunningly, and complaints about them did not reach the “tops”! This continued until in 1677, in Perm, there was a shortage of drinking money. Here the government did not stand on ceremony. The strictest investigation was immediately appointed, the result of which was a decree that completely removed the governor from the drinking business !!! Oversight of reporting was transferred to the zemstvo elders.

The government, rigidly pursuing shortages, at the same time tried to encourage those tavern heads who managed to increase the rate of drinking income. There were even cases when the most diligent of them were rewarded with encouraging gilded goblets, decorated with coats of arms and corresponding inscriptions. It is clear that each of the heads tried to draw out everything that was possible from the people, not disdaining any measures. Who wants to turn their backs on the “right”.
Sophisticated in the means of extracting money and soldering the people, the tavern heads came to the conclusion that there was nothing to be done without a loan, especially when, due to crop failure, or any other reasons, the "roosters" really did not have a penny. And now a new era has opened in the tavern business - credit has appeared.

At first, the people could not get used to this innovation for a long time, they could not admit the thought that, without having a coin in their soul, it is possible, at the expense of future blessings, to get drunk and not even once, but several times. All the poor people threw themselves into the tavern and took advantage of the new boon on the widest scale. Trade went twice as successful and the expected profit, quite successfully secured from the brutally correct inventive tavern heads. It was good to use credit for the people, but for how hard it was for him when the time of reckoning came. The inexorable tavern heads demanded payment of the dog, squeezed it out, not embarrassed by any means. Faulty payers were robbed clean, their last shirt was taken off, and if this was not enough, then they were beaten right to death. The people immediately realized at what cost they got the loan, but neither the cruelty of their heads, nor the horrors they experienced during the retribution, did not stop him from further debt. The temptation was too great! The secret tavern, hitherto successfully competing with the tavern, suffered heavy losses with the opening of a government loan and was forced to reduce the price of drinks for the sake of competition. Yes, it is understandable! Taverns had the legal right to demand a debt, while the tavern could only rely on the good faith of the creditor, since at the first threat of paying the debt, they risked being denounced and searched. The reduction in the price of "green" wine was not to the liking of many innkeepers and hit them hard in the pocket. I had to come up with something that could fill this forced gap. The inventive mind of the innkeeper decided to resort to falsification. Things went smoothly and secret koremnichestvo, temporarily quiet, again expected and could now boldly compete with the state tavern. This identity did not last long. The keen eye of the tavern heads and kissers quickly saw the "innovation" of their competitors, hurried to convey it, and then a cruel and general search began again, again the secret writhing became the subject of the most severe persecution. Immediately, not only the tavern owners suffered, but also those naive people who sometimes allowed themselves to boil small amounts of drink and exclusively for their own household use. There was no mercy for anyone! I had to pay everyone: both right and wrong. In this case, the tavern heads not only increased the treasury, but also managed not to forget their own pockets ... Often mentioning the theft of tavern heads, we consider it necessary to say a few words in general about their financial situation. The heads of the taverns and the kissers were, financially and especially at the beginning of their activity, ugly. They were not paid anything, they were not provided with anything, and at the same time they were forbidden to steal! Do as you know! Live as you want! Subsequently, when the Order came to the conclusion that it was necessary to pay for work in some way, the heads were given a salary, but such an insignificant one that they could exist. In a word, the authorities themselves pushed them to theft and there is nothing surprising that they stole. However, the treasury had little concern for this, it stubbornly pursued only one goal: to squeeze as much income as possible from the drinking business and spend as little as possible on the correct formulation of this business. If, due to some circumstances, it was required to make extraordinary expenses, the treasury placed the entire burden of this matter again on the ill-fated heads and their assistants. Look for means, from where you know, but to get it done! And the heads were searched and found! And if, moreover, aspirations, they did not have enough guesses for this, then they inevitably had to pay with their own backs, which was very often!

From the time of Ivan the Terrible until the advent of the Time of Troubles, the tsar's taverns jealously guarded their monopoly, and the government severely persecuted any attempts to violate the other. It was not shy about the means. So, during the great festivities, accompanied by fairs, people in charge of the income of the tsar of the tavern ordered thorough searches of persons suspected of secretly selling drinks.

Sometimes such searches were universal, and then people who were completely not involved in the drinking business were subjected to “shame”. The detectives had the right to come into the house and, regardless of any circumstances, turn everything upside down. Thanks to this order, for the sake of personal revenge, a lot of false denunciations appeared. He wanted to annoy one another, denounced and put the enemy to shame, and not only him, but the whole family! Civilians considered these searches a punishment from heaven, sent down to them for their sins, and, not sparing their last pennies, paid off uninvited and unceremonious guests. Sometimes such searches gave rise to fights, mortal massacres and even partial riots. The embittered population mercilessly beat the detectives and entered into a struggle with the authorities who came to the rescue. Such was the procedure for protecting the interests of the tsar's tavern, and although it seemed cruel, it to a certain extent achieved its goal.

But now a troubled time came and the whole system, legitimized by a strong government, immediately collapsed. Anarchy took advantage not only of the dark people, but also the boyars and merchants. All rushed to a quick profit. Next to the government taverns, new drinking establishments of all kinds and organizations appeared.

Vodka became the main subject of trade throughout Russia. Drunkenness rose to Homeric proportions. The masses of the people, knocked out of the rut of everyday life, rushed from side to side, not knowing where to stumble and what to do with themselves!

Cut off from the earth and involved in civil strife, they could only find shelter near the tavern. Here, for money, or by robbery, they obtained alcohol for themselves and, brutalized and intoxicated, found satisfaction in their passions in wild, insane orgies. Some of this mass, having come to their senses, returned to their native nests and set to work, while the majority turned into a “tavern goal”. There was no going back! The tavern replaced everything with them: both the family and the homeland.

Robberies and murders became commonplace. The roads that ran through dense forests were filled with robbers! Taverns, taverns, taverns grew like mushrooms! Drunkenness was general, rampant, hopeless! To make at least a brief overview of the drinking business in this exceptional period of time does not seem to be the slightest opportunity! Only in 1613, with the accession of Mikhail Osodorovich, the drinking business began to be put in order. It cost the government a lot of work to return to the former strict order. The drinking business was shaken so badly that it took a whole century to bring it back to the proper norm. Of course, there was nothing to think about any innovations during this time. Satisfied with the orders of times gone by! Let us suppose that the government succeeded in destroying the arbitrariness in the tavern business, but it was beyond its power to wipe out the "needless tavern". It fearlessly existed right up to the iron regime of the times of Peter the Great, and although it has greatly decreased, compressed by the new conditions of life, nevertheless, as we know, it still exists to this day. All the harmful dregs of society, embittered by the contemptuous attitude of others towards them, at the same time, they have played and continue to play a solo role in the existence of the wine trade. The working man of labor, even if he wants to drink, will nevertheless try to acquire wine legally with every extra penny. Take away a legal establishment, he goes to the tavern and pay exorbitant prices for the right to get drunk drunk. Take away the boar's head from the tavern, leave him an occasional visitor, and the tavern, without any repressive measures, will die out and disappear without a trace.

Among the mass of a new type of drinking establishments that appeared at the onset of the "Time of Troubles", the so-called tavern establishment does not appear and, in general, the mention of the tavern is found only after 1827. But personally, we have reason to think that the tavern appeared much earlier, namely in 1795. It is desirable for us to dwell on this name in more detail, if only because the main task of our essay is precisely to review the "history of the development of the tavern industry." Strange as it may seem, but no one has paid the slightest attention to the historical origin of the ill-fated word "tavern" until now. Even searches in the public library did not lead us to any results. Only because of this we take the liberty to draw our own conclusions about the origin of this name. To look for the root of "tavern" in the word "tract" - the road, there is no reason, just as there is no reason to consider it as the English "Tractor". It is more accurate to derive it from the German verb "Traktieren" - tavern, which means "to treat". Based on this assumption, we present the final solution to this issue to specialists. Now let's move on to resolving the issue of the first appearance of a tavern in Russia and introduce the reader to the arguments that made us stop at 1795. To do this, we will make a brief review of the drinking business from the end of the Time of Troubles to the official indication of the word "tavern", i.e. until 1827.

The establishment of order in the drinking business at the end of the troubled times ended with giving it away. We have already mentioned the terrible dangers of this system, we will add that the tax-farmers, who got acquainted in the secret tavern with all sorts of methods of falsification, including dope, widely applied this vile means of profit to their already profitable business. There were no such abuses that would not be launched by greedy merchants. Brutalized by drunkenness, the people, outraged by the antics of the kissers, rowdy, smashed the taverns to the ground, beat and killed the tavern-keepers, and sometimes, fueled by the search for the tavern-goli, arranged open riots! But neither the first nor the second frightened the wholesalers, who were making huge money, and they firmly and confidently continued to conduct their ugly business until the middle of the 17th century, when the government, having shaved attention to the abnormal setting of the matter, decided to destroy the hated word "tavern" by renaming him to the drinking house. But of course, such a replacement of one word by another could not help the cause, and everything that had existed before remained inviolable. There was only a small intermission in the activities of the hated wholesaler. So? Then everything went on as before and ended in 1795, which brought with it a very serious reform. This year, the farming system was finally introduced throughout the Empire, but with its right to receive profits not only from drinks, but also from food supplies. Such a reform made it possible for the tax-farmers to spread their nets even more widely, and they immediately began to open a mass of various types of drinking establishments. We can say with confidence that this moment, we have the right to consider, the moment the first tavern appeared in Russia, after 1000 years the ancient tavern was revived again - the Russian tavern, which gave the people "food and drink" at the same time.

Until 1861, there was no general provision on tavern establishments in Russia. So, St. Petersburg had its charter, Moscow, provincial and port cities had their own, and for provincial places there was a special situation. Tavern establishments were divided into different types, depending on the type of trade that they were allowed to produce. The highest category included: hotels, restaurants, taverns and cafes - restaurants, the lowest - taverns. The position of the tavern trade was replete with all sorts of restrictions and restrictions, it would seem, completely unnecessary. For some reason, the tavern was not a favorite brainchild and had to fight hourly for its existence, while the notorious tavern was operating in the full extent of unlimited arbitrariness. The regulation strictly determined the nature and boundaries of the trade of each tavern establishment. In St. Petersburg, they were assigned the total amount of excise, distributed among individual establishments, other types of establishments were leased for a certain legal amount. In 1861, all these institutions were equalized and all were given the same rights.

Their delivery was entrusted to city societies, which, with the approval of the governor's authorities, determined the funds for the annual excise tax from each establishment. The internal layout was made by deputies elected from the society of innkeepers. In the counties, the amount of the tavern excise fluctuated in the amount of 15-60 rubles. Such a low fee depended on the fact that the inns, which competed with the taverns, were completely exempt from tax. At the end of the nineteenth century, namely in 1893, a new regulation on the tavern industry was established, which was put into effect in all areas of the Empire, with the exception of the Kingdom of Poland, from January 1, 1804. With the mass of the existing variety of tavern establishments, the legislation could not develop special rules for each of them, and was limited only to general instructions. According to these instructions, this tavern was considered an open establishment in which the public could purchase “food and drinks for consumption on the spot”, while some types of tavern trade establishments had the right, in addition to trading in common premises, to also contain special chambers rented to them.

The establishments of the tavern trade, which did not have separate chambers for renting out, were named: taverns, restaurants, taverns, dukhans, vegetable and fruit shops, Rens cellars (Rens cellars are shops where they bought Rhine wines (Rhine wine, etc.); must sell "drinks "only as soon as" takeaway ".) with the serving of meals or snacks, beer shops with hot food, etc. As we have already said, the legislation has not established exact signs of the difference between one institution and another, and only in relation to the equipment of inns indicated their internal structure (covered devices for horses, etc.), the existence of an establishment of a tavern trade was established by legal documents, and the opening and production of trade in strong drinks, exactly like tobacco products, are subject to the rules of the statutes on excise taxes and tobacco duties and the regulation on state selling drinks. Duration of trading in establishments - in the provision indicated conditionally; so, for example, for hotels, inns, station buffets, clubs and theaters, etc. an exception is made. In general, in an exemption from the law, the governors are given the right to allow trade in other establishments for a longer time. For the sale of supplies and renting out apartments, the law did not establish a tax and gave the right to carry out both trade and rent at a free price. But at the same time, he obliged the owners of establishments, both in common and in separate chambers, to have signs with an exact indication of the price. For excessive demands for prices, the legislation put a penalty on the perpetrators, in the form of a fine. In some types of tavern establishments, with the permission of higher administrative officials, games, music, singing, choirs and other entertainments are not prohibited by law. In general, all persons who had the right to engage in trade and crafts could maintain tavern establishments, while previously this required a special certificate, which was extremely difficult to obtain. The last provision, however, canceled this clause and indicated only a subscription, which should be given by persons wishing to open a tavern establishment. By this subscription, they testify that they were not subjected to penalties that deprive them of the right to maintain tavern establishments. In cities, permission to open a tavern business is granted by city councils.

It is also necessary to add the following: each room located within the boundaries of urban settlements and intended for the sale of drinking must be inspected by the police.

Moreover, both excise supervision and a person appointed by the city government take part in this examination. The City Duma, in agreement with the police, issue mandatory decrees on the arrangement of various types of tavern business establishments, so that each of them does not go beyond the limits defined by law and fully corresponds to its purpose, both in terms of improvement and well-being.

It is also the duty of the city council to indicate the places in the city in which tavern establishments should not be opened at all.

In settlements where the city regulation has not been introduced, such mandatory regulations are issued by the governor. All tavern establishments located in urban settlements are subject to special tavern fees that go to the income of these settlements. Determining the total amount of these fees, the city duma divides them into two parts: one part falls on establishments selling strong drinks, the other on those that do not sell them. In order to distribute fees among individual institutions (if there are more than 20 of them in the city), they are distributed by the City Council into groups, according to their degree of profitability, size of turnover, location, etc. and the largest and smallest amount of taxation is determined. The actual layout is made (depending on the discretion of the thought) either by general meetings of the owners of the establishments of each group, or by a layout commission elected from their midst. The layout commission is elected annually, and both the meeting of the owners of the establishments and the meeting of the layout commissions take place necessarily under the chairmanship of a member of the city duma. The layout of the tavern collection must be completed by the deadline specified by law, namely by October 20th. In case of inaccuracy in the term of the city council itself. Misunderstandings with the wrong layout, as well as complaints about it, are finally resolved by the City Council. All buffets of military meetings, the facilities of which are not leased to private individuals, are not subject to the collection of the city tavern tax.

In addition to the designated military canteens, the city council may, at their discretion, exempt from collection also establishments of a different kind, but exclusively from the category that does not sell strong drinks. Commercial establishments that do not trade in strong drinks and are located outside the boundaries of urban settlements are opened in the same order as in cities in general. The opening of establishments for the sale of strong liquor must be permitted in compliance with all the rules of the statute on excise taxes, taking into account the conditions under which consent is given to the opening of departments, by the owner or society. These conditions, set out in written agreements, must be provided in the case as documents. All establishments of the tavern industry located outside the boundaries of urban settlements, with the exception of dukhans, inns, and even taverns without selling strong drinks, pay tavern tax in favor of county lands, where land institutions have not been introduced, and provincial land tax, but in the region Donskoy troops - in stanitsa or military sums. The size of the trading fee ranges from six - ten to fifteen rubles, depending on the category of the area. This amount is determined by the district land assemblies, and where there is no land, by the provincial administrative committees. Concluding this review of the legal provisions of the tavern industry, let's say for the word that, according to the data on the number of drinking establishments in Russia, we see the following: in 1866 their number was 35.376, by the end of 1894 it reached 42.067, i.e. . increased by more than six and a half thousand. Then, due to the introduction of a monopoly by wine, it began to fall. Not wanting to dwell in detail on issues that are not directly related to the general overview of the essay, we will translate its next chapters by summarizing everything that has been said previously and will try to remind the reader in a more concise framework of the historical course of events that accompanied both the birth and further development of the tavern trade in Russia.

“The tavern is dearest to us!” - says Arkashka Schastlivtsev, a comedian from A. Ostrovsky's play "The Forest". And for many Muscovites in the 19th century, the tavern was also “the first thing”. “It replaced both the exchange for merchants who made thousands of transactions over a cup of tea, and a canteen for lonely people, and hours of relaxation in friendly conversation for all people, and a place for business meetings, and revelry for everyone - from a millionaire to a tramp,” writes the historian and journalist of the beginning of the century Vladimir Gilyarovsky about restaurant customs at the end of the century before last. In a word, Arkashka is right: “The tavern is the first thing!”
There were three oldest purely Russian taverns in Moscow since the first half of the century before last: "Saratov", Gurin's tavern and Yegorov's tavern. However, in 1868, Gurin's clerk, a certain Testov, persuaded the millionaire Patrikeev, the owner of the house in which Egorov's establishment was located, to take away the tavern from the latter and hand it over to him. Some time later, on the wall of a newly finished, by that time luxurious house on the corner of Voskresenskaya and Teatralnaya squares, a sign "Big Patrikeevsky Tavern" appeared. And at the bottom it was very modestly signed: “I.Ya. Tests.

Trade Testov led widely, the main menu was the Russian table. Therefore, it is quite understandable that the main clients of Testov were the merchants and the nobility, who poured into the new tavern in droves. Testov's enterprise developed so widely that soon his fame was beaten by the restaurateur Gurin and the Saratov tavern. This made it possible for Testov in 1876 to add a coat of arms and the inscription: "Supplier of the Imperial Court" to his signboard.

In addition to the Moscow merchants and the nobility, the nobility of St. Petersburg specially came to the Testov tavern, and there were also grand dukes. When visiting, everyone certainly wanted to taste the Test pig, crayfish soup with pies and the famous Guryev porridge, which, by the way, was invented by some unknown Guryev.
As for the design of the Test tavern, in addition to a number of offices, there were two huge halls where eminent merchants had their tables for lunch or breakfast, which could not be occupied by anyone. So, in the left hall, the last table by the window from four o'clock stood behind the millionaire Ivan Chizhov, a clean-shaven, fat old man of enormous growth. He sat neatly at the table at the right time, almost always alone, ate for two hours and dozed between meals.

According to Gilyarovsky, Chizhov’s menu was as follows: a portion of cold beluga or sturgeon with horseradish, caviar, two plates of crayfish soup, fish or kidney villages with two pies, and then roasted pig, veal or fish, depending on the season. In summer, botvinya with sturgeon, white salmon and dry grated salmon is a must. Then for the third dish - invariably a frying pan of Guryev porridge.

Sometimes Chizhov allowed himself digressions, replacing the pies with Baidakov's pie - a huge kulebyaka stuffed in twelve tiers, where there was everything - from a layer of burbot liver to a layer of bone marrow in black oil. At the same time, he drank red and white wine, and after taking a nap for half an hour, he went home to sleep in order to be at the Merchant Club from eight in the evening, eat the whole evening by special order already with a large company and drink champagne. He always ordered at the club himself, and none of the companions contradicted him. As Chizhov himself said, “I’m not supposed to have these different folies-jolies and fricasse-curase ... We eat in Russian - but the belly doesn’t hurt, we don’t rush about doctors, we don’t wander around abroad.”

The most remarkable thing is that this gourmet lived to an advanced age in good health.

The Testov tavern was one of those Russian taverns that were in great fashion in the 19th century, and then, much later, began to be called restaurants. Then in the center of the city there was only one "restaurant" - "Slavianski Bazaar". The rest were called taverns, because the main visitors were Russian merchants. And each of the city taverns was distinguished by its customs, some special dish, and had its regular visitors. In all these taverns waiters in white shirts made of expensive Dutch linen, washed to a shine, waited. They were called whiteshirts, sexual or sixes. "Sixes" because they served aces, kings and queens. “And every jack, even a heart of hearts, orders them,” wrote Vladimir Gilyarovsky. -But nothing! The trump six beats the ace." But while the "six" became a trump card, she had to endure many troubles and trials.

Painting by the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez “The Innkeeper”.
The size of the painting is 100 x 122 cm, oil on canvas.

The painting by the Seville artist Velasquez from the bodegones cycle also has another name “In the tavern”.

Ie imperial codes of the tsarist government of the Romanov dynasty.

Taverns and tavern establishments were divided into different types according to the type of trade that they were allowed to produce: hotels, restaurants, taverns and cafe-restaurants were the highest category, taverns - the lowest.

The establishments of the tavern industry without renting out chambers include: taverns, restaurants, taverns and dukhans; vegetable and fruit shops and Rennes cellars serving snacks or meals; canteens, kitchens, canteens at theaters, on steamships, wharves, railway stations, at festivities, etc.; beer shops selling hot food; confectionery and cake shops selling supplies for consumption on the spot; coffee, food or snack shops. In taverns and tavern establishments, station houses and Rennes cellars, any kind of sale of strong drinks, both Russian and foreign, is allowed, including beer, porter and mead; in inns or taverns, temporary exhibitions, wine and bucket shops, the sale of the same drinks is allowed, but only Russian preparation; beer shops can only sell beer, porter and honey, and cellars selling Russian grape wines can only sell wines.

I would be grateful for the pluses, likes and retweets! Thanks in advance!

1. History of alcohol in the world.

2. The appearance of taverns.

3. The structure of taverns.

4. Drinking business reforms.

5. Foreigners "about the drunkenness of Russians."

6. Attempts to close drinking establishments.

7. Beer in Russia.

8. Beer halls and buffets.

9. Conclusion.

Kabaki in Russia.

Why is it that we, the Russians, always have a "burning soul" and want to miss something like that, stronger? The answer to this very complex question must be sought not only in the recesses of the sophisticated Russian soul, but also in history.

About drunkenness different nations have known for a long time. In ancient China, a thousand years before the birth of Christ, the emperor threatened drunkards with the death penalty. Around the 6th century BC, the Hindus and Aryans (the forefathers of Europeans) had laws of Manu that forbade such abuses. Herodotus wrote about libations from the Persians when discussing the most important issues. Homer mentioned Saturnalia - holidays in honor of Bacchus. With the growth of wealth in ancient Rome, addictions also became more sophisticated - the Romans knew about 160 varieties of grape wines alone.

From the 13th century, vodka began to spread in Europe. At first, it served as a medicine and was sold only in pharmacies. In Germany, wine was so cheap that for the smallest coin you could treat yourself more than once. In general, the variety of alcohol showed the level of development of the people.

African and Australian savages drank palm wine, South American Indians - kava tincture, Chinese - rice vodka. The struggle with the "green serpent" also began - for example, in America, "cat concerts" were held near taverns - they shouted, whistled, howled, beat on pans.

Until the 15th century in Russia, the sale and production of alcohol was not limited to anything. There is a legend that Prince Vladimir, choosing a faith for the country, rejected Mohammedanism because of the ban on drinking. As if the prince said to the ambassadors: "Russia is the joy of drinking. We cannot exist without it." This is a legend composed by scribe monks retroactively, long after the adoption of Christianity by Russia. For centuries, the people have caustically ridiculed the monastic brethren prone to voguishness. In the old days, every wealthy owner "smoked" vodka for his house, insisted on liqueurs and tinctures. The wise Olga punished the Drevlyans: "Behold, I am coming to you; yes, and come on a lot of honey." But there were no strong drinks then. They drank intoxicated mash, velvet beer, stout meads, and honey kvass. "Vodka" is a diminutive of "water". Our ancestors drank not "English bitterness", not "wormwood", but "sweet vodka".

Red wine has been known in Russia since the 10th century. It under the name "Fryazhsky" appeared on the tables of the rich, sometimes in the monastery walls. Ordinary people were content with sweet vodka and kvass. The taste of the drinks was such that, "as you drink a cup, you want another, you drink another - the soul burns on the third." Still - there were standing meads, sweet vodka in barrels of the forties.

All this was drunk in taverns (tavern - from the words "feed", "feed"). You can compare them with clubs: they learned the news there, they had conversations. There was a proverb: "In the tavern and in the bath - all equal nobles." That's all, but the woman was ordered to enter there. But everything was not so smooth: a complaint to the prince of that era has been preserved: "Lord! The peasants are drinking away."

In 1360, the Arab Regez invented not sweet vodka. There were taverns (Tatar word) - inns. Alcoholic drinks with a high alcohol content, such as vodka, appeared in Europe in the 13th century, and in the 16th century vodka appeared in Russia. From the middle of the 16th century, with the advent of vodka in Russia, its production was established at special distilleries.

Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, after the capture of Kazan in 1552, founded the first Russian tavern. Kabak is a Tatar word and it comes from the name of a vessel made of pumpkin. I must say that the Tatar tavern is an inn in which alcoholic drinks and all kinds of food were served. The first tavern was opened by Ivan the Terrible in Moscow (now there is a 5-star hotel "Baltika" - not far from the Kremlin, and in the translation of the Baltic - it's swamp and mud). The tavern at the very beginning was founded for the guardsmen. Oprichnina is a method of holding power with the help of terror and violence, people who went to the oprichnina are usually people without moral principles. For them to rob a church, a monastery was worth nothing. They were, as it were, outside the law and outside of that patriarchal Russia in which moral values ​​were formed for centuries. For them, these values ​​practically did not exist. Moreover, when taverns began to bring in very large incomes, a special decree was issued by Ivan the Terrible - so that smerds and other people were allowed to visit taverns.

Taverns in Russia began to be called "Khan's" - after all, the Tatars noticed the profitability of the vodka trade and took matters into their own hands. After the Tatar yoke, the princes took possession of the taverns, and these hot places were already nicknamed "princes", and then "royal". There were taverns in Russia, both boyar and monastic. For example, the taverns of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Makaryevsky, Trinity-Sergius Lavra. From the documents of the middle of the XVII century. it turns out that in the Dvina district there were more than 20 taverns, including in the patrimony of the Antoniev-Siya monastery, on the Volok Pinezhsky, in the Soyalsky and Kevrolsky camps, in volosts and churchyards (Nenoksa, Una, Luda, Kuloi and other places). According to interrogation speeches in 1678, the location of 14 mug yards is also clarified: 4 - in Kholmogory (circle yard, cash desk, Red tavern, quarter counter), 4 - in Arkhangelsk (cup yard, altynnaya rack, Red tavern, bath tavern), 2 - in Voloka Pinezhsky (a mug yard, a tavern), 4 - in the volosts along the Dvina (in Yemets, Stupino, Nenox, Rakula).

What the royal tavern was like can be seen from the receipt of the kissers of the mug court in Nenoks, who took over the court in 1688. According to the receipt, this drinking establishment had "wine in the sovereign's measured eagle bucket - 51 buckets, and 2 tubs of beer - 50 measures, and ships: two-ruble copper wine cup, two-rouble sales, and a penny wooden cup, and an altyn slide, and a two-ruble ladle. Yes, a quarter barrel of wine, and a padlock. Such is the internal "arrangement" of the royal tavern. All measuring utensils for storing wine and selling on tap are eagle, that is, certified by the state authorities. Of the other accessories of the tavern, other documents mention a stand, benches, on which drunks often fall asleep, but nothing edible was kept in the tavern.

There were few salaried taverns, the rest were considered the property of the state treasury.

The public taverns were run by the kissers. They were called so because they kissed the cross and the Gospel that they would honestly observe the sovereign's treasury. They were rewarded for good work and profit.

Creating a detailed description of the young Russian capital in 1749-1751, A.I. Bogdanov reminded that “ from the first years here, under the reigning St. Petersburg, two noble Drinking Houses were arranged, in which various state-owned drinks of different tastes were sold, expensive vodka for sale to noble people…»

One of them - especially revered and visited by Peter I - "Avsteria on the St. Petersburg side, on the Trinity pier, near the Petrovsky bridge." On holidays, Tsar Peter appeared in it "with noble persons and ministers, before dinner for a glass of vodka."

Second " Austeria on the same St. Petersburg Island, in Bolshaya Nikolskaya Street, built, hut, in 1719". These were establishments for noble people.

There were other attractions as well. For example, "taverns, or drinking houses, where wine, vodka, beer and honey are sold in small glasses for the mean people."

In 1750-1751 there were 121 taverns in the city. They were distributed very unevenly. There are 30 taverns on St. Petersburg Island, 48 taverns on the Admiralteiskaya side, 19 taverns on the Liteynaya side, 10 taverns on the Vyborg side, and 14 taverns on Vasilyevsky Island.

At first, the Drinking Houses were farmed out to the local merchants. This has led to many abuses.

Peter I decided to find more worthy rulers. He tried to appoint merchants from among the visitors, then he identified schismatics and bearded men as kissers (that is, owners and tenants of taverns) (after all, they were stubborn and fought for their faith), but settled on retired soldiers and non-commissioned officers. After the death of Peter I, the local merchants again won in the struggle for taverns.

During the time of Peter I, taverns or “Tavern Houses” appeared, in which they sold grape wines, French vodka, and beer. Billiard tables were installed in the taverns. The first "Tavern House" was built in 1720 at Troitskaya Pier not far from the Peter and Paul Fortress and was often visited by the tsar himself.

But after 20 years, the sale of vodka and beer, as well as playing billiards, were banned in taverns. The taverns began to serve only grape wine and food. Instead of "Tavern Houses", drinking cellars with overseas grape wines were allowed. By 1750, there were already 65 such cellars in the city.

It was possible to eat in numerous taverns and in "Taverns of Cuisine" (special Houses for foreign cuisine).

The first hotels - "Inns" appeared in 1723 on St. Petersburg Island in the area of ​​​​the future Petrovskaya Embankment and on the Liteiny side. But they didn't stick. More fortunate was the Post Office Yard on the Admiralteyskaya side, which was located near the Summer Garden not far from the ferry to Troitskaya pier. It was built in 1714, was visited many times by the king and served as a venue for festivities - "victory celebrations".

By the beginning of the 19th century, restaurants, cafes, taverns, and taverns became widespread in St. Petersburg. Increasingly, taverns play the role of not only drinking establishments, but also accommodation for visitors. It was the prototype of modern hotels with restaurants. The largest taverns - the taverns of Demuth, "Bordeaux", "Nord" had "quite decent" furnished rooms.

Petersburg cafes of that time were institutions for ordinary people, for craftsmen, workers, people from the lower classes. According to the traveler G.T. Faber, who visited St. Petersburg in 1811, "institutions called cafes in St. Petersburg are unworthy of this name."

Restaurants appeared in St. Petersburg at the end of the 18th century. The first restaurateurs in St. Petersburg were French. The revolutionary events of 1789 forced many French to emigrate to Russia, primarily to the capital on the Neva. Among them were cooks, culinary specialists, and confectioners.

Under the northern sky, they continued their usual business, to the obvious pleasure of the "golden" youth of the capital and all foreigners. Many of them opened restaurants and coffee houses. The predominance of the French line in the restaurant business was felt until the middle of the nineteenth century.

The most impressive were the restaurants, which were "as good as those in Paris". In them, lunch cost 3-4 rubles, they served liqueurs and wines, tokay, cognac, kirschwasser. There were no hard drinks in the restaurants. In many memoirs, eyewitnesses recalled with delight popular dishes- roast, pasta, steaks.

In the first decades of the 20th century, restaurants operated only in the morning and afternoon. There were no dinners or nightly activities yet. Regulars of restaurants went in the evenings to visit friends and acquaintances. Therefore, in the evenings, empty restaurant halls were closed. The restaurant guests were young rich people, guards officers, foreign travelers who were not yet accustomed to Russian cuisine and Russian service. The restaurants of Tardif, Peker, Aimé have gained great fame.

According to the Main Police (it was then engaged in statistics), in 1814 in the Russian capital there were 2 coffee houses (cafes), 26 taverns, 22 gerberas, 67 kitchen tables, 35 taverns, 109 drinking houses, 259 Ren cellars. There are no restaurants among the noted yet, they were still a novelty, they did not enter into the well-established Petersburg everyday life. But already on February 2, 1821, Emperor Alexander I “Highly approved the “Regulations on hotels, restaurants, coffee houses, taverns and taverns in St. Petersburg and Moscow.”

It was these five different types of institutions that were allowed to be organized in St. Petersburg and the Mother See. According to the Regulations, the number of hotels, restaurants, coffee houses and taverns was not limited in the Russian capitals. Given the state monopoly on strong alcoholic beverages, taverns remained under strict state control, in which (and only in them!) It was allowed to sell both beer, porter, grape wines, as well as sweet and bitter vodka. Restaurants quickly gained public recognition.

Then, on the banks of the Neva, both individual restaurants and restaurants at hotels were popular. Their owners were traditionally foreigners: the French Dumas, Talon, Saint-Georges, Diamant, Simon-Grand-Jean, Coulomb, the Italians Heyde and Alexander, the Germans Clay, Otto.

1835 was a significant year in the history of restaurant business. On February 6, 1835, Nicholas 1 approved the new "Regulations on tavern establishments in St. Petersburg." Restaurants, hotels, coffee houses, taverns and taverns were separated into "tavern establishments" with special operating rules.

For the sale of drinks, cellars, shops and shops with the right to cellars were also determined. Severe quantitative restrictions have been introduced. Only 35 restaurants, 46 coffee houses, 40 taverns and 50 taverns are allowed in St. Petersburg. And cellars - 250, shops and shops with the right to cellars - 20. Moreover, in each of the parts of the city (according to the modern - in the districts) it is allowed to have a certain number of taverns.

Intensive trade, of course, required the rest of the merchant forces and the opportunity to spend money profitably - it was the taverns that greatly contributed to all this. The taverns were just as necessary as the hotel complexes of the early nineteenth century.

Restaurants and coffee houses had a more sophisticated character. In accordance with the regulation, it was allowed to keep a table in restaurants (for organizing breakfasts and lunches for visitors), serve grape wines, sweet vodkas, liquors, beer, porter, honey, coffee, tea, and sell smoking tobacco.

In coffee houses it was supposed to offer ice cream, lemonade, orshad, coffee, chocolate and smoking tobacco, all kinds of sweets, fruits, jams, cookies, sweets, jellies, marshmallows, syrups, liqueurs. In taverns it is permitted to "keep the provisions of life, boiled, baked and fried, consumed by people of the lower class." From drinks, kvass and "sour cabbage soup" are allowed.

In taverns, it is allowed “to maintain a table, tea, coffee and smoking tobacco, the sale of grape wines, foreign and Russian vodkas of all kinds, rum, arak, shrom, cognac, liqueurs, punch, in general, bread vodkas produced at vodka factories, also rum and vodka in the manner of French, light half-beer, mead, beer and porter. Only taverns are allowed to have tables for playing billiards, "but no more than three in each tavern."

In the first half of the 19th century, restaurants owned by Dyuli, Borel, Dusso were favorite places of "high society dandies", young aristocrats. They came here to have a drink, and sometimes to “play pranks”. People of high society, high-ranking officials, ministers, diplomats gathered at Fellier and Saint-Georges - especially in the summer, when families left for their dachas.

Restaurants in the modern sense appeared after the initiative of the “master of the confectionery workshop” Dominic Ritz Aport. According to his proposals, after consideration in the State Council on April 11, 1841, the Highest Eminence established a new tavern establishment “under the name of a cafe-restaurant”. This new type of establishment combined the characteristic features of taverns, restaurants and coffee houses. In the "restaurant cafe" it is allowed to serve and sell:

"one). All kinds of soft drinks, as well as tea, coffee, chocolate, mulled wine, sabanon, etc. 2). Candies and various cakes. 3). Broth, steak and other supplies needed for snacks. four). Various liqueurs, liqueurs, Russian and foreign wines of the best kind, porter, foreign and Russian beer of the best kind. 5). Tobacco and cigars. It is allowed to have in the institution: 1). All published, both Russian and foreign newspapers, are permitted by the government and 2). Billiards, skittles, dominoes and chess».

The new institution introduced new rules of service. Tea, coffee and similar drinks had to be served not in portions (as was previously the case in taverns), but in cups and glasses. Liqueurs and wines - in glasses and glasses, and champagne and porter - in bottles and half bottles.

The first such cafe-restaurant Dominik Ritz Aporta appeared on Nevsky Prospekt, in the house of the Lutheran Church of Peter and Paul, it was called, of course, “Dominik”. He immediately became popular, especially among not very wealthy citizens, students and chess players.

They wrote that by the middle of the day, from the influx of guests, the halls seemed to be in a fog because of the smoke and steam that filled them. It was calculated that on average each of the "Dominicans" - as the regulars of the institution were called - left 40 kopecks here. Equally popular was the Milbert, where the moderation of prices was explained by the huge number of regular visitors.

Troika at the restaurant "Eldorado" in Moscow in Petrovsky Park

The number of restaurants has been constantly growing - along with the increase in the population of the city, the development of business and social life, commercial and industrial activities. At the end of the 19th century, there were about 60 of them, in 1911 - more than 100 (not counting those that were arranged at railway stations, at clubs and hotels).

There were restaurants, especially loved by a certain category of metropolitan residents. During these years, the Pivato Brothers, Medved, and Kontan restaurants were among the most fashionable and expensive. In the latter, in 1916, a diplomatic reception was held in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Franco-Russian allied agreement.

Dinner for the French guests, given by the Moscow City Duma in the restaurant of the Big Moscow Hotel. 1912

In the capital there were several restaurants called "Exchange". The name already testified that they sat at its tables not only for a meal, but also for trade negotiations. These restaurants were located in parts of the city where there was intense commercial activity.

For the merchants, first of all, the restaurants "Mariinsky" and "Merchant", located next to Apraksin Dvor, were intended. The largest of them and the most authoritative - "Kyuba", located on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, close to the largest banks, has become a kind of unofficial exchange for the elite.

Representatives of the business elite met here to negotiate and conclude deals. For such business and friendly meetings in a more or less narrow circle, many restaurants had, along with the main halls, the so-called cabinets. For the first time, cabinets appeared in St. Petersburg in the middle of the 19th century.

Actors, directors, theater critics often gathered at Zist, near Alexandrinka. Often - at Litner. At one time, writers were very popular dinners, regularly hosted by the editors of major magazines.

Especially solemn events, anniversaries were celebrated in "Kontana". There were many visitors in "Small Yaroslavets", "Vienna". Among the restaurants of St. Petersburg there were those where they not only celebrated, dined, dined, exchanged news, rumors, impressions of what they saw and read, but also ... one might say, almost lived - spent many hours, wrote and even ... slept.

Such was Davydov's restaurant. He was loved, it seemed, contrary to common sense. He did not spoil his clients with culinary delights. A glass of vodka was followed by a piece of salted fish with bread or fried sausage with mashed potatoes. It's amazing that this place was called a restaurant. But, apparently, in an incredibly colorful audience, a completely relaxed atmosphere, there was something more attractive than respectability and good cuisine.

Students, of whom there were especially many on Vasilyevsky Island, went to the inexpensive "Bernhard", "London", to "Tikhonov", "Geyde". These "impromptu feasts were for the most part modest in nature: 1 bottle of red wine for two or 2-3 bottles of beer were drunk, and friends peacefully dispersed with a little noise in their heads." In the same establishments, one could play billiards and celebrate the end of the school year.

There were also restaurants in the capital that had a certain “national orientation”. The already mentioned restaurant Leiner was especially loved by the St. Petersburg Germans - more or less wealthy. Those who had more modest means went to establishments like the Heyde restaurant.

Here one could inexpensively - and at the same time it was good - to dine, sit, see friends. The Heyde restaurant was said to be a club - everyone here knew each other. Mainly for the Germans in the summer worked "Bavaria" - an open-air restaurant at the pleasure garden on Petrovsky Island.

Petersburg restaurants offered their guests an extensive menu, a huge selection of wines, vodkas, tinctures, liqueurs. For this, they had every opportunity - after all, meat, poultry and game were brought to the capital from different parts of Russia, butter and eggs, caviar and fish, including live ones.

Many restaurants had special pools where they kept her until she was sent to the stove. Petersburg gardeners supplied fresh herbs and vegetables for almost the entire year - cucumbers, green peas, green beans, cauliflower, asparagus, as well as champignons, strawberries and other berries.

St. Petersburg entrepreneurs did not stand aside either, smoking pork hams, beef tongues, fish, as well as producing canned vegetables, berry juices, and various confectionery products. Numerous bakeries provided the city with bread, muffins, pies, pastries, cakes. From abroad they brought ham and salami, oysters, lobsters, sardines, various types of cheese, fruits and, of course, wine. It came from France, Spain, Italy.

Over time, in the southern regions of Russia, a lot of good wine, which noticeably pressed the import. Strong drinks of St. Petersburg producers were famous - vodka, tinctures, liquors. Beer was in great demand and popularity.

All this abundance went to restaurants. At first, visitors found in them, first of all, dishes of French national cuisine. Italian dishes were offered somewhat less frequently. Fans of oriental exoticism could find kebabs, plov, azu, shish kebab, familiar to us even now, in the restaurant.

The first attempts to open Russian restaurants were unsuccessful, but soon they nevertheless appeared and gained popularity. The championship among them belonged to Palkin's restaurant, which was called the king of Russian cuisine. They loved and willingly visited "Small Yaroslavets". Here you could get sterlet's ear, village girl, pies and kulebyaki, Guryev porridge, hazel grouse cutlets, chopped turnips, piglet with horseradish, lamb side with buckwheat porridge ...

An elderly Frenchman who left Paris in connection with the revolutionary events of 1871, sitting at such a “Russian dinner”, used to say: “ He ran away from the Versaillese, but how to run away from a piglet and a lamb?

Naturally, plentiful meals were accompanied by alcoholic beverages. AT the best restaurants the wine list contained up to a hundred names. Some were also famous for their specific drinks. In Dominika it was zhzhenka, in Vienna it was a cold punch with ice (Vienna).

Moscow tavern chef

A good cook is the first condition for success. He and the head waiter were "commanders in chief" at the restaurant. But you also need a good "army". St. Petersburg restaurants have always been famous for their masters of cold and hot cuisine and culinary workshops. Work began a few hours before opening. Halls and offices were cleaned and ventilated, food was delivered to the kitchen, meat and fish were butchered, vegetables were cleaned, a stove was kindled and warmed up. By the time the chef arrived, everything was ready.

Subordinate to the chief cook were soup cooks, roasters, cold cookers, ovaries, greengrocers, confectioners, pastry chefs and other "kitchen artists" who created culinary masterpieces. Ancillary work was done by boys, kitchen men, dishwashers. The head waiter was in charge of the hall; The bartender occupied an important place in the restaurant staff. Waiters played a special role.

The best waiters came from the Yaroslavl province. They arrived in the capital as boys, went through all the stages of work in the kitchen and in the hall. And after decades, the most capable of them even became owners of restaurants. Entire dynasties arose, including 3-5 generations of waiters, then restaurant owners.

In the 1870s, "Artels of waiters in St. Petersburg" were even created with a charter, board, entrance fees, and a common capital. The first owners of restaurants were foreigners. But, of course, the further, the more Russians came to this occupation in different ways.

For example, V.I.Soloviev began with a small trade in fruits and gastronomy, which eventually grew into a very significant trading activity. Restaurant business has become a natural continuation of a career. The owners of restaurants sometimes became yesterday's peasants who came to the capital to earn money. Some eventually managed to engage in trade themselves, in particular, tavern trade.

There were also those who had more than one institution. Sometimes a person came to the restaurant business from a completely unexpected direction. So, in 1913, the actor A.S. Polonsky opened his own theater with a restaurant, and he paid no less attention to the development of the menu than to theatrical performance. At the beginning of the twentieth century, more and more restaurants appeared, which were owned not by individuals, but by associations, most often, these were associations of waiters.

The location of the restaurant was of great importance. And most importantly, his visit was supposed to give the client maximum pleasure, to become a holiday. Everything was thought out - the clothes of employees, table linen, cutlery, crockery. Sometimes guests specifically noted that "the services are excellent."

In expensive restaurants, halls and offices were decorated with flowers, paintings, mirrors, fountains ... Wherever there was at least some opportunity, they arranged a garden, and in warm weather in summer it was possible to dine outdoors. There were restaurants that attracted to themselves precisely by the beautiful view that opened from the windows or from the terrace.

Such was the "Felicieten" on Kamenny Island, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka. Guests were offered a variety of entertainment. Almost everyone had billiards, some had bowling alley, lotto, dominoes, checkers, chess. The young M.I. Chigorin played chess in Dominica. Some establishments (albeit few) offered a large selection of magazines and newspapers. Gambling was banned.

Music began to play in many restaurants over time. At first, various mechanical "machines" were in fashion, for example, a mechanical organ. Gradually "live" music became popular. Orchestras played, the orchestras of the Guards regiments performed in the largest restaurants.

Gypsy dances, romances, choral singing enjoyed great love of the public. The brothers Ilya and Pyotr Sokolov often came from Moscow to St. Petersburg, later they were replaced by N.I. Shishkin and Massalsky. Many went specifically to listen to the gypsies. In the middle of the 19th century, they were constantly in one of the St. Petersburg restaurants.

Hungarian and Romanian orchestras were popular, one could listen to the Russian choir, "Little Russian duetists", and the Jewish ensemble. The career of some musicians began on the restaurant stage. Guest performers from Paris, Vienna, Milan sang in restaurants.

Pleasure gardens offered a particularly large program of entertainment. Mandatory in them were "military music orchestras" that played on the open stage.

During the intermission, artists performed humorous verses, stories "from folk life", gymnasts, clowns, acrobats. In addition, concerts, performances, vaudeville and operas were played in a special room. Often well-known St. Petersburg and touring actors took part in them. Of course, they did not go to the pleasure garden in order to have supper there. But it was impossible to do without a restaurant. Sometimes gardens were arranged by restaurateurs.

The most famous was the “Institution of artificial mineral waters” in Novaya Derevnya, founded in the 30s of the 19th century as a medical institution, but soon also became a place of rest for Petersburgers.

In the 1850s, I.I. Izler became the owner of Mineralnye Vody, who made them famous. Festivals, concerts, holidays began to take place here. Gypsies sang with great success, Russian songs, chansonettes were performed, and operettas were staged. It is believed that the garden greatly contributed to the spread of these genres in Russia. The garden was illuminated. A huge balloon rose above him, causing amazement and delight of the audience. The evening often ended with fireworks. Visitors to the garden called I. Izler a sorcerer.

It was said that the Emperor himself came to the garden incognito and expressed gratitude to the owner. If the guest was not satisfied with the program offered to everyone and wanted something personal, the host was ready to meet halfway. For example, once one of the regulars in the garden invited his friends there in order to better escape from everyday life, the company had to “leave” to another era, to be, say, in Ancient Rome. II Isler promised to arrange everything.

When the guests arrived and entered the office allotted to them, they saw "a banquet table, spectacularly decorated with vases, candelabra and flowers." There were not chairs around, but “soft sofas with pillows” - you could lie down on them, just as was customary among the feasting Roman aristocrats. Nearby “several baskets with greenery and fragrant flowers flaunted on small tables, wreaths of roses lay on the mirror-holders” - they were crowned with the heads of the companions. The host also prepared chitons and purple togas so that the guests could change their clothes.

The company began to settle in - "the sofas, as well as the floor around the table, were covered with greenery and flowers - the atmosphere turned out to be fresh and aromatic. The windows were closed and heavy curtains were lowered - a mysterious twilight was formed. After that, the main organizer, dressed in a toga and with a wreath on his head, began to cook burnt, "stirring it and fertilizing it with the addition of various spices." Friends wanted to watch the can-can without going into the hall where the performance was going on. And the owner promised to send the dancers to the office as soon as the performance on the main stage was over.

It is clear what work it took to arrange such a holiday. Popular restaurants that had many visitors had to have a significant staff of servants. "Vienna", starting with 40 employees, soon brought their number to 180.

By joint efforts, a “cheerful, upbeat feeling of the joy of life” was created, which attracted visitors. To organize the work and create such a mood is the main task of the owner. His other task (and not at all simple!) is to keep the holiday within certain boundaries. It happened that people got drunk, lost control of themselves, went beyond the bounds of decency.

Once D.V. Grigorovich brought F.I. Tyutchev to Davydov's restaurant, where "almost the entire literary brethren flocked." There was already a very cheerful company in the office. One well-known writer sat on another, also well-known, and "depicting a general commanding troops, yelled something incendiary." Tyutchev was deeply shocked and left so hastily that he forgot his hat. Grigorovich later claimed that Tyutchev had a nervous fever. But this case can be attributed to quite harmless. There were places where fights, brawls, drunken revelry became commonplace. There were casualties.

“The drunken youth,” recalls one of the Petersburgers of the mid-nineteenth century, “could not confine themselves to solid philosophical disputes and singing student songs. Young blood seethed ... ”Any incident was enough for a scandal to break out.

On the Petersburg side in the Alexander Park there was a restaurant - a favorite place for students of the Military Medical Academy. Somehow between one of them and the barman of the restaurant there was a clash, the barman called the police, who arrested the student. However, the comrades recaptured the arrested person.

« A sizable reserve of police forces soon arrived on the scene; the students, in turn, shouted that their comrade was being beaten, and a crowd of 200 people gathered in front of the restaurant.».

This, of course, is an extreme case, but still, debauchery, although not of such magnitude, is not uncommon. Responsibility for public order before the police was carried, first of all, by the owner of the establishment. The scandal could result not only in losses from broken mirrors, glasses and dishes, but - in the worst case, the deprivation of a license to trade.

NORTH-WESTERN STATE CORRESPONDENCE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Department: Social and Humanitarian Sciences.

Control work on national history.

Kabaki in Russia.

Completed by student Barbolin P.M. Code Specialty 0608 Faculty EUAT

Olenegorsk, 2005

1. History of alcohol in the world. 2. The appearance of taverns. 3. The structure of taverns. 4. Drinking business reforms. 5. Foreigners "about the drunkenness of Russians." 6. Attempts to close drinking establishments. 7. Beer in Russia. 8. Beer halls and buffets. 9. Conclusion.

Kabaki in Russia.

Why is it that we, Russians, always have a "burning soul" and want to miss something like that, stronger? The answer to this very complex question must be sought not only in the recesses of the sophisticated Russian soul, but also in history. Different nations have known about drunkenness for a long time. In ancient China, a thousand years before

On the Nativity of Christ, the emperor threatened drunkards with the death penalty. Around the 6th century BC, the Hindus and Aryans (the forefathers of Europeans) had laws of Manu that forbade such abuses. Herodotus wrote about libations from the Persians when discussing the most important issues. Homer mentioned Saturnalia - holidays in honor of Bacchus. With the growth of wealth in ancient Rome, addictions also became more sophisticated - the Romans knew about 160 varieties of grape wines alone. From the 13th century, vodka began to spread in Europe. She first served

medicinal product and was sold only in pharmacies. In Germany, wine was so cheap that for the smallest coin you could treat yourself more than once. In general, the variety of alcohol showed the level of development of the people. African and Australian savages drank palm wine,

South American Indians - tincture of kava, Chinese - rice vodka. The struggle with the "green serpent" also began - for example, in America, "cat concerts" were held near taverns - they shouted, whistled, howled, beat on pans. Until the 15th century in Russia, the sale and production of intoxicating drinks did not

limited. There is a legend that Prince Vladimir, choosing a faith for the country, rejected Mohammedanism because of the ban on drinking. As if the prince said to the ambassadors: "Russia is the joy of drinking. We cannot exist without it." This is a legend composed by scribe monks retroactively, long after the adoption of Christianity by Russia. For centuries, the people have caustically ridiculed the monastic brethren prone to voguishness. In the old days, every wealthy owner "smoked" vodka for his house, insisted on liqueurs and tinctures. The wise Olga punished the Drevlyans: "Behold, I am coming to you; yes, and come on a lot of honey." But there were no strong drinks then. They drank intoxicated mash, velvet beer, stout meads, and honey kvass. "Vodka" is a diminutive of "water". Our ancestors drank not "English bitterness", not "wormwood", but "sweet vodka". Red wine has been known in Russia since the 10th century. It's called "fryazhsky"

appeared on the tables of the rich, sometimes in the monastery walls. Ordinary people were content with sweet vodka and kvass. The taste of the drinks was such that, "as you drink a cup, you want another, you drink another - the soul burns on the third." Still - there were standing meads, sweet vodka in barrels of the forties.

All this was drunk in taverns (tavern - from the words "feed", "feed"). You can compare them with clubs: they learned the news there, they had conversations. There was a proverb: "In the tavern and in the bath - all equal nobles." That's all, but the woman was ordered to enter there. But everything was not so smooth: a complaint to the prince of that era has been preserved: "Lord! The peasants are drinking away." In 1360, the Arab Regez invented not sweet vodka. Taverns appeared

(Tatar word) - inns. Alcoholic drinks with a high alcohol content, such as vodka, appear in Europe in the 13th century, and vodka in the 16th century

already appears in Russia. From the middle of the 16th century, with the advent of vodka in Russia, its production was established at special distilleries. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, after the capture of Kazan in 1552, founded

the first Russian tavern. Kabak is a Tatar word and it comes from the name of a vessel made of pumpkin. I must say that the Tatar tavern is an inn in which alcoholic drinks and all kinds of food were served. The first tavern was opened by Ivan the Terrible in Moscow (now there is a 5-star hotel "Baltika" - not far from the Kremlin, and in the translation of the Baltic - it's swamp and mud). The tavern at the very beginning was founded for the guardsmen. Oprichnina is a method of holding power with the help of terror and violence, people who went to the oprichnina are usually people without moral principles. For them to rob a church, a monastery was worth nothing. They were, as it were, outside the law and outside of that patriarchal Russia in which moral values ​​were formed for centuries. For them, these values ​​practically did not exist. Moreover, when taverns began to bring in very large incomes, a special decree was issued by Ivan the Terrible - so that smerds and other people were allowed to visit taverns. Taverns in Russia began to be called "Khan's" - after all, the Tatars noticed

the profitability of the vodka trade and took matters into their own hands. After the Tatar yoke, the princes took possession of the taverns, and these hot places were already nicknamed "princes", and then "royal". There were taverns in Russia, both boyar and monastic. For example, the taverns of the New Jerusalem Monastery, Makaryevsky, Trinity-Sergius Lavra. From the documents of the middle of the XVII century. it turns out that in the Dvina district there were more than 20 taverns, including in the patrimony of the Antoniev-Siya monastery, on the Volok Pinezhsky, in the Soyalsky and Kevrolsky camps, in volosts and churchyards (Nenoksa, Una, Luda, Kuloi and other places). According to interrogation speeches in 1678, the location of 14 mug yards is also clarified: 4 - in Kholmogory (circle yard, cash desk, Red tavern, quarter counter), 4 - in Arkhangelsk (cup yard, altynnaya rack, Red tavern, bath tavern), 2 - in Voloka Pinezhsky (a mug yard, a tavern), 4 - in the volosts along the Dvina (in Yemets, Stupino, Nenox, Rakula).

What the royal tavern was like can be seen from the receipt of the kissers of the mug court in Nenoks, who took over the court in 1688. According to the receipt, this drinking establishment had "wine in the sovereign's measured eagle bucket - 51 buckets, and 2 tubs of beer - 50 measures, and ships: two-ruble copper wine cup, two-rouble sales, and a penny wooden cup, and an altyn slide, and a two-ruble ladle. Yes, a quarter barrel of wine, and a padlock. Such is the internal "arrangement" of the royal tavern. All measuring utensils for storing wine and selling on tap are eagle, that is, certified by the state authorities. Of the other accessories of the tavern, other documents mention a stand, benches, on which drunks often fall asleep, but nothing edible was kept in the tavern. There were few salaried taverns, the rest were considered property

state treasury.

The public taverns were run by the kissers. They were called so because they kissed the cross and the Gospel that they would honestly observe the sovereign's treasury. They were rewarded for good work and profit.

The documents cited show that the government viewed the tavern business as a very profitable item. The network of taverns, judging by the Podvinya, was extensive. The royal taverns were arranged at marinas, fairs, at baths and, of course, at customs. The issue of alcohol consumption in Russia has always been closely connected with politics.

states. Since the appearance of the first tsarist taverns, the vodka trade has been concentrated exclusively in the hands of the tsarist administration. Since then, the production and sale of alcohol has been concentrated in the hands of tavern heads. They were intermediaries between the tsarist administration and the population. And of course there were big financial abuses. In November 1655, a large shortage (shortage) of "mug

24,880 rubles were to be collected from the Dvina taverns in three years. when 11,213 rubles (13 alt. 3 money) were collected) 4,755 rubles 18 alt.

about 100,000 pounds of rye will come out. We know the valuation of the property of the peasant economy on the Dvina in 1647 - it is estimated at 85 rubles. 3 alt. Consequently, the tavern collection for 3 years amounted to the cost of 304 peasant farms. Ivan Meltsev and the kissers tried to justify the shortfall by the fact that

there were few "roosters", as the years were lean and many "roosters" went to fisheries. But the government did not believe its head and ordered to investigate the reasons for the shortfall with a "large general search." By order of the governor Boris Ivanovich Pushkin, the clerk of the Congress hut Vasily Mikhalitsyn asked the elders in the Antoniev-Siya Monastery: "Was Ivan Meltsev glad" or "they were a blunder and negligence", "were they self-interested in the sovereign's treasury", "didn't they compromise with drinking yards without money for themselves and their friends. Did they buy supplies and honey for beer on time, didn’t they attribute extra money for runs, did they open and lock the steins at the indicated hours. And did they take care of everything? (These questions show the tricks used by the kissers.) The elders answered with ignorance. Yes, this is how other respondents usually answered in general searches. How the case ended is not clear from the documents. But there are known cases of recovering "shortage" from the population, which thus paid for restraint in drinking "sovereign wines." According to the decree of 1697, the shortage of wine was to be collected from the zemstvo people. All sorts of riots often arose against them.

So in 1649-1650, after the suppression of tavern riots, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich convened a Zemsky Sobor - which received the name of the Tavern Cathedral. The main question on it is the question of reforming the drinking business in Russia. Such an attempt was made. In 1651-1652, the sale of vodka on credit was prohibited, which contributed to the creation of tavern debts and the enslavement of people. Private and secret taverns are being destroyed, the preaching of the church against drunkenness is intensifying. On the advice of Patriarch Nikon, it was decided to sell only one

a glass of alcohol per person 4 days a week, and an hour before the start of mass, stop selling it altogether. But how are such prohibitions for the Russian people? In less than 7 years, a new decree was introduced, according to which the widespread sale of alcohol was already allowed, "in order for the great sovereign to make a profit for the treasury." And, indeed, we lost a lot on vodka. The sale of vodka brought from 30% to 50% of revenues to the treasury. Financial considerations lead again to the terrible rampant drunkenness in Russia. During the time of Boris Godunov, taverns were forbidden and were arranged secretly,

because the people liked them more than the tsar's taverns. With the exception of Ukraine, the free trade in intoxicants has ceased. Vodka began to be sold without snacks (earlier you could eat in taverns). The people began secretly brewing mead and beer; tavern heads informed the authorities about this. Those who were convicted of arbitrariness were beaten with thin sticks on the leg calves and often beaten to death. A similar "right" was canceled by Peter I, but he again returned to the time of Biron and Catherine II. There was even a decree: "when the peasants smoke and sell wine, and cut the hands of those peasants and exile them to Siberia." Under Catherine II, it was forbidden to preach sobriety and drive away roosters (drunkards). This is how Bishop Tikhon paid. In 1765, tax-farmers in Voronezh rolled several barrels of wine into the square as a gift to the people. The "disgrace" began. The Voronezh Bishop not only managed to calm the people, but also convinced them to break the barrels and pour the rest on the ground. The tax-farmers complained to the empress, and Tikhon was exiled to Zadonsk. Catherine II gave the entire alcohol trade to tax-farmers; Alexander I again

returned to the state sale of drinks; Nicholas I was for ransom. Since 1895, a state-owned wine monopoly has been introduced in the country. Until this year, there was a decree prohibiting city assemblies and village assemblies from making decisions to combat drunkenness. It was only in 1895 that Russian teetotalers were granted freedom. The last Russian emperor admitted: "We cannot make the well-being of the treasury dependent on the ruin of the spiritual and economic forces of many of my loyal subjects" - and urged: "Let everyone, as best he can, as he knows how, fight this evil ...".

And the Russians knew how to drink. In 1908, for example, wine consumption reached 70 million buckets a year. This year, the income from the wine monopoly has reached 696 million rubles and 41 million in taxes. Impressive descriptions of the unrestrained drunkenness of Russians can be found

in almost every essay by foreigners about Russia in the 15th-17th centuries. However, he left the most "expressive" description of "Russian customs" in

first half of the 17th century Secretary of the Holstein Embassy Adam Olearius. He argued that "no nation indulges in drunkenness like the Russians, and even the clergy are no exception", "clergymen often get so drunk that it is only possible to distinguish them from drunken laity by their clothes." Drunkenness Olearius considered the natural, everyday state of Russians: "if you see drunken people here and there, wallowing in the mud, then you do not pay attention to them, as to the most common phenomenon." With undisguised irony, this traveler describes the custom of offering a glass of vodka as a token of attention. He cites several cases

when not only ordinary people, but also the royal ambassadors, fearing to offend by refusal, got drunk to death. However, it must be borne in mind that foreign diplomats and merchants are very often

next to them, they were biased towards the "barbarian" Muscovy, guided by fleeting and superficial ideas about a country alien to them, not knowing its language and customs. A kind of stable cliché formed, wandering through the pages of notes for centuries, and only a few travelers set out to critically check the messages of their predecessors. At the time of the Middle Ages, the urban population of Russia was very small, but it was precisely with the life of the townspeople that foreigners encountered, most often describing their holidays, behavior on the square in front of the sovereign's tavern. About the life of the village, where the vast majority of the Russian people lived, foreign observers knew very little or nothing. An objective study of sources inevitably entails a critical revision of legends and myths. The historian Kostomarov wrote that the Russians always gave drunkenness some

heroic meaning, even the heroes in epics tried to outdrink each other. The tsarist ambassadors abroad amazed foreigners with excesses in drinking. As an explanation, one can cite the arguments of traditional hospitality and the cold climate. In addition, the Russian peasant or worker could not imagine fun without drunkenness. At the beginning of the 20th century in Russia, for every thousand souls, two people died from opium; there was a huge connection between alcoholism and suicides, mental illness, increased crime. All this information was not hidden. In 1873 in the Petersburg newspaper

"Citizen" was calculated that living in one of the nearby districts of 62,700 inhabitants, there are 180 taverns and 21 schools. For one hundred inhabitants - one student and 95 buckets of vodka a year. The population pays 301,320 rubles for all vodka, and 2,000 rubles for schools. Consequently, each resident, including babies, allocated 4 rubles 80 kopecks for vodka a year, and 3 kopecks for a school. Do we need conclusions and parallels with the present? They ask themselves anyway. Drunkenness led to theft. In the same 1873, in a report by a member

The State Duma said that in St. Petersburg "stone slabs are being taken from stairs, from sidewalks, iron piles are being pulled out of bridges, city lamps are being carried away from poles, monuments are being destroyed, gratings are being carried away." All this is then sold in the "thieves' row", and the money goes to taverns. "Our streets," reported Grazhdanin, "have become unsafe from drunkards." And now lovers of non-ferrous scrap are trying - oh, they didn’t come across an old St. Petersburg newspaper of the last century!

The authorities actively fought against lovers of excessive drinking. At the end of the 19th century, the existence of taverns in the city center was prohibited in St. Petersburg at 180 addresses: on Nevsky Prospekt from the Admiralty to Znamenskaya Square (Vosstaniya Square); along the entire embankment of the Neva - the left bank; on Konnogvardeisky Boulevard; on the Big and Small Sea; on the Theater Square; on Millionnaya street; on the Neva embankment along Vasilyevsky Island to the 17th line, etc. There were readings for the people. So, in 1912, a special speech

about alcoholism and the fight against it was made by Dr. Arkin. According to him, about 6,000 people died every year from opium or delirium tremens in Russia. Doctor

cited as an example Western countries, where they successfully fought the epidemic of alcoholism. There was also a problem in that a well-fed European drank regularly and a little, and a hungry Russian worker drank half to death. In 1912, the Russian State Duma adopted a bill on measures to

fight against drunkenness. It was forbidden to sell strong drinks in buffets of all institutions, gardens, theaters, concerts. The sale of alcohol was allowed only in shops located within the city. All this had to be no closer than 40 fathoms (in the capital and provincial cities) and 100 fathoms (in other places) from the churches. Alcohol trade was not allowed on credit, on account of the future harvest, on the pledge of clothes, things. The perpetrators were punished for the first time by arrest for up to a month or a fine of up to 100 rubles, for the second and further - by arrest for up to 3 weeks or a fine of up to 300 rubles. For the manufacture, storage and sale of strong drinks, a prison sentence of 4 to 8 months was supposed. In order to drink less vodka on the street, they demanded better clogging and sealing dishes with this liquid. In 1913, there were projects to reduce the strength of vodka to 30 degrees with

the same price; introduce anti-alcohol courses in schools; reduce the number of places where spirits are sold; prohibit their sale to intoxicated individuals, children, adolescents and women; ban this trade on Saturdays, holidays, church holidays - up to 200 days a year. In the event of popular unrest, the local administration could stop the sale without approval. But the projects, as we see, did not materialize. It was supposed to increase the number of teahouses as a counter to the potion. There were sobering-up stations in old Russia, and compulsory treatment for

alcoholism, but we won’t talk about that now. This is how the mysterious Russian soul has fun - on a grand scale overcoming the distance from standing honeys to the "little red riding hood". That's where you welcome the movement back.

The code of ancient Russian laws "Russian Truth" says that the collector of payments, as well as the masters who repaired the city fortifications, were supposed to have a bucket of malt a day so that they could brew themselves an intoxicating drink. And yet, initially, beer in Russia was persecuted by

states. The princes were more willing to encourage the production of vodka or, as they called it then, bread wine, which cost the state many times cheaper than beer. However, this does not mean that there was no beer in Russia at all. There was beer, but only a limited circle of people enjoyed the right to taste the amber drink: the clergy, boyars, guardsmen and other servants of the sovereign. Grand Duke Ivan III during the years of his reign (1462-1505) banned

brew beer and consume hops, assigning this right to the state. Under Boris Godunov (1598-1605), it was forbidden to brew beer for “middle and young” people. Malt, hops and honey were subject to a "brush" duty. And during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676), beer was allowed to be brewed by peasants for home drinking several times a year - on the Great Day, Dmitriev Saturday at Maslenitsa and Christmas. Such feasts on great holidays were called "special beer". At the same time, proverbs also developed: “On Dmitriev’s Day, and a sparrow brews beer under a bush” or “Drank beer about Maslyana, and broke after Radunitsa after a hangover.” The right to brew beer

was given only to the best, most hardworking peasants. The tavern head sealed the remaining beer until the next holiday. The situation began to change under Peter the Great, when it was decided to give

taverns for ransom. (Taverns were called pubs, where, in addition to beer, they served vodka and honey.) But the owners of the bought taverns began to force out beer from there for the already mentioned reason: it was much more profitable to sell vodka. Brewers had no choice but to open their own pubs, and their ingenuity was to be envied. At that time, many brewers were very enlightened people and, opening their establishments, they counted on an elite audience, in modern terms, i.e. on people for whom sipping beer was only an invariable attribute of secular conversation. The situation in such establishments, porter shops, was made in the manner of the West, the sale of cold and hot food was allowed. For a pleasant pastime, they gave music, arranged some amusing games.

Also, along with porter shops, there were institutions called "beer hall". In them, trade was carried out "drinking and takeaway until 1 o'clock in the morning." Cold snacks were served, the tables were covered with snow-white tablecloths, and on thick beer mugs there were images of eagles. In summer, tables were taken out to the verandas for greater comfort of guests contemplating the evening life of the city. It is known that they served beer of the light brand “Export”. Also in the beer halls there were local and metropolitan newspapers and magazines. The main audience of these institutions were officials, city lawyers and young people with a profession that was fashionable at that time - a telegraph operator. The public is "clean", but the poor - students, intellectuals - attended

the so-called “Rensky cellars”, where, in addition to beer, honey and vodka, Russian and foreign grape wines were served. Similar establishments, where beer and wine coexisted, were buffets - especially at numerous exhibitions, on steamboats and railway stations. In 1895, there were 500 Rennes cellars and 20 buffets in Moscow. There was an opportunity to sip beer and the common people. Coachmen and craftsmen

liked to sit in numerous beer shops, affectionately nicknamed "beer shops". In the same 1895, there were more than 400 of them in Moscow. But in these drinking establishments one could only drink beer or mead, eat cold appetizers and leave immediately, and it was not allowed to sit and dine. And this, to a certain extent, restrained drunkenness. In April 1906, new laws were passed to regulate the beer

trade, which caused a significant growth in the beer business. For comparison: if in 1905 there were about 9,000 such institutions in the cities of Russia, then by 1912 there were already more than 23,000 of them. But the First World War broke out and hard times came for the entire brewing industry. Prohibition was adopted in 1914, and a couple of years later the revolution finally closed all beer shops in Russia.

I would like to conclude by quoting Ivan Gavrilovich Pryzhov: “The people, immersed in unrestrained drunkenness, could not survive in

fight against the forces of the harsh northern nature and defeat the foreign conquerors who repeatedly came to the Russian land.

Bibliography.

1. A.V. Tereshchenko "Life of the Russian people" Moscow, 2001 2. B.F. Brandt "The fight against drunkenness abroad and in Russia", Kyiv, 1996. 3. I.G. Pryzhov "History of taverns in Russia in connection with the history of the Russian people", Moscow, 1991

4. A.I. Kopanev. "Peasants of the Russian North in the 17th century." 1984 5. "Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire", St. Petersburg, 1996 6. A. Oleari "Detailed description of the journey of the Holstein embassy to Muscovy and Persia in 1633, 36, 39", Translated by P. Barsov . Moscow, 1990