Overview
"Russia is famous for its vodka, and its culture of extreme intoxication. But just as vodka is central to the lives of many Russians, it is also central to understanding Russian history and politics. In Vodka Politics, Mark Lawrence Schrad argues that debilitating societal alcoholism is not hard-wired into Russians' genetic code, but rather their autocratic political system, which has long wielded vodka as a tool of statecraft. Through a series of historical investigations stretching from Ivan the Terrible through Vladimir Putin, Vodka Politics presents the secret history of the Russian state itself-a history that is drenched in liquor. Scrutinizing (rather than dismissing) the role of alcohol in Russian politics yields a more nuanced understanding of Russian history itself: from palace intrigues under the tsars to the drunken antics of Soviet and post-Soviet leadership, vodka is there in abundance. Beyond vivid anecdotes, Schrad scours original documents and archival evidence to answer provocative historical questions. How have Russia's rulers used alcohol to solidify their autocratic rule? What role did alcohol play in tsarist coups? Was Nicholas II's ill-fated prohibition a catalyst for the Bolshevik Revolution? Could the Soviet Union have become a world power without liquor? How did vodka politics contribute to the collapse of both communism and public health in the 1990s? How can the Kremlin overcome vodka's hurdles to produce greater social well-being, prosperity, and democracy into the future? Viewing Russian history through the bottom of the vodka bottle helps us to understand why the ""liquor question"" remains important to Russian high politics even today-almost a century after the issue had been put to bed in most every other modern state. Indeed, recognizing and confronting vodka's devastating political legacies may be the greatest political challenge for this generation of Russia's leadership, as well as the next."
Full Product Details
Author: Mark Lawrence Schrad (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Villanova University)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.10cm
, Height: 3.60cm
, Length: 15.50cm
Weight: 0.703kg
ISBN: 9780190468811
ISBN 10: 0190468815
Pages: 528
Publication Date: 22 September 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order 
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2. Vodka Politics 3. Cruel Liquor: Ivan the Terrible and Alcohol in the Muscovite Court 4. Peter the Great: Modernization and Intoxication 5. Russia's Empresses: Power, Conspiracy, and Vodka 6. Murder, Intrigue, and the Mysterious Origins of Vodka 7. Why Vodka? Russian Statecraft and the Origins of Addiction 8. Vodka and the Origins of Corruption in Russia 9. Vodka Domination, Vodka Resistance . . . Vodka Emancipation? 10. The Pen, the Sword, and the Bottle 11. Drunk at the Front: Alcohol and the Imperial Russian Army 12. Nicholas the Drunk, Nicholas the Sober 13. Did Prohibition Cause the Russian Revolution? 14. Vodka Communism 15. Industrialization, Collectivization, Alcoholization 16. Vodka and Dissent in the Soviet Union 17. Gorbachev and the (Vodka) Politics of Reform 18. Did Alcohol Make the Soviets Collapse? 19.The Bottle and Boris Yeltsin 20. Alcohol and the Demodernization of Russia 21. The Russian Cross 22. The Rise and Fall of Putin's Champion 23. Medvedev against History 24. An End to Vodka Politics?
Reviews
Schrad is an engaging writer. He ranges across Russian history with ease, zeroing in on countless striking anecdotes and developing his story within a competent and well-researched narrative. The author brings to bear vast scholarly literature as well as published and unpublished (including archival) primary sources ... Vodka Politics draws upon vast research, tells a lot of great stories, and advances a provocative thesis. * Jonathan Daly, American Historical Review * a powerful critique of the effect of the levels of vodka consumption and of government policy ... this book has real value ... [which] principally lies in its laying bare the effects of excessive vodka drinking on the course of development of Russian society and the responsibility of the Russian state in allowing this to develop * Graeme Gill, Australian Journal of Politics and History *
a powerful critique of the effect of the levels of vodka consumption and of government policy ... this book has real value ... [which] principally lies in its laying bare the effects of excessive vodka drinking on the course of development of Russian society and the responsibility of the Russian state in allowing this to develop Graeme Gill, Australian Journal of Politics and History Schrad is an engaging writer. He ranges across Russian history with ease, zeroing in on countless striking anecdotes and developing his story within a competent and well-researched narrative. The author brings to bear vast scholarly literature as well as published and unpublished (including archival) primary sources ... Vodka Politics draws upon vast research, tells a lot of great stories, and advances a provocative thesis. Jonathan Daly, American Historical Review
Author Information
Mark Lawrence Schrad is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Villanova University.
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