Several Russian regions have declared a state of emergency. More than 1,000 people across eight regions have been hospitalised and a hundred have died in recent weeks. The culprit? Dodgy booze. Annually 42,000 Russians die of alcohol poisoning. It is, says, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, a "national tragedy". The situation is so dire the Duma is calling for a return to Soviet-era alcohol controls.
The latest poisonings have been caused, ironically enough, by an attempt to eradicate uncontrolled alcohol. Earlier this year the government imposed a tax on vodka. This has caused a supply problem: incorrectly labeled vodkas cannot be sold. Instead of drinking beer, wine or perhaps fruit juice, consumers are taking the home-made route.
But drinking moonshine - or samogon - is not necessarily the preserve of the desperate. While |
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A vodka tax has forced Russians into making moonshine - with deadly consequences, says
viv groskop |
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Moscow's New Russians might have developed a taste for Cristal, it's common for respectable middle class families to brew their own nastoika (flavoured vodka) - often with recipes that have been in the family for generations. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov all mention samogon.
Of course, some home brews are safer than others. When I was a student in St Petersburg, it was normal to drink white spirit (speert) mixed with tap water and not until much later did I realise exactly what this 'drink' was. It turns out I got off pretty lightly. In the cult novel Moskva-Petushki, Venedikt Yerofeev champions the alternative alcohols drank in Soviet times: perfume, sock deodoriser, brake fluid. Russians define an alcoholic as someone who doesn't say a toast before imbibing.
With these tipples, you'd better add a prayer as well. 
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 8, 2006
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