State Power, Clergy, and Mass Temperance Movement in Russia in 1858–1860

The article is based on the materials from the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) and is devoted to the study of the relationship between central and local authorities and Orthodox and Catholic clergy with peasants and representatives of the urban lower classes during the mass temperance movement against the tax-farming system in 1858–60. To make profit, tax farmers raised prices for “grain wine” (vodka) although its quality deteriorated; this resulted in movement against the tax-farmers, which originated in Lithuania among the people. The Catholic clergy of Lithuanian and partly Belarusian governorates, especially the clergy of Kovno Governorate, led by Telsze Bishop M. Volonchevsky (Valancius), were generally opposed to the authorities. They joined the national movement, headed it, and through sermons and compulsion helped to turn it into mass resistance to St Petersburg under a plausible pretext. The actions of the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had no noticeable results. Until the uprising of 1863–64, the clergy actively participated in the boycott against the Lithuanian wine tax farming system. Orthodox priests were legally required to prevent peasant disturbances, but at the same time they had to preach sermons against drunkenness, particularly during Lent. When the temperance movement began, parishioners often perceived those sermons as a call to fight against the tax collectors. The spontaneous temperance societies damaged the treasury, the tax farmers complained about the active participation of the clergy in the temperance movement. In June 1859, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Finance, the Synod adopted a resolution according to which the clergy were supposed to eradicate drunkenness with sermons and personal example but avoid measures that did not stem from their direct pastoral duties. In fact, priests were forbidden to support the fight against the tax-farming system. The investigation into the complaints showed that the clergy followed the instructions of the Synod. The highest Orthodox hierarchs managed to isolate the Orthodox clergy from the mass national temperance movement, which put them in an ambiguous position in front of parishioners and did not contribute to the growth of their authority.

Afanas'ev, A.L. Trezvennoe dvizhenie v Rossii v period mirnogo razvitiya. 1907–1914 gody: opyt ozdorovleniya obshchestva [Temperance movement in Russia during the period of peaceful development. 1907–1914: The experience of health improvement in society]. Tomsk: TUSUR, 2007. (In Russian)
Christian D. “Living Water”: Vodka and Russian Society on the Eve of Emancipation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.
Fedorov, V.A. “Krest'yanskoe trezvennoe dvizhenie” [Peasant temperance movement]. In Revolyutsionnaya situatsiya v Rossii v 1858–1860 gg. [Revolutionary situation in Russia in
1858–1860], edited by M.V. Nechknia et al., 107–26. Moscow: AN SSSR, 1962. (In Russian)
Fedorov, V.A. Russkaya pravoslavnaya tserkov' i gosudarstvo. Sinodal'nyi period (1700—1917) [Russian Orthodox Church and the state. The Synodal period (1700–1917)]. Moscow: Russkaya panorama, 2003. (In Russian)
Freeze, G.L. The Parish Clergy in Nineteenth-Century Russia. Crisis, Reform, Counter-Reform. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Gavlin, M.L. “Vopros o vinnyh otkupah v istorii zakonodatel'stva Rossijskoj imperii.
XVIII–XIX vv.” [The issue of wine tax farming in the history of legislation of the Russian Empire. 18th – 19th centuries]. In Ekonomicheskaya istoriya. Obozrenie [Economic history. Review], iss. 13, edited by L.I. Borodkin. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo MGU, 2007. Accessed June 2, 2024. https://clck.ru/3RsvVR (In Russian)
Istoriya Belorusskoi SSR [The history of the Byelorussian SSR], 2 vols. Vol. 1, edited by L.S. Abetsedarskii et al. Minsk: Izdatel'stvo AN BSSR, 1961. (In Russian)
Kurukin, I.V., and E.A. Nikulina. “Gosudarevo kabatskoe delo”: ocherki piteinoi politiki i traditsii v Rossii [“The Tsar’s Tavern Business”: Essays on drinking policy and traditions in Russia]. Moscow: AST, LYUKS, 2005. (In Russian)
Lazutka, S.A. Revolyutsionnaya situatsiya v Litve. 1859–1862 gg. [Revolutionary situation in Lithuania. 1859–1862]. Moscow: Vysshaya shkola, 1961. (In Russian)
Lizunov, P.V. “Piteinyi otkup v Rossii i ego otmena” [Alcohol tax in Russia and its abolition]. In Piteinoe delo i trezvennicheskoe dvizhenie v Rossii s drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei: sbornik materialov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii (Sankt-Peterburg, 28–30 iyunya 2021 g.) [The tavern business and the temperance movement in Russia from ancient times to the present day: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference (St Petersburg, June 28–30, 2021)], compiled by A.I. Razdorskii, 238–49. St Petersburg; Moscow: Staraya Basmannaya, 2021. (In Russian)
Mironov, B.N. Sotsial'naya istoriya Rossii perioda imperii (XVIII – nachalo XX v.): Genezis lichnosti, demokraticheskoi sem'i, grazhdanskogo obshchestva i pravovogo gosudarstva [Social history of Russia during the imperial period (18th – early 20th centuries): The genesis of personality, democratic family, civil society, and the rule-of-law state], 2 vols. St Petersburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 2003. (In Russian)
Okun', S.B. “Predislovie” [Preface]. In Krest'yanskoe dvizhenie v Rossii v 1857 – mae 1861 gg.: sbornik dokumentov [The peasant movement in Russia in 1857–May 1861: A collection of documents], edited by S.B. Okun', and K.V. Sivkov, 5–37. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo sotsial'no-ekonomicheskoi literatury, 1963. (In Russian)
Pipes, R. Russia under the Old Regime. New York: Scribner’s sons, 1974.
Pokhlebkin, V.V. Istoriya vodki [The history of vodka]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2009. (In Russian)
Prot'ko, T.S. V bor'be za trezvost'. Stranitsy istorii [In the struggle for temperance. Pages of history]. Minsk: Nauka i tekhnika, 1988. (In Russian)
Pryzhov, I.G. Istoriya kabakov v Rossii v svyazi s istoriei russkogo naroda [The history of taverns in Russia in connection with the history of the Russian people]. St Petersburg; Moscow: Molodye sily, 1914. (In Russian)
Rakhmatullin, M.A. Krest'yanskoe dvizhenie v velikorusskikh guberniyakh v 1826–1857 gg. [The peasant movement in the Great Russian governorates in 1826–1857]. Moscow: Nauka, 1990. (In Russian)
Takala, I.R. Veselie Rusi. Istoriya alkogol'noi problemy v Rossii [The joy of Russia. History of alcohol issue in Russia]. St Petersburg: Zhurnal “Neva”, 2002. (In Russian)
Tautavichyus, A., Yu. Yurginis, et al. Istoriya Litovskoi SSR (S drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei) [The history of the Lithuanian SSR (From ancient times to the present day)]. Vilnius: Mokslas, 1978. (In Russian)
Treml, V.G. Alcohol in the USSR: A Statistical Study. Durham, NC: Duke University Press in Cooperation with the Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University, 1982.
White, S. Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996.