Alcohol Consumption by Russian Workers Before and During the Economical Reforms of the 1990s

copyright © 2013, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences; Published by kowsar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. consumption of surrogates was indirectly stimulated with certain anti-alcohol measurments taken by government Soviet-time, sorts of cheap fortified wine, was largely disappeared during the 1990s; however wine surrogates were continuously sold out. Authorities should take measurments to prevent the sales of poor-quality and counterfeit alcoholic beverages. In conclusion, some policies contributed to the mortality increase among workers and some other social groups. Apart from alcohol, limited modern health care is another obvious reason of the relatively low life expectancy in Russia. Alcohol consumption in the former Soviet Union (SU) rapidly increased after the anti-alcohol campaign (198588). At the same time, there was an increase about unrecorded consumption (1). The economic reforms with privatization of many factories during the 1990s occurred in conditions of massive alcohol consumption by workers. The fact that the state at various times, encouraged alcohol sales is known to the international community (2). Retrospectively, it becomes clear for inside observers that the anti-alcohol campaign (1985-88) was just another tool used for the same purpose, with a predictable failure and a recoil effect at the required moment. Alcohol abusers can experience emotions of shame, guilt and have a low self-esteem (3); therefore probably easier being to manipulate and command. drunkenness, truancy, and petty larceny at workplaces were often tolerated with the management at that and earlier time. In a sense, it facilitated the economic reforms. Many workers did not actively oppose privatizations, performed not always in accordance with the law, because they had not been innocent themselves. Anti-alcohol Measurements and Alcohol Consumption