Description: Vodka Politics : Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State, Hardcover by Schrad, Mark Lawrence, ISBN 0199755590, ISBN-13 9780199755592, Brand New, Free shipping in the US 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 Russias rulers used alcohol to solidify their autocratic rule? What role did alcohol play in tsarist coups? Was Nicholas IIs 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 vodkas 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 vodkas
devastating political legacies may be the greatest political challenge for this generation of Russias leadership, as well as the next.
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Book Title: Vodka Politics : Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State
Number of Pages: 512 Pages
Language: English
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication Year: 2014
Topic: World / Russian & Former Soviet Union, United States / 20th Century, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Modern / 20th Century, Customs & Traditions
Item Height: 1.6 in
Illustrator: Yes
Genre: Political Science, Social Science, History
Item Weight: 30.8 Oz
Author: Mark Lawrence Schrad
Item Length: 9.5 in
Item Width: 6.6 in
Format: Hardcover
