Участие высших сановников Российской империи в общественном движении против пьянства (начало XX в.)
Participation of the highest dignitaries of the Russian Empire in the social movement against drunkenness (beginning of the XX century)

Summary/Abstract: The problem of combating drunkenness in the late Russian Empire is the subject of active study in modern science. At the same time, many aspects of this struggle, including the legal regulation of the antialcoholism campaign, discussions in the upper house of parliament, the participation of individual public figures (a number of senior dignitaries) and other issues have not been disclosed or are not fully disclosed. Using the problem-chronological method, we built a sequence of actions of social activists and dignitaries, which led to the abolition of the wine monopoly and the introduction of the Prohibition. In addition to the work of the guardianship of sobriety, a public campaign to combat alcoholism, an interesting page from the life of the outstanding Russian lawyer Anatoly Fedorovich Koni is revealed. Ideological teetotaler, in 1907—1917 member of the State Council, he devoted a lot of time to the fight against the green serpent. The senator joined the fight against alcoholism on the wave of public indignation over the unwillingness of the Ministry of Finance to abandon the wine monopoly, which is a significant income to the state budget. The discussion of the effectiveness of the people’s sobriety guardianship gradually grew into a large public anti-alcohol campaign. An active fight against drunkenness culminated in the adoption of the dry law, in which Koni played a role. The introduction of a ban on alcohol during the First World War led to an increase in social tension and the spread of surrogates. Unfortunately, Anatoly Fedorovich’s dreams of overcoming drunkenness were not crowned with success, and the dry law destabilized the state system of the empire on the eve of the second Russian revolution.

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