Why do Russian people drink?

Meeting with Russian and U.S. leaders. The head of the White House asked: «Why do Russian people drink vodka?» Answer: «And what, they play tennis?!»

Use of strong alcoholic beverages in Russia has long been popular rule, and is accompanied by certain «ritual». If a person does not drink - it is a suspicious type, it is better not to have affairs. Attitudes to drink in Russia has always been sympathetic. To that person the assistance and support - a tradition. So, when industrial-scale production of alcohol, drinking in the country has adopted widespread. Drink rich and poor, drunk businessmen and the unemployed, women and men. In recent years, three times increase in the number of women alcoholics. With the advent of capitalism has widened the range of beverages consumed. There were, at first glance, innocuous low-alcohol cocktails, which have become popular among teenagers. Now, drink and children ...

West can not understand the mysterious Russian soul. What is the soul of this? This is the soul of a warrior. West can not understand it, just as the soul of the Japanese samurai does not cling to life, and at any moment ready to die. But if the Japanese samurai warriors were a little of the population, the Russian man was a warrior. In the Russian character, you can see the elements of military culture - and it is often dismissive attitude to material values, the indifferent attitude to the comfort of home, these issues with the Russian women's, and even drunkenness. Drinking alcoholic beverages is the warriors of pan-European tradition. You will not find any in the past, nor is any valid, ie in a state of war, a European army in which soldiers would have been teetotal.
Russian drink, and Europeans drink, but do so in a completely different, why? Yes because we have with them is very different cultures. Russian, this military culture, in Russia every man in the first place was a warrior, and then farmer, craftsmen, or scientists. In Europe, everything was just the opposite. Until the twentieth century, Europe did not total wars, ie wars which kill not only enemy soldiers but also civilians. The war was the fate of a handful nobility who fought among themselves, without involving its peasants and townspeople. The vast majority of the population had nothing to do with the war, people were engaged in agriculture, trade, trade. Meaning of their existence has been the accumulation of money and creation, as much as possible comfortable conditions of life.

In Russia, people's concept of the festival is closely associated with a rich meal, especially with ample alcohol. Strong alcoholic drinks are considered almost mandatory attributes of this event. Indifference, saving the latter reaction the body has become our defining feature. Therefore, and the popularity of vodka - unprecedented even by the Russian scale. This is - a terrible indifference, when a man sees his life is not broken, do not snap off with the corner, but so hopelessly fragmented, both along and across the broken, only for the alcoholic intoxication is still remain. That if the vodka banned - would immediately we broke out the revolution.

Do not want to, and not with grief, drink Russian people and for the eternal needs of a great and extraordinary. Drink, if you like, mystical, seeking to withdraw from earthly life balance and return it to the blessed bodiless state. Vodka - White Russian magic man, he strongly prefers her black magic.

However, the main use of vodka in a Russian table practice involves the use of it as a mandatory annex to the Russian fast food diet. Russian food is a final table, only in 18 th century. At the same time came the flourishing of Russian domestic distillation with its rich and varied assortment of vodka. Thus, the nature of vodka, its organoleptic properties, its flavoring and clean up all this fit in to the taste characteristics of food and Russian food composition table. That is why these two concepts - vodka and a snack - were, after all, inseparable, and both lexical idioms, and as a food reality. However, rooted in the minds of the people of these notions, because of changes in inequality and social conditions have become, over the past two years, distorted and made disproportionate importance in different segments of the population of Russia. The essence of these changes was that the vodka has remained as an indispensable component, a starter either impoverish or reduced, or disappear altogether.

Symbolism of vodka in Russia is universal. It is more important than gold or oil. Recall that never, even in the most disadvantaged in the Soviet era, vodka was not a lack. Vodka - it is fate, the fate of Russian. Because of Russian vodka are known throughout the world, as producers of vodka are huge profits from its sale.