The year 1914. The Russian Empire enters World War I. Nicholas II makes a risky decision. He introduces total Prohibition. All alcohol stores are shut down. The country is obliged to welcome the New Year of 1915 sober.
The Tsar thought the people would go to church, but instead, they went full Breaking Bad. The common folk, deprived of alcohol, began drinking anything that burned. Denatured alcohol, furniture polish, and even cologne came into use. Hospitals were overflowing with poisoned individuals. People went blind and lost their minds from surrogates.
But the most terrifying developments occurred among the Petersburg elite. Aristocrats didn’t drink surrogates. They turned to “maraffet.” This was the term used for cocaine in the Russian Empire. At that time, it was freely sold in pharmacies as a remedy for toothache and depression.
The result of the Tsar’s “Healthy Lifestyle Initiative” turned out to be a catastrophe. The treasury lost almost a third of its budget and hundreds of lives.
In 1925, the Soviet government capitulated. Prohibition was repealed. State-produced vodka appeared on the shelves, which the people nicknamed “Rykivka” in honor of the USSR minister Alexey Rykov.
