Historical and Legal Aspect of the Anti-Alcohol Regulation Development in the USSR: From Idea to Legislation

The paper analyzes the evolution of anti-alcohol legislation as a way to combat drunkenness of the USSR population. The chronological framework of the study covers the period from 1917 to 1972. The purpose of the work is to consider the legal aspects of the evolution of anti-alcohol legislation in the context of the social realities of those years. The methodological basis of the work consists of two methods: problem chronological and historical legal. The completeness of the historical background of making certain decisions is impossible without recourse to the historical and legal method, which clarified Soviet everyday life and explained the reasons and conditions that prevented the achievement of maximum results in the fight against alcoholism and the spread of moonshine.

The novelty of the work is determined by the author’s vision of the problems of anti-alcohol regulation and the results of the state’s struggle with the growth of alcoholism of the population. An attempt has been made to find an answer to the following questions: why did the measures taken give a minimal or short-term effect; at what stages of the fight against drunkenness did elements of anti-alcohol legislation appear that remain relevant now? The author comes to the following conclusions: Anti-alcohol legal regulation in the USSR has come a long way: from an idea to legislation that can comprehensively solve the problem of reducing alcoholization of the population. The following vectors of the formation of legislation can be noted: the establishment of a state monopoly on the production and sale of alcohol; the fight against moonshine; the fight against drunkenness as a social phenomenon through public censure; the understanding of drunkenness as a problem requiring a comprehensive solution: medical and social, aimed at re-education through public censure or punishment (fine, placement by court decision in a compulsory rehabilitation centre, strengthening of criminal liability of persons who have committed a crime being intoxicated, bringing to criminal liability for involving minors in excessive drinking).

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