I was Going this, I got in a Kabak": About the Reasons for the Spread of Drinking Houses after the Wine Reform of 1863
The relevance of the topic chosen for coverage is determined by the suitability of the experience of organizing the drinking trade after the wine reform of 1863 with the improvement of modern excise legislation, despite the fundamental changes in many conditions. In addition to its practical significance, the article is also important from a scientific point of view, since it allows us to correct still very superficial ideas about the impact of excise tax on social processes in post-reform Russia. The purpose of the article is to explain the reasons for the spread of drinking houses after the approval of the excise system for levying the drinking tax. The objectives of the research are to reveal the specifics of the excise time; establishing the basis for an increase in the number of drinking houses; an explanation of the attractiveness of the tavern for the commoner in the period under study. The methodology includes the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency, as well as historical-genetic, historical-typological and statistical approaches, thanks to which the tasks were solved and the goal of the study was achieved. Results. The article shows how, with the entry into force of the "Provision on Drinking Collection", the places of retail sale of alcohol have multiplied. The main share of them was drinking houses (taverns). They settled in places of a large concentration of people and in uncrowned localities. The main contingent of visitors to the tavern was determined - cabbies, day laborers, artisans, peasants. The people were painfully going through the stage of liberation from serfdom, the tavern to a certain extent played a compensatory role. The state budget received significant sums from the drinking trade, and drunkenness increased. The law of May 14, 1885 abolished taverns, but patent-free trade flourished. The strength of the innkeepers with the free circulation of alcohol was unshakable. On the initiative of the Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte, the drinking trade was transferred into the hands of the state. Conclusions. The wine reform coincided with the abolition of serfdom. The growth in the number of taverns was facilitated by: ease in the selection of premises for a tavern, low cost of a patent, permission to trade in taverns in small lots at a negotiated price, soft requirements for the personality of a wine merchant, a clear procedure for obtaining a permit. For the peasants, the tavern was not only a place for drinking, but the center of rural social life. The tavern was finally destroyed only with the introduction of the state wine monopoly.