Temporance Movement in St.Petersburg in Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries as Social and Political Phenomena

This work is devoted to temperance movement study in late imperial Russia. The analysis of sobriety discourse in late XIX and early XX centuries reveals a new perspective to political and social processes in Russian Empire. The crucial issue discussed in this work whether or not temperance was a “social movement”. Additionally, thesis of this paper is that the religious society for combating drunkenness can also be considered as the element of social initiatives. In situation where the state made a claim to a monopoly in many fields of social life, actors of temperance movement looked for a way to express themselves and to assert their significance through the practices of sobriety. The aim of this paper is to examine the measure of politization and social concerns expressed in the practices of de-alcoholization. This work shows how together and through the discussion of alcohol dangers participants shifted its vector to the social, economic and political conditions offering their views on the problems in the Empire. The project includes the analysis of sobriety which was considered to be an actual affirmative practice as a platform to speak out for various institutions and groups. In the context of when the state made a claim to a monopoly in many fields of life, temperance movement reveals an interesting approach to assess the role of extra-governmental initiatives in late tsarist era. St. Petersburg temperance movement is analyzed on the case study of St. Alexander Nevsky temperance Society which was the most influential organization those times. This institution was the largest temperance society in the capital of the Empire and then became the all-Russian Brotherhood. Thus, analyzing in detail the activities of religious-educational Society opens an important perspective on prerevolutionary social and political processes in Russian Empire.