The Temperance Movement in the United States and the Russian Empire at the Turn of the Nineteenth — Twentieth Centuries (a Comparison)

Title: The Temperance movement in the United States and the Russian Empire at the turn of the nineteenth — twentieth centuries (a comparison). As part of this final work, the main goal of the research was to study the specifics of the development of anti-alcohol movements in the Russian Empire and the USA at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries and to conduct their comparative analysis. Achieving this goal involved the following objectives: 1. Analysis of the problem of drunkenness and alcohol consumption in the Russian Empire and the United States in the late XIX - early XX centuries. 2. The identification of the leaders of temperance movement, the study of their work and how they influenced the development of the movement, as well as the compilation of the image of a fighter for sobriety in the Russian Empire and the USA at the turn of the centuries. 3. The identification of the main factors in the development of the movement. 4. Summing up the results of the temperance movement in the Russian Empire and the USA and comparing their specifics. The object of the study were the documents of temperance societies and abstinence organizations, proceedings of congresses to combat drunkenness, personal diary notes and letters, as well as an autobiography of the leaders of the temperance movement. The subject of the study was to identify the main specifics of the anti-alcohol movement in the United States and the Russian Empire at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries and their comparison with each other. The methodological basis of the study is based on several methods, the main of which are analysis and comparison. Using the analytical method, an attempt was made to identify the main factors necessary for understanding the specifics of the anti-alcohol movement. At the same time, the historical-typological method is important, which has as its goal the streamlining of the totality of objects into certain types on the basis of their common features. In our case, it allowed us to characterize and typologize the revealed features of the temperance movement. Since the socio-historical development, within which the anti-alcohol movement functioned, is of a systemic nature, the historical-systemic method allowed us to look at the features and factors of the campaign not in isolation, but in the context of the general consumption of alcohol in the world and the reasons that somehow influenced the formation of the movement. After clarifying the characteristics of the temperance campaign, the comparative method made it possible to compare them and achieve the goal of this study. Based on the objectives, the study is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the analysis of alcohol consumption in Russia and the USA at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries. Since the temperance movement cannot exist separately from the general alcohol problem, it is imperative to draw parallels between the increase in alcohol consumption and the occurrence of temperance. The conclusion of this chapter shows that the emergence of the abstinence movement in the Russian Empire and the emergence of a new wave of the temperance campaign in the USA serve as a public response to the increase in alcohol consumption. The key questions of the second chapter were the identification of leaders of the movement, the analysis and formation of the image of a temperance fighter in the United States and Russia, as well as the identification and study of the main specifics of the temperance movement. Due to a group of factors – ideological, structural, cultural, religious and political, the study showed the main features of the temperance movement. The third chapter presents an attempt to identify the results and compare the characteristics of the anti-alcohol movement in the Russian Empire and the USA at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX centuries. The study concluded that Russian and American temperance movements had both similarities and differences. The main result is a judgment on how to compare the temperance movement in two countries, given that no similar studies are presented in the scientific community. Also presented is a comparison of two campaigns, divided into two periods, which are closely related to each other by various features identified in the second chapter of the study.