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If we compare the present time and the USSR, then I think this is about the same thing, and here you are right. But the original poster refers to the stereotype of Russian drunkenness, which was created in the 90s. And indeed it is. In the 90s, Russia just got drunk. Because people were crushing the breakdown of rational thinking because of the fall of the Soviet Union. This is the reason for many inexplicable and stupid things in the 90s. A long video about this from the 2nd minute:
Cold climate and culture are one of the main factors. When it’s freezing outside, drinking helps one cope with the weather. Plus drinking can be a lot of fun.
And drinking with Russians is the most fun of all. Actually Irish, and Australians too. Russians usually come up with the most entertaining ideas when drinking and I was never bored drinking with them. Occasionally dangerous ideas too but that's part of the fun.
North Korea, Iran, China, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Japan, etc.
Now why is alcoholism so big in Russia, and why is it still pervasive today?
The answers so far have been really disappointing.
I've gotten it's cold, it's poor, it's rural, and now its oppressed.
There are countless number of places for which these are all true.
Why Russia?
You still didn't answer what did those places achieve in standing up to the "mighty West" comparably to Russia?
Not much - steadfastly and profoundly, as Russia was doing it for centuries.
Once you understand this, here is your answer in the simplest way.
Say you have the entity that demands the ultimate superiority in the world.
And this entity is very, very powerful. And it claims that it's very deserving too.
And then you have someone else that says "nope, you have too many inequities to get on top of the world and to tell the rest what to do. So you are not that "ultimate good" vs some proverbial "evil" that you claim you are, so I'll do everything possible to not to let you prevail.
What do you think is going to happen to such force?
It's going to be challenged on each and every step, it's going to be attacked; people there are going to be suppressed, they will suffer great injustice ( don't forget Russia is not "uniform and homogeneous," it was always divided into "fractions, classes" and so on, where one part oppresses the other.)
So this is the most simple answer to your question.
Drinking is the way to relieve one's soul - the pain, the tears, and to keep on moving and fighting.
But there is more complex explanation of course, but I don't know how much I want to go further into the Bible, when it comes to "Gog and Ma-gog" thing ( which is Russia.)
You still didn't answer what did those places achieve in standing up to the "mighty West" comparably to Russia?
Not much - steadfastly and profoundly, as Russia was doing it for centuries.
Once you understand this, here is your answer in the simplest way.
Say you have the entity that demands the ultimate superiority in the world.
And this entity is very, very powerful. And it claims that it's very deserving too.
And then you have someone else that says "nope, you have too many inequities to get on top of the world and to tell the rest what to do. So you are not that "ultimate good" vs some proverbial "evil" that you claim you are, so I'll do everything possible to not to let you prevail.
What do you think is going to happen to such force?
It's going to be challenged on each and every step, it's going to be attacked; people there are going to be suppressed, they will suffer great injustice ( don't forget Russia is not "uniform and homogeneous," it was always divided into "fractions, classes" and so on, where one part oppresses the other.)
So this is the most simple answer to your question.
Drinking is the way to relieve one's soul - the pain, the tears, and to keep on moving and fighting.
But there is more complex explanation of course, but I don't know how much I want to go further into the Bible, when it comes to "Gog and Ma-gog" thing ( which is Russia.)
This is a good answer, in a way.
Would you say Ivan the terrible was doing this as well? I am open to the idea since Russia is the only eastern orthodox country to challenge the Roman west for superiority. I am talking about the split of the Roman Empire into its Latin half and its Byzantine half.
Anatolia was conquered by the Islamic Turks, which leaves the Slavic, Greeks, and Muscovites as decedents of the eastern empire.
Where as the Romance countries under the Vatican (Spain, Portugal, England, France, and Germany) went on to build empires the east remained backwards.
Russia is the only one to build an empire that compares.
Makes no sense, the vast majority of the world populated farming villages, but you don't here about alcohol problems being pervasive elsewhere.
It is a Russian phenomenon, why?
PS. I lived in a boring village with nothing to do. Me and a friend would go skip rocks by the river all day. People find ways to occupy themselves.
And now your city has a dam.
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