Historically, what is the reason for Russia's pervasive alcohol problem?

[Zimogor]

Originally Posted by Scrat335

I heard that the Russian Tsars historically were the owners of the biggest producers of alcoholic beverages throughout their modern history. From Ivan onward if not before. Just like the Opium trade built the American railroads in the mid 1800s and the drug lords of South America use their dollars to build Mc Mansions all over the world for the most part states will take advantage of this flow of money in various ways. In some cases vice is how governments have and do finance themselves.

Not exactly. Without going into details, I will say that in the Russian Empire at that time there was a state monopoly only on the sale of vodka. That is,the production of vodka was mainly carried out by nobles in private distilleries and then sold vodka to the state, then it was called sell "to the treasury". And the state already sold it to the population through "tsar's pubs". All proceeds from the sale also went "to the treasury".

[Ligurian]

Originally Posted by grega94

I think it was encouraged by the government back in tsarist times? It made a huge portion of their taxes.

“In the 1540s, Ivan the Terrible began setting up kabaks (кабак) or taverns in his major cities to help fill his coffers;[12][13] a third of Russian men were in debt to the kabaks by 1648.[13] By 1860, vodka, the national drink, was the source of 40% of the government's revenue.[13]”
[URL]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_consumption_in_Russia#History[/URL]

From what I've read, the people running the distribution were the problem. Once caught in the trap of alcoholism, former land-owners became peasants, working on the farms of the people who sold them the booze. Then came the Holodomar... death by starvation... unable to eat from the lands they harvested which used to be their own. And then the horrors of Bolshevism and gulags. These people were poets and great thinkers. What else but booze could have made them humble themselves to inferior people?

[Ligurian]

Originally Posted by Zimogor

Not exactly. Without going into details, I will say that in the Russian Empire at that time there was a state monopoly only on the sale of vodka. That is,the production of vodka was mainly carried out by nobles in private distilleries and then sold vodka to the state, then it was called sell "to the treasury". And the state already sold it to the population through "tsar's pubs". All proceeds from the sale also went "to the treasury".

Exactly. The monopoly was bought by the people who had the most money to bid.