ABSTRACT
Periodic antidrinking campaigns satisfied those few in the leadership and the public who were aware of the problem. This chapter offers a brief summary of the issues and developments and discusses the course of the campaign at the end of the 1980s as well as some more controversial topics that have been subject to less research. Mikhail Gorbachev's antidrinking campaign was launched in May 1985. Monitoring of the progress of the campaign was also entrusted to the media—newspapers reported arrests of workers who had been drinking on the job and dismissal of Party and state officials for drunkenness and investigated and reported on violations of newly introduced regulations of liquor trade. Excessive drinking, alcohol abuse, and alcoholism have been a part of Russian and Soviet life for a long time. The media started a virtual "blitz" describing in vivid colors the dangers of alcohol and high social, health, and economic cost of heavy drinking and alcohol abuse.
