Juridical community and the problem of Russia's alcoholization at the turn of the 20th century (based on the material of all-Russian juridical periodicals)

The subject of this research is the position of the leading juridical group in Russia regarding alcoholism as a social disease at the end of the 19th- beginning of the 20th centuries. The current relevance of this topic is connected with its insufficient consideration in historiography. This article examines the social and scientific approaches of Russian lawyers to the development of a body of anti-alcoholism measures by way of identifying the reasons for the wide spreading of drinking and alcoholism, the elaboration of a system of social actions in the fight against them and the implementation of these developments in practice. This phenomenon became widespread due to the system of wine tax farming, and then the introduction of wine monopoly. The article mentions that not only the society but also the lawyers were concerned with this problem. In this regard, juridical associations began to act upon the initiative from below. Their activity was quite successful, despite the attempts of counteraction. The author enunciates the main approach to studying the "issue of alcohol", which was connected with the society's socio-economic development. The article analyses the place and role of the leaders and members of the biggest lawyer unions: the Moscow Law Society, the Law Society of Saint Petersburg University, the Kazan Law Society, the Kharkiv Law Society, the Kursk Law Society in this process, as well as the arguments of the opponents and supporters of non-drinking measures as a way of introducing sobriety ideas to the public. The source base for this work consists of materials from all-Russian juridical periodicals at the turn of the 20th century. This study is based on the principles of historicism, scientific objectivity and determinism. The author uses analysis, synthesis, comparative-historical and chronological methods. Major non-drinking projects are analysed. The novelty of this research consists in the resulting new information regarding the social essence, specific-historical determinism and causes of widespread drinking and alcoholism, and the suggestions made by the juridical community for fighting this issue and their anti-alcoholism measures. For the first time in historiography the position of the most active representatives of the juridical community regarding this issue is presented. The author comes to a conclusion that members of the leading juridical group actively participated in the anti-alcoholism movement in Russia.

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