"On the supposition that the Government was selling vodka for the
revenue, I calculated the revenue received from its consumption in
Samara. I then introduced a bill in the City Council providing that the
city give this sum of money to the imperial treasury, requesting at the
same time that the sale of vodka be prohibited. This bill passed, and
the money was appropriated. It was offered to the Government, but the
Government promptly refused it.
"It then dawned upon me that Russian bureaucracy did not want the people
to become sober, for the reason that it was easier to rule
autocratically a drunken mob than a sober people.
"This was seven years ago. Later I was elected Mayor of Samara, capital
of the Volga district, a district with over a quarter of a million
inhabitants. Subsequently I was elected to the Duma on an anti-vodka
platform. In the Duma I proposed a bill permitting the inhabitants of
any town to close the local vodka shops, and providing also that every
bottle of vodka should bear a label with the word poison. At my request
the wording of this label, in which the evils of vodka were set forth,
was done by the late Count Leo Tolstoy. This bill passed the Duma and
went to the Imperial Council, where it was amended and finally tabled.
"I then begged an audience of Emperor Nicholas. He received me with
great kindness in his castle in the Crimea, not far from the scene of
the recent Turkish bombardment.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51