You're reading: Daily Telegraph: The last man in Russia and the struggle to save a dying Nation by Oliver Bullough

The illusion of drink-fuelled happiness is familiar to most, even if the hangover seems a cruel price to pay. You could say that alcoholism is a chemical misfortune. Hundreds of Russians are born each day with the misfortune, owing to exposure to vodka in utero.

Little, it seems, can be
done. Between 1940 and 1980, alcohol consumption increased eightfold in
Russia. “When Russians drink vodka,” writes Oliver Bullough, “they do not
sip it, or mix it with juice”: they drink shot after shot after shot. Now,
under President Putin, Russia appears to be on one huge zapoi, or multi-day
bender. In Moscow, the poor drink a 90 proof concoction; they have the
glazed eyes of lifelong spirit-abusers.

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