The threads of the past will certainly find themselves in tomorrow, no matter how thin they may be …
Everyone knows that drug addiction is one of the most serious problems of our time. But … this problem was no less acute in Russia 100 years ago, as well as later, already under Soviet rule in the 1920s and 1930s. It is rather difficult to tell about the situation with drugs during this period on the territory of all of Russia. The amount of information is too large. But, just like a drop of water, one can draw a conclusion about the presence of an ocean, and from the information "from the field" regarding the state of affairs with drugs in the regions, one can also draw a conclusion about the situation with them in the country as a whole. Therefore, the bulk of the examples are taken from the relevant studies for the Penza region.
Well, our story should begin with a reminder that the beginning of the 20th century in Russia was a time rich in upheavals: military conflicts, many attempts on persons close to the royal family and from the royal family, civil servants, numerous terrorist attacks, strikes of workers in factories and plants - all this brought anarchy and disorder to the lives of ordinary citizens of Russia. The inaction of the authorities created chaos in the society. And where there is turmoil, there is crime. It flourished then in a violent color, spreading through the cities and villages, covering more and more new territories. As if a giant octopus was catching its next victims with its tentacles, and no longer letting go anywhere. There were many ways to keep. One of them was drugs. A terrible thing, turning a person into nothing, sucking everything out of him: health, money, property and turning him into a zombie that will do anything.
A still from the 1931 film "Launch in Life": "What do you want? Marafet, vodka and girls!"
Narcotic substances have been used since time immemorial. Of course, there were no synthetic drugs at that time. What nature provided was also enough. Sleeping poppy, Indian hemp, coca leaves, hallucinogenic mushrooms were used either for medicinal purposes or for conducting cult rituals as early as 2-3 thousand years BC. According to archaeologists, during the excavation of primitive settlements, scientists have repeatedly found the remains, as well as the seeds of plants that can cause drug intoxication.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the fact that the Scythians used drugs (about 2,000 ago). Telling about the population of Scythia, warlike nomads, he noted that burning cannabis stalks was an integral part of their rituals. Inhalation of smoke excited, hallucinations appeared, all this was accompanied by a state of euphoria. This explains the use of all kinds of psychoactive substances in cult rituals among some peoples. For example, the most common drug of our time, cannabis (hashish) was used in Indian religious activities, and it was allowed to use only the brahmanas, who were among the very select.
Psychoactive substances were also used to treat patients. This is evidenced in ancient medical sources. Hashish, along with opium, was used by Avicenna and other Arab physicians.
Columbus in his travel diaries described the process of inhalation of the powder of the "kogoba" plant by the natives of the West Indies. The "magic powder" caused uncontrollable behavior and meaningless conversations. This was motivated by the need for conversations with spirits.
In the Middle Ages, opium was recommended by Paracelsus as a medicine. Raw materials for him came from the Middle East through Byzantium and the ports of Italy. The spread of drugs, as well as the ways of their use, in the last two centuries have been facilitated by the discoveries of chemists, mainly in the field of the synthesis of substances. The earliest synthesized from a vast group of depressant drugs was chloral hydrate, obtained through painstaking research in 1832. Further, in 1864, Adolf von Bayer, a German researcher and chemist, synthesized barbituric acid. It later became the basis for 2, 5 thousand derivatives of chemical compounds.
France also did not stand aside. Back in 1805, the chemist Seguin, who served in the Napoleonic army, isolated morphine from opium, which was apparently necessary for military surgeons who used it as an anesthetic. British chemist C. R. Wright also contributed to the drug industry. In 1874, he first managed to get heroin from morphine, but this fact did not receive publicity. Germany, 1898. German chemists, not knowing anything about Wright's discovery, also synthesize heroin, initially intended exclusively for medical needs.
Opium was considered one of the medications widely practiced by doctors. Its appearance in Russia can be traced back to the end of the 16th century. Then, in 1581, the first tsarist pharmacy appeared in Moscow with the British pharmacist James French, who took with him, among other things, opium. Subsequently, the Russian sovereigns acquired it necessarily from the British, and later - in the East. (Intravenous use of opium-containing drugs began to be used after the invention of a special injection needle in the 1840s).
Drug addicts who consumed opium were then tried hard to treat with synthesized morphine. The journal "Modern Medicine" at that time wrote: "… Morphine always works and does not require an increase in intake, that is, patients do not get used to it, as they get used to opium." In 1871, Dr. Lehr recorded cases of addiction to morphine. However, in 1898, the Frenchman, Dr. Charles Richet, as previously continued to assert that “children do not develop the habit of morphine and small doses have a greater effect; among habitual consumers, colossal doses do not produce a toxic effect."
The interest in the drug was also fueled by drug addicts, of whom a considerable number appeared at that time. An example for them was a certain Professor Nussbaum, who lives in Berlin and used morphine "exclusively because of a head disease" … In Western Europe of the 19th century. among the very popular writers, poets, artists, journalists, there were many drug lovers. Among them are Charles Baudelaire, Théophile Gaultier, Alexandre Dumas-father, Gustave Flaubert, who were members of the "Club of Hashish-eaters" (yes, there was one, it turns out!), Located in Paris. At about the same time, Russia also acquired its own morphine addicts, ether addicts, and hashish smokers. The beginning of the XX century. in the cultural life of Russia took place under the sign of modernism. Here drugs have become an indispensable attribute of the "bohemian" life. And now very intelligent people voluntarily become participants in a kind of experiment, try on themselves the "extraordinary properties of hashish." They described their feelings after taking hashish as "delicious." And they asked very much not to disturb them in their hallucinations and not to interrupt their sleep. These people later spread the news about the miraculous hashish, its "special" qualities.
At the same time, cocaine also entered the Russian Empire, which by that time had become fashionable in Europe. There was a huge demand for it in the capital cities, where there were many night entertainment establishments. "Drug for the rich" has found its "friends".
The drug situation in the country changed dramatically after the First World War and the events of October 1917. And later, the Civil War and the intervention made their contribution to the terrible situation in the country: the national economy was undermined by the war with Germany, due to which factories and factories did not work. Widespread famine and epidemics raged in a number of regions, hundreds of thousands of children were left homeless and homeless, and homelessness grew. Drugs went to the people. And they went to the people because there was a "dry law", and 80% of people cannot live without periodically changing their minds.
And here is a note about how they drank in the Penza province. One of many. And in one village, the peasants spent their school on drink! Cut for firewood. They sold them, bought moonshine and drank it all. The whole village lay drunk. Including children. The commissioner who arrived also at first decided that there was an epidemic in the village and dead people were lying on the street. But then I found out what was the matter. Not all, however, then sobered up.
There were a number of factors that accelerated the already rapid growth of drug addiction. The owners of pharmaceutical companies, which also produce narcotic drugs, did not want to put up with the nationalization of property, and therefore threw tons of the potion on the black market, hoping to cause riots in the country. In addition, because of the disgusting border protection, the import of cocaine from Finland, which was supplied through Kronstadt, increased significantly. The growth of drug addiction was also facilitated by the ban on the production of alcoholic beverages.
It is noteworthy that the Bolshevik elite did not refuse the "sniff" either. It is known that G. G. Kaplun (MS Uritsky's cousin), being the manager of the Petrosoviet, often invited the local bohemian to “sniff the confiscated ether”.
At that time, several types of drugs were used in the cities. Cocaine, morphine, opium, ether, anasha, heroin, chloral hydrate were in high demand. Getting the drug was not difficult.
The same situation developed in the markets of provincial cities, and the Penza province was no exception. This is how the Penza journalist describes one such cherished place where one could get everything: “There is in Penza … a place beloved by deserters, speculators, pimps and all generally suspicious people. There you can sell and buy flour, sugar, salt, government boots and soldiers' uniforms, manufactory, galoshes, cocaine and everything that can be found in stores. That is, selling cocaine was just as common as selling galoshes and bread! Further, in 1921 a resident of the Siberian province F. I. Lupanov, who offered morphine and cocaine to those who wish. Such is the craving of the “huts” for the life of “palaces”.
At the beginning of 1920, it was still possible to get narcotic substances in Penza pharmacies, including those under counterfeit prescriptions, and there were more than enough people who wanted to! This was possible due to the lack of clear instructions regulating and controlling the release of these substances. Only in July 1923 was the Instruction of the People's Commissariat for Health signed "On the release of opium, morphine, cocaine and their salts", and in the Penza province they began to use it only in September of the same year. The police, relying on this instruction, could now, on completely legal grounds, detain those who tried to acquire "doping" on fake prescriptions. History shows that, for example, a certain Shimkanov (a hospital employee) was detained by the police for forging a recipe for chloral hydrate.
By the way, the priests, according to the laws of the late XIX - early XX centuries, were obliged to absolve the sins of pharmacists who illegally sold drug-containing medicines to civilians who died after taking them.
The final "medicinal" impetus in the growth of household drug addiction was given by the medicine of the Republic of Soviets in the late 1920s, when opium paste was openly sold in the countryside. Especially often peasant women began to use it, giving drugs to infants instead of a more innocuous decoction of poppy, which was not always at hand. The paste was used as a sedative, which was given to children during the mothers' chores. A rampant epidemic of child drug addiction began. “There are many opiophagous children in our district,” wrote the village doctor K. K. Vereshchagin from the Tambov province …
Not understanding the dangers of drug use, they tried to treat alcoholism (for example, with cocaine). Opiomania, morphinism and cocainism can be treated with heroin. Nothing good came of it. For example, M. Breitman in 1902 persistently recommended heroin from the pages of a medical journal to a wide range of readers as a drug that "ventilates the lungs." It was recommended to use it for prophylactic, "anti-bronchial" purposes. And from the point of view of Dr. Ladyzhensky, the dose of heroin, in case of addiction to it, should certainly be increased! And only in 1923, the domestic psychiatrist S. I. Kagan recognized drug addiction treatment as unacceptable and dangerous, belatedly recognizing the practice of his predecessor colleagues as "wrong" …
History does not have information about the number of victims of such "progressive" methods of treatment. And yet, to this day, in some countries, the principle of "knocking out a wedge by a wedge" is actively used. When treating heroin addicts, they strongly recommend (and use!) A weaker drug - methadone. "Why not?!". Drug addicts use it as an independent drug, or in a mixture with other drugs - to increase the "quality" of the high. So, there is a benefit from this method, is not there, the local narcologists have not come to a consensus until now.
The most popular drug at that time was cocaine. Facts speak louder than words. In those days, there were eight names for cocaine: anthracite, kicker, coke, marafet, chalk, mura, shohara, sniff. And also "white fairy" and "mad powder". For the rest of the drugs in the Russian language of that time there were only three names: dog, darkness, marijuana.
The drugs that were in use in the young country of the Soviets were divided into light (hashish, opium), medium (cocaine, morphine) and heavy (heroin). The consumption of "marafet" gave a heightened mood, talkativeness, visual images acquired fantastic brightness. This was followed by an inexplicable feeling of fear, followed by hallucinations - visual, auditory, tactile. The constant use of cocaine led to both moral and physical disintegration of the personality. The dope trade brought crazy profits, and to get even more, wholesalers added quinine or aspirin to cocaine. Small traders, in turn, packed the "marafet" in doses of 2-3 grams, diluted it even more. Therefore, it was rare to find pure cocaine on the market. Only such a dilution can explain the incredible doses of 30-40 grams per day, which many cocaine addicts took with practically no consequences in the 1920s.
The main drug users were the marginalized: street children, prostitutes. In 1926 M. N. Gernet investigated the indicators of drug use by street children in Moscow. Of the 102 respondents, only two answered negatively to the question about drug use. Almost half of the street children tested used tobacco, alcohol and cocaine at the same time, 40% - two of the above-mentioned substances, and 13% - one. Almost 100% of the children had no families, as well as no roof over their heads. Of the 150 street children, 106 have been using cocaine for a long time.
The prostitutes were not doing well. In 1924, a survey was conducted among 573 Moscow prostitutes. 410 answered honestly that they have been using drugs for a long time. Of these, two thirds have been using drugs for more than 2 years. In Kharkov, among prostitutes by the mid-1920s, the percentage of drug addicts was even higher - 77%. In the glorious city of Penza, according to the data of the criminal investigation department in 1924, of the total number of prostitutes, 25% constantly used drugs. "Cocaine", "marathon girls" - not only traded themselves, but also offered drugs to clients. Like, "there is more buzz under this case."
There were no fewer “marafet” fans in the underworld. There were even special words that were common among criminals, denoting cocaine and all the actions associated with it: "shut-up", "come off", "open marafet", "bang". But in the criminal hierarchy, those who were "at the top", in "authority", despised the "sniffers", rightly believing that "coke" weakens the reaction that is so necessary in their affairs. Among other things, drugs were used as a means of committing crimes, primarily hipes. There were at that time the expression: "take on a pug", or "take on a dog." Which in translation meant "put to sleep with a drug." The substance through which criminal acts were committed was called "darkness."
The war also "helped" to replenish the ranks of drug addicts. But there was something else. Doctors gave drugs to the wounded in order to alleviate their suffering, to avoid pain shock, etc. And among the medics there were drug addicts, as it was all within reach. Mostly morphine was used. The number of those who used it was impressive. In the same place, in Penza, in a psychiatric hospital in 1922, 11 men and three women were admitted for treatment, all morphine addicts "with experience." They ended up in the hospital in an extremely serious condition, and many died there. In particular, these three women have died.
In the 1920s, the drug situation in Russia became frightening. Drugs began to spread in the work environment, which was simply not possible before. The working people were considered the cleanest in terms of drug use. So, according to the Moscow drug dispensary, in 1924-1925. it was young workers aged 20–25 who were the most active part of cocaine users. Here it is, the "consciousness of the working people"! Not the last role was played in this situation by the ban on the production and sale of vodka, without which, alas, the rest of the workers was considered wasted. Therefore, the young proletarian often had a charming "white fairy" as an alternative to vodka. It was not difficult to get it, there were a great many channels. The simplest and surest move was, as in Penza, to get a dose through prostitutes, whose services were used by a certain (and ever increasing!) Part of the working class.
But, fortunately, over time, the drug boom gradually began to diminish. Of course, in different provinces this happened in different ways. In the largest cities of Russia at that time, only since 1928, drug consumption, and, accordingly, the number of users, began to decline. In the Penza province, such a movement began a little earlier, in 1926. Still, spirits were "respected" more in the province, and therefore the consumption of "coke" was more a tribute to fashion than a necessity. And, nevertheless, the fans of the "marafet", of course, stayed. The archival data of the Penza militia directly speaks about this.
Thus, at the end of 1927, the Penza police received a signal about the theft from pharmacy No. 4 of a certain amount of narcotic substances, more specifically dianin, heroin and cocaine. The stolen goods were intended for subsequent sale to drug addicts. In the same year, a “cocaine lover” was detained in Penza who was trying to obtain a large consignment of cocaine according to a fake prescription.
The government's decision to resume vodka production, oddly enough, came in handy. We decided to choose the lesser of two evils. Fulfilling the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of August 28, 1925 "On the introduction of the provision for the production of alcohol and alcoholic beverages and trade in them", retail outlets were allowed to sell vodka. And October 5, 1925 became the day of the formation of the wine monopoly.
Vodka was then called "rykovka", named after the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR N. I. Rykov, who signed a decree on the production and sale of vodka. The new packaging of vodka instantly got its name among the people, and with political overtones. So, a bottle with a capacity of 0.1 liters. received the name "pioneer", 0.25 l. - "Komsomolets", 0.5 p. - "Party member". But the old names were not forgotten, they were in use along with the new ones: "forty", "swindler", "scoundrel".
In Penza in 1918 they fought against drunkenness as follows …
Summing up, the conclusion suggests itself that the upheavals of the 1910s - 1920s, restrictions on the acquisition, and sometimes the inability to buy alcohol, contributed to an extraordinary surge in drug use that swept not only the capital, but also the provincial and district cities. The type of the Russian drug addict has also significantly changed. In addition to the marginalized, who were considered traditional drug users, working youth, who received the drug through prostitutes, the main suppliers of the potion, also became supporters of spending leisure time in the fog of drugs. Of course, further drug use was undulating in nature, but nevertheless, in the periphery, it was the exception rather than the rule, in contrast to the capital cities, where drugs were a common phenomenon during the period under study.
