“Babya Zastava” and the sobering-up center in the monastery: how they fought against drunkenness in Russia on the eve of the First World War.
“Woman’s outpost at the wine shop”
“Several energetic wives of artisans and workers living on the outskirts of the city of Gdov agreed among themselves and decided at all costs to discourage their husbands from endless drunkenness. For this purpose, the women were divided into “shifts” and each “shift”, armed with sticks, positioned itself near the entrance to the wine shop. When their husbands appeared, the women surrounded them and affectionately asked them to return to work or go home. If the husbands “in an amicable way” did not want to fulfill the request of their wives and tried to break through the barrier and enter the shop, then the women took extreme measures and shouted to block their path, threatening to beat their drunken husbands with sticks. This “women’s outpost” operated during the first half of Shrovetide week, and only then the “outpost” was removed, and the husbands, having gotten their hands on the wine, drank to the point of complete insensibility.”
(“Petersburg leaflet”, February 16, 1914)
“A vigorous fight against drunkenness”
“In the city of Kashin, all the efforts of local authorities were powerless to reduce drunkenness. Entire bands of drunken people wandered through the streets, disrupting the Lenten mood of this ancient city, dotted with churches and monasteries. One of the zealous fighters against drunkenness, the local abbot of a monastery, decided to help the cause of eradicating drunkenness. For this purpose, he, accompanied by several tall novices, went out to the cathedral square and, approaching a group of drunken people, either drove them away, or ordered the novices to take them to the monastery, where they were sobered up and encouraged to stop drinking. The energetic reception of the abbot’s father soon brought the desired result – drunkards avoided coming through the cathedral square and adjacent streets, preferring a long roundabout route so as not to end up with the monks for sobering up.”
(“Petersburg leaflet”, March 9(22), 1914)
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