Council of Ministers Decree on Relaxing Alcohol Sale Restrictions (October 1988)

Background of the decision

The campaign launched by the Central Committee resolution of 7 May 1985, Council of Ministers decree No. 410 of the same date and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet decree of 16 May 1985 fractured both the budget and public patience within three years. In mid-1987 the Politburo handed the campaign's fate to the USSR Council of Ministers, which on Premier Ryzhkov's proposal recommended increasing state production and sale of wine and vodka products from 1 January 1988. In July 1987 criminal liability for producing surrogates without intent to sell was downgraded to administrative liability.

In a memo to the Politburo in early September 1988, Council of Ministers Chairman Ryzhkov reported that queues in trade had grown by more than half over three years because of the sharp cut in alcohol sales. Consumers shifted demand to food, clothing and footwear; sugar sales reportedly reached 9,280,000 tonnes in 1987, up 1,430,000 tonnes or 18 per cent on 1985, with 1.4 million tonnes used for moonshining to yield about 140 to 150 million decalitres of samogon.

The resolution's diagnosis and directives

The resolution of 12 October 1988 listed concrete harms produced by the restrictions: alcohol became an object of heightened demand, producing long queues, a sharp rise in moonshining and speculation in alcohol, substance abuse and drug addiction, and difficulties in the sugar and confectionery trade, while lower alcohol stocks were not offset by more goods and services. It directed that queues for alcoholic drinks be eliminated as quickly as possible, yet also reaffirmed the ban on sales near kindergartens, schools, factory gates, rest areas and on transport, rejected the positions of both supporters of a 'dry law' and advocates of 'cultured drinking', and explicitly refused any retreat from the anti-drinking course.

Character of the document and follow-up

As a single document it did not declare the campaign over so much as review implementation of the resolution of 7 May 1985, which it ordered to continue to be followed while prohibiting both passivity and 'running ahead'. It is nonetheless treated as the act that effectively ended the campaign, and scholars date the 1985-1988 campaign on the strength of it, while also noting that the campaign in practice outlasted its official end: restarting state alcohol production took time and elevated prices lingered.

The restrictions themselves were not revoked by this decision. The pre-2 p.m. sales ban was lifted only on 24 July 1990 by Council of Ministers decree No. 724, which voided the relevant clauses of decree No. 410 of 7 May 1985. One source dates that repeal to 24 June, so the discrepancy should be noted alongside the July dating.

Conditions and outcomes

Fiscal pressure framed the decision. Discussing the 1988 socio-economic plan, Ryzhkov told the Politburo that the budget and goods deficit stood at 10 billion rubles, 9 billion of it attributable to vodka. Alcohol revenue fell from a planned 60 billion rubles in 1985 to 46 billion, creating a 14-billion-ruble deficit that persisted to 1991. Food-industry alcohol revenue fell to 38 billion in 1986 and 35 billion in 1987, and Finance Minister Pavlov put the lost alcohol revenue by September 1989 at 91.8 billion rubles.

Enforcement itself ran through sales limited to 14:00-19:00, the closure of many alcohol shops and distilleries, higher prices, a ban on sales to under-21s, punishment for drinking in parks and squares, promotion of alcohol-free weddings, and pressure on party members to join the temperance society.

Gains were recorded too. By 1987 legal alcohol consumption had fallen not by the planned 25 per cent but more than 2.7 times to about 4 litres per year, while samogon and substitutes largely replaced it, so that overall consumption fell by roughly 40 per cent. Vodka production fell from 281 million decalitres in 1984 to 123 million in 1987, and the price of a bottle rose from 4.7 to 9.1 rubles. Health indicators cited around the campaign's end include official per capita sales down more than 2.5 times, annual births of about 5.5 million, some 500,000 more than in prior decades, with 8 per cent fewer weak infants, a 2.6-year rise in male life expectancy to the highest in Russian history, and an estimated reduction of about 1,383,400 excess deaths over 1985-1992.

Caveat on identification

This entry is registered under the title 'Council of Ministers Decree on Relaxing Alcohol Sale Restrictions' and the Russian original 'On Eliminating Queues for Wine and Vodka Products', but no source retrieved attests such a Council of Ministers decree. The Council of Ministers decrees that are documented are No. 410 of 7 May 1985 and No. 724 of 24 July 1990, and the order to eliminate queues stands in the Central Committee resolution of 12 October 1988. The English-language overview states only that in October 1988, under public pressure, the campaign was effectively discontinued while restrictive laws formally remained in force until 1990. The entry therefore carries an identification problem, and until a follow-up decree in the Council of Ministers' name is documented, it is best presented as above.