Samogon

Name and origins

The word samogon comes from the prefix sam- ('self') and the verb gnat' ('to chase, drive out, distill'). It first appeared in writing in this sense in 1917; before that, illegally distilled drink was commonly called korchma (korchemstvo). Home distilling, long rooted in the countryside, spread on a mass scale through the revolution and civil war, and the name samogonka took hold.

Samogon was made at home from whatever was available: potatoes, grain, sugar beets, fruit, or honey, using homemade stills, and its strength, flavour, and quality varied widely. Unlike American moonshine, typically distilled from corn, it could use many ingredients and sometimes reached 160 proof. Careless distilling left toxic by-products such as methanol, a recurring cause of fatal poisoning.

Revolution and the early Soviet period: bootlegging and medium of exchange

The Soviet government inherited the dry law introduced by the tsarist state in 1914 and kept it until 1925, when Stalin repealed it and restored the state vodka monopoly. Yet illicit distilling did not abate. In the 1920s, when the ruble was virtually worthless, samogon served as a medium of exchange. Peasants who could not get a fair price for grain distilled it; samogon did not spoil and was easier to transport, divide, and hide than grain. An official Soviet delegation to the countryside in 1923 recorded a peasant's remark that no workers could be found to build a house, but that treating the neighbours to vodka or samogon soon got it built. Every time agricultural and industrial prices diverged, as in the 'scissors crises', the countryside was awash with illicit alcohol.

Samogon then became bound up with blat, the system of mutual assistance, connections, and favours. The ability to obtain or offer drink helped procure scarce goods, and enterprise supply officers (tolkachi) used vodka or samogon to secure the materials needed to meet production quotas. In this way samogon became part of the informal economy filling shortages outside the official distribution network.

State monopoly and legal penalties

Where the state monopolized alcohol production and sale, samogon was illegal. A decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 7 April 1948 imposed six to seven years in a corrective labour camp with confiscation of property for making or storing samogon for sale, and for making or selling stills as a trade; making samogon without intent to sell carried one to two years' imprisonment with confiscation of the samogon and the equipment. Only in 2002 did Russian Federation law stop treating home distilling for personal use as an administrative offence.

The 1985 anti-alcohol campaign and the surge in samogon

In May 1985, soon after Mikhail Gorbachev took power, the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a resolution 'On Measures to Overcome Drunkenness and Alcoholism, and to Eradicate Moonshine Brewing.' Weekday liquor sales were restricted to 2-7 p.m., over 600 liquor-producing enterprises closed, and prices for vodka, brandy, and wine rose by 20-30 percent. Official consumption fell, but samogon filled the gap. Sugar sales rose by 18 percent (about 1.4 million tons) between 1985 and 1987 through demand for home distilling, and by 1988 sugar had to be rationed. In rural areas roughly 23 percent of the population was estimated to be producing samogon. Homebrewing and hazardous substitutes increased poisoning deaths, and despite the surge, samogon offset only part of the fall in state supply.

After the campaign and today

Even after the campaign was officially ended in October 1988, alcohol prices stayed high, and into the early 1990s samogon remained the countryside's main source of hard alcohol and a medium of barter. During the post-Soviet economic collapse a bottle of vodka or samogon worked as a de facto currency, and some unprofitable firms survived through samogon and barter. Today Russian law does not prohibit producing samogon for personal consumption, and hobbyist craft samogon has appeared alongside the traditional practice.