“Vodka knows when the time is right”: Theatre, Hygiene, and Anti-Alcohol Propaganda in the Early Soviet Union

Alcohol consumption was a prominent biopolitical issue in the early Soviet Union that was shaped by various factors, including ideological dictates, health-policy objectives, economic constraints, and strong popular demand for alcohol. While the Bolshevik purists around Trotsky preached that alcohol and socialism were incompatible, amongst the party leadership there were also advocates of moderate alcohol consumption. The Soviet elite nevertheless agreed that a profound transformation of national culture was necessary to tackle the rampant alcoholism that plagued the country. Various measures were deployed to enlighten and educate the masses, one of which was anti-alcohol theatrical propaganda. The article aims to trace the changing discourse on alcohol in the early Soviet Union based on the texts of sanitary theatrical productions as well as archival documents of the Moscow Theatre for Sanitary Culture. It will show how malleable this form of art and propaganda was in communicating the changing political agendas of the 1920s and 1930s. Anti-alcohol trials and plays, acting on an emotional level, could clearly explain to the audience in an accessible and entertaining way the reasons for prohibition or the norms of alcohol consumption. Thus, the article also addresses aspects of emotional experience and shifts in society's emotional standards.