REGULATORY AND LEGAL SUPPORT OF “ALCOHOL” POLICY IN THE UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN 1919–1921

The regulatory and legal framework of the alcohol policy in the Ukrainian SSR during the period of the war communism in 1919–1921 has been characterized in the article. The author has shown that in the period of 1919–1921, the Bolsheviks dealt with issues related to the production, sale and consumption of alcohol by the population actively. The legal framework for alcohol policy was based on the work of both the Bolsheviks of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR. Since the Bolsheviks held power in Ukraine by force of arms, the first step was to establish a regulatory framework that would have reduced alcohol consumption by the Red Army, which would have guaranteed the Bolsheviks “legitimacy”. At the beginning of the war communism, the population was forbidden to sell, produce, and even buy alcoholic beverages. However, ordinary citizens were not forbidden to drink alcohol. Another direction of the normative activity of the “Ukrainian Bolsheviks” was the nationalization of the alcohol industry. At the same time, they established a State monopoly on the production of alcoholic beverages. Normative and legal documents regulated the essence of “alcoholic beverages”, defining the technological aspects of production and the characteristics of alcoholic beverages. These actions put other producers of alcoholic beverages outside the law. “Alcoholic” cases in courts were to have been considered out of turn and in an expedited manner. The authorities established severe penalties for encroaching the State alcohol monopoly. The Bolshevik government decrees and resolutions had poor legal technique and contained propaganda clichés, gaps, and obvious contradictions. At the same time, they witnessed to the competitive struggle between various republican Bolshevik leaders, and accordingly, the departments they headed. As a result, the exploitation of Ukraine’s food resources to meet the needs of soviet russia increased. This, in its turn, became one of the causes of the famine in 1921–1923.