Alcohol in the Everyday Life of the Soviet North of the 1930s

Abstract

In the sometimes unbearable living conditions in the Arctic, the use of alcoholic beverages and hallucinogens is the only way to escape from the harsh reality. Alcohol can create the illusion of easily overcoming any obstacles and difficulties. Since the main enemy of man in the North is cold, the mythology of alcoholic “warming” is especially relevant for polar explorers. Within the framework of the Soviet Arctic utopia, it is important to take alcohol beyond commodity-money relations. In the North, the strangest transmutations of matter become reality. The Arctic is a kind of anti-world, where everything turns into its opposite. For example, the participants of the expedition “North Pole – 1” had to distill cognac into alcohol.