Abstinence (a3123)

ABSTINENCE (Latin abstinentia - self-restraint), complete abstention from consuming alcoholic beverages. In sexology, abstinence is sexual self-restraint, partial (abst. partialis) and complete (abst. totalis). The abstinence movement is an organized movement of teetotalers, united in abstinence societies (temperance societies), developing in opposition to and for the struggle against the spread of alcoholic beverages. For these purposes, members of temperance societies act primarily by personal example, promising to abstain from consuming any alcoholic beverages and not to offer them to others, as well as to carry out temperance propaganda and recruit supporters. Temperance societies open tea houses, non-alcoholic dining rooms, hotels, libraries and reading rooms, publish and distribute anti-alcoholic literature, organize lectures, circles, celebrations, etc. The modern abstinence movement is not limited to recruiting members and influencing individuals, but is also an initiator of anti-alcoholic measures on a broad scale, seeking legislative measures from the state to limit the production of alcoholic beverages, up to their prohibition. The first precursors of temperance societies were followers of some religious teachings (Buddhists, Muslims, numerous sects). The organized movement in favor of abstaining from alcoholic beverages was first called forth in North America by the book of Dr. Rush (B. Rusch) on the action of alcohol on the human body, published in Philadelphia in 1785. Temperance societies that arose in the United States in 1789, 1808, and 1813 had little success. In 1826, the "American Temperance Society" was organized in Boston, which developed great activity. In 1833, it already had 6,000 branches with a million members in the United States of North America, which constituted 8% of the entire American population. In 1851, another abstinence society was organized in the state of New York - the "Independent Order of Good Templars", which soon acquired an international character. The activities of this society are tinged with an air of mystery and mysticism. Branches of the Order were then organized in England (1868), Norway (1877), Sweden (1879), etc. At present, there are 16 international anti-alcoholic abstinence organizations and about 300 various organizations in Europe. The number of abstainers before the war was 6 million in America, 5 million in England, 435,000 in Sweden, 173,000 in Norway, etc. The working-class abstinence movement in the 20th century begins to separate itself from the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois movement. The "Union of Working Abstainers" in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and other countries should be noted. In pre-revolutionary Russia, there were no temperance societies that covered the entire territory of the state with their activities, but individual, local temperance societies arose with a limited area of activity. In rural areas, there was an interesting spontaneous but poorly organized temperance movement that covered the peasantry in the middle of the 19th century. It still belongs to the era of liquor leases and was caused mainly by the high cost and poor quality of vodka. In 1858-59, the movement covered almost completely the former Lithuanian provinces. At the same time, temperance societies arose among the peasants of the Saratov, Penza, Tula, Vladimir, Tver and other provinces. To supervise temperance, a village elder was chosen in each settlement; community verdicts threatened excessive use of vodka with a fine and corporal punishment. In other places, no societies were formed, and peasants simply gathered for meetings and vowed not to drink. Deprived of organization and not meeting with government sympathy, this movement soon died out. In cities, temperance societies began to appear in the 90s. Thus, in St. Petersburg, the first Temperance Society arose in 1885, in Moscow - in 1895. By 1898, 18 Russian temperance societies had been organized, numbering about 3 thousand members. To a large extent, these societies had a religious and moral character. Some of the societies set as their task the struggle against smoking, gambling, and excesses, such as the Saratov "Society of Temperate and Improved Life", founded in 1894. After the I All-Russian Congress on the struggle against drunkenness (1910), the Russian Medical Society of Teetotaling Physicians was created, which set as its goals: 1) the unification of all teetotaling physicians (who had renounced the consumption of alcoholic beverages, as well as from treating others with them, and had made a written statement to the Council of the Society); 2) the attraction into the ranks of teetotaling physicians of the largest possible number of people so that the medical profession would serve as one of the main paths for spreading among the population sound concepts about the properties and significance of the consumption of alcoholic beverages; 3) the scientific development of all questions of alcoholism, etc. By 1913, there were 135 members in total. By 1914, there were four branches. The Society developed possible and quite significant for that time anti-alcoholic propaganda by publishing popular literature, albums, diagrams and creating some exhibitions. In September 1912, the Society participated in the organization of the "Temperance Festival". In connection with the war of 1914 and the temporary military prohibition, the activities of the Society manifested itself in no other way and froze. -At present, the first Soviet proletarian "Temperance Society" has arisen in Moscow, which has already opened a branch in Orekhovo-Zuevo.