Preventive measures to combat drunkenness and alcoholism in the Zhytomyr region in the late 1970s – in the first half of the 1980s

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the state of drunkenness and alcoholism in the Zhytomyr region in the late 1970s - in the first half of the 1980s and the measures to fight those phenomena.

The research methodology is based on the use of the principles of scientificity, historicism, authorial objectivity, as well as general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, and generalization. The comparative method was used for analyzing the situation in different years. The special-historical methods, particularly historical-systemic one, were used for analyzing the functions of commissions to combat drunkenness and alcoholism.

The scientific novelty lies in the comprehensive analysis of the state of drunkenness and alcoholism in this region in the specified years and the effectiveness of the authorities' preventive measures to combat this social anomaly; the introduction of new archival sources into scientific circulation was presented.

Results. The situation related to the spread of drunkenness and alcoholism in the Zhytomyr region in the late 1970s - in the first half of the 1980s is analyzed. The preventive measures of the authorities to combat drunkenness and alcoholism in this region are characterized, and shortcomings in this work are identified. Special attention is paid to the problem of committing offenses by the juveniles in a state of intoxication.

Based on the archival sources, an attempt was made to comprehensively analyze the state of drunkenness and alcoholism in the region in the indicated years, and the effectiveness of the authorities' preventive measures to overcome this social anomaly was researched.

Conclusions. The situation regarding alcohol abuse in the Zhytomyr region was complex but not critical. It reflected the trends inherent in the social problems of the stagnation period in the Ukrainian SSR.

The state and party authorities took a number of measures aimed at overcoming this problem. Among these measures, the lecturing work of the "Knowledge" Society was the most important, and it was to cover almost all the districts of the region with the aim of anti-alcohol propaganda. The methodology for conducting such events was based on the ideological principles of the ruling authorities, associated with the formation of a communist worldview among the population. Based on the content of the relevant commissions’ decisions, we can admit the problems in the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism, associated with the insufficient or formal attitude of the authorities to solving this problem as well as the predominance of command-administrative methods of overcoming the described social anomaly. An alarming symptom was the increase in the number of offenses  committed by the juveniles in a state of intoxication.

The state of the fight against drunkenness and alcoholism and the corresponding preventive measures in the Zhytomyr region during the years of "perestroika" in the USSR (1985 – 1991) require further research.