Smoking is a real disaster for Russia. Although the number of smokers has been gradually falling in recent years, according to statistics, in 2017, 15% of Russian women and 45% of men were held captive by addiction. A fair question arises: who brought tobacco to Russia, who distributed this drug potion and accustomed Russian people to it?
Historical excursion
But first you need to find out how smoking of this plant appeared in Europe. After all, it was the Europeans who brought tobacco to Russia. Columbus discovery of the New World brought the Old World many exotic products and treasures. In addition to piles of gold and such amazing plants as potatoes, cocoa, pineapples, tomatoes, the Columbus expedition introduced Europe to tobacco leaves.
In the fall of 1492, Europeans reaching the shores of San Salvador saw dried tobacco leaves and smoking Aboriginal people. Soon, two Spaniards from the Columbus team became addicted to inhaling fragrant smoke, becoming the first smokers of the Old World. After several decades, the Spaniards grew tobacco on the Caribbean islands they discovered, and then Europeans began to plant tobacco plantations on their own continent.
Reasons for the popularity of tobacco
It took quite a bit of time for smoking to become a fashionable activity in Europe. All segments of the population smoked, from kings and nobles to merchants and apprentices. Everyone who had enough money for it. The popularity of tobacco leaves was determined by several factors, and those who brought tobacco to Russia a little later will take advantage of them, here are the main ones:
- Exoticism. Many products, things and traditions brought from the New World attracted Europeans with novelty and unusualness, and smoking was no exception.
- Utility. At first, the inhabitants of Europe sincerely believed in the healing properties of tobacco, scientists and traders declared it almost a panacea, eliminating many ailments. In 1571, the Spaniard Nicholas Mondares even wrote a scientific work in which he argued that smoking helps to cure 36 different diseases.
- Get used to it. Being a drug, nicotine quickly developed a strong dependence on smokers.
- Profitability. High demand, a growing number of consumers and a relatively small volume of imports and production of tobacco leaf turned tobacco trade into a very profitable business. Merchants, as at all times, in every possible way promoted their goods in order to increase their own profits.
Who was the first to bring tobacco to Russia?
There is a rather steady but erroneous conjecture that tobacco leaves first appeared in Russia thanks to Peter the Great. In fact, this happened long before the reign of the reformer king. There is also some confusion about the country from which the nicotine potion first came into the Russian state. According to different versions, tobacco was brought to Russia from the USA, Europe or Latin America.
Russian people got acquainted with smoking a little later than Western Europeans. This happened in the second half of the 16th century during the time of Ivan the Terrible. The story of the appearance of tobacco in Russia began with English merchants who presented the court with new fun as a gift. But smoking did not become popular, in addition, tobacco was unavailable and very expensive, because it was practically imported into the country.
Ban
During the Time of Troubles, the number of people who brought tobacco to Russia increased. These were merchants, foreign travelers, hired military. Little by little, tobacco smoking has gained more and more fans among Russians. By the beginning and middle of the seventeenth century, the attitude of the authorities towards this product changed from neutral to extremely negative. True, the royal smoking bans were not caused by concern for the health of subjects, but by numerous fires that burned entire blocks of wooden cities and often occurred due to smokers.
Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich outlawed tobacco. At first, the prohibitions were rather lenient: only merchants were fined and occasionally corporally punished, the found tobacco leaf was destroyed. But these measures showed low efficiency. There were more smokers, and merchants continued to sell tobacco, because the fear of non-fearful punishment was incomparably weaker than the thirst for profit.
After a strong fire in the capital in 1634, laws were significantly tightened. The death penalty relied on smoking and tobacco sales, which in practice was usually replaced by cutting off the lips or nose and referring to hard labor. However, these measures could not overcome the bad habit already rooted in Russia.
Therefore, the next Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich tried to streamline tobacco use through the state monopoly on its sale, but faced with the implacable discontent of the Church, led by the most respected Patriarch Nikon. Tobacco "godless and demonic" potion was again totally forbidden.
Tsar Peter
Everything changed with Peter's coming to power, in February 1697 he lifted the bans and signed the law on free trade in tobacco. Then the king went with the Great Embassy to Europe, from where he brought tobacco to Russia again and his passionate love for him. The young reformer decided to instill this passion with his people with the same energy that he imposed European traditions on the population.
Some historians believe that Peter became addicted to smoking in his youth, when he became a regular guest in the German Sloboda, but finally decided that tobacco is good for Russia when visiting Holland, Venice, England. It was to English merchants that the tsar gave a monopoly on the import of tobacco into Russia for six years.
Soon, tobacco money began to regularly fill the treasury, helping Peter implement numerous reforms and wage lengthy wars. Smoking was promoted, the king himself did not part with his pipe and was very fond of smoking, which set a clear example for his subjects. To be less dependent on importers, the first domestic tobacco factories were built. It became clear that the appearance of tobacco in Russia is a serious and long term.
Catherine the Great
Under Catherine, the policy of the ruling circles did not change. Smoking replenished the treasury and was popular in all circles of society from the queen to the peasant. Especially for the empress, they brought high-quality cigars wrapped in silk ribbons that protected the queen's delicate skin from touching with a coarse tobacco leaf. Catherine encouraged the tobacco business; both domestic and foreign merchants were actively engaged in it. An interesting fact: in Catherine's times, snuff was more popular, which is smoking.
From Catherine to the present day
Nikotin finally entered the life of a Russian person. During the reign of Alexander I, the production of Russian smoking tobacco increased six or more times compared with the Catherine era. He was smoked, sniffed, chewed, used pipes, cigars, cigarettes, even hookahs. In the second half of the 19th century, factory cigarettes came into fashion. During the First World War, tobacco production experienced a real boom, since shag and cigarettes were necessarily included in officer and soldier rations.
The Bolsheviks who came to power took the tobacco factories from their owners, nationalizing them, but there was no question of stopping production. During the Second World War, all factories were evacuated and continued to work properly, because tobacco became a strategic product, without it it was impossible to imagine the rations of Soviet soldiers.
After the great victory, Soviet tobacco factories only increased capacity. The collapse of the USSR was followed by a series of bankruptcies of enterprises producing such products. Without a government order, they could not survive and became part of larger companies, usually foreign ones. Today, the Russians provide tobacco products to vast multinational companies.
Sad statistics
For several years now, the Russian authorities have been conducting an anti-tobacco campaign and are spending considerable money on it, there is less tobacco advertising on TV and the media, and more and more you can see anti-tobacco advertising or promotion of a healthy lifestyle. I want to believe that the priorities of the state are changing, and now the health of the nation is becoming more important. After all, the damage caused by Russian smoking is enormous and is difficult to comprehend and calculate. Here are just a few indicative facts:
- there are more than a billion smokers in the world, in Russia there are several tens of millions;
- approximately 5 million people die every year from the causes caused by nicotine addiction, by 2030 this figure could grow to 10 million;
- According to statisticians, in the coming decades, tobacco will kill 20 million Russians;
- there are more than a hundred ways to quit smoking, but more often the reason for giving up addiction is a deadly disease that has overtaken the smoker;
- 60% of people who quit smoking were surprised at how easy it was for them.
Now you know who brought the tobacco to Russia.