The massive
fluctuations occurring in Russian alcohol-related mortality since the mid-1980s
cannot be seen outside of the context of great social and economic change.
There is a dearth of qualitative studies about Russian male drinking and
especially needed are those that address social processes and individual
changes in drinking.
Conducted as part of a longitudinal study on men’s alcohol
consumption in Izhevsk, this qualitative study uses 25 semi-structured
biographical interviews with men aged 33–60 years to explore life course
variation in drinking. The dominant pattern was decreasing binge and frequent
drinking as men reached middle age which was precipitated by family building,
reductions in drinking with work colleagues, and health concerns.
A minority of
men described chaotic drinking histories with periods of abstinence and heavy
drinking. The results highlight the importance of the blue-collar work
environment for conditioning male heavy drinking in young adulthood through a
variety of social, normative and structural mechanisms. Post-Soviet changes had
a structural influence on the propensity for workplace drinking but the
important social function of male drinking sessions remained.
Bonding with
workmates through heavy drinking was seen as an unavoidable and essential part
of young men’s social life. With age peer pressure to drink decreased and the
need to perform the role of responsible breadwinner put different behavioural
demands on men. For some resisting social pressure to drink became an important
site of self-determination and a mark of masculine maturity. Over the lifetime
the place where masculine identity was asserted shifted from the workplace to
the home, which commonly resulted in a reduction in drinking.
We contribute to
existing theories of Russian male drinking by showing that the performance of
age-related social roles influences Russian men’s drinking patterns, drinking
contexts and their attitudes. Further research should be conducted
investigating drinking trajectories in Russian men.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/64ONhN
By: Katherine Keenan,1,* Lyudmila Saburova,2 Natalia Bobrova,3 Diana Elbourne,3 Sarah Ashwin,1 and David A. Leon3
1London School of Economics, Houghton
Street, London, United Kingdom
2Izhevsk State Technical University, 7
Studencheskaya Street, Izhevsk, Russia
3London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, Keppel Street, London, United Kingdom
Harvard Medical
School, UNITED STATES
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