THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CHURCH TO THE ORGANIZATION OF ANTI-ALCOHOL POLICY IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA IN THE LATE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURIES (BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE OREL DIOCESE)
At the present stage, Russian society has again faced the problem of increasing the number of people dependent on alcohol. There have been many examples of anti-alcohol companies throughout the history. Modern society uses different methods of inluence. These are visual propaganda, promotion of sports, a healthy lifestyle, conversations among young people and bans at the legislative level. The article studies of the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to the problem of drunkenness. The article analyzes the legislative system of the late XIX - early XX centuries in the fight against the spread of alcohol dependence. The author studies the activity of "sobriety societies" and the houses of diligence. The study analyzes the experience of the Alexander Nevsky sobriety society in St. Petersburg. The article presents the experience of the teacher-innovator and an ardent ighter against alcohol S. Rachinsky, his method of extirpating drunkenness among young people. The author emphasizes that the ight against drunkenness was a joint action. The government with the Holy Synod since 1911 holds the all-Russian day of sobriety, introduces a ban on the use of alcohol, determines the norms of sale. Different methods of anti-alcohol actions are analyzed. The attitude of parishioners to the problem of drunkenness is analyzed. The novelty of the study is that the article focuses on the situation in the Orel province. Through the analysis of the position of the Orel Bishop Seraphim (Chichagov), some parish priests to the anti-alcohol struggle, it became possible to study the situation in the province more deeply. In the course of work on the article, the author concludes that the Church imposed special strict requirements on the clergy, who by their right example had to convince the people to give up drinking alcohol. After registration of the ban on drunkenness at the legislative level, the Church took on the task to fight the secret and illegal sales of alcohol and at any cost to distract people from the use of vodka.