The Russian politician Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (*1931) was General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from March 1985 to August 1991 and, incidentally, the last President of the Soviet Union from March 1990 to December 1991. Through his policy of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reconstruction, transformation) he ushered in the end of the Cold War and ultimately (unintentionally) probably also the end of the USSR. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements in 1990. Because of his absolute abstinence from alcohol, Gorbachev was also called "The Dry One". He devoted himself intensively to the fight against poor work ethics, corruption and alcohol abuse, which were also the causes of the great economic problems of the USSR at that time. Rigorous measures against excessive alcohol consumption were adopted in a national campaign and implemented from 1985 to 1988. This was directed not only against the national drink vodka, but also against the production and import of wine.
In addition to corresponding awareness campaigns in the media against alcohol abuse, there was a state-imposed grubbing-up programme of huge proportions. By 1990, the vineyards in the USSR had been reduced by about a third, i.e. half a million hectares. With about one million hectares of vineyards, the level of 1960 was reached. This mainly affected the autochthonous grape variety Rkatsiteli, which until then had been one of the most common worldwide. All wine-growing republics of the USSR were affected. The countries of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Cyprus were also affected, as they had imported huge quantities of wine into the USSR up to that point and now lost a considerable part of their export volume due to the campaign. However, the measures against alcohol abuse had only limited success; the goal was not achieved.
Gorbachev: From RIA Novosti archive, Yuryi Abramochkin / CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
USSR map: CC BY-SA 3.0, Link, edited by Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer
