DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_2_129

A. V. Apanasenok. In the Fight against the “Blue Snake”: The Problem of Tobacco Smoking on the
Pages of Old Believer Magazines of the Early 20th Century // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 2,
2025, pp. 129–142

Abstract:

The present paper is devoted to an examination of the history of the anti-smoking campaign that
emerged in Russia in the pages of thick Old Believer magazines between 1906 and 1916. It is demonstrated that following the Russian Old Believers’ attainment of fundamental civil liberties in 1905, their customary anti-smoking rhetoric transitioned from the intra-confessional domain to the national stage. The active fight against tobacco use in the territory of the Russian Empire was intended to become a kind of calling card of the Old Believer communities in the process of their integration into the public life of the country.

The paper examines the various arguments against smoking that were advanced by Old Believer monthly magazines, as well as the proposed ways to limit the impact of tobacco on Russian society. The study concludes that the expressed ideas had little chance of widespread dissemination and mass support in the context of the growing crisis in Russian society. Nevertheless, they represented a noteworthy landmark in the evolution of the national “anti-smoking discourse”.

Key words: the fight against smoking, the Russian Empire, the beginning of the 20th century, Old Believers, the Russian thick magazine.

Author:

Apanasenok, Alexander Vyacheslavovich — Dr. in History, Professor, Leading Researcher,
Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia).
E-mail: apanasenok@yandex.ru
ORCID: ID 0000-0003-4650-3730

References:

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Bogdanov, I. Dym otechestva, ili Kratkaya istoriya tabakokureniya [The Smoke of the Fatherland, or A Brief History of Tobacco Smoking. In Russ.]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2007. 280 p.

Chrissogis, N. Sex, Drink, and Drugs: Tobacco in Seventeenth-Century Russia. In Romaniello, M. P., Starks T. (eds.). Tobacco in Russian History and Culture: from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. New York, Routledge, 2009. P. 26–35.

Kerov, V. V. “Narodnoe osvobozhdenie sovershilos’ eshchyo ne okonchatel’no”: staroobryadtsy
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Robson, R. R. A Legend on the Appearance of Tobacco. In Husband, W. B. (ed.). The Human Tradition in Modern Russia. Wilmington, Scholarly Resources, 2000. P. 19–30.

Starks, T. Papirosy, Smoking, and the Anti-Cigarette Movement. In Romaniello, M. P., Starks T. (eds.). Tobacco in Russian History and Culture: from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. New York, Routledge, 2009. P. 132–147.

Starks, T. Red Star / Black Lungs: Anti-Tobacco Campaigns in Twentieth-Century Russia. In Social
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Tverdyukova, E. D. “Mersi” za makhorku: tabak i tabakokurenie kak element rossiiskoi povsednevnosti v period sotsial’nykh kataklizmov (1917–1921 gg.) [“Mercy” for Shag: Tobacco and Tobacco Smoking as an Element of Russian Everyday Life During the Period of Social Cataclysms (1917–1921). In Russ.]. In Skvortsov, V. N. (ed.). Voina i povsednevnaya zhizn’ naseleniya Rossii XVII–XX vv. (K stoletiyu nachala Pervoi mirovoi voiny). Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii. St. Petersburg, Leningrad State University named after A. S. Pushkin, 2014. P. 539–544.

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