Information about the author:
Olga A. Dekhanova
Olga A. Dekhanova, PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2216-2548
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Abstract:
By the mid-19th century, the theme of drunkenness as the cause of the most heinous vices and crimes had become one of the most discussed. Numerous abuses by owners of drinking establishments led to a spontaneous temperance movement in the late 1850s. This caused significant damage to the state budget. The result of this confrontation was the introduction of a new government policy on alcohol sales. The terminological replacement of “kabak” with “drinking house” gradually removed this name from everyday language but retained its historically negative reputation in the public consciousness. By the middle of the 19th century, the use of the lexeme “kabak” in the literary language already had a distinct metaphorical meaning. The “kabak,” as the main culprit of drunkenness and depravity, became the embodiment of social evil, and the problem of drunkenness was framed as a religious opposition between “righteousness” and “sin.” The action of the novel Crime and Punishment takes place in the period of the first consequences of the new drinking reform. One of the features of the novel is Dostoevsky’s use of the lexeme “raspivochnaia” as an everyday colloquial name for a drinking house, carrying a pronounced emotional reaction of social rejection. “Raspivochnaia” is a persistent leitmotif of the story. It is an element of the general negative atmosphere of the city along with stuffiness, the smell of dust, lime, and slop. It is associated with descriptions of the psychological state of Raskolnikov. The mention of it accompanies all significant events and meetings for the characters. However, the most important thing is its connection with the religious and moral problem of choice, with the inevitability of falling into sin or the possibility of resurrection. This emotional and semantic imagery, which determines the further narrative, is established by Dostoevsky at the very beginning of the novel, in the tavern where Marmeladov and Raskolnikov meet.
Keywords: Dostoevsky, history of everyday life of Russia, alcohol consummation.
