e Count Leo Tolstoy. This bill passed the Duma and
went to the Imperial Council, where it was amended and finally tabled.

"I then begged an audience of Emperor Nicholas. He received me with
great kindness in his castle in the Crimea, not far from the scene of
the recent Turkish bombardment. He listened to me patiently. He was
impressed with my recital that most of the revolutionary and Socialist
excesses were committed by drunkards, and that the Svesborg, Kronstadt,
and Sebastopol navy revolts and the Petrograd and other mutinous
military movements were all caused by inebriates. Having heard me out
his Majesty promised at once to speak to his Minister of Finance
concerning the prohibition of vodka.

"Disappointed at not having been able to get through a Government bill
regulating this evil, I had abandoned my seat in the Duma. It was
evident that the bureaucracy had been able to obstruct the measure.
Minister of Finance Kokovsoff regarded it as a dangerous innovation,
depriving the Government of 1,000,000,000 rubles ($500,000,000) yearly,
without any method of replacing this revenue.

"While I lobbied in Petrograd the Emperor visited the country around
Moscow and saw the havoc of vodka. He then dismissed Kokovsoff, and
appointed the present Minister of Finance, M. Bark.

"Mobilization precipitated the anti-vodka measure. The Grand Duke,
remembering the disorganization due to drunkenness during the
mobilization of 1904, ordered the prohibition of all alcoholic drinks
except in clubs and first-class restaurants. This order, enforced for
one month, showed the Russian authorities the value of abstinence.

"In spite of the general depression caused by the war, the paralysis of
business, the closing of factories, and the interruption of railroad
traffic, the people felt no depression. Savings banks showed an increase
in deposits over the preceding month, and over the corresponding month
of the preceding year. At the same there was a boom in the sale of
meats, groceries, clothing, dry goods, and housefurnishings. The
30,000,000 rubles a day that had been paid for vodka were now being
spent for the necessities of life.

"The average working week increased from three and four days to six, the
numerous holiday [Transcriber's Note: so in original] of the drinker
having been eliminated. The working day also became longer, and the
efficiency of the worker was perhaps doubled. Women and children, who
seldom were without marks