What does it mean to drink Russian Vodka "a la ruse"?

It means that you should drink it in accordance with Russian drinking traditions... Vodka has long become an international drink without forfeiting its Russian roots. It isn't by chance that it's universally known by its original Russian name! You will only get the feel of true taste of Russian Vodka if you drink it "a la ruse"...

Drink by little by little, but drink up all of it! Russian drinking traditions are hundreds of years long dating back to the early medieval ages. Moreover, none of them is random for all of them carry their special meaning… You will only be able to fathom the secrets of Russian Vodka if you choose to follow them!

"Russians drink Vodka neat and never mix it with anything..."

This habit stems from Russian severe winters and other peculiarities of the Russian national character.

There is only one exception from this rule. The only "cocktail" widespread in Russia is vodka... with beer (it's a well-known way of getting a quick intoxication which is fairly popular in the US and British drinking cultures, where vodka is replaced with Scotch or Bourbon). There is a joke in Russia: "Vodka without beer is your money wasted!" Many Russian proverbs contain a good measure of irony... Real connoisseurs will never mix vodka with beer - either in a glass nor in their stomachs. Statistically speaking, 95 out 100 bottles of vodka in Russia are consumed unmixed!

"Russians serve Vodka cool and drink it from special vodka glasses..."

It's more or less clear about Vodka being served cool. Just keep in the fridge. Now, lets talk about vodka glasses.

Although we have to admit that Russians are apt to drink vodka from any kind of glasses regardless of their shape or capacity, they use special vodka glasses which are most suitable for this purpose. They look like small wine glasses (with a shaft) or just small plain glasses.

Mind it that the glasses containing less than 40-50 ml are not suitable for drinking vodka a la ruse! Their optimal capacity ought to be ab. 70 ml. This habit reflects an ages old popular wisdom: at the Russian table, the one who takes frequent drinks of vodka by small glasses will get drunk quicker than the one who drinks vodka by bigger glasses accompanying it with lavish "zakuski" (hors d' oeuvres). This also helps you avoid getting noticeably drunk. Hence the Russian proverb: "You will err if you drink by small swigs: you ain't get funky, but you get drunky".

* Charka: an old Russian measure of liquids used for vodka retail sales beginning from the 16th century. A charka contained a single dose of vodka which initially contained ab. 150 gr. (with vodka's strength of 18-20° [per cent of alcohol], as in 16th-17th centuries). In the 19th century, when vodka reached today's level of strength of ab. 40° or 70° Proof), a smaller single dose - half a charka - was approved containing (ab. 70 gr.).

"Vodka is drunk during meals..."

Russians have a special idea of their HORS D' OEUVRES TABLE. In other words, it's a table laid specially "for vodka"... It is a special subject, and we will address it separately. MORE... In the meantime, we have to remind you that at the onset of its history, when vodka was a Czar's monopoly product and was only sold "from tap" in CZAR'S TAVERNS, no hors d' oeuvres were served with it: CZAR'S TAVERNS offered vodka only... Admittedly, vodka at that time was different. It only contained maximum 20-25 per cent of alcohol. Vodka has been getting "stronger" as the time passed, therefore nowadays Russians would only drink vodka without any hors d' oeuvres when they have none.

"In the days of old, when a dinner is served in the house, the hostess was obliged to offer each guest a "charka*" of vodka for clearing his throats and for better appetite, and kiss the guest as she offers him vodka glasses on a tray! I will follow this fashion with a touch of critique: it builds up your appetite; the hostess' sweet kiss adds pleasant scent to my lips, and vodka, to my teeth. But if you are not a beauty, my dear hostess, please serve your vodka when the dinner is over!"(Etching, 18th century).

"Russians drink Vodka with toasts..." Russian toasts constitute also a separate subject. If more than two people get together to have a drink of vodka (Russians are not accustomed to drinking alone, unless they are alcoholics or people in the arts), prior to swilling the next glass someone needs to say a short toast. After that the drinkers clink their glasses, knock down their drinks, take a bite at their "zakuski," and refill the glasses, etc. (See "Russian Tradition #5"). As the Russian saying goes, "the first charka comes like a stick in your throat, the second flies in like a falcon, the others just dive like small birdies".

Russians drink Vodka quite often. They usually drink profusely and spend many hours drinking Vodka. Sometimes they drink it all night long and knock out the hangover the morning after with just another shot of vodka - just to feel better.

By and large, we don't insist that you strictly abide by the 5th Rule... To get a true feel of the Russian drinking traditions, you should start by trying the first four traditions for size.

Russians do drink much vodka, probably, too much... It's a Russian old and persistent habit dating back to the days of yore. It developed long before the advent of vodka in Russia, and it is reflective of Russians' pagan cult drinking sprees in which they indulged in various occasions. Such sprees lasting for several days, even weeks. Since the time when the Moscow Grand Duchy introduced the state monopoly on vodka in the 1490s, Russian Czars made several attempts at imposing temporary restrictions on the consumption of alcoholic beverages. As a result, vodka could only be sold on special weekdays, or even several times a year to mark major church holidays, as was the case under Ivan III in the 16th century and in the early years of reign of Ivan IV the Terrible. Those restrictions, however, led to the emergence of Russians' new tradition to drink excessively "whenever you're allowed..." As another Russian proverb goes, "He who welcomes a holiday gets drunk long before dawn."

There several other historical facts proving that vodka, indeed, become "flesh and blood" of the Russian people. In 1667, members of the Russian Embassy in Spain were surprised to observe complete absence of drunken Spaniards in the streets of Madrid. Their observation was recorded in the Embassy chronicles, as follows: "The Spaniards are not given to drinking: they don't consume much liquor and eat very little. Throughout our seven-month-long stay in the Spanish land, the Russian envoys or embassy employees have never seen any drunken people sprawled or carousing in the streets." The picture they observed had nothing in common with Russian towns and cities, especially on holidays. This is how Just Jul, a Danish diplomat, described the streets of St. Petersburg on the eve of 1710: "Wherever we walked or rode we could see multitudes of drunken people scattered in the streets and on the iced river. They had just dropped from their sleighs and lay in the snow snoozing. The whole city reminded us of a battlefield all strewn with dead bodies."

To be absolutely objective, however, we have to admit that drunkenness is not exclusively a Russian phenomenon. "Nulla inparte mundicessat" (Lat.) "There is no country where people wouldn't get drunk." Martin Luther (1483-1546) described Germany of those days as a country literally plagued with drunkenness. In the 16th century, which historians refer to as "an age of drunkenness," Northern Germany was inundated with beer, whereas Southern Germany, drenched in wine. The same equally applied to UK where gin became extremely popular. Incidentally, gin was coeval of the Russian vodka both in terms of its production technology and in terms of the initial products for its distillation.

Noteworthily, drunkenness was widespread not only among the ordinary Russian people but also among the "upper class." The Russian historian N.I. Kostomarov (1817-1885) wrote: "[Russian] noble boyars did not consider it improper to get drunk to state of unconsciousness and even of running the danger of losing their lives. The Czar's ambassadors posted in foreign countries usually amazed their foreign hosts by their insatiable quest for drinking. One of the Russian ambassadors in Sweden immortalized himself in the eye of the Swedes in 1608 when he passed away after having drunk too much strong wine." (The "strong wine" here, undoubtedly, was vodka, because it was only vodka that has had acquired so many epithets until the late 19th century, such as distilled wine, fiery wine, grain wine, strong wine, etc., which made it distinct from grape wines).

"One of the peculiarities of the Russian feasts was abundance of meals and drinks. The host was usually going out of the way trying to get his guests drunk - to the state of complete oblivion, if possible, so he would bring them back home unconscious. The host was usually frustrated if any of his guests drank too little. It was also a shame for a Russian to get drunk too quickly. To a certain extend, Kostomarov contends, the Russian drinking sprees resembled tugs of war. The host was doing his best to get his guests drunk, while the guests offered strong resistance. There were numerous occasions at the Russian feasts when certain guests were forced to drink by any means possible, including beating." Such occurrences took place even at the court of Peter the Great who was known to have a strong penchant for merry drinking carousals. There was a popular belief that the guest's respect for his host was measured by the amount of vodka he consumed in his house!

Usually the guests took a long and noisy leave from the host's house parting with one another several times in a row, drinking many a "one for the road," etc. When they came out of the house to the yard, the host treated them to "one for the stirrup," especially if his guests were riding horses. Finally, when the guests left and could no longer be seen, the host sent out a rider to chase them with more charkas of vodka, and they drank their "ones for over the hill." This tradition has almost been forgotten due to the advent of automobiles... In the meantime, "one for the road" has survived and remains a frequent Russian farewell toast even now!

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To smooth the caustic effect of the above descriptions, as well as to counterbalance the aforesaid, we are offering two more Russian proverbs, which you may consider useful: and don't pay attention to this gentleman!

"Keep your stomach half full when you eat, get only half drunk when you drink, and you'll live a full life."

"The first charka is for health; the other one, for joy; the third, for quarrel."