Mark Lawrence Schrad: Boycotting Vodka Won’t Help Russia’s Gays

For centuries, the Russian state used vodka to oppress and exploit its people. Leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great to Joseph Stalin forced even their closest colleagues to drink to stupefaction to keep them divided and dependent — just as the state pushed vodka on its people to keep them off balance and subservient — while making a killing off the liquor that was killing their people.