An interesting article by Mikhail Nikolaev "A mark on a glass": the history of drinking for three in the post-war Soviet Union was published in the new issue of "Inseparable Reserve". It deals mostly with well-known topics, but they are conveniently collected in one text, allowing you to follow how the common practice of drinking alcohol became one of the most prominent symbols of Soviet everyday life. There is a fairly common version, according to which a custom of thinking for three appeared thanks to Nikita Khrushchev, more precisely, the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 15, 1958. After that, the authorities restricted the sale of strong alcohol in catering establishments, and restaurant prices for vodka rose. As a result, those who wanted to drink moved from the usual establishments to balconies and courtyards, where buying a whole bottle for one person was not economically profitable. It was much more convenient to find two drinking partners and fold over the ruins. However, Nikolaev shows that the tradition appeared much earlier. Already in a poem by Nikolai Gazkov in 1946, a man who goes to drink a liter for three is mentioned. Another interesting example is Vladimir Tendrykov's novel "Hunting", which takes place in 1948. There, a stranger invites writer Alexander Padev to join the company with the question "Will you be in Sharkin? " For the modern reader, the joke requires an explanation: the football player Annauli Basharshkin played under the third number, so his surname became a kind of password for finding the third participant of the drink. However, since the story was written much later than the events described, this example requires some caution. It turns out that the 1958 anti-alcohol campaign contributed to the spread of the existing custom, instead of giving birth to it. Furthermore, the drinking economy itself was quite rational.

An interesting article by Mikhail Nikolaev "A mark on a glass": the history of drinking for three in the post-war Soviet Union was published in the new issue of "Inseparable Reserve". It deals mostly with well-known topics, but they are conveniently collected in one text, allowing you to follow how the common practice of drinking alcohol became one of the most prominent symbols of Soviet everyday life. There is a fairly common version, according to which a custom of thinking for three appeared thanks to Nikita Khrushchev, more precisely, the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 15, 1958. After that, the authorities restricted the sale of strong alcohol in catering establishments, and restaurant prices for vodka rose. As a result, those who wanted to drink moved from the usual establishments to balconies and courtyards, where buying a whole bottle for one person was not economically profitable. It was much more convenient to find two drinking partners and fold over the ruins. However, Nikolaev shows that the tradition appeared much earlier. Already in a poem by Nikolai Gazkov in 1946, a man who goes to drink a liter for three is mentioned. Another interesting example is Vladimir Tendrykov's novel "Hunting", which takes place in 1948. There, a stranger invites writer Alexander Padev to join the company with the question "Will you be in Sharkin? " For the modern reader, the joke requires an explanation: the football player Annauli Basharshkin played under the third number, so his surname became a kind of password for finding the third participant of the drink. However, since the story was written much later than the events described, this example requires some caution. It turns out that the 1958 anti-alcohol campaign contributed to the spread of the existing custom, instead of giving birth to it. Furthermore, the drinking economy itself was quite rational.