Do Russians really drink 10 times before leaving the party?
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- 03 Nov 2022
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In the alternative history of space exploration that is presented in the Apple+ TV show ‘For All Mankind’, S3E6, American and Soviet astronauts have a party at a research facility based on Mars. While everybody’s drinking, the head of the Soviet team says that Russian tsar Ivan the Fearsome (we’re assuming they mean Ivan the Terrible) had a tradition of drinking 10 toasts “for the road” or, as Russians say, “na pososhok”. Is it really true?
Did Ivan the Terrible use to drink 10 toasts?
No, he most likely didn’t.
During feasts in the presence of the tsar, historian Lyudmila Chernaya writes, a lot of toasts were pronounced. Except that, in Russia, they were not called ‘toast, but ‘zdravitsa’ – which can be translated from Russian as “a speech to one’s health”. The first toast (‘zdravitsa’) was pronounced soon after the beginning of the meal – and it was the toast that the tsar himself raised to his guests. “The guests went up to the royal throne, in the order of seniority, took the cup from the tsar’s hands and, stepping back a few steps, drained it and returned to their place,” is how Chernaya describes the ritual.
These toasts were compulsory for everyone present, even monks and priests. Refusing to drink the tsar’s health, historian Lidiya Sokolova writes, was an insult to the tsar’s greatness.
After the first toast, more were pronounced – first, for the members of the tsar’s family, then for the Patriarch’s health and so on. Among these toasts, Lyudmila Chernaya writes, the tsar himself began raising toasts to the health of his guests, doing this from time to time. When the tsar toasted anyone’s health, the person stood up with his cup and drained it to the bottom. The feast ended with one last cup and a prayer. As a gesture of hospitality, the tsar could order several buckets of drinks left after the feast to be sent to the guests’ home in Moscow. Read More…
