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Is your taste for the bottle an endearing quirk or the elephant in the closet? Achieve and maintain sobriety with the help of English-language Alcoholics Anonymous.
TEXT MATT SIEGEL feedback
Descending the stairs into the damp basement of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church on Voznesensky Pereulok, I was struck with a profound feeling of sameness, the power of which, over the last year, I had entirely forgotten. Church basements are the same in Moscow as they are in New York or San Francisco, France or Fili, and there is a power to that uniformity that goes beyond words, establishing a profound sense of union and reassurance that can be difficult to find whilst dispersed in disparate locales. Following a narrow corridor leading deep into the subterranean recesses of the cathedral, I was greeted with an unfamiliar sound that compounded this odd sense, although this was the sound that had brought me here: hushed voices, speaking in English. Those voices belonged to the small group of people sitting around a humble table just beyond the door, in a room reserved for the weekly English-language meetings of the Moscow branch of Alcoholics Anonymous. Founded in 1935 in Akron, Ohio by William Griffith Wilson (known in A. A. lore as “Bill W) and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith (“Dr. Bob”), Alcoholics Anonymous is a non-profit recovery program without religious affiliation, dedicated to a holistic approach for sustained recovery from substance abuse. Before their meeting in 1935, Wilson had been a successful Wall Street businessman, until the 1929 stock market crash that destroyed the lives of a generation turned its wrath on him. Having lost nearly everything, Wilson plunged into a destructive cycle of alcohol abuse that nearly took his life, landing him in the hospital no less than four times between 1933 and 1934. It was during one of these stays that he was visited by Ebby Thatcher of The Oxford Group, a fringe-evangelical (and embarrassingly pro-Nazi) group founded by Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman, who convinced him that his problem could only be solved, as her own alcoholism had been, by the intervention of God. During his final visit to the hospital Wilson had a spiritual event he described as a “hot flash,” after which he remained sober for the rest of his life. Building on the idea of his treating physician Dr. William D. Silkworth that alcoholism is akin to an allergy and must be treated accordingly, Wilson began to envisage a third way, and from this A. A. was born. Following his awakening Wilson moved to Akron, where he met Smith, a promising young physician with a similarly destructive history of alcohol abuse, and together they began to synthesize their ideas with the teachings of German psychoanalyst Carl Jung, notably his belief in “the necessity of conversion to counteract the hopelessness of alcoholism.” Thus the bedrock principles of A. A. were established: that alcoholism is an illness, that a power greater than oneself (in their case, God) is needed to overcome it, and that temperance alone was not strong enough to overcome addiction but rather that a total spiritual conversion was needed. They began work that year on what would become the principal tome of A. A. when it was completed in 1939: “Alcoholics Anonymous,” also known as “The Big Book,” contains the bedrock principles used today at A.A. meetings worldwide. After Wilson moved to New York following its completion, the movement would spread with rapid pace all over America throughout the 40’s and 50’s, influencing dozens of spin-off groups such as Narcotics Anonymous, before going truly global in 1951 with the founding of its journal: The A. A. Grapevine. The mandate in its 12-step program for recovery to give oneself over to “a higher power” has long been a sticking point for many alcoholics weary of what they see as a religious underpinning to the groups inclusive message, and has led to some of the strongest critiques of the group, from figures as varied as sociologist Jeanne Kirkpatrick and the journal American Atheist. A. A. has always fiercely touted its independence from any Church however, and many members either ignore this element or choose a higher power in line with their own personal religious beliefs. The Moscow branch of A. A. has an equally interesting genesis. The English-language group was informally founded in the mid-‘80s — Russian-language meetings began in December 1987 — to service American expats, and held its meetings in the United States Embassy. In a move towards greater inclusion, and possibly in search of a more anonymous location than an embassy building, they moved in 1991 to Profsoyuznaya where they remained for ten years, working on a set of problems particular to alcoholism in Russia. According to a long-time member with whom I spoke on condition of anonymity, the most difficult issues facing alcoholics in Moscow revolve around two axes: the ubiquity of cheap booze and the difference in attitudes between Russia and the West regarding binge drinking. While Westerners might regard the actions of a friend or colleague who drinks to the point of oblivion with regular frequency as something to be alarmed by, anyone who’s lived and worked in Russia for a significant period of time (or, for that matter ever taken a ride on the Moscow metro) knows that here it is quite different. At most alcoholics are treated as a nuisance, and at least with something bordering on affection, belying the need for intervention. This attitude often spills over onto non-natives, who are just as often greeted by locals with a shot of vodka as a distrusting look. For the half of their members I am told were sober before arriving in Moscow this can be a daily trial, but for the other half who have not yet realized they have a problem it can be life-threatening. The current St. Andrew’s Anglican Church iteration of the Moscow branch has open meetings on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., as well as Saturday at 5 p.m., for anyone who suspects they may have an alcohol problem, with an average attendance of eight to ten people per meeting. As in all other A. A. groups worldwide, anonymity is strictly protected to ensure the safety and comfort of the members. |
