OSCAR Wilde may never have met a Russian peasant, but many have taken to heart his observation that work is the curse of the drinking classes.
So many, in fact, that a former millionaire businessman has set up an organisation devoted to finding sober men for employers to hire. And so far he has found only 126.
German Sterligov established his Register of Non-Drinking Men to counter rampant alcoholism, particularly in the countryside, where unemployment and the hardships of post-Soviet life have prompted many to drown their troubles in vodka with even greater commitment than usual.
Mr Sterligov, who was one of post-communist Russia's first millionaires before giving it all up to become a sheep farmer, plans to establish committees of women to judge whether applicants are telling the truth about their relationship with alcohol.
"We won't need these committees in the villages because everybody there already knows who the alcoholics are, but they will be needed in the towns," Mr Sterligov said. "We want to use women whose husbands either are or have been alcoholics because they will have the necessary experience to spot the tell-tale signs. If they decide that someone is a drunk, he won't be allowed to register."
Companies will be asked to pay a fee to examine the register for suitable candidates. Organisers claim to have signed up 126 sober men so far.
Mr Sterligov said he gave up drinking a decade ago. "Before, when I was a millionaire, I used to drink all the time," he said. "Then I realised I was on the road to becoming an alcoholic and stopped overnight."
Mr Sterligov made millions from a commodities brokerage he set up in 1991 and later established a highly profitable business selling fancy coffins to wealthy Russians.
The sobriety register has won support from Dmitry Zelenin, the Governor of Tver, the largest region in central Russia. Mr Sterligov and his partners said they planned to extend it across Russia.
Alcoholism, especially among men, ranks as Russia's third most serious health problem after heart disease and cancer. It kills almost 50,000 people a year.
Average male life expectancy has plummeted to less than 59 years, compared with 72 for women. A 15-year-old boy in Russia now has a 48 per cent chance of dying before the age of 60, according to the World Health Organisation.
Alcohol-related deaths are also seen as a key factor in a demographic catastrophe that threatens to depopulate vast areas of Russia. The country has lost six million people since 1992 and the population is predicted to shrink 30 per cent by the middle of the century.
A study in 1995 found that regular drunkenness affected as many as 60 per cent of Russian manual workers and 21 per cent of white-collar staff.
Mr Sterligov's business partner, trucking company executive Vladimir Samoilov, said: "A state struggle against alcoholism is not possible. It has to be the decision of each individual."
| 
