“Rus' has fun. We can’t live without it!” – if you believe the legends, it was this argument that predetermined Prince Vladimir’s choice in favor of Christianity, which, unlike Islam, did not prohibit the use of intoxicating drinks. However, is it worth reducing the turning point of Russian fate to a historical anecdote? After all, in the Slavic tradition, sacred intoxication had nothing to do with everyday drunkenness - it was a sacred ritual, a sacred act, permissible only on holidays and at wakes, but strictly limited in everyday life. Being a gift from the gods - akin to heavenly fire, the living and dead water of Russian fairy tales - “Tsar Yar-buen Hops” elevated a person on a par with the Immortals, introduced him to the highest truths, opened the gates to another world in order to see the hidden and forbidden. It is no coincidence that the Church condemned “binge drinking” (“Let drunkards not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven”), suspecting in it not just a way to “get drunk and forget yourself,” but a sacrifice to the primordial gods... Tracing the roots of this ritual from the ancient Aryans, Hellenes and Scythians to the Germans and Slavs , a new book by leading historians of Pagan Rus' not only reconstructs one of the key Russian myths, but also restores the rituals of sacred intoxication and the authentic recipes for the intoxicating drinks of our ancestors.