In the present article, on the basis of official data (Statistics on state sale of drinks of the General Directorate of Incomplete Fees and Government Sale of Foods of the Ministry of Finance), the question of the real level of consumption of bread wine in Russia and Siberia, in particular, is being considered. Official statistics show that the Russian village consumed wine several times less than urban residents, in Siberia this gap was higher, as the cities were the place of wine procurement for trade and construction projects. The article provides weather data on the sale of wine in Russia as a whole since 1893 and in the provinces and regions of Siberia - from 1904 to 1913. Monthly data on consumption of wine are analyzed. The data show that the consumption of strong drinks in the Russian village was subject to the calendar of the traditional way of life associated with agricultural work. In Russia, in general, the sale of wine has grown by a third, in Siberia it has declined in ten years as a result of poor harvests of recent years. Traditional Russia did not have the means and time to drink and was at the end of the list of European countries in terms of wine consumption in the beginning of the 20th century. The authors believe that the low level of wine consumption in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was the result of the prevalence of village dwellers (85 %) in the life of which alcohol played a not very prominent role, the protective policy of the state and a sober social movement headed by the Russian Orthodox Church. The authors also believe that the image of Russian drunkenness is not born by the volume consumption of wine, but is a product of social antipathy of the higher and lower classes of society, as well as the prevalence of strong alcohol and a low culture of wine consumption in the cities of the Russian Empire.