La guerre de Crimée un fiasco éthylique?

Les événements récents en Ukraine, particulièrement en Crimée, ont inspiré un bel article à Mark Lawrence Schrad sur le site de POLITICO. On ne sait pas encore si la situation va dégénérer vers un nouvel affrontement, mais rien n'empêche un regard vers la "première guerre de Crimée. L'alcool au coeur de la défaite russe?

 "Not so well-known is that a principal cause of Russia’s embarrassing defeat in the (first?) Crimean War (1853-1856) was the country’s age-old vice: alcohol. From the inebriate and undisciplined peasant conscripts to their inept, corrupt and often even more soused army commanders, the lackluster military that Russia put into the field in Crimea was the unhappy product of the imperial state’s centuries-long promotion of a vodka trade that had become the tsars’ greatest source of revenue."

  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/vodka-crimean-war-russia-disaster-104771.html?hp=pm_1#.UymkM_l5PAw