On June 1, 2014, Russian lawmakers banned smoking in trains, hotels, cafes, and playgrounds. For a country where tobacco has been popular for more than 400 years, this is not the first action taken to restrict smoking. RBTH takes a trip back in time to uncover the history of smoking in Russia and the changing attitudes to the habit - which often depended on whether the country’s ruler was a smoker or not.
Russia Beyond the Headlines: The story of Russia’s addiction to the cigarette
Soviet Communist Party's secretary Leonid Ilich Brezhnev (1906-1982) smokes a cigarette during a meeting with the president of Finland on June 21, 1976 in Moscow.
