Where Have All the Muzhiks Gone?

Where have all the muzhiks gone?

When I was doing some research for this issue’s Practical Traveler on vodka, I was struck by a sense that something was missing in this city — what I wasn’t sure. Then it hit me. It was the muzhiki. You know, those vodka-swilling, tough-talking macho men celebrated in Russian films and folklore. Among my friends and acquaintances and on the streets of Moscow, they suddenly seemed few and far between.