In 1914 at the outbreak of war, the Czar instituted prohibition as an effort to further the war effort through general sobriety. In addition to failing for all the reasons typical to such prohibition efforts, the Czar shot his own war effort in the posterior....since something like 30% of the pre-war tax base was generated by duties on the sale of vodka, a state monopoly......
They were joking that they would not take vodka except in the presence of a foreigner (i.e. in occupied territory). By late 1914, foreigners were in very high demand.