Creating a Sober World Program

The mission of the Creating a Sober World (CASW) program was to hold the first-ever Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting on Soviet soil to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of AA and to carry the message of sobriety to alcohol-addicted citizens across the USSR.

In the mid-80s when CCI first began traveling to the USSR, they brought AA material to Soviet citizens who requested help with alcoholism. CCI became more deeply involved in AA’s mission when they responded to a request from members of a California-based 12-Step program who needed help in carrying out their mission of starting AA in the USSR. This team effort resulted in the first-ever open AA meeting for Soviet citizens on USSR soil on April 10, 1986.

At this time, anonymous gatherings were strictly forbidden in the Soviet Union. After several meetings at the USSR Ministry of Health, CCI and the 12-Step program people were granted permission to hold an AA meeting due to Secretary General Gorbachev’s recognition of the severity of alcoholism across Russia. The first AA meeting was held in Kiev, Ukraine, with 150 Ukrainians and Russians present. Three days later, the first AA meeting for Russian citizens was held in Moscow, thus starting the effort to spread 12-Step programs across the country.

American AA members traveled to the USSR, paying their own expenses and additional stipends to CCI for developing the program. A recovering Christian Brother, Brother Leo, volunteered to live and work in Ukraine and Russia as an alcohol counselor. He traveled throughout both republics for the next four years carrying the 12-Step message to drinkers, psychologists, “drying out” hospitals and prisons. U.S. AA groups have continued developing 12-Step programs in new regions of Russia, from Moscow to Magadan in the Far East.

The CASW program officially closed in 1997 due to funding challenges. The program’s strong volunteer core, however, continues to carry the message to many cities and towns in eight of the former Soviet Republics. Exact statistics are not available, but CCI leaders have been told that more than 100 cities in Russia now have AA groups, over 100 AA groups are active in Moscow, and that 12-Step programs are operating in eight countries of the former Soviet Union.