simply interested in the general sentiment towards teetotalism [or abstinence from alcohol] in Poland: does it even exist?
I know people a bit older who became teetotalers as a passive way of defying communism.
During communist times the idea was promoted by the church that if you wanted change you had to be sober.
I think there might have been a notion that the communist system wanted to keep people drunk and therefore easy to control.
There were rumors of a plan for a vodka pipeline from Russia.
A quick google search and I came across this:
Demonstrating that vodka does not recognise political borders, Kesminas has produced a detailed "Dipsomanic" map of Lithuania and the surrounding regions of Belarus, Russia, Poland and Latvia, disclosing the location of the vodka pipeline network, the regions of distribution, the converted clandestine distilleries and the buildings that receive and distribute the contraband.
In association with the London-based architectural-visualisation studio HayesDavidson, Kesminas has prepared a photo-documentary suite of vodka pipeline situations. These 23 photographs reveal the illegal pipelines-to-oblivion in diverse Lithuanian locations.