Peter the Great founded a drinking club when he was a young man. Because he was tsar, he took it too far.
Anyway, they stopped wandering around so much and started putting down roots in Moscow. The Jolly Company metamorphosed into something more formal, the beautifully named All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters. Or, as Google Translate has it, the “clown, drunk, and haunted cathedral.” This club made fun of religious formalities by electing a Prince-Pope and parodying orthodox rites and rituals – most of which (surprise surprise) involved them drinking an extraordinary amount of vodka.