AA Saint Petersburg - Russia 

The Birth of A.A. in 1935 to millions of members worldwide

A.A. had its beginnings in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between Bill W., a New York stockbroker, and Dr. Bob S., an Akron surgeon. Both were hopeless alcoholics.  When Dr. Bob and Bill finally met, the effect on doctor Bob was immediate. This time, he found himself face to face with a fellow sufferer. Bill emphasized that alcoholism was a malady of mind, emotions and body. Though a physician, Dr. Bob had not known alcoholism to be a disease. Responding to Bill’s convincing ideas, he soon got sober, never to drink again. The founding spark of A.A. had been struck.

Both men immediately set to work with alcoholics at Akron’s City Hospital, where one patient quickly achieved complete sobriety. Though the name Alcoholics Anonymous had not yet been coined, these three men actually made up the nucleus of the first A.A. group. In the fall of 1935, a second group of alcoholics slowly took shape in New York. A third appeared at Cleveland in 1939. It had taken over four years to produce 100 sober alcoholics in the three founding groups.

Early in 1939, the Fellowship published its basic textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous. The text, written by Bill, explained A.A.’s philosophy and methods, the core of which was the now well-known Twelve Steps of recovery...the rest up until this day is history which you can read more about on AA Worldwide website www.aa.org ....today we have millions of members in AA groups in practically every country of the world. 

The English speaking group "AA Saint Petersburg" was established on 8 June 2003 for English speaking AA members, but welcomes according to Tradition 3 everyone who has a desire to stop drinking. We try to serve visitors, such as tourists and business travellers, who want a meeting instead of a drink.