Abstract
Mortality in the Soviet Union improved rapidly in the years immediately following World War II, so that in the mid-1960s life expectancies in countries such as Russia and Ukraine were similar to those of the United States. However, this improvement was not sustained; levels of adult mortality in the former Soviet Union today are similar to those found 50 years ago, and they are now well below those of Western industrialized counties. The deterioration was temporarily reversed during Gorbachev’s short-lived anti-alcohol campaign of the mid-1980s, but adult mortality increased sharply following the collapse of the Soviet Union around 1990; since then, mortality has varied greatly. Mortality of working-age men in Russia is particularly high, with some of the highest mortality differences between men and women in the world. A number of reasons are responsible for these trends, including a range of negative macro-level political, institutional, and economic factors, as well as individual-level ones, such as smoking and poor diet. However, alcohol plays a particularly significant role, with the long-standing tradition of binge drinking of vodka being heavily implicated in the high excess risks of deaths from circulatory system diseases and external causes (accidents and violence) in Russia.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The western Ukraine became part of the USSR only after World War II.
- 2.
Julia Solovyova (Moscow Times, October 28, 1997), in discussing Konstantin Dushenko’s Dictionary of Modern Quotations (Словарь современных цитат: 4300 ходячих цитат и выражений ХХ века, их источники, авторы, датировка), stated that Russian historians have no record of this quotation (which probably originated from the 1956 novel Der schwarze Obelisk by Erich Maria Remarque): see http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/87856.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_value
References
Anderson, B.A., K. Katus, and B.D. Silver. 1994. “Developments and Prospects for Population Statistics in Countries of the Former Soviet Union.” Population Index 60:4–20.
Anderson, B.A. and B.D. Silver. 1986. “Infant Mortality in the Soviet Union: Regional Differences and Measurement Issues.” Population and Development Review 12:705–37.
Anderson, B.A. and B.D. Silver. 1997. “Issues of Data Quality in Assessing Mortality Trends and Levels in the New Independent States.” In J.L. Bobadilla, C.A. Costello, and F. Mitchell (eds.), Premature Death in the New Independent States, pp. 120–55. Washington, DC, National Academy Press.
Andreev, E.M., M. McKee, and V.M. Shkolnikov. 2003. “Health Expectancy in the Russian Federation: A New Perspective on the Health Divide in Europe.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 81:778–87.
Bobak, M., A. Gilmore, M. McKee, R. Rose, and M. Marmot. 2006. “Changes in Smoking Prevalence in Russia, 1996–2004.” Tobacco Control 15:131–35.
Bobak, M. and M. Marmot. 1996. “East-West Mortality Divide and Its Potential Explanations: Proposed Research Agenda.” British Medical Journal 312:421–25.
Bobak, M., M. McKee, R. Rose, and M. Marmot. 1999. “Alcohol Consumption in a National Sample of the Russian Population.” Addiction 94:857–66.
Brainerd, E. and D.M. Cutler. 2005. “Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 19:107–30.
Britton, A. and M. McKee. 2000. “The Relationship Between Alcohol and Cardiovascular Disease in Eastern Europe; Explaining the Paradox.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 54:328–32.
Carter, S.B., S.S. Gartner, M.R. Haines, A.L. Olmstead, R. Sutch, and G. Wright (eds.). 2006. Historical Statistics of the United States, Volume One: Population. New York, NY, Cambridge University Press.
Caselli, G. 1994. Long Term Trends in European Mortality. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects, 56. London, Office for Population Censuses and Surveys.
Charlton, J. and M. Murphy (eds.). 1997. The Health of Adult Britain, 1841–1994. London, Stationery Office.
Chenet, L., M. McKee, D. Leon, V. Shkolnikov, and S. Vassin. 1998. “Alcohol and Cardiovascular Mortality in Moscow: New Evidence of a Causal Association.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 52:772–74.
Chenet, L. and M. Telishevska. 2000. “Epidemiology, Medical Demography and Data Quality Issues in the Former Soviet Union.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 54:722–23.
Cornia, G.A. 2003. “The Forgotten Crisis: Transition, Psychosocial Stress and Mortality Over the 1990s in the Former Soviet Block.” In E. Ziglio, L. Levin, and E. Bath (eds.), Investment for Health: A Discussion of the Role of Economic and Social Determinants of Population Health. Copenhagen, WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Cornia, G.A. and R. Paniccia. 2000. The Mortality Crisis in Transitional Economies. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
DaVanzo, J. and G. Farnsworth (eds.). 1996. “Russia’s Demographic ‘Crisis.’” Available online at http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF124/index.html
Davies, R.W. and S.G. Wheatcroft. 2004. The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931–1933. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Davis, C. 2006. “Commentary: The Health Crisis in the USSR: Reflections on the Nicholas Eberstadt 1981 Review of Rising Infant Mortality in the USSR in the 1970s.” International Journal of Epidemiology 35:1400–5.
Davis, C. and M. Feshbach. 1980. Rising Infant Mortality in the USSR in the 1970s. US Bureau of the Census, International Population Reports, Series P-95. Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office.
Dutton, J. Jr. 1979. “Changes in Soviet Mortality Patterns, 1959/1977.” Population and Development Review 5:267–91.
Ellman, M. and S. Maksudov. 1994. “Soviet Deaths in the Great Patriotic War: Comment.” Europe Asia Studies 46:671–80.
Goskomstat. n.d. “History Russia’s State Statistics 1802–1996.” Available online at http://www.fsgs.ru/wps/portal/english/
Human Mortality Database (HMD). Available online at http://www.mortality.org/, accessed 7th October 2009.
Leon, D.A., L. Chenet, V.M. Shkolnikov, S. Zakharov, J. Shapiro, G. Rahmanova, S. Vassin, and M. McKee. 1997. “Huge Variation in Russian Mortality Rates 1984–1994: Artefact, Alcohol, or What?” Lancet 350:383–88.
Leon, D.A., L. Saburova, S. Tomkins, E. Andreev, N. Kiryanov, M. McKee, and V.M. Shkolnikov. 2007. “Hazardous Alcohol Drinking and Premature Mortality in Russia: A Population Based Case-Control Study.” Lancet 369:2001–9.
Leon, D.A. and V.M. Shkolnikov. 1998. “Social Stress and the Russian Mortality Crisis.” Journal of the American Medical Association 279:790–91.
Lutz, W., S. Scherbov, and A. Volkov (eds.). 1994. Demographic Trends and Patterns in the Soviet Union Before 1991. London, Routledge.
Malyutina, S., M. Bobak, S. Kurilovitch, V. Gafarov, G. Simonova, Y. Nikitin, and M. Marmot. 2002. “Relation Between Heavy and Binge Drinking and All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Novosibirsk, Russia: A Prospective Cohort Study.” Lancet 360:1448–54.
McKee, M. 1999. “Alcohol in Russia.” Alcoholism 34:824–29.
Meslé, F. and J. Vallin. 2003. Mortalité et Causes de Décès en Ukraine au XXe Siècle. Serie: Les Cahiers de l’INED, Cahier No 152. Paris, INED.
Murphy, M., M. Bobak, A. Nicholson, R. Rose, and M. Marmot. 2006. “The Widening Trend in Mortality by Educational Level in Russia, 1980–2001.” American Journal of Public Health 96:1293–99.
Murray, C.J. and A.D. Lopez (eds.). 1996. Global Burden of Disease: A Comprehensive Assessment of Mortality and Disability from Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors in 1990 and Projected to 2020, Vol. 1. Harvard, MA, Harvard University Press.
National Center for Health Statistics. 2007. “United States Life Tables, 2004.” National Vital Statistics Reports 56(9):1–40.
National Center for Health Statistics. 2009. “Deaths: Final Data for 2006.” National Vital Statistics Reports, 57(14):1–136.
Notzon, F.C., Y.M. Komarov, S.P. Ermakov, A.I. Savinykh, M.B. Hanson, and J. Albertorio. 2003. “Vital and Health Statistics: Russian Federation and United States, Selected Years 1985–2000 with an Overview of Russian Mortality in the 1990s.” Vital Health Statistics 5(11):1–67.
Plavinski, S.L., S.I. Plavinskaya, V. Richter, F. Rassoul, W. Schilow, and A.N. Klimov. 1999. “The Total and HDL-Cholesterol Levels in Populations of St. Petersburg (Russia) and Leipzig (Germany).” Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases 9:184–91.
Popkin, B., N. Zohoori, L. Kohlmeier, A. Baturin, A. Martinchik, and A. Deev. 1997. “Nutritional Risk Factors in the Former Soviet Union.” In J.L. Bobadilla, C.A. Costello, and F. Mitchell (eds.), Premature Death in the New Independent States, pp. 314–34. Washington, DC, National Academy Press.
Rehm, J., U. Sulkowska, M. Manczuk, P. Boffetta, J. Powles, S. Popova, and W. Zatonski. 2007. “Alcohol Accounts for a High Proportion of Premature Mortality in Central and Eastern Europe.” International Journal of Epidemiology 36:458–67.
Shkolnikov, V.M., E.M. Andreev, D. Jasilionis, M. Leinsalu, O.A. Antonova, and M. McKee. 2005. “The Changing Relation Between Education and Life Expectancy in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 60:875–81.
Shkolnikov, V.M., E.M. Andreev, D.A. Leon, M. McKee, F. Meslé, and J. Vallin. 2004. “Mortality Reversal in Russia: The Story So Far.” Hygiea Internationalis 4:29–80.
Shkolnikov, V.M., D.A. Leon, S. Adamets, E. Andreev, and A. Deev. 1998. “Educational Level and Adult Mortality in Russia: An Analysis of Routine Data 1979 to 1994.” Social Science and Medicine 47(3):357–69.
Shkolnikov, V., M. McKee, D.A. Leon, and L. Chenet. 1999. “Why Is the Death Rate from Lung Cancer Falling in the Russian Federation?” European Journal of Epidemiology 15:203–6.
Shkolnikov, V.M. and F. Meslé. 1996. “Chapter 4. The Russian Epidemiological Crisis as Mirrored by Mortality Trends.” In J. DaVanzo and G.Farnsworth (eds.), Russia’s Demographic ‘Crisis’, pp. 113–62. Available online at http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF124/index.html
Stickley, A., Y. Razvodovsky, and M. McKee. 2009. “Alcohol Mortality in Russia: A Historical Perspective.” Public Health 123:20–26.
Stuckler, D., L. King, and M. McKee. 2009. “Mass Privatisation and the Post-Communist Mortality Crisis: A Cross-National Analysis.” Lancet 373:399–407.
Todd, E. 1976. La Chute Finale. Essai Sur La Décomposition De La Sphère Soviétique. Paris, Robert Laffont.
Treml, V. 1997. “Soviet and Russian Statistics on Alcohol Consumption and Abuse.” In J.L. Bobadilla, C.A. Costello, and F. Mitchell, Premature Death in the New Independent States, pp. 220–38. Washington, DC, National Academy Press.
United Nation. n.d. World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision Population Database. Available online at http://esa.un.org/unpp/
Vallin, J., F. Meslé, S. Adamets, and S. Pyrozhkov. 2002. “A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses During the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s.” Population Studies 56:249–64.
Vishnevsky, A. and S. Bobylev (eds.). 2009. Human Development Report 2008 for the Russian Federation: Russia Facing Demographic Challenges. Available online at http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/nationalreports/europethecis/russia/NHDR_Russia_2008_Eng.pdf
Vlassov, V. 2000. “Is There Epidemiology in Russia?” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 54:740–44.
Wheatcroft, S.G. 2009. “The First 35 Years of Soviet Living Standards: Secular Growth and Conjunctural Crises in a Time of Famines.” Explorations in Economic History 46:24–52.
White, S. 1996. Russia Goes Dry: Alcohol, State and Society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
World Bank. n.d. World Development Indicators 2009. Available online at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/DATASTATISTICS/
World Health Organization Health for All Database (WHO-HFA). Available online at http://www.euro.who.int/hfadb
Zaridze, D., P. Brennan, J. Boreham, A. Boroda, R. Karpov, A. Lazarev, I. Konobeevskaya, V. Igitov, T. Terechova, P. Boffetta, and R. Peto. 2009. “Alcohol and Cause-Specific Mortality in Russia: A Retrospective Case-Control Study of 48,557 Adult Deaths.” Lancet 373:2201–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Murphy, M. (2011). Adult Mortality in the Former Soviet Union. In: Rogers, R., Crimmins, E. (eds) International Handbook of Adult Mortality. International Handbooks of Population, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9996-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9996-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9995-2
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9996-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)