Why Russia may be drinking itself to oblivion

Nicholas Eberstadt considers whether Russia is literally drinking itself to death.

In the spring issue of the World affairs journal he notes that

Between 1976 and 1991, the last sixteen years of Soviet power, the country recorded 36 million births. In the sixteen post-Communist years of 1992–2007, there were just 22.3 million, a drop in childbearing of nearly 40 percent from one era to the next. On the other side of the life cycle, a total of 24.6 million deaths were recorded between 1976 and 1991, while in the first sixteen years of the post-Communist period the Russian Federation tallied 34.7 million deaths, a rise of just over 40 percent. The symmetry is striking: in the last sixteen years of the Communist era, births exceeded deaths in Russia by 11.4 million; in the first sixteen years of the post-Soviet era, deaths exceeded births by 12.4 million.

The correlation is life expectancy which

in the Russian Federation is actually lower today than it was a half century ago in the late 1950s. In fact, the country has pioneered a unique new profile of mass debilitation and foreshortened life previously unknown in all of human history.

And one factor is the amount of deaths from what are termed “external causes”—non-communicable deaths from injuries of various origins.This is one of the worst in the world and comparable to Angola, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

The main driver is alcohol which the author says is a

mind-numbing, stupefying binge drinking of hard spirits is an accepted norm in Russia and greatly increases the danger of fatal injury through falls, traffic accidents, violent confrontations, homicide, suicide, and so on. Further, extreme binge drinking (especially of hard spirits) is associated with stress on the cardiovascular system and heightened risk of CVD mortality.

Figures released back in 2007 suggested that the average Russian consumed three times as much alcohol as 16 years ago and noted that more children were becoming dependent on alcohol.

It is estimated that alcohol deaths account for 1 in 8 total deaths in the country

Ht-Andrew Sullivan