Those Russians

[Teazer]

Anyone who was around Russia at that time period know if this is right?

<<Alcohol Behind Half of '90s Russia Deaths
MOSCOW (June 25) — A new study by an international team of public health researchers documents the devastating impact of alcohol abuse on Russia — showing that drinking caused more than half of deaths among Russians aged 15 to 54 in the turbulent era following the Soviet collapse.
The 52 percent figure compares to estimates that less than 4 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by alcohol abuse, according to the study by Russian, British and French researchers published in Friday's edition of the British medical journal The Lancet.

The Russian findings were based on a survey of almost 49,000 deaths between 1990 and 2001 among young adult and middle-aged Russians in three industrial towns in western Siberia, which had typical 1990s Russian mortality patterns.>>

http://news.aol.com/health/article/alcohol-blamed-in-half-of-russian-1990s/545423?icid=main|main|dl3|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Fhealth%2Farticle%2Falcohol-blamed-in-half-of-russian-1990s%2F545423

[Dmitri]

I don't know for sure, but I would NOT be surprised. In the 70-80s people would drink ANYTHING to get drunk, from antifreeze to perfume. And by "getting drunk" I don't mean getting "a buzz", I mean becoming like a fucking zombie. I think that likely continued (if not worsened) through the 90s, and still continues I'm sure, esp. with the lower-income folks. Growing up, I was walking to school passing people like this on the street:





And, our region was far from being the worst in that respect...

[chud]

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Spring/full-Eberstadt.html

From the article:

"Unlike drinking patterns prevalent in, say, Mediterranean regions—where wine is regarded as an elixir for enhancing conversation over meals and other social gatherings, and where public drunkenness carries an embarrassing stigma — mind-numbing, stupefying binge drinking of hard spirits is an accepted norm in Russia..."

[chud]

Anyone who was around Russia at that time period know if this is right?

<<Alcohol Behind Half of '90s Russia Deaths
...

Alcoholism has been a very big problem in Russia.

Another quote from the article I posted above:

"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."

[shawnsegler]

nd where public drunkenness carries an embarrassing stigma — mind-numbing, stupefying binge drinking of hard spirits is an accepted norm in Russia..."

Sounds like being a teenager in SLC in the 80's.

[dragontigerpalm]

I'm curious as to how the deaths were caused by alcohol - liver disease, internal bleeding, drunken driving, ?, etc.

[Chris Fleming]