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"The USSR did very well until it collapsed" It didn't, life expectancy actually went backwards in Russia in 1965-1985. It stagnated for women and fell a few ye
by guard-of-terra 11y ago
"The USSR did very well until it collapsed"
It didn't, life expectancy actually went backwards in Russia in 1965-1985. It stagnated for women and fell a few years for men. This is while rest of the world increased life expectancy rapidly. You can see that in your linked website.
A good comparsion pair is Russia-Finland. Same expectancy and GDP in 1960, and then they begin to diverge rapidly.
- nl 11y agoHm, you are right (although in Russia/USSR it kept improving until 1970 and then fell back - see[1] for exact numbers). [2] claims it can be shown to be caused by alcohol abuse, and that an aggressive anti-alcohol campaign in the mid 1980's reversed the trend just in time for the collapse of the Soviet Union (when the campaign stopped and the gains fell away again). It's probably that bump that confused me, as it seems many others have said the same thing. [1] http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA&gid=0 http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnN... [2] http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2000/HighDeathRateAmongRussianMenPredatesSovietUnionsDemise.aspx http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2000/HighDeathRateA...