> biggest single indicator that something terrible happened is simply the life expectancy chart for Russia which shows a profound dip for about 5 years after Ch

> biggest single indicator that something terrible happened is simply the life expectancy chart for Russia which shows a profound dip for about 5 years after Chernobyl (This gets blamed on soaring alcoholism post collapse, which isn't particularly credible.) This one? [1] The terrible thing that happened was the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was a humanitarian catastrophe, nearly as much as its existence had been. The life expectancy decline starts in 1989 (when the Soviet economic system starts disintegrating as republics splinter off and declare independence) and then accelerates after 1991, when the USSR dissolves. I'm convinced by the normal explanation offered: the consequences of general economic recession and chaos. This is Russian food production over the same period [2]. Unsurprisingly, life expectancy went down much more in Vladivostok, in far eastern Russia, than it did in Moscow. Moscow did get somewhat irradiated, while Vladivostok did not, but Moscow fared better economically. Nutrition, healthcare, incomes, access to housing, all significantly worsened in the 1990s for much of Russia compared to under the late Soviet system. (And unsurprisingly, so did alcoholism.) [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russian_male_and_female_life_expectancy.PNG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russian_male_and_fem... [2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Agricultural_output_Russia.svg/1280px-Agricultural_output_Russia.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Ag...