The life expectancy dip was mostly a consequence of the collapse of the USSR. While less traumatic than collapse of the Roman empire, collapses of this size ten

The life expectancy dip was mostly a consequence of the collapse of the USSR. While less traumatic than collapse of the Roman empire, collapses of this size tend to make life shorter, nastier and more brutish. Russia is absolutely vast and most people living in Russia were so far from Chernobyl that their radiation burden from the disaster wasn't significant. The wind conditions meant that foreign countries like Poland were hit by more radiation that, say, Moscow or St. Petersburg. Asian cities like Novosibirsk or Vladivostok were absolutely out of range. But the life expectancy dip was ubiquitous, not concentrated in the areas closest to Chernobyl. IDK how much of it is attributable to alcoholism, but a healthcare system starved of money seems to me a quite likely culprit.