I was looking at this graphic (Link #1 below), and noticed a significant lightening in Russia in 1993. So I found this paper (Link #2 below) and sure enough, from 1992 to 1993 the Russian male life expectancy dropped a fully three years from 62 to 59! And female nearly 2 years from 73.8 to 72. That's an enormous drop in one year and I've never seen or heard of anything like that.
Can anyone explain what exactly could cause such an enormous drop in one year? The article in link two talks about some potential causes, but I only somewhat understand it, not having expertise in the field, and I was wondering if I could get some understanding of the historical context of why/how this could have happened? Was this a reporting issue or a real massive drop in life expectancy in one year?
Link #1: https://gfycat.com/EmbarrassedFavorableCamel Link #2: https://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF124/cf124.chap4.html
There was a massive famine. When Boris Yeltsin liberalized the economy in 1992, speculators came in and basically broke the Russian wholesale markets, causing massive price spikes. Inflation rose 2,500% in 1992.
Previously, the USSR had price controls for most foods, meat, dairy, wheat, etc. After prices were liberalized, the Russian diet shifted tremendously. People were unable to get, or afford, meat and diary products especially and only low-nutritive-value foods were widely available, i.e. potatoes and bread.
An additional issue wasn't just that food was too expensive, but that low quality substitutes came onto the market. Dangerous, toxic food substitutes. Poisoning and food-bourne illnesses were common. And mind you, this wasn't the healthiest population to begin with, as the old Soviet food systems weren't exactly renown for being particularly nutritious.
Add to all of this the end of subsidies to the Soviet health-care system and the end result is a huge swell in fatalities that continued on until the IMF helped Russia get on its economic feet in 1995, resulting in life expectancy rising agin in 1996.
Edit: Here's an interesting Rand Corp. paper on Russian mortality trends. Interestingly, they pin a large number of deaths on excess alcohol consumption following the collapse of the Soviet empire. Wow.
Follow up: how reliable would pre-1993 numbers be? Would the Soviet Union fudge its statistics on a subject like this?
Broader question: what level of confidence do historians have in Soviet statistics? Is there a reason we might just think that the previous numbers were somehow deflated to look more favorable when presenting to leadership?
I'll try and answer the best that I can, but it was a lot of reasons.
Crime rapidly increases from 1991-1994.
Due to the centralized collapse of the regime in the former USSR the Russian Mafia or small cliches called 'bandity' took over cities and towns all over Russia. The murder rates from 1993-1994 are one of the highest points of Russian crime rates in the Russian Federation. The police forces were either corrupted, understaffed, or ill-equipped or all above to deal with the large increase of gangs and mob rule over the major cities especially St. Petersburg which brings us to..
The Russian Drugs Crisis.
Cocaine, Opium, Cannabis, Heroin, and whatever there's a market for there's a demand for it and there was a huge demand for drugs. The borders collapsed, everyone can either leave the country very cheaply or simply walk out.. or come in easily. Drug trade exploded during this period because of the collapse of Border Guards and the reformation period of the military/police during this period means that it was impossible to secure or stop drugs from coming in from South America, Eurasia, etc, etc.
The older generation suffered the most.
The massive amount of smoking and drinking among the older population due to large stress of the collapse of the country from 1990-1994.
The older generation and those who didn't want to risk jail or death? Tobacco and alcohol use exploded after the collapse of the Soviet government meaning that once again more people died from car accidents, accidents, alcohol poisoning, cancer, etc, etc.
Healthcare System utterly collapsed.
Heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, and all kind of cardiovascular diseases killed off the middle to older generations of Russians in large amounts. Due to the stress, depression, sickness like the flu, and the unhealthy eating or lack of proper diet due to the collapsed of common good and services during this turmoil period and the medical services were just unable to give basic care to the older generations.
Frozen conflicts
Regions around Russia or where Russia is involved with such as the Chechen War for example saw a huge decrease in life expectancy because it was a war zone and the surrounding regions were suffering from large refugee, bandits, mob rule, corrupted arm forces on many sides. The list goes on and on.
Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9508159
Jonathan Daniel Weiler (2004) - Human Rights in Russia: A Darker Side of Reform. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 36. ISBN 1-58826-279-0.
Abraham Bob Hoogenboom (1997). Policing the Future. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 121. ISBN 90-411-0416-X.
Crime in the Soviet Era Federal Research Division, Library of Congress