Study blames alcohol for half of Russian deaths in 1990s

MOSCOW (AP) — 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 age 15 to 54 in the turbulent era after 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 today’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.

Professor David Zaridze, head of the Russian Cancer Research Center and lead author of the study, estimated that the increase in alcohol consumption since 1987, the year when then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s restrictions on alcohol sales collapsed, cost the lives of 3 million Russians who would otherwise be alive today. “This loss is similar to that of a war,” Zaridze said.

The tragic die-off was largely invisible outside of Russia, but devastated Russian society — claiming the lives of millions during what should have been their most productive years.