Russia is screwed

Also noticed in the Times: Some startling statistics about Russia (current population: 143 million, down 500,000 in the last year) which is facing a demographic crisis.

1) Abortions (1.6 million this year) outnumber live births (1.5 million).

2) Life expectancy for Russian men is 58.8.

3) 200,000 die every year from "unnatural causes".

4) The number of Russian schoolchildren has dropped by one million a year since 1999.

5) 10 million Russians are sterile due to botched abortions, venereal diseases and exposure to radiation or harmful chemicals.

Comments

[Abiola Lapite]

While I can't say that I'm glad to see so many Russians have botched their lives (the steep decline in Russian longevity owes mostly to self-inflicted damage, particularly alcoholism, and as for abortions ...), there's a small part of me that isn't entirely riven with grief at the prospect that the unfavorable demographics mean that this intensely xenophobic and expansionist nation will prove less of a threat to the rest of the world. Russia has produced a great deal by way of science and culture that one can admire, but on the whole its impact has been a severely negative one.

[Frank McGahon]

there's a small part of me that isn't entirely riven with grief at the prospect that the unfavorable demographics mean that this intensely xenophobic and expansionist nation will prove less of a threat to the rest of the world.

True, but a catastrophic implosion may not be all that great for the world either.

[Rythin]

Russia is a shit. As a Polish nationalist, I can state it loudly ;) -- Russia is a xenophobic country full of nationalistic radicals eagerly awaiting rebirth of USSR.

Gotta watch out for them...

[Chuckles]

How is this different from many African countries?
The idea that the 3rd world must be huddling, starving masses of brown skinned people flies in the face of these stats - yet this is an entirely persistent idea: Many African countries are certainly more liveable than this, yet you wouldnt be able to tell that from the TV Images.

[Frank McGahon]

How is this different from many African countries?

In terms of quality of life, probably not all that much, but the kicker for Russia is the declining birthrate, not generally a feature of poor African countries.

[Jim]

"but the kicker for Russia is the declining birthrate'

Along with the vile climate and the cultural heritage of despotism.

"there's a small part of me that isn't entirely riven with grief at the prospect that the unfavorable demographics mean that this intensely xenophobic and expansionist nation will prove less of a threat to the rest of the world."

Not grief, but apprehension. It was Russia's weakness and vulnerablity in the past that made it so defensive, and it's defensiveness that drove it's expansionism. The fact that the xenoi on all sides of the country were predators helped form that xenophobia.

[Abiola Lapite]

Who was preying on Russia between the days of Ivan the Terrible and Adolf Hitler, when the country expanded all the way from the Urals to the Bering Strait? Who was preying on the southern borders of Stalin's Russia? The "imperialism as response to foreign expansionism" excuse simply won't wash here: very many Russians have always equated national "greatness" with sheer size - especially those Russians in power - and excuses have never been needed to try to satisfy this longstanding land-hunger.

[John]

I remember reading that Russians lapped up Pat Buchanan's "Death of the West" (I think that's the title) when it came out. He was on Russian national t.v. a number of times discussing this very point - their shrinking population. And, from what I gather nobody really argued with him, but clearly nobody has found a way to deal with the problem either.

[Frank McGahon]

I think what often happens is that people convince themselves that a shrinking population is a good thing, usually falling into the fixed quantity of wealth fallacy - if there's fewer people, there's more for everyone.

[Jim]

"The "imperialism as response to foreign expansionism" excuse simply won't wash here: "

Ha! Rational beings don't act like that do they, but so what, we are talking about human beings here. Individuals rarely attain a level of development where they can confront a present situation on the terms of that situation, and groups of people, never. The Russians aren't the only ones who got started this way - the Romans started out pacifying Celts and Celtic lands, beginning wiht the Po Valley, and then only later along the way noticed how profitable that was turning out to be. The Russians did the same thing. It gets addictive.

I don't think the Russians think their shrinkage is any kind of good thing, but they are pretty impotent at/for the moment.