Didn't live up to 30. What was the mortality rate in tsarist Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

150 years ago, at the end of October 1867, Alexander II approved the regulation "On measures to determine the exact annual mortality in St. Petersburg." SPB. AIF. RU recalls what the statistics were and what demographers wrote about the state of affairs in the Russian Empire.

Experts of that time agreed that the poor and poor sanitary conditions were one of the reasons for the high mortality rate.

150 years ago, at the end of October 1867, Alexander II approved the regulation "On measures to determine the exact annual mortality in St. Petersburg." SPB. AIF. RU recalls what the statistics were and what demographers wrote about the state of affairs in the Russian Empire.

“Russian mortality, in general, is typical for agricultural and backward countries in sanitary, cultural and economic relations,” wrote Doctor of Medical Sciences, Academician Sergei Novoselsky in 1916.

The scientist believed that Russia actually took a special place among similar states because of the "exceptional height of mortality in childhood and extremely low mortality in old age."

Tracking such statistics in the Russian Empire officially began only during the time of Alexander II, who signed a document regulating this side of society. The "regulation" of the Committee of Ministers stated that the attending or police doctor was obliged to issue death certificates, which were then passed on to the police. It was only possible to commit the body to the earth "upon presentation of a medical certificate of death to the cemetery clergy." In fact, from the moment this document appeared, it was possible to judge what was the average life expectancy of men and women in the country, and what factors could influence these figures.

31 for women, 29 for men

During the first 15 years of maintaining such statistics, a picture began to emerge that the country was losing a huge number of children. For every 1000 deaths, more than half - 649 people - were those who did not reach the age of 15; 156 people are those who have passed the 55-year mark. That is, 805 people out of a thousand are children and old people.

As for the gender component, boys died more often in infancy. There were 388 boys per 1000 deaths, and 350 girls. After 20 years, the statistics changed: per 1000 deaths, there were 302 for men and 353 for women.

The founder of domestic sanitary statistics, Pyotr Kurakin, having analyzed the materials of the 1897 census and data on the deaths for 1896-1897, calculated that the average life expectancy in European Russia for women was a little more than 31 years, for men - 29 years. On the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, these figures were slightly higher - 36 years and 37 years for women, as well as 35 and 37 years for men.

In his work "Fertility and Mortality in the Capitalist States of Europe," he noticed a pattern: the development of large-scale factory industry affected the mortality rate of the adult population.

Using the example of the Bogorodsky district, he saw that the most unfavorable in this regard turned out to be the central part, where large and medium-sized factories were located along the course of the Klyazma River.

“The highest mortality rate of the population is concentrated here, mainly in the areas where large factories are located: out of 9 parishes in this area with a mortality rate of more than 48%, 7 are concentrated in the largest industrial centers of the county,” he wrote.

Another important factor affecting low life expectancy has been epidemics that mow down entire villages. One of the organizers of the sanitary and epidemiological service, professor Alexei Sysin wrote that in the pre-revolutionary years Russia was a constant arena of epidemic outbreaks:

“There was no sanitary legislation, the network of necessary medical and sanitary institutions in the country was extremely poorly developed; the state has hardly contributed to the expenditures for this Goal. As you know, the fight against infectious diseases was transferred to the hands of local authorities, zemstvos and cities; but there was no obligation for the latter. In especially difficult conditions were the outskirts of the country - Siberia. Central Asia, Caucasus, North; our rural areas were also the usual hotbeds of epidemics."

The extinction of children remains an undeniable fact

The real disaster for the country in those years was the colossal infant mortality rate. For example, in the Moscow province, babies accounted for 45.4% of the total number of deaths of all ages. And, according to data from 1908-1910, the number of deaths under the age of 5 was almost 3/5 of the total.

If in 1867-1871 more than 26 babies out of 100 born under one year old died, then after 40 years the dynamics practically did not change. Of a hundred children, 24 died before their first birthday.

“25-30 years have passed. In all states, mortality has dropped significantly; even where it stood very low, as, for example, in Sweden, it almost halved. On the contrary, Russia - according to these data, referring to 1901, not only in comparison with European, but also with all states (excluding Mexico alone) belongs a sad primacy in terms of the loss of the largest number of babies during the first year of their life in comparison with the number of births”, - wrote the director of the Central Statistical Committee, Professor Pavel Georgievsky.

Experts of that time agreed that one of the reasons for the high infant mortality rate was the poor, the difficult sanitary situation and the complete lack of labor protection for women workers. By the way, it was the mortality rate of the children of factory workers that was one of the highest in tsarist Russia.

Vladimir Lenin also wrote about the fact that in the country against the background of production growth, infant mortality is also growing. In 1912, his article "Capitalism and Popular Consumption" was published, in which he noted: "The production of cheese is growing, the production of milk for sale is growing, a few wealthy peasants and merchants are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Children of poor peasants, left without milk, die in huge numbers. The mortality rate of children in Russia is incredibly high."

They added their colors to the general picture and the data of sanitary doctors.

"The population, which exists from hand to mouth, and often completely starving, cannot give strong children, especially if we add to this those unfavorable conditions in which, in addition to lack of nutrition, a woman finds herself during pregnancy and after her," wrote one of the the first Russian children's doctors Dmitry Sokolova and doctor Grebenshchikova.

Speaking in 1901 with a report at the joint meeting of the Society of Russian Physicians, they declared that "the extinction of children remains an undeniable fact." In his speech, Grebenshchikov emphasized that "the child's congenital weakness depends entirely on the state of health of his parents and, moreover, especially on the conditions in which the mother is during pregnancy."

“Thus, if we raise the question of the health and strength of parents, then, unfortunately, we must admit that the general level of health and physical development in Russia is very low and, it can be said without error, every year it is getting lower and lower. There are, of course, many reasons for this, but in the foreground there is undoubtedly an increasingly difficult struggle for existence and an ever increasing spread of alcoholism and syphilis …"

One doctor for 7 thousand people

Speaking about the availability of medicine in those years, it can be noted that in 1913 the total cost of the medical unit was 147.2 million rubles. As a result, it turned out that for each inhabitant there were about 90 kopecks a year. In the report "On the state of public health and the organization of medical care in Russia in 1913," it was said that there were 24,031 civilian doctors in the empire, of which 71% lived in cities.

“Based on the calculation for the entire population, urban and rural, one civilian doctor, on average, served 6,900 residents, with 1,400 in the cities and 20,300 outside the cities,” the document said.

During the formation of Soviet power, these figures began to change. So, for example, by the end of 1955 the number of doctors in the USSR exceeded 334 thousand people.

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P. S.

Those who want to "crunch a French bun" for some reason believe that the Soviet government cheated them on the title of count, and not on bast shoes!