A Century of State Murder?

Rumy Husan, Michael Haynes

Description

Russia has one of the lowest rates of adult life expectancy in the world. Average life expectancy for a man in America is 74; in Russia, it is just 59. Birth rates and population levels have also plummeted. These excess levels of mortality affect all countries that formed the former Soviet bloc. Running into many millions, they raise comparisons with the earlier period of forced transition under Stalin.



This book seeks to put the recent history of the transition into a longer term perspective by identifying, explaining and comparing the pattern of change in Russia in the last century. It offers a sharp challenge to the conventional wisdom and benign interpretations offered in the west of what has happened since 1991.



Mike Haynes and Rumy Husan have produced the first and most complete and accurate account of Russian demographic crisis from the Revolution to the present.
List of Tables

List of Figures

Preface and Acknowledgements

The USSR in the Late Stalin Era

The Four Great Mortality Crises in Twentieth-Century USSR-Russia

Glossary and Abbreviations

1. Demography – the Social Mirror?

Lies, damned lies and statistics?

Murder most foul?

A century of population change in Russia

The mirror of society?

2. The Revolt Against Class Society 1890–1928

Mortality in Tsarist Russia

The class pattern of death

War and repression

Revolution and the vision of the future

The waning dream

3. Death and the Stalin Era 1929–53

The pressure of accumulation

The total number

Death and repression

The determinants of the ‘normal’ death rate

Wars

The end of the Stalin Era

4. Policy, Inequalities and Death in the USSR 1953–85

Judicial death and repression

Imperialism and war

The pattern of normal death

Explaining the patterns of death

National variations within the USSR

vi A Century of State Murder?

5. The End of Perestroika and the Transition Crisis

of the 1990s

Perestroika and the collapse of the USSR 1985–91

Shock therapy reforms of 1992

The Impact of Reforms: low pay, poverty and inequality

Mistaken assumptions underlying the reform programme

6. ‘Normal’ deaths During the First Decade of Transition

Unprecedented peacetime mortality

Why so many deaths?

Key factors of mortality decline

7. Yeltsin, Putin and ‘Abnormal’ Deaths 1992–2002

Collective violence and ‘intentional’ deaths

Political crisis and civil unrest

Death and disease in prisons

Torture and state executions

The war in Chechnya

8. Conclusion

Class inequality and a ‘quiet violence’

A century of state murder

Appendix: Basic Data on the Prison Camp System

under Stalin

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Histoire
• Demography
• Russia
• History
• Russie

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 août 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849641579
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Century of State Murder?

Death and Policy in Twentieth-Century Russia

Michael Haynes and Rumy Husan

P Pluto Press LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA

First published 2003 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, USA

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright © Michael Haynes and Rumy Husan 2003

The right of Michael Haynes and Rumy Husan to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 7453 1931 9 hardback ISBN 0 7453 1930 0 paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Haynes, Michael, 1951– A century of state murder? : death and policy in twentieth-century Russia / Michael Haynes and Rumy Husan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0–7453–1931–9 (hardback) –– ISBN 0–7453–1930–0 (pbk.) 1. Mortality––Soviet Union––History. 2. Mortality––Russia (Federation) 3. Life expectancy––Soviet Union––History. 4. Life expectancy––Russia (Federation) 5. Soviet Union––Statistics, Vital––History. 6. Soviet Union––Population policy. I. Husan, Rumy. II. Title. HB1437 .H39 2003 304.6'4547'0904––dc21 2003005379

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Towcester, England Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England

Contents

List of Tables List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgements The USSR in the Late Stalin Era The Four Great Mortality Crises in Twentieth-Century USSR-Russia Glossary and Abbreviations

1

2

3

4

Demography – the Social Mirror? Lies, damned lies and statistics? Murder most foul? A century of population change in Russia The mirror of society?

The Revolt Against Class Society 1890–1928 Mortality in Tsarist Russia The class pattern of death War and repression Revolution and the vision of the future The waning dream

Stalin, Mass Repression and Death 1929–53 The pressure of accumulation The total number Death and repression The determinants of the ‘normal’ death rate Wars The end of the Stalin era

Policy, Inequalities and Death in the USSR 1953–85 Judicial death and repression Imperialism and war The pattern of normal death Explaining the patterns of death National variations within the USSR

vii ix xi xii xiii xiv

1 4 9 13 17

26 28 34 40 45 57

62 62 63 66 73 77 84

90 91 94 98 105 115

vi

5

6

7

8

A Century of State Murder?

The End ofPerestroikaand the Transition Crisis of the 1990s Perestroikaand the collapse of the USSR 1985–91 Shock therapy reforms of 1992 The impact of reforms: low pay, poverty and inequality Mistaken assumptions underlying the reform programme

‘Normal’ Deaths During the First Decade of Transition Unprecedented peacetime mortality Why so many deaths? Key factors of mortality decline

Yeltsin, Putin and ‘Abnormal’ Deaths 1992–2002 Collective violence and ‘intentional’ deaths Political crisis and civil unrest Death and disease in prisons Torture and state executions The war in Chechnya

Conclusion Class, inequality, and a ‘quiet violence’ A century of state murder?

Appendix: Basic Data on the Prison Camp System under Stalin

Notes Bibliography Index

119 119 125 134 139

144 145 150 156

176 176 179 181 187 191

202 202 206

214

216 240 255

List of Tables

1.1 1.2

2.1

2.2

2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

3.1

3.2 3.3

3.4 4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

Population of USSR-Russia 1900–91 Typology of ‘Meso’ and ‘Micro’ Determinants of Normal Mortality Rate Population and Urban Growth in European Russia 1811–1914 Birth and Death Rates and Life Expectancy in Tsarist Russia 1868–1912 Main Causes of Death Estimates of Demographic Losses 1914–22 First World War Actual Deaths in Russia 1914–17 Estimates of Red and White Military-Related Deaths in the Civil War 1918–21 The Historical Extent of Famine According to the 1921–22 Famine Commission Population Recovery in Russia of the New Economic Policy Health Expenditure as a Percentage of Output in the USSR in the 1920s Andreev, Darskii and Kharkova Estimates of Main Population Data for the 1930s Expansion, Population Gains and Movements 1939–41 Main Waves of Internal Deportation under Stalin by Major Phase Population Change in the Last Years of Stalin’s Rule Death and Repression in Confrontations in Eastern Europe Changing Death Rates and Life Expectancy in the USSR 1946–58 Percentage Change in Age-Specific Death Rates per 1,000 in the USSR for Cohorts Aged 20–69 between 1965/66 and 1989 Relationship of Death Rate to Educational Level for Age Group 20–69 in the Ukraine in 1979 Social Differences in Life Expectancy in Kazakhstan by Educational Level Recorded Infant Mortality Rate per 1,000 Live Births, Selected Republics

vii

14

21

29

30 31 43 44

51

56

59

59

64 79

83 89

95

99

102

104

116

117

viii

5.1 5.2 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4

6.5

7.1

7.2

A1

A Century of State Murder?

Various Economic Indicators from Russia 1991–2001 Low Pay in Russia 2000 ‘Excess Mortality’ in the Former Eastern Bloc 1990–99 Breakdown of Mortality Rates by Gender and Age Life Expectancy at Various Years, Selected Countries Male and Female Age-Standardised Death Rates per 100,000 at Ages 15–74 for Selected Causes of Death Male and Female Age-Standardised Death Rates per 100,000 at Ages 15–74 for ‘External Causes’ of Death in 1991, 1994 and 1998 Estimated Mortality Caused by War-Related Injuries, Selected Regions Various Indicators of Crime and Imprisonment in Russia 1991–2002 Basic Data on the Prison Camp System under Stalin

131 136 147 149 152

154

165

177

182 214

List of Figures

1.1 Theorising the Macro Determinants of ‘Normal’ Mortality Rate 2.1 Deaths per 1,000 by Age Group in 1899 2.2 Monthly Cycle of Life and Death in 1889 2.3 Relationship of Class, Infectious Disease and Mortality 2.4 Relationship of Infant Mortality Rate and Income Amongst Workers in Pre-War Petrograd 2.5 Deaths from Acute Infectious Diseases 2.6 Registered Cases of Major Diseases in Russia 1918–22 4.1 Selected Infectious Disease Rates per 100,000 in the USSR 1940–79 4.2 Estimates of Comparative Life Expectancy 1938–85, Selected Countries 4.3 Percentage of Urban Families Living in Housing Units by Space per Person 4.4 Government Expenditure on Health as a Percentage of GDP 5.1 The Rate of Inflation (% Increase) Each Month during 1992 5.2 Sources of Household Income in Russia 1992–2000 5.3 Strike Statistics for Russia 1992–2001 6.1 Crude Death Rates and Birth Rates for Russia 1989–2000 6.2 Total Beginning-of-Year Population for Russia 1989–2000 6.3 Life Expectancy at Birth 1989–2001 6.4 Number of Health Professionals per 100,000 Population in 2000, Selected Countries 6.5 Russia’s Expenditure on Public Health as a Percentage of GDP 1991–2000 6.6 Total (Public and Private) Health Expenditure 1998, Selected Countries 7.1 Mortality Rates by ‘Intentional’ Injury, Selected Countries 7.2 Sample Prison Rates (per 100,000) July 2002, Selected Countries 7.3 Death Sentences and Executions in Russia 1991–99

ix

19 33 34

36

37 39 55

100

101

111

114

130 135 142 145 146 148

157

158

160

178

184 188

Preface and Acknowledgements

This book, our first to focus on a major social issue, follows a number of years of collaborative work between the authors. Previously our joint work concentrated on the economic history of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and problems of the transition. We have looked especially at how leaders in the region have, during the course of the twentieth century, alternatively used the state and market to attempt to develop and converge with the West, but without much success. Our aim here is to bring some of the costs of the failure to a wider audience. We have tried to draw as much as possible on the most authoritative sources in an area bedevilled by unreliable data. Where the data is weak and gaps exist we try to acknowledge this. The footnotes record our technical debts, but in a wider sense we wish to pay tribute here to the work of those specialists on whose discussion we often draw and without which this book could not have been written. Our warm gratitude is due to a number of people who have helped us in differing ways: Jane Saunders at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds and Nigel Hardware at the European Resource Centre, Birmingham University, both of whom located an array of relevant sources; David Appleyard and Mark Newcomb of the Graphics Unit, Department of Geography, at the University of Leeds, for help with the map and diagrams; Lyudmilla Alperin of the Moscow Centre for Prison Reform for providing us with unpublished data; Jonathan Sutton and Silke Machold for help with translation; Sue Blackwell for help in obtaining materials. The library of the Wellcome Institute in London is a major resource and the staff immensely helpful and knowledgeable. We should like to thank Roger Van Zwanenberg at Pluto for commissioning this book, and to the referees for their generous and encouraging comments. Julie Stoll has always been patient and supportive as the commissioning editor at Pluto. We have generally followed the US system of transliteration from Russian but kept proper names in their most familiar forms. We have, however, not bothered with the apostrophe for the soft sign, as this is confusing for non-Russian readers. Russian readers will know where it should be. The footnotes record our technical debts.

xi

1

2

3

4

1900

The Four Great Mortality Crises in Twentieth-Century USSR-Russia

Tsarist Russia

1910

1 1914–21:

2 1931–38:

3 1941–45:

Post- Revolutionary Russia

1920

1930

1940

Stalinist Russia

1950

1960

1970

1980

Transition Russia

1990

Present

First World War (1914–17) and civil war (1918–21): military losses: 3 million; excess civilian deaths: 13–14 million; birth deficit: 10 million (total population loss = 26–27 million)

Collectivisation and famine: 9 million; repression: 1 million (total USSR = 10 million). Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939 leads to expanded borders of USSR

Second World War: 43 million wartime deaths including 27 million excess deaths in USSR as a whole

4 1992–Present: Disintegration of the USSR in December 1991. Russia’s shock therapy reforms: 2.6 million excess deaths between 1990 and 1999; 0.2 million war deaths in Chechnya between 1994–96 and 1999–2002