14 Jan 2024 8:48 am
Kobia2: "Not surprising the short life expectancy of Russians in 1917, considering the millions of Military & Civilian deaths from WW1 and the additional death toll of the Russian Revolution, which also began in 1917... Just as I'm sure, the average lifespan of a Russian from the years 1941 to 1945 was significantly lower due to around 22 Million of them being killed during WW2... So, it's not a great revelation that Russians began living longer in the 30-year absence of major war."
The absence of war also increased the Soviet Union's average life expectancy. That is true. But average life expectancy was much lower in Russia before the revolution, and it would have continued as such had there not been a revolution. Czarist Russia would have carried on with the same atrocities that were responsible for its low average life expectancy, which spurred the Bolshevik Revolution in the first place. Since the Soviet Union was primarily devoid of war between 1945 and 1975, the Bolshevik's socioeconomic practices dramatically increased the USSR's average life expectancy by 1975.
The Bolsheviks opened pregnancy consultation centers, maternity hospitals, and "milk kitchens" across the country where none existed before. That alone quickly and significantly reduced rates of neonatal death and infant mortality. By 1928, there were six gynecological hospitals, twenty-one maternity hospitals, and thirty "Point(s) of Medical Consultation" centers in Moscow alone. By 1931, there were thirty maternity hospitals, ten gynecological hospitals, and thirty-five pregnancy consultation facilities, and their numbers were doubled before the then-current five-year plan ended in 1935.
As a result of the excellent work of these various institutions, 90% of the children born in Moscow were alive at the end of their first year, compared to 66.3% who survived their first year in 1920. By 1940, in Moscow, each clinic was equipped to care for six to ten thousand pregnant women a year, covering the corresponding number of births. That is why I wrote in this thread's parent post, "Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, homelessness, and other social ills were virtually and easily eliminated in socialist societies. I say 'easily' because those pathologies are all but effortlessly eliminated when doing so becomes a governmental priority, unlike in the U.S." Be well.Good day."Harvey Mushman"