Paul
Goble
Staunton, October 1 – That Moscow is
different from the rest of Russia is such a commonplace that many Russians and
people in the West fail to recognize just how much, but new data provide a measure
that highlights the difference: Muscovites, figures show, live on average six
years longer than do residents of other parts of the Russian Federation.
As a result of that difference,
there are now 318,901 Muscovites over 80, 34,960 between 90 and 100, and 655
older than 100. That figure has gone up from 480 just five years ago, according
to a report on the “Svobodnaya pressa” portal today to mark Elderly Day (svpressa.ru/post/article/99642/).
Mikhail Yakushin, a professor of
gerontology and geriatrics at the Pigorov Russian National Medical Research
University, says that Muscovites have a life expectancy of 76 years, much
higher than other Russians and roughly equivalent to life expectancy figures in
Western Europe
This reflects not only higher
incomes in Moscow but also better medical services, better food, and a higher
percentage of people there who are engaged in intellectual rather than physical
labor, characteristics that more than compensate for the greater stress and
more contaminated environment, the doctor says.
He notes that the difference in life
expectancy between those engaged in mental work and those doing physical labor
has long been the case. “Even in the
times of the USSR, the life expectancy of members of the Academy of Sciences
was five years more than that of others in the country,” Yakushin says.
But even within Moscow, there are important
differences in this regard. Those who live in the central district of the city
where incomes are highest have a longer life expectancy than other Muscovites
and a far longer one than have residents of the Russian Federation outside the
ring road.
The doctor said that the opening of
special gerontological services has also led to this difference because there
are far more of them relative to the population in Moscow than is the case
elsewhere. He said this should become a
regular system, but unfortunately, things are moving in the opposite direction:
the government recently closed a major geriatric center in the capital itself.
There are now 101 such offices as
well as a section of a hospital, and they are staffed by 133 geriatric
doctors. In 2013, 67,000 Muscovites
availed themselves of their services.
Similar facilities are opening elsewhere in Russia although not as quickly
or as massively, “Svobodnaya pressa” says.
According to the portal, there are
now approximately three million pensioners in Moscow or one in every four
residents, a percentage typical of Russia as a whole. In both places, more than
30 percent of them continue to work, in some cases out of necessity but in
others out of a feeling that they feel good enough to make a contribution.
In Russia as in other countries, the
portal continues, 60 is the new 50, even though people at the older age are
more likely to have many diseases that younger cohorts do not. And that has some
important consequences: pension-age Russians today are not like their parents:
they have different experiences and expectations. “They simply don’t accept
aging” in the same way.
But for many Russian pensioners,
especially those beyond the ring road, life is not getting better or more
joyous, whatever Kremlin propagandists say.
According to a report in today’s “Nezavisimaya gazeta,” the purchasing
power of the average Russian pension is now lower than it was at the end of
Soviet times (ng.ru/economics/2014-10-01/1_income.html).
That means that many elderly
Russians cannot purchase the foods or engage in the activities that Moscow
doctors say will help them live longer. And for those who don’t live in Moscow,
it means that they are less likely to have access to the geriatric specialists
who are helping the Muscovites do just that.
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