Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 23 – Every year on average, 17,000 more Russians die on holidays, especially New Year’s and birthdays, than do on all other days, according to an investigation by To Be Precise journalists Alena Manuzina and Anastasiya Larina. Excessive alcohol consumption is the primary but far from the only cause.
Others have called the New Years-Christmas holiday week “the most fatal” one of the year, while experts have described it as “ten days of horrors” when Russians encounter “the most terrible enemy – themselves” (tochno.st/materials/kazdyi-god-10-tysiac-rossiian-umiraiut-ot-prazdnikov-eto-izbytocnaia-smertnost-obieiasniaem-otkuda-ona-beretsia).
And commentators have done so for Russia because the impact of holidays on death rates is far higher there than in other countries. Manuzina and Larina point out that the upsurge of deaths on holidays in Russia is four times as large as in the United States and multiples of other countries as well.
Every year, they write, 14 percent more Russians die over the January holidays than do at any other similar interval of time the rest of the year. And the more prominent the holiday is, the more the upsurge in deaths. Russians don’t celebrate the Day of Russia and the Day of National Unity and deaths don’t go up around those holidays.
The primary cause of this is alcohol consumption, the two investigators say; and increased alcohol consumption leads to more murders, 80 percent of which in Russia are committed when the perpetrator is drunk, and suicides when alcohol consumption increases the likelihood that unhappiness will turn into despair.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Holidays are Deadly for Russians, ‘To Be Precise’ Says
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