"EXCESS DEATHS" AFTER THE FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION

[Red Terror Doctor]

Dr. Chomksy in his book Hegemony Or Survival says that in Russia 10 million "excess deaths" followed the demise of the Soviet Union due to the privatization of healthcare.
Any comments????

[PRC-UTE]

I wasnt aware it was that high. I knew it was in the millions.

Interesting to hear how those who compoletely dismiss the USSR as 'state capitalist' will respond to that fact...

[YKTMX]

Originally posted by PRC-[email protected] 22, 2007 02:47 am
I wasnt aware it was that high. I knew it was in the millions.

Interesting to hear how those who compoletely dismiss the USSR as 'state capitalist' will respond to that fact...
We'd say it's terrible.

It'd be a rather ignorant soul who denied that the move from state to market capitalism was traumatic, corrupt and caused great economic hardship in the Soviet Union. It was rather like the "shock therapy" inflicted on Latin America in the 80's and 90's.

But it's a big leap from saying that to saying, as some people do, that the Soviet Union was "socialist" or in some sense "better" than capitalism.

[Red Terror Doctor]

Here is what Chomsky told me over email:

The standard estimate has been about 10 million. Here's an excerpt from my Hegemony or Survival chap. 6.:

The UN Development Program estimates 10 million male deaths during the 1990s beyond the expected, approximately the estimated toll of Stalin’s purge 60 years earlier, if these figures are near accurate. “Russia appears to be the first country in history to experience such a sharp decrease in births versus deaths for reasons other than war, famine, or disease,” David Powell writes [Current History]: “The demographic crisis is a consequence of the numerous and deep-seated problems that plague Russia’s health care system,” which collapsed during the “transition period” of market reforms. The general collapse has been so severe that even the monstrous Stalin is remembered with some appreciation: more than half of Russians “believe Stalin’s role in Russian history was positive, while only a third disagreed."

A very detalied estimate by Mike Haynes and Rumy Husan estimate “excess mortality” from 1990-99 in the former Eastern bloc at 3.3 million: A Century of State Murder? Death and Public Policy in Russia (Pluto, 2003).

NC

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[Marxist1917]

Originally posted by Red Terror [email protected] 22, 2007 03:27 pm
Here is what Chomsky told me over email:

The standard estimate has been about 10 million. Here's an excerpt from my Hegemony or Survival chap. 6.:

The UN Development Program estimates 10 million male deaths during the 1990s beyond the expected, approximately the estimated toll of Stalin’s purge 60 years earlier, if these figures are near accurate. “Russia appears to be the first country in history to experience such a sharp decrease in births versus deaths for reasons other than war, famine, or disease,” David Powell writes [Current History]: “The demographic crisis is a consequence of the numerous and deep-seated problems that plague Russia’s health care system,” which collapsed during the “transition period” of market reforms. The general collapse has been so severe that even the monstrous Stalin is remembered with some appreciation: more than half of Russians “believe Stalin’s role in Russian history was positive, while only a third disagreed."

A very detalied estimate by Mike Haynes and Rumy Husan estimate “excess mortality” from 1990-99 in the former Eastern bloc at 3.3 million: A Century of State Murder? Death and Public Policy in Russia (Pluto, 2003).

NC

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You were able to reach Noam Chomsky by email? Does he always respond to emails?

[Cmde. Slavyanski]

What is interesting is that had this happened under the Soviet regime for any reason; it would have been called another "Communist crime", like the Ukrainian famine.