Russia's population falls

By Irina Glushchenko

MOSCOW — Russia is now suffering from its worst demographic crisis of the postwar period. For the first time since 1945, deaths in November and December 1991 outnumbered births.

For every 1000 residents of Moscow in 1991, 9.4 children were born, compared with 10.5 in 1990. "Who wants to condemn their own child to a life of semi-starvation, without a corner to call their own?", sociologist Svetlana Bestuzhev-Lada asked in a recent article.

"The 'city fathers'", she continued, "have shown their usual concern for efficiency. There are fewer births, so ... half the maternity hospitals will be closed! Quite reasonably, the hospital staff reply: what if the 'temporary difficulties' pass, and the birthrate picks up? Where will the qualified personnel come from, and the premises, and the equipment?"

Rumours are now circulating that people will be forced to pay for the birth of their children. Doctors are critical of this prospect. "To take five or six thousand roubles from a young couple for the birth of their child is downright immoral", argued Professor Vladimir Kulakov, director of the All-Russian Centre for Maternity and Child Protection, in an article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "Instead of childbirth being an occasion for joy, we're turning it into cynical robbery. In all civilised countries, the state meets the expenses associated with childbirth."

Kulakov's centre is now leading a miserable existence. The money provided by the government barely suffices to pay the wages of the health staff and scientific workers. "Of 62 types of goods essential for our work", Kulakov explained, "Russian industry produces only two. The rest have to be bought for hard currency, which we don't have ... You could say that for women to receive up-to-date treatment when they give birth is now simply beyond our means."

The Russian government has managed a certain response to these complaints. On April 18 President Boris Yeltsin appointed his political adviser Sergei Stankevich as a state councillor to deal with questions related to child welfare. The newspaper Kommersant observed:

"While the infant mortality rate in Russia has risen sharply, the birthrate has undergone a catastrophic decline. According to the current view in government circles, the situation can be put right only through the efforts of an adviser who has a sound reputation as a child-lover ... Stankevich is considered to have a warm heart and good international contacts."

Kommersant did not report whether millions of pregnant women, faced with giving birth in overcrowded hospitals empty of medicines, felt reassured.

From GLW issue 59