ALCOHOL HAS DEATH GRIP ON RUSSIA

MOSCOW -- Poverty and political chaos have surely taken their toll on this
nation. But for a look at what is really corroding Russia's soul, take the
day off and go to the beach.

That is what Muscovites are doing this month, and they are perishing in
numbers that would stagger most Westerners.

In the first 20 days of June, 89 people drowned in Moscow rivers and
reservoirs. Over a long holiday weekend in mid- June, police fished at
least 13 bodies out of Moscow waters every day -- the average number of
daily drownings for the entire United States.

It is not just Moscow's problem. The annual drowning rate for Russia is 8
per 100,000, compared with 1.68 per 100,000 in the United States. Russian
men, who account for the bulk of drownings, die at an annual rate of 1 in
5,700.

"Those are huge numbers -- bigger than the murder rate in the U.S.," said
Philip C. Graitcer, an Emory University professor and author of a paper on
injury rates in the former Soviet Union, referring to the rate for Russian
men. "They're astounding."

But not to most Russians. They already know what autopsies of this month's
drowned Muscovites show in black and white: 94 percent of the victims were
officially drunk when they died.

Alcohol has a death grip on this nation, and the statistics on drownings
and other injuries show vividly how powerful that grip is. Russia has about
twice the rate of fatal injuries, including murders and suicides, that the
United States has. The death rate is roughly 1.5 times as high in Russia
than in the United States for automobile accidents, three times as high for
suicides, and five times as high for poisoning deaths.

Killings are more common in Russia; fatal falls occur more often. Even
Russian women die from drowning at twice the rate of Americans.

But by far the heaviest toll is exacted on men, who statistics show drink
more and die needlessly far more often than practically anywhere on earth.
By some studies, men here drink eight times as much alcohol as do women,
and their death rates from accidents and injuries far exceed those of women
in almost every category -- from fires, for example, by three times; from
alcohol poisoning, by a factor of five.

"It's a terrible tragedy," said Sergei Yermakov, the principal researcher
for the Russian Ministry of Public Health and an expert on mortality. "And
unfortunately, the people who are responsible for social policy -- they
don't understand that all of their forces should be aimed at prevention."

Alcohol has historically been a major problem in Russia, dating to the time
of the czars. As bad as the situation is today, it was far worse just five
years ago when, in statistical terms, Russia bottomed out. From 1990 to
1994, the years when the old Soviet Union and, after its collapse in 1991,
Russia were in the deepest throes of economic and social change, deaths
from almost all causes skyrocketed. The death rate for injuries alone rose
83 percent.

Yermakov and others attribute many, though not all, of those increases to
the growing stresses placed on almost everyone during those days. That,
combined with the end of the government monopoly on alcohol sales,
triggered a huge increase in drinking, especially among men.

"It was the pace of reform," said Vladimir Shkolnikov, a Russian Academy of
Science mathematician who is probably the nation's leading expert on
mortality. "It was labor force turnover, the magnitude of change in the
early '90s."

Curiously, the death statistics have fallen since then, back to the
approximate levels of 1990 -- perhaps because many of the people most
vulnerable to stress simply died off, some experts say. But it must be
remembered that those levels -- and today's -- remain exceedingly high,
Shkolnikov added.