Concentration of mortality increase among manual workers in soviet Latvia and Russia

Elwood Carlson, Florida State University
Evgeni Andreev, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Rasmus Hoffmann, University of Rostock
Tatiana Kharkova, Russian Academy of Science
Vladimir Shkolnikov, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

New data from the Russian State Archive of Economics makes it possible to compare mortality trends in Latvia and several urban areas of Russia with the concentration of rising male mortality among blue-collar workers already found in several eastern European countries. A similar trend appears in these data for rising mortality to concentrate among blue-collar workers over time, but the Soviet case also exhibits several important differences from other eastern European countries. The differences may have to do with the longer state-socialist period in Russia, as well as with differences in the course of economic development.