Data for 20 years. Demographic situation in Russia

Headed the Russian state. No one officially noticed the date, but meanwhile this is a good reason to hold the interim results of his reign. During this time, Russia managed to again become the world's breadbasket, as in tsarist times, and even increase industrial production by 1.5 times. What else has changed?

In fact, these holidays went unnoticed important date- 18 years have passed since Vladimir Putin headed the Russian state. No one officially noticed the date, but meanwhile this is a good reason to hold the interim results of Putin's rule.

In the last days of December, experts summed up the results, but limited themselves only to the past 17th year. And here one cannot but agree with the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, who singled out, first of all, his economic successes - after all, Russia emerged from a two-year recession, following the results of the first 10 months, GDP growth amounted to 1.6 percent.

However, the 18th year will be, first and foremost, a federal election year. Therefore, it would be much more interesting to look at a deeper retrospective than one last year. For example, consider what positive developments and changes have taken place in Russia over the past 17 years - since March 2000, when Vladimir Putin was first elected president.

However, as you know, in the status of acting president, Putin headed the country a little earlier - on December 31, 1999.

Economy breaks important records in 18 years

Yes, recent years in the economy have been quite difficult given the sanctions confrontation between the West and Russia, as well as the financial crisis, many of the consequences of which we still feel. However, this crisis has largely been overcome, people have become accustomed to sanctions, and in the long term, serious progress is visible.

It is worth highlighting two economic indicators that were especially painful for our country in the 90s - a huge public debt and inflation that is not inferior to it. Over the past 18 years, a colossal breakthrough has been made in this direction. The debt decreased during this time by as much as 22.7 times - from 69.1% of GDP in 2000 to 3.1% in 2016. Inflation was also defeated. If in 2000 it was 20.2%, then already in 2006, for the first time in recent history Russia fell below 10%, and as of December 4, 2017, it even reached a record 2.5% in annual terms.

Decreased over 18 years and the unemployment rate. This indicator decreased from 10.6% to 5.2% of the economically active population, reaching its historical minimum for our country. For clarity, it should be noted that in the European Union (for which unemployment in recent years is generally a sore subject), it is 7.4%, in the euro area - 8.8%, in France - 9.7%, in Austria - 9.4 %, in Italy - 11.1%, in Spain - 16.38%, in Montenegro - more than 20%, in Greece - 21%.

At the same time, Russia managed to increase its gold and foreign exchange reserves. During the reporting period, our country's international reserves increased by more than 30 times - from $12 billion to $378 billion. The general recovery of the economy also contributed to the growth of its investment attractiveness. Even against the backdrop of the difficulties of recent years due to sanctions pressure, in general, the volume of investments over 18 years has increased by more than 2.5 times.

If these figures look abstract to some, then what could be more real than industrial growth? And it was significant in 2000-2017. The Russian industry demonstrated an increase in production by 55.4%.

Agriculture did not lag behind, which, for some reason, many liberal economists did not stop predicting collapse almost every year. However, the grain harvest almost doubled - from 65.4 million tons in 2000 to 140 million tons in 2017. Moreover, the result of last year was completely breakthrough, as the record 40 years ago was broken (127.4 million tons in 1978). Russia is again the world's largest exporter of wheat and has regained the title of one of the world's leading suppliers of bread, which it held even before the First World War.

Animal husbandry also showed significant progress. The production of pork almost doubled (from 2.2 million tons in 2000 to 4.4 million tons in 2016), 1.3 times - eggs (from 24.2 to 34.4 billion pieces), 6 times - poultry meat (from 1.1 million tons to 6.2 million tons).

Successful military reform

As the president of the Center for Strategic Communications Dmitry Abzalov told the VZGLYAD newspaper, in these 18 years, the successes of the economy, in particular the military-industrial complex, also contributed to the modernization of the armed forces. In addition to increasing the monetary allowance of the military and a general increase in army spending, cardinal reforms were carried out, the army was equipped with the latest models of weapons and equipment. In particular, only in 2017 the level of re-equipment of the army amounted to 62%. Thanks to all this, a radically new image of the Russian Armed Forces was formed, which the world community could see, for example, in Syria.

Another successful area has been the development of information technology, especially in recent years. The level of Russian programmers is confirmed by first places in international competitions. In particular, in 2016, the Russians took all three prizes at the World Programming Olympiad.

The development of the IT segment became possible, firstly, thanks to fundamental science, a technical school, secondly, thanks to the active growth of the domestic market and the achievements of Russian companies in foreign markets Thirdly, thanks to the high development of the necessary infrastructure, for example, Internet access, in our country, said Abzalov.

We got out of the demographic hole

Another important area of ​​our country's life is demographic policy. And, perhaps, it turned out to be no less breakthrough than the economy. Everyone remembers the demographic pit of the 1990s. How is the situation now?

Four years ago, for the first time since 1991, the country reached a positive natural population growth, which amounted to 25 thousand people. In 2000-2016, the birth rate increased one and a half times. If in 2000 it was 8.6 per 1,000 people, then in 2016 it was 12.9, and from January to October last year it was 11.6. If in 2000 only 29% of Russian families had two children, then in 2016 - already 41%. The proportion of third and subsequent births increased from 11% to 19%.

The family support measures taken by the government all these years, such as, for example, the payment of maternity capital, contributed to the increase in the birth rate.

“According to our expert estimates, the measures that were taken in 2006, together with the measures taken in 2011-2012, collectively gave from 2 million to 2.5 million additional births. Without these measures, we most likely would not have had such results, ”Sergey Rybalchenko, general director of the Institute for Scientific and Public Expertise, told Gazeta.ru.

It is difficult to single out the most effective demographic measure - they work as a "package", says Alla Makarentseva, head of the RANEPA Demography and Migration Research Laboratory.

"If speak about recent years, then rather, it is a reduction in the queue for kindergartens and the first steps towards making nursery groups accessible and, in general, establishing a balance between work and raising children - all services related to child care, ”she emphasized.

A huge role in increasing the birth rate was played by a decrease in infant mortality. A set of measures in the field of health, including the opening perinatal centers allowed to reduce its risk by 2.6 times. In 2000, the infant mortality rate was 15.3 per 1,000 births, and in 2017 it was 5.3. And this is a historical minimum for our country. By the way, in the United States in 2016 this figure was 5.8, in Europe - 6.64, in Ukraine - 8, in Georgia - 15.6.

Another important aspect of demographic policy was the increase in life expectancy, which, by the way, also remains an important indirect incentive to increase the birth rate. Total life expectancy for 2000-2016 increased by 6.6 years and reached 71.9 years. And in 2017, for the first time in the history of our country, it reached the mark of 72.6 years.

It is important to note that the death rate from circulatory diseases from 2007 to 2016 decreased by 1.37 times (from 846 per 100 thousand people in 2000 to 616 in 2016). During the same time, the death rate as a result of traffic accidents fell by 1.8 times: from 27 to 15 per 100 thousand of the population.

Medicine has become more technologically advanced

An increase in natural growth and life expectancy, as well as a decrease in infant mortality, are impossible without qualitative changes in the medical field, and this is not only the opening of perinatal centers. Public health care funding from 2000 to 2017 in real terms increased almost 3 times, and in nominal terms - from 204.5 billion rubles in 2000 to almost three trillion in 2017.

Naturally, the increase in funding contributed to the improvement of equipment medical institutions. In 2011-2013, they supplied 389.7 thousand units of various medical equipment. As a result, in just three years, the equipment of medical institutions has increased by 2.5 times. Accordingly, the development of high-tech medical care took place. The number of patients who received such assistance increased 16 times in 2005-2017: from 60,000 to more than 960,000 patients.

In healthcare, an important factor is the creation of high-tech medical centers, says Dmitry Abzalov. If earlier one had to go to Moscow for high-tech medical care, then recently the corresponding centers have appeared in many federal districts, which has significantly improved the infrastructure, he stressed.

A large-scale free medical examination which also contributes to the improvement of the population. The number of people who passed it increased by 3.9 times from 2008 to 2015: from 5.8 million to 22.5 million people.

In addition, the fleet of ambulance vehicles is being significantly updated (2,307 vehicles in 2016, another 1,446 in 2017). At the same time, the traditionally difficult situation with medical institutions in rural areas began to improve. Since 2000, more than 5 thousand medical units have been put into operation in the villages, 369 of them in 2017.

No more queues for kindergarten

Over the years, queues for kindergartens have been almost completely eliminated. Since 2012, about 800 thousand places have been created in kindergartens. As a result, the enrollment of children in preschool educational institutions rose from 64.6% in 2014 to almost 100% in 2017.

Improvements also affected the quality of education. In particular, last year a record was set for the number of students who received the maximum 300 points on the USE, and the number of those who did not overcome the minimum threshold for the USE, on the contrary, decreased by half. In addition, if in 2001 Russian students elementary school occupied 16th place in the international study of reading literacy, then in 2016 they already rose to the first.

Expenditures on science also increased. Funding for civilian science from the federal budget has grown by almost 20 times (from 17.4 billion rubles in 2000 to almost 350 billion in 2017), and funding for fundamental research has grown 14 times (from 8.2 to 117.5 billion rubles) . All this contributed to an increase in the number of young scientists (under the age of 39). Since 2000, their number has increased by 1.5 times and today makes up 43% of the total number of researchers.

In addition to education and science, attention was also paid to culture. For example, many new museums have opened. From 2001 to 2016, the number of public and private museums in the country increased from 2027 to 2742, while museums began to receive much more visitors - from 476 to 857 visits per 1000 inhabitants.

At the same time, there was also an increase in interest in art among children. The number of children enrolled in art schools increased by 234 thousand people in ten years, and in 2015 their number exceeded 1.5 million stability, says Dmitry Abzalov. Although changes in oil prices during these years also played a big role, he noted, the chosen economic course was also important, the targeted development of specific industries, for example, the military-industrial complex, the IT segment, or the agro-industrial complex, the expert summed up.

MOSCOW, February 8 - RIA Novosti. The post-Soviet era is considered to be a time of deep crisis in domestic science However, in the 1990s and later, Russian scientists managed to obtain world-class scientific results.

In honor of the Day of Russian Science, the RIA Novosti agency conducted a large-scale survey of experts and compiled a list of the most important and most striking discoveries made by Russian scientists over the past 20 years. This list does not pretend to be complete and objective; it does not include many discoveries, but it does give an idea of ​​the scale of what has been done in post-Soviet science.

superheavy elements

It was in the post-Soviet era that Russian scientists took the lead in the race for the superheavy elements of the periodic table. From 2000 to 2010, physicists from the Flerov laboratory at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, near Moscow, synthesized for the first time the six heaviest elements with atomic numbers from 113 to 118.

Two of them are already officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and. The application for the discovery of elements 113, 115, 117 is still being considered by IUPAC.

“It is possible that one of the new elements will be given the name Muscovy,” Andrey Popeko, deputy director of Flerov’s laboratory, told RIA Novosti.

Exawatt lasers

Russia has created a technology that allows you to get the most powerful light radiation on Earth. In 2006, the PEARL (PEtawatt pARametric Laser) facility was built at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, based on the technology of parametric light amplification in nonlinear optical crystals. This installation gave out an impulse with a power of 0.56 petawatts, which is hundreds of times greater than the power of all power plants on Earth.

Now IAP is planning to increase the power of PEARL to 10 petawatts. In addition, it is planned, which involves the creation of a laser with a power of up to 200 petawatts, and in the future - up to 1 exawatt.

Such laser systems will make it possible to study extreme physical processes. In addition, they can be used to initiate thermonuclear reactions in targets; they can be used to create laser neutron sources with unique properties.

Heavy duty magnetic fields

Physicists from Russian nuclear center in Sarov, under the leadership of Alexander Pavlovsky, in the early 1990s, they developed a method for obtaining record-breaking powerful magnetic fields.

With the help of explosive magnetocumulative generators, where the blast wave "squeezed" the magnetic field, they managed to obtain a field value of 28 megagauss. This value is an absolute record for an artificially obtained magnetic field, it is hundreds of millions of times higher than the strength of the Earth's magnetic field.

Using such magnetic fields, one can study the behavior of matter under extreme conditions, in particular, the behavior of superconductors.

Oil and gas will not run out

The press and environmentalists regularly remind us that oil and gas reserves will soon - in 70-100 years - come to an end, this may lead to the collapse of modern civilization. However, scientists from the Gubkin Russian University of Oil and Gas argue that this is not the case.

Through experiments and theoretical calculations, they proved that oil and gas can be formed not as a result of the decomposition of organic substances, as the generally accepted theory says, but in an abiogenic (non-biological) way. They found that in the upper mantle of the Earth, at depths of 100-150 kilometers, there are conditions for the synthesis of complex hydrocarbon systems.

"This fact allows us to speak of natural gas (at least) as a renewable and inexhaustible source of energy," Professor Vladimir Kucherov from Gubkin University told RIA Novosti.

Lake Vostok

Perhaps the last major geographical discovery on Earth belongs to Russian scientists - the discovery of the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica. In 1996, together with British colleagues, they discovered it using seismic sounding and radar observations.

Drilling a well at Vostok station allowed Russian scientists to obtain unique data on the climate on Earth over the past half a million years. They were able to determine how temperature and CO2 concentration changed in the distant past.

In 2012, a Russian polar explorer managed for the first time to penetrate this relic lake, which was isolated from the outside world for about a million years. The study of water samples from it, perhaps, will lead to and will allow us to draw conclusions about the possibility of the existence of life outside the Earth - for example, on Jupiter's moon Europa.

Mammoths - contemporaries of the ancient Greeks

Mammoths were contemporaries of the Cretan civilization and became extinct already in historical time, and not in the Stone Age, as previously thought.

In 1993, Sergei Vartanyan and his colleagues discovered the remains of pygmy mammoths, whose height did not exceed 1.8 meters, on Wrangel Island, which, apparently, was the last refuge of this species.

Radiocarbon dating, carried out with the participation of specialists from the Faculty of Geography of St. Petersburg University, showed that mammoths lived on this island until 2000 BC. Until that moment, it was believed that the last mammoths lived in Taimyr 10 thousand years ago, but new data have shown that mammoths existed during the Minoan culture in Crete, the construction of Stonehenge and the 11th dynasty of the Egyptian pharaohs.

The third kind of people

The work of Siberian archaeologists under the leadership of Academician Anatoly Derevyanko made it possible to discover a new, third kind of human beings.

Until now, scientists were aware of the two highest species of ancient people - Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. However, in 2010, a study of DNA from bones showed that 40 thousand years ago in Eurasia, a third species lived with them, named Denisovans.

Methane and water on Mars

Although Russia failed to carry out successful independent interplanetary missions in the post-Soviet period, Russian scientific instruments on American and European probes and ground-based observations have brought unique data about other planets.

In particular, in 1999, Vladimir Krasnopolsky from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and his colleagues, using an infrared spectrometer at the Hawaiian CFHT telescope, first recorded absorption lines of methane on Mars. This discovery was a sensation, because on Earth the main source of methane in the atmosphere are living beings. These data were then confirmed by measurements from the European Mars Express probe. Although the Curiosity rover has not yet confirmed the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere, this search does.

The Russian HAND instrument aboard the Mars-Odyssey spacecraft, developed under the direction of Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has shown for the first time that there are huge reserves of subsurface water ice near the poles of Mars and even at mid-latitudes.

© State Astronomical Institute. PC. Sternberg Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov/ Zhanna Rodionova

He began his work by comparing mythological motifs among the natives of Siberia and America, and then included in his research data on the cultures of almost all the peoples of the world, which made it possible to draw an impressive picture of the primary settlement of people around the globe.

He proved that there are stable coincidences of certain mythological motifs in certain regions, which correlate with the most ancient movements of primitive tribes, which is confirmed by archeological and genetic data.

"Thus, we have - for the first time in the history of science - a method for a relatively accurate assessment of the time of existence of the components of the oral tradition, which solves a number of central problems of folklore or, at least, gives researchers a guideline for subsequent research," the professor told RIA Novosti. Sergei Neklyudov from the Russian State University for the Humanities.

Millennium Challenge

Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman in 2002 proved the Poincaré conjecture - one of the seven "millennium problems" from the list of the Clay Institute of Mathematics. The hypothesis itself was formulated back in 1904, and its essence boils down to the fact that a three-dimensional object without through holes is topologically equivalent to a sphere.

Perelman was able to prove this hypothesis, but he received unprecedented popularity in the media when he received $ 1 million from the Clay Institute for this proof.

How the country has changed over the 18 years of Putin's presidency

On these holidays, a really important date slipped by imperceptibly - 18 years since Putin headed the Russian state. No one officially marked the date, but meanwhile this is a good reason to sum up the interim results. After all, during this time, Russia managed to again become the world's breadbasket, as in tsarist times, and even increased industrial production by one and a half times. What else has changed?

In the last days of December, experts summed up the results, but limited themselves only to the past 17th year. And here one cannot but agree with the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, who singled out, first of all, his economic successes, because Russia emerged from a two-year recession, following the results of the first 10 months, GDP growth amounted to 1.6 percent.

However, the 18th year will be, first and foremost, a federal election year. Therefore, it would be much more interesting to look at more deep retrospective than one past year. For example, consider what positive developments and changes have taken place in Russia since Vladimir Putin was first elected president in March 2000.

However, as you know, in the status of acting president, Putin headed the country a little earlier - on December 31, 1999.

Economy breaks important records in 18 years

Yes, recent years in the economy have been quite difficult, given the sanctions confrontation between the West and Russia, as well as the financial crisis, many of the consequences of which we still feel. However, this crisis has largely been overcome, we have become accustomed to sanctions, and in the long term we can see serious progress.

It is worth highlighting two economic indicators that were especially painful for our country in the 90s - a huge public debt and inflation that is not inferior to it. Over the past 18 years, a colossal breakthrough has been made in this direction. The debt decreased during this time by as much as 22.7 times - from 69.1% of GDP in 2000 to 3.1% in 2016 Inflation was also defeated. If in 2000 it was 20.2%, then already in 2006, for the first time in the modern history of Russia, it fell below 10%, and as of December 4, 2017, it reached a record 2.5% in annual terms.

Decreased over 18 years and the unemployment rate. This indicator decreased from 10.6% to 5.2% of the economically active population, reaching its historical minimum for our country. For clarity, it should be noted that in the European Union (for which unemployment in recent years is generally a sick topic), it is 7.4%, in the euro area - 8.8%, in France - 9.7%, in Austria - 9.4% , in Italy - 11.1%, in Spain - 16.38%, in Montenegro - more than 20%, in Greece - 21%.

At the same time, Russia managed to increase its gold reserves. During the reporting period, the international reserves of our country grew by more than 30 times - from 12 to 378 billion dollars. The general recovery of the economy also contributed to the growth of its investment attractiveness. Even against the backdrop of the difficulties of recent years due to sanctions pressure, in general, the volume of investments increased by more than 2.5 times.

If these figures look abstract to some, then what could be more real than industrial growth? And it was significant in 2000-2017. Russian industry has demonstrated increase in production by 55.4%.

Animal husbandry also showed significant progress. The production of pork almost doubled (from 2.2 million tons in 2000 to 4.4 million tons in 2016), 1.3 times - eggs (from 24.2 to 34.4 billion pieces), 6 times - poultry meat (from 1.1 million tons to 6.2 million tons).

Successful military reform

Dmitry Abzalov, president of the Center for Strategic Communications, told the VZGLYAD newspaper that during these 18 years, the successes of the economy, in particular the military-industrial complex, also contributed to the modernization of the armed forces. In addition to increasing the monetary allowance of the military and a general increase in army spending, cardinal reforms were carried out, the army was equipped the latest weapons and equipment. In particular, only in 2017 the level of re-equipment of the army amounted to 62%. Thanks to all this, a radically new image of the Russian Armed Forces was formed, which the world community could see, for example, in Syria.

Another successful area has been the development of information technology, especially in recent years. The level of Russian programmers is confirmed by first places in international competitions. In particular, in 2016, the Russians took all three prizes at the World Programming Olympiad.

The development of the IT segment became possible, firstly, thanks to fundamental science, a technical school, and secondly, thanks to the active growth of the domestic market and the achievements of Russian companies in foreign markets. Thirdly, due to the high development of the necessary infrastructure, such as Internet access, in our country, Abzalov emphasized.

We got out of the demographic hole

Another important sphere of life in our country is demographic policy. And, perhaps, it turned out to be no less breakthrough than the economy. Everyone remembers the demographic pit of the 1990s. How is the situation now?

Four years ago, for the first time since 1991, the country reached a positive natural population growth, which amounted to 25 thousand people. Between 2000 and 2016, the birth rate increased one and a half times. If in 2000 it was 8.6 per 1,000 people, then in 2016 it was 12.9, and from January to October last year it was 11.6. If in 2000 only 29% of Russian families had two children, then in 2016 - already 41%. The proportion of third and subsequent births increased from 11% to 19%.

Measures contributed to the increase in the birth rate family support accepted by the government all these years, such as, for example, the payment of maternity capital.

“According to our expert estimates, the measures that were taken in 2006, together with the measures taken in 2011-2012, gave from 2 million to 2.5 million additional births. Without these measures, we most likely would not have had such results, ” Sergey Rybalchenko, director general of the Institute for Scientific and Public Expertise, told Gazeta.ru.

It is difficult to single out the most effective demographic measure - they work as a “package”, says Alla Makartseva, head of the RANEPA Demography and Migration Research Laboratory.

“If we talk about recent years, then, rather, this is a decline waiting lists for kindergartens and the first steps towards making nurseries accessible and generally balancing work and parenting – all services related to childcare,” she stressed.

played an important role in increasing the birth rate reduction in infant mortality. A set of measures in the health sector, including the opening of perinatal centers, made it possible to reduce its risk by 2.6 times. In 2000, the infant mortality rate was 15.3 per 1,000 births, and in 2017 it was 5.3. And this historical minimum for our country. By the way, in the United States in 2016 this figure was 5.8, in Europe - 6.64, in Ukraine - 8, in Georgia - 15.6.

Another important aspect of population policy was increase in life expectancy, which, by the way, also remains an important indirect incentive to increase the birth rate. Total life expectancy for 2000-2016 increased by 6.6 years and reached 71.9 years. And in 2017, for the first time in the history of our country, it reached the mark of 72.6 years.

It is important to note that the mortality rate from circulatory diseases from 2007 to 2016 decreased by 1.37 times (from 846 per 100 thousand people in 2000 to 616 in 2016). During the same time, the death rate as a result of traffic accidents fell by 1.8 times: from 27 to 15 per 100 thousand of the population.

Medicine has become more technologically advanced

An increase in natural growth and life expectancy, as well as a decrease in infant mortality, are impossible without qualitative changes in the medical field, and this is not only the opening of perinatal centers. From 2000 to 2017, government funding for health care almost tripled in real terms, and in nominal terms, from 204.5 billion rubles in 2000 to almost three trillion in 2017.

Not only the health of the population has been improving in the last 18 years, but also its literacy. And it is worth starting here with increasing the availability of education.

Over the years, almost completely liquidated queues in kindergartens. Since 2012, about 800 thousand places have been created in kindergartens. As a result, the enrollment of children in preschool educational institutions rose from 64.6% in 2014 to almost up to 100% in 2017.

Improvements also affected the quality of education. In particular, last year a record was set for the number of students who received the maximum 300 points on the USE, and the number of those who did not overcome the minimum threshold for the USE, on the contrary, decreased by half. In addition, if in 2001 Russian elementary school students ranked 16th in the international study of reading literacy, in 2016 they have already risen to the first place.

Increased spending on science. Funding for civilian science from the federal budget has grown by almost 20 times (from 17.4 billion rubles in 2000 to almost 350 billion in 2017), and funding for fundamental research has grown 14 times (from 8.2 to 117.5 billion rubles) . All this contributed to an increase in the number of young scientists (under the age of 39). Since 2000, their number has increased by 1.5 times and today makes up 43% of the total number of researchers.

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Modern Russians are no longer the same as they were 100 years ago: they have grown significantly and began to live longer, but at the same time they have noticeably grown fat and weakened. What is the reason for the cardinal changes in the Russian gene pool?

frightening evolution

People change quickly, literally within 100 years changes are visible to the eye. It is enough to look at old photographs to understand: we are completely different. The habitat, lifestyle, habits, psyche, mentality are changing, and after them, physiology. We have become taller, bigger and heavier.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous studies have been carried out, in which it has been established that a person has noticeably evolved over the past 100 years. But, as it turned out, this process has not only positive, but also negative dynamics. According to scientists, this was expressed both in mental and in physiological aspects. Technical progress, automation and computerization have led to the fact that people have become much more inactive.

But modern people not only move less, but also work less. Physical labor is no longer the main source of material wealth. So, if in Russia in 1913 there was a 6-day working week with a 10-hour working day, today the average Russian works 5 days a week and no more than 8 hours a day.

According to doctors, it was inactivity that led to a decrease in fertility and endurance. However, the birth rate not only decreased, but also changed the sex ratio: on the eve of the revolution in Russia, 99 women were born per 100 men, today 116 representatives of the weak are born per 100 of the stronger sex.

In addition, the microevolution of the 20th century influenced intelligence. A person has significantly expanded his horizons, his knowledge has become more diverse. However, despite the fact that 100 years ago in Russia there were 78% of literate people, and today this number reaches 99.75%, the IQ of our contemporary has decreased by an average of 14 points.

Richer and richer

According to WHO, about 30% of the world's population suffers from obesity, while 100 years ago obesity was a phenomenon out of the ordinary. It's all to blame, according to nutritionists, an excess of available and harmful products nutrition.

In addition, the obesity of our bodies is no less associated with an increase in the level of comfort, - Vasily Simchera, ex-director of the Research Institute of Statistics of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, is sure. He notes that the standard of living of Russians has grown over a hundred years, according to various estimates, by 15-25 times, and mortality today is about half that in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Over the past 100 years, the consumption of goods and services has been growing in Russia at a high rate. In key positions (clothing, shoes), growth exceeds 10-15 times, the volume of food consumption increased by 4.5 times over this period. The average Russian began to eat many times more meat, fish, vegetable oil and sugar.

The meager consumption of meat and fish 100 years ago was compensated primarily by potatoes and bread. If in 1913 a Russian ate 114 kg of potatoes and 200 kg of bread a year, then at the beginning of the 21st century these figures were 66 and 101 kg, respectively.

The current Russian has become noticeably heavier than his ancestor, even compared to 40 years ago, he has grown heavier by an average of 15-17%. If our ancestors experienced famine times (and almost everyone has such), then the excess of accumulated energy can “surface” in the descendants in the form of excess weight.

An interesting observation was made by American researchers. They found that up to 25% of those who manage stress with medication gain an average of 4-5 kilograms in weight.

Weaker but longer

Anthropologist, chief researcher at the Higher School of Economics Andrey Korotaev notes that, compared with the Russians of the early twentieth century, we gained an average of 10-15 kg, while the calorie content of our diet increased by 1000 kcal. However, we are becoming weaker, says Korotaev: if in the 1930s a 17-year-old boy from a village near Moscow could pull bags weighing up to 50 kg, then today his peers can hardly lift 35 kg.

Over the past 100 years, life expectancy has increased significantly, by an average of 40 years. This is primarily due to the higher level of medical care. As Karataev says, we could live half a century longer if such negative factors as insufficient diagnostics and poor quality treatment, poor ecology, lack of movement and sleep, poor nutrition, as well as tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

The 100-year distance placed other accents on the causes of death, as the etymology of human diseases has changed. If earlier people died more often from infections and injuries, now from cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

“Life expectancy is increasing, but at an increasingly slow pace, and there is no need to expect a breakthrough in this area, since the effect of new medical technologies has already been exhausted,” Korotaev notes. “However, it is Russia that has room to grow here: since 2005, our country has been in first place in terms of reducing the mortality rate, and the expected increase in life expectancy is the highest among developed countries.”

Grow up

Not so long ago, the famous Russian anthropologist Denis Pozhemsky carried out a reconstruction human body on the basis of archaeological excavations and found that in the XVI-XVII centuries the average growth of the male population of Novgorod was 165 cm, and women - 151 cm.

The publicist Boris Mironov, on the basis of written sources, determined that the average height of Russian recruits at the beginning of the 18th century reached 165 cm. However, we ourselves can verify this by evaluating the armor or uniforms of Russian warriors stored in the museum.

Humanity is constantly growing. Its growth was especially intensive in the second half of the 20th century. According to WHO, the average height in Russia in the 60s of the XX century was 168 cm, today it is 178.

However, already in the early 1980s, in most groups of the urban population of the USSR, the process of acceleration began to fade. By the beginning of the 1990s, according to the observations of anthropologists, in Moscow children, the increase in body length and weight, as well as girth chest, almost stopped, and then was replaced by a decrease in indicators.

What is it connected with? Scientists consider the economic stability of society to be the main factor, which at the beginning of the 20th century depended primarily on productivity, and in recent decades on the state of the financial and economic system.

In the generation whose childhood, mainly their first year, fell on a favorable time, there will be higher anthropometric indicators, sociologists and anthropologists have come to the conclusion. Mironov associates changes in anthropometric indicators with the satisfaction of basic human needs - food, clothing, medical care, rest.

One of the largest studies of the anthropometric data of the Russian population was carried out in 1974 by researchers at Moscow State University. According to its data, it can be seen that throughout the 20th century, the country's population growth gradually increased, interspersed with short-term recessions.

For example, over 42 years - from 1916 to 1957 - body length decreased 23 times and increased 19 times compared to the previous year, and weight - 24 and 18 times, respectively. Which is not surprising, since these were difficult years: revolution, civil conflict, collectivization, industrialization and the Great Patriotic War. A noticeable jump in anthropometric indicators occurred at the end of the 40s.

According to modern research, in the 1960s-1970s, the average height of men in the USSR was 168 cm, women - 157 cm. The peak of acceleration processes occurred in the 1950s-1980s. In 20 ethnic groups Soviet Union, including among Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tatars and Bashkirs, the average height increased by almost 3 cm. By the beginning of the 90s, the average height of men in Russia was 176 cm, and women - 164 cm.

Russians, but not those

The 20th century is a time of unprecedented integration and assimilation processes that have overwhelmed our society as well. The number of mixed marriages during this period increased significantly compared to the 19th century. More recently, specialists from the Genotek laboratory tried to find out who the modern Russian is from the point of view of genetics.

They formed an ethnic portrait of the average Russian by analyzing the DNA tests of more than 2,000 people, mostly residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Simferopol. According to CEO Genotek Valery Ilyinsky, with this experiment, scientists wanted to make people think about their origin.

The study gave sensational results: it turned out that modern Russians are only 16% Russian, everything else is a mosaic made up of fragments of genomes characteristic of the inhabitants of other regions. It turns out that we have inherited genome fragments from a total of 36 ethnic groups. Belarusians and Ukrainians contributed 19.2% to our genetic baggage, Finns 13.1%, Hungarians 6.3%, Balkan peoples 5.5%. Russians have a share of the Caucasian, Asian and even British genome.

According to Valery Ilyinsky, these 16% indicate that Russia has become a big melting pot of nations. In our country, as in the USA, there is a mix of different DNA fragments from different sources. Scientists also determined that the map of the area where the Russian genotype was preserved to the greatest extent corresponds to the borders of the state of the era of Ivan the Terrible.