Alarming situation of the Russian population

Résumé du document

The article "a sickness of soul" was published in 'The Economist' in 2006; this article dealt with the dire demographic situation in Russia. First, I will present the alarming situation of the Russian population and the causes of such a disaster, then the consequences of the demographic collapse. As a conclusion, I will criticize the article as i perceive it to be a biased work.

Extraits

[...] They adopt the ideology of the Third Reich, though it is a paradox because Hitler saw the Slavic as slaves. The police and the government are powerless or pretend to be so. Russians fear as well the “yellow peril”. The Siberian border is incredibly long and it can't be controlled. Many Chinese migrants quit the poor provinces of the north to find a job in Russia. The population of Siberia leaves cities as Irkutsk, where unemployment and poverty are the rule. [...]

[...] Alcoholism was sprawling at the time of the USSR. Gorbatchev tried to rein alcohol consumption in the eighties but with few effects. It has still grown since 1991. In Irkutsk, many children start to drink alcohol at thirteen. Moreover, the spirits drunk are often moonshine and therefore dangerous. Alcoholism tends to become endemic. The attitude of the Russian health system toward this plague is emblematic. There is no prevention, in particular for the children who are the most vulnerable, nor services in hospitals to take care of those who want to stop. [...]

[...] Russia lost its points of reference. Such a situation causes despair and anomie in a society. Alcohol or drugs are a way to evade from a difficult every-day life. In my opinion, this is the real cause of the demographic decline of Russia. It is the journalist's too. That's why he entitles his article sickness of soul”. Population decreases in Russia because of the mentality in the country. The collapse of the USSR created such a trauma that Russia is still shocked. [...]

[...] The journalist is, for me, too subjective. First, he focuses on the situation in Siberia and generalises it to the whole Russia. Nevertheless, the two are a bit different. Siberia is the poorest part of Russia. It is far of the centre, which is west of the Ural Mountains. The region has been forgotten by the federal State. Unemployment is the rule because the huge soviet conglomerates have been dismantled when USSR crashed down. The Soviet Union sent pioneers in its far marshes. [...]

[...] Alarming situation of the Russian population Summary The article a sickness of soul has been published in the Economist, in 2006. It deals about the demographic situation in Russia, which is dire. First, I will present the alarming situation of the Russian population and the causes of such a disaster, then the consequences of the demographic collapse. As a conclusion, I will criticize the article, because it is, for me, partial. Russia is a powerful nation. It was the leader of the Eastern Bloc in the Cold War. [...]