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Official Statistics Section meeting Wednesday 28th April at the RSS, 12 Errol St. London EC1Y 8LX. Tea at 1630 for 1700 meeting. Vladimir Shkolnikov, Russian Academy of Sciences. Russian mortality: trends, patterns and social dimensions. The paper presents evidence from analysis of changes in Russian mortality categorised according to gender, age, cause of death, geographic region, and to socio-demographic characteristics. The analysis suggest that the dramatic mortality upsurge in the 1990s cannot be mainly attributed to such factors as absolute deprivation, collapse of the health system or environmental pollution. Psychological stress caused by the shock of an abrupt and painful economic transition is likely to have played a major role - supplemented by the adverse health effects of excessive alcohol consumption. Comparatively low mortality among people with high education and among women suggests that some sectors of population are doing substantially better under the same macroscopic conditions - probably indicating the important role of behavioral factors. Discussant: David Coleman, Reader in Demography, Oxford University *************************** COMMENT BY RAY THOMAS The subject matter of this talk may not be as remote as it seems. The transition to a market economy in Russia in the 1990s has parallels with the transition to a market economy in Britain in the 1980s. The problems in Russia can be interpreted as gross magnification of the health and social problems in Britain. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%