Russia: Marx, Lenin, and the Death of an Illusion - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 142

of civil and contract law. And a number of recent policy moves in the international arena
suggest a possible return to Soviet-style Cold War-like behavior on the foreign policy front.
Partly because of difficult economic times and partly because workers' families are
uncertain of the future, Russia's population is shrinking. It stood at 143 million in 2010,
down by four million since 1989. Life expectancy has also dropped. Hospital treatment is
available mostly to the better off. (Something on the order of only one in three hospital
beds is occupied.) In 1990 male life expectancy was sixty-four years; in 2010 expectancy
had fallen to sixty-three. Significantly, the decline is not attributed to an earlier death at
life's end, but to death at middle age, as Russia's men fall prey to alcoholism, industrial
accidents, and disease. Children's illness is on the rise; the diet of poor children suffers the
constriction of rising prices. And many will also suffer the long-term effects of salt without
iodine additives—the cost of additives puts them beyond the family budget. Despair prob-
ably falls most heavily on the elderly, as Russia's pension system fails to keep up with in-
flation. In Soviet days, pensions for retired workers, while far from generous, were at least
stable. In 2003 the average retiree collected a pension of 1901 rubles, or $63 per month.
Despair feeds on itself. And both inside and outside Russia, this disheartening state of af-
fairs is often described as The Great Devastation [130] . In 2013, the average pension was
$285. [131]
On the positive side, private ownership of property is now widespread; citizens live
and work in relative freedom. Public opinion polls show that while Russia's older popula-
tion looks back with longing on the predictability of their former lives, its younger popula-
tion is more sanguine about its future.
At the same time, change is afoot in Russia, as the leadership has been showing signs
of returning to some old ways associated with the Soviet era. Catherine the Great believed
that Russia was so vast and its people so contentious that only a strong ruler would suffice.
In the past several years, Vladimir Putin has appeared to take Catherine's words to heart as
he has moved toward reestablishing a strong centrally controlled state. He disempowered
regional governments and crushed those oligarchs who did not heed his insistence that they
stay out of politics. And on the foreign front, he has adopted a very aggressive strategy re-
miniscent of the Cold War era. Most recently, this assertiveness has led to major interferen-
ce in Ukraine, taking over the Crimea and using Russian soldiers in disguised uniforms to
extinguish Ukraine's attempts to become free of Russian control and join Western Europe
through trade agreements and the like. At present and despite protests of the United States
and Western European powers, Putin appears to be winning his way. [132]