How Russian people have changed in a hundred years (6 photos)

Russian people are no longer what they were at the beginning of the 20th century. If we just look at photographs from different periods, we cannot help but notice this.

Such different people

If we look at photographs of our compatriots from the beginning and even the middle of the 20th century, we cannot help but notice that modern Russians are seriously different from their predecessors. There is a difference in height and weight, even in movements and facial expressions.

There really are differences. And not only the Russians. The anthropometric indicators of a people are not a constant value. Height, weight, figure, and even plastic surgery can be influenced by nutrition, the political system, economic stability, and epidemics. Wars have a serious impact on the anthropometric indicators of the population.

We will not go deep into history. In addition, data, for example, on the average height of Russians until the middle of the 20th century is not systematic. Although, we still know something. The historical and anthropological reconstruction of Denis Pezhemsky, which was carried out on the basis of archaeological excavations, showed that in the 16th-17th centuries the height of the male population of Novgorod was 165 cm, and the female population was 151 cm. According to written sources analyzed in the study of Boris Mironov, the average height of Russian recruits the beginning of the 18th century reached 165 cm. That is, before Russian people were shorter. You can come to the same conclusion if you look at the armor of warriors in any museum.

What determines height and weight?

What does average population growth depend on? The main factor can be considered the economic stability of society, which in the old days directly correlated with productivity. To simplify, the generation whose childhood, and most importantly, the first year of life, fell at a favorable time, will have higher anthropometric indicators. For a person’s growth, the first year of life can be considered critical; it is much more important than, for example, the twentieth year, since it is in the first year that the greatest increase in growth occurs.

According to anthropologist Boris Mironov, human height depends on the net difference between energy consumed from nutrition and energy expended on needs during life. The growth can be said to reflect the story of net consumption.

Mironov connects changes in anthropometric indicators with the satisfaction of the so-called basic human needs (food, clothing, medical care, and so on). The final average height of a person depends on the degree of satisfaction of basic values. The better these needs are met, the higher the average height of people will be.

How have Russians changed over the past century?

Acceleration

In general, it can be argued that throughout almost the entire 20th century, Russians became taller. Sociologists associate this with global acceleration changes. However, already in the early 1980s, in most groups of the urban population of the USSR, the acceleration process began to fade. By the beginning of the 1990s, in Moscow children, the increase in body length and weight, as well as chest girth, practically stopped, and then was replaced by a decrease in indicators.

The largest study of anthropometric data of the Russian population was conducted in 1974 at Moscow State University. Based on its results, it can be seen that throughout the 20th century, the average growth of the country’s population gradually increased, but short-term “recessions” also occurred, associated primarily with the period of collectivization and the deterioration of living conditions. Over 42 years, from 1916 to 1957, body length decreased 23 times compared to the previous year and increased 19 times, and weight - 24 and 18 times, respectively.

In all the graphs that anthropologists cite as the results of their work, it is clear that the most serious “jump” in growth began already in the post-war period, at the end of the 1940s.

In 1960-1970, the average height of men in the Soviet Union was 168 cm, women - 157 cm. In the 1950-1980s, acceleration processes became even more noticeable among post-war generations. In 20 ethnic groups of the USSR, including Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tatars and Bashkirs, the average height increased by almost 3 cm. If you look at the data only for Russia, then by the beginning of the 90s the average height of men was 176 cm, and women - 164 cm.

Eras of change

If we consider the main factors for the decline in anthropometric data of the Russian population, then it would be appropriate to talk about the direct dependence of height and weight indicators on the political stability of the state. The most negative impact is exerted by global reforms, which have been carried out more than once in Russian history. According to the same Boris Mironov, “Reforms require large amounts of money, are accompanied by a disruption of the usual way of life, changes in norms of behavior and value systems, and a temporary deterioration in the functioning of all social institutions and structures.” Thus, it can be argued that children born in the 90s may be shorter than they would have been if they had been born in calmer times.

What influences?

We must admit it as a given: people change. A modern person could have been recognized a century ago without any documents. Urbanization, better nutrition, the development of medicine - all this makes a person literally taller and heavier. And not only in Russia.

Today's average growth rate in Europe is 11 cm, in Spain - 12 cm. At the moment, the tallest nation is the Dutch. The average height of men there is 1.85 m. It is interesting that during the Second World War the Americans held the palm (1.77 m), but after the mid-twentieth century in the United States the dynamics of population growth stopped. According to WHO, the average height in Russia in the 60s of the 20th century was 1.68, today it is 1.78.

But it is too early to rejoice. Despite the fact that we are growing, other important indicators are lagging behind us compared to our ancestors. According to research presented by Moscow State University anthropologists, today's teenagers are much weaker than their peers from the 30s of the twentieth century. Measurements carried out on a simple strength meter showed that the average Moscow schoolchild in the last century squeezed 55 kilograms, today the average has dropped to 36. This is the “bell”. We hope for the GTO.