                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994                   TAG: 9404050149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: LIPETSK, RUSSIA                                LENGTH: Short

RUSSIANS DROWNING IN BOOZE

Worn out by the daily battle for survival, impotent in the face of overwhelming economic and social upheaval, more and more Russians are finding solace in an old fashion.

They're getting more drunk than ever.

An epidemic of alcohol abuse is sweeping the nation, with costly consequences.

In Lipetsk, a typical city of 500,000 and the center of a region of 1.2 million, doctors estimate that nearly half the adult male population is alcoholic. And this is a place where they are trying to do something about it.

For Russia, alcohol has become a deadly enemy, although one often overlooked in the general chaos of post-Communist life.

Experts attribute a dramatic drop in life expectancy - unprecedented for a developed country - largely to the steadily rising drinking of the last few years.

Six years ago, life expectancy for Russian men was nearly 65. Now it is 60, heading steadily toward 59.

by CNB