![]() They once again face a failed war, broken society, and national humiliation. Today’s Russians once again struggle with growing violence, economic instability, and a flood of mentally and physically broken veterans. The preponderance of death made visible at the country’s cemeteries isn’t the only way Russia is returning to the 1990s. The fatality numbers are astonishing: By even the most conservative estimates, in a single year of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has already lost more men than in the 10-year Soviet-Afghan War and First Chechen War- combined. Some of them were born in 2000 or later, in the early years of Putin’s reign. Instead of a few kitschy mausoleums, there are dozens and often hundreds of fresh mounds of earth with simple, identical crosses bearing men’s names. ![]() Today, there are fresh graveyard lots across Russia, some covering an area as large as several football fields. These and other factors, including mass emigration, contributed to a period of unprecedented demographic decline: Each year between 19, Russia’s population decreased by several hundred thousand people, reaching the nadir of almost 1 million in 2000, Putin first full year in power. Life expectancy for Russian men rapidly sank. Amid general destitution and growing inequality, criminal anarchy, shootouts between rival gangs, and revenge bombings were a regular occurrence. 31, 1999, bookended a decade which indeed contained many elements of collapsing statehood. They regularly feature in his state of the union speeches, annual press conferences, and interviews. The idea that Putin pulled Russia out of that era is one of his most consistent political campaign messages his official website,, contains dozens of derogatory remarks about the chaotic 1990s in Russia. While these graveyards and the wave of death they represent are the subject of morbid fascination for the rest of the world, in Russia itself they are reminders of an era of national disgrace and humiliation, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned on many occasions. They died during the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union-victims of crime and violence, mainly, but also of disease, alcoholism, and drug abuse. A common feature at cemeteries outside many midsize Russian cities and towns is a separate necropolis of headstones bearing the names of (mostly) young men who perished sometime between 19.
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