The author explores reasons and indicators for the high morbidity and mortality rates of Eastern Europe and the USSR during the period 1965 to 1985. "Epidemiological reasoning would prompt profound questions about the impact of governance on health conditions in these areas. The populations...have different languages, cultures and histories....[and] vary in material and technical attainment. The most obvious common characteristic of these countries is that they have all been ruled by Marxist-Leninist states.... After more than two decades of health decline...it is perhaps not premature to inquire into whether the health problems evidenced in these countries might be in part systemic."
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