Historian Receives Grant From National Institutes of Health and National Library of Medicine

Image design by Amy Evans

The National Institutes of Health and National Library of Medicine have awarded Distinguished Professor of History Trish Starks a $50,000 grant to write a book on the history of population health in Russia over the course of the 20th century.

In Save the Men! Russian Male Health in Crisis from the Revolution to Today, Starks will outline how the Russian and Soviet governments have battled a century of demographic decline and attempted to overcome a dramatic sex imbalance brought on not just by wars, famine and oppression, but also through horrific alcohol and tobacco use. This left a crippled Russia that by the 1990s had 84.4 men to every 100 women and a Russian male life expectancy that dropped into the 50s.

Starks argues that public health history is more than a story of the past. It is also a crucial lens for understanding Putin's Russia. She will work with consultants for the World Health Organization and the United States Department of Defense to outline the implications of this continued male health crisis for current policy.

"The decline of the Russian population, which in 1991 was estimated at 149 million and by 2050 is predicted to fall to 105 million, has immense importance for Vladimir Putin's ongoing war on Ukraine," Starks noted. "Putin's inability to muster forces to man the frontlines is causing greater reliance upon tactics that do not require 'boots on the ground' and prompting speculation that Russian weakness might occasion escalated bombing of civilians or even the use of nuclear arms."

By outlining the ongoing male health crisis and turning the focus for demographic imbalance onto men's behaviors, Starks addresses a crucial gap in global research on men's health and demographic policy. She said, "So often questions of population size are pinned to the reproductive capacities of women, but male behaviors that decrease life spans remain unregulated or unremarked. This project corrects that." 

Kathryn Sloan, interim Dean for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, said, "I am so excited to see this work that brings our first-class humanities researchers into dialogue with important questions from the sciences and for current policy. The humanities and their emphasis on studying foreign languages, history and culture are essential to understanding our world and making informed decisions."

Starks also serves as director of the U of A Humanities Center.