High Soviet Suicide Toll Cited, Called Past Peak

A Soviet weekly has revealed alarmingly high statistics on Soviet suicides, with more than 81,000 Soviet citizens killing themselves in 1984, compared to the 29,286 Americans who took their own lives the same year.

The article in the latest edition of Ogonyok magazine said, however, that total Soviet suicides had peaked in 1984 and are now dropping, a change it credited to the anti-drinking drive championed by President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Statistics on suicide, as well as other demographic data, were once treated as state secrets.

Ogonyok said statistics on Soviet suicides were revealed only several weeks ago. In 1984, the weekly said, 81,417 Soviet citizens killed themselves in a country with a population of about 270 million. By comparison, 29,286 Americans committed suicide that year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, in a nation of about 230 million people.

In 1985--the year Gorbachev raised the drinking age from 18 to 21, increased the price of vodka and cut alcohol production--the number of Soviet suicides dropped to 68,073, the magazine said. Ogonyok said many suicide attempts were the result of drunkenness.