Sibirica Vol. 17, No. 2, Summer 2018: 85–93 © Berghahn Books doi: 10.3167/sib.2018.170206 ISSN 1361-7362 (Print) • ISSN 1476-6787 (Online) RESEARCH NOTE “Save the Men!” Demographic Decline and the Public Response in the Late Soviet Period TRICIA STARKS Abstract: In 1968, the Soviet economist and demographer Boris Urlanis started a national conversation in the Soviet Union with his article “Beregite muzhchin!” or “Save the Men!” in the popular jour- nal Literaturnaia gazeta. The essay, translated here, points out the in- creasingly troubling imbalance in male and female health as men were dying, on average, eight years earlier than women. Urlanis calls for attention to accidents and lifestyle problems (smoking and drink- ing, as featured in propaganda posters) as well as a nationwide set of health institutions centered on male health. The essay precipitated a flood of essays, letters, commentaries, cartoons, and even a movie under the same title. Keywords: demography, gender, masculinity, public health, Soviet, tobacco, alcoholism, medicine I n 1968, the Soviet economist and demographer Boris Urlanis precipi- tated a deluge of ink with an article in the popular journal Literaturnaia gazeta. The essay, provocatively entitled “Beregite muzhchin!” or “Save the Men!,” merited several columns and opens with Urlanis pointing out what he considered the logically improbable but real issue that the weaker sex was outliving the stronger. 1 Urlanis’s plea to “save the men,” translated below, hit a nerve. A lood of essays, letters, commentaries, cartoons, and even a movie met his call and continue to appear under the same title. 2 The debate around what exactly was leading to the decline in male life expectancy, and what to do about it, took place against a backdrop of increased health care propaganda of all types and in an environment of increasing material comfort for Soviet citizens (see igure 1). Yet even