The Resulting Patterns in Stature
These statistical results are of a preliminary character. The work on the formation of the database has not yet been completed. In addition to gaps in the data for some years, several samples have regional biases.
As a consequence, the sample Russian mean may be either overestimated or underestimated as compared with the population mean, depending on what regions are represented in the sample. For example, according to our sample data, the mean stature of a 16-19-year- old cohort in 1785—9 was lower by 4.6 cm in comparison with the same age cohort in 1780—4. This improbable result is explained by the fact that the sample for 1780—4 includes recruits from the southern fertile provinces, which had relatively high average heights, while the sample for 1785—9 includes recruits from the northern provinces, which had relatively low average heights.As seen in Table 10.2, in 1700—24 the sample mean stature consistently decreased and within twenty-five years diminished by 2.1 cm, from 164.7 cm to 162.3 cm. In the twenty years that followed, from 1725 to 1744, there was an opposite trend, so that by 1740—4 the average stature of recruits (164.9 cm) slightly exceeded the level of the early eighteenth century. In the following fifty-five years stature began to decrease again and in 1795—9 it was only 159.5 cm, or 5.2 cm less than the level of 1700—4 and by 5.4 cm less than the level of 1740—4. Hence it follows that the biological standard of living of the population declined in 1700—24 and 1745—99 and rose in 1725—44. Let us consider some factors which could account for such movements.
4.