Reliability of Statistics on Violent Death and Suicide in the Former USSR, 1970-1990

Semi-structured interviews during 1989-96 were performed with 12 professionals involved in the diagnosis & coding of deaths in the Baltic states & Russia. Mortality data were found to be reliable for the Slavic & Baltic republics & for Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, & Moldova. The Central Asian & Causasian republics showed greater variation in trends & ratios, indicating a need for further study of the reliability of suicide statistics. Interviews revealed that no instructions were given to falsify data.