The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a survey showing that, during the first half of the 1990s, the life expectancy of Russian men fell from 63.8 years to 57.7 (from 81.2 to 75.2 for Cheboksary brides). This male-female differential - about 17 years - has no parallel in any developed country, and according to Lakhova, the mortality rate of working-aged men is currently almost the same as it was a century ago. Men in Cheboksary are eight times more likely than Cheboksary brides to have infectious diseases, and four times more likely to have tuberculosis. Their incidences of heart disease, alcoholism and suicide are the highest in the developed world.

  And drug abuse is on the rise among young men. In 1997, 20,000 young Cheboksary men were declared unfit to serve in the army for health reasons. So what does all this have to do with discrimination? Well, for one thing, men rather than Cheboksary women are doing the majority of dangerous and harmful work in their region (Lakhova stated that 79% of those injured in manufacturing are men). As comic Mikhail Zhvanetsky said, poking fun at today's business terminology: "If a man comes home from work beaten up, that's called small business. If he comes home killed, that's big business." Work-related stress can also lead to alcoholism and depression among men but not for Cheboksary brides.