Many probably thought about the question of whether our own parameters correspond to the so-called arithmetic mean, and what factors influence the fact that the metric indicators of the body became larger or smaller. After all, it is enough to go on an excursion to the historical museum to make sure that a 16-year-old teenager will not fit into the chain mail of a knight from the times of Kievan Rus, and a 12-year-old modern girl will go for a women's shoe of those times. Obviously, average growth in Russia has changed over the centuries. What factors influence its increase or decrease?
Firstly, one cannot discount the genetic predisposition: there are high nations, but there are short ones. African records beat the world records in the opposite direction : the Tutsis, Masai and Nilots "extort" 180-200 cm, while the men from the Pygmy tribe reach only 150 cm in height. It is believed that the tallest men in Europe (188 cm!) Live in Holland. And a woman of 177 cm in the country of tulips and windmills will not be called a “dylda” at all. The average growth in Russia also depends on the genetic parameters of the titular people of a particular federal region.
Over the period of its difficult history, our country experienced outbursts of "growth" and periods of "shortening" of the nation. Other peoples played an important role in this, mixing with the indigenous population, influenced the height of their descendants. The Varangians lengthened the growth of the Rus, while the Tatar-Mongol invasion greatly shortened it. But not only the influx of new blood played a major role in this process. The average growth in Russia also depended on the general level of welfare of the nation.
Not for nothing in the Russian language the word “healthy” is a synonym for “big”. It has long been noticed that a sick child does not grow tall. Particularly affected by body length are malnutrition or poor nutrition in childhood. Therefore, experts from WHO and consider the average growth in Russia as an indicator of the health and well-being of the people. A clear proof of this is the study of the parameters at which a person could be taken into the army. In the era of Peter the Great, such a bar was 163 cm, during the reign of Catherine II - 160 cm. Then, in the XIX century, the population began to gain centimeters, but under Alexander II it crushed again.
Yes, and why go far: in the 50s of the 20th century, people whose childhood fell on the hungry war years were stunted: factories mainly sewed outfits for women with a height of 150-160 cm. But then the “full” 1970s came when the
average height of a man in Russia reached 168 cm and women - 157 cm. In the 1980s, people started talking about “acceleration”: almost all children were taller than their parents. When the turbulent 90s struck, the population growth curve again declined.
If by the collapse of the Soviet Union an ordinary man calmly reached the bar of 176 cm, and a woman - 164 cm, now the statistics have slightly changed. Men still hold on to their positions, while the average height of a woman in Russia has decreased by two centimeters. Scientists predict that children born after the world economic crisis struck (2007) will grow shorter than their older brothers and sisters, whose first ten years of life fell on the prosperous 2000th.