By Vestnik Kavkaza
In the last 20 years a million people have committed suicide in Russia, but the country left the top-10 countries with the highest level of suicides; now it holds14th place. According to Boris Polozhyi, the head of Environmental and Social Problems of the Mental Health Department of the Serbsky State Scientific Center of Social and Forensic Psychiatry, the worst situation is in the Siberian and Far East Federal Districts, in Tuva, Buryatia, Altai, the Chukotka and Nenets Autonomous Districts: there are 60 suicides per 100 thousand residents. At the same time, the situation is stable in the North Caucasus, Southern and Central Federal Districts.
Boris Polizhyi told Vestnik Kavkaza that the suicidal situation in the NCFD is the most favorable: “The frequency of committing suicides is 3.5 times lower in the NCFD than in Russia in general. Comparing it with the Siberian District and the Far East, it is 5 times lower.”
There are several reasons for this. Polozhyi says that suicidal behavior depends on a complex of factors, including not only biological, but also social, cultural, and ethnic factors. He draws attention to two factors in the NCFD – ethnic-cultural and religious aspects. “Islam is the leading religion of the North Caucasus. As well as Christianity and Hebrew, Islam negatively treats suicides; moreover, its attitude is stricter than in other religions. And in the North Caucasus republics the majority of residents are true believers,” Polozhyi says.
According to him, the second factor is the peculiarities of the mentality of the North Caucasus people: “The nature of the peculiarities is anti-suicidal. They are confident in their strength, are ready to cope with stress not internally, but externally, they are active, and so on. This combination determines the fact that the smallest number of suicides is committed in the North Caucasus.”
At the same time Polozhyi notes that there are radical Islamic groups in the North Caucasus, which prepare Shakhids: “Members of these groups believe that death Bismillah and jihad are a great deed that cannot be considered as suicide. However, in fact it is suicide. A person willingly kills himself. But such statistics are not registered. Moreover, the phenomenon is not widely spread.”
