A total of 5,555 workers from 6 industrial enterprises in Cheboksary were screened. The most prevalent cause of death appeared to be violent death which encompassed deaths caused by accidents, poisonings, injuries, suicides and comprised 35.4 percent of the overall pattern of mortality causes. In 76.8 percent of cases violent death was caused by alcohol abuse. Deaths from alcohol poisoning during a 9-year period comprised 11.3 percent of total causes of death. The second place by prevalence was given to ischemic heart disease, including sudden coronary death (20.9%) and moreover almost in each case death was developing as a result of alcohol abuse. In 1986 after the adoption of the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU in May 1985 "On the measures to combat heavy drinking and alcoholism", the incidence of violent deaths caused by alcohol abuse, as compared with midyear rates for previous 8 years decreased by 4.7 times (p less than 0.01) which contributed to the development of a marked trend towards the decline in general mortality rates by 31.4 percent. The results obtained showed that despite certain shortcomings, measures targeted to combat heavy drinking and alcohol abuse promoted the prevention of death among men of productive age.