BACKGROUND:Before the COVID-19 pandemic, stagnating life expectancy trends were reported in some high-income countries (HICs). Despite previous evidence from country-specific studies, there is a lack of comparative research that provides a broader perspective and challenges existing assumptions. This study aims to examine longevity trends and patterns in six English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States) by combining period and cohort perspectives and to compare them with other HICs. METHODS:Using data from the Human Mortality and World Health Organization Mortality Databases, we estimated partial life expectancy, lifespan inequality and cohort survival differences for 1970-2021, as well as the contribution of causes of death to the gap in life expectancy between English-speaking countries and the average for other HICs in 2017-19. RESULTS:In the pre-pandemic period, the increase in life expectancy slowed in all English-speaking countries, except Ireland, mainly due to stagnating or rising mortality at young-middle ages. Relative to other HICs, those born in Anglophone countries since the 1970s experienced relative survival disadvantage, largely attributable to injuries (mainly suicides) and substance-related mortality (mainly poisonings). In contrast, older cohorts enjoyed advantages for females in Australia and Canada and for males in all English-speaking countries except the United States. CONCLUSIONS:Although future gains in life expectancy in wealthy societies will increasingly depend on reducing mortality at older ages, adverse health trends at younger ages are a cause for concern. This emerging and avoidable threat to health equity in English-speaking countries should be the focus of further research and policy action.

Background: Russia has one of the highest lung cancer burdens globally, particularly in men. Mortality started to decline in the 1990s after the reduction in smoking prevalence. However, Russia's recent experience is largely unknown. This study aims to describe recent trends in the incidence and mortality of lung cancer in Russia along with the use of computed tomography (CT). Methods: We obtained incidence data from national cancer reports covering 1993-2021 and mortality and population data from the Russian Fertility and Mortality Database covering 1965-2021. The number of CT scanners was obtained from the OECD. Changes in age-standardized rates (Segi-Doll, per 100,000) were assessed using segmented regression and temporal effects using age-period-cohort analysis. Results: Lung cancer rates in men have been substantially higher than in women and have declined sharply since their peak in the 1990s. The latest breakpoints in incidence in women were in 2012 (95 % CI: 2000; 2014) from stagnation with an annual change of 0.7 % (-0.2; 1.5) to 3.4 % (1.6; 5.2) increase. In men, the decrease in incidence stopped in 2013 (2011; 2014) from -1.8 % (-2.1; -1.4) to 0.3 % (-0.7; 1.3). The growing number of CT scans accompanied the recent changes in incidence rates. Incidence declined sharply in 2020 in men and women. There were no substantial changes in declining mortality trends. Period effects were visible after 2012 when incidence rates increased and deviated from mortality. After accounting for the period effect, generations born after the 1950s had lower risks. Conclusion: Increasing lung cancer incidence rates in Russia in the late 2010s, especially in women, and the stable mortality trends could be a possible sign of diagnostic or treatment period effect. The increased use of CT should be monitored for possible benefits and harms.

The 2010 summer heatwave in European Russia led to a notable increase in mortality due to extreme heat and associated wildfires. However, the diverse settlement patterns and the uneven impact of the heatwave in European Russia have left many geographical aspects of this event unexplored. For instance, the variations in excess mortality between major cities and smaller urban and rural areas remain unclear. According to our findings, during the 27–33 weeks of 2010, the total number of excess deaths was estimated at 56.0, with nearly 20% of them concentrated in Moscow. The age-standardized mortality rate in cities with more than one million inhabitants exceeded the expected values by 52% during the heatwave, while the excess mortality rate in rural areas was only 17%. The geographical area experiencing the highest excess mortality rate aligned with the zone of the greatest heatwave extent, as indicated by deviations from the climatic norm in temperatures and other measures of thermal stress. The risk of death from this increase in thermal stress more accurately represented by the Heat Index was found to be substantially higher in larger cities of 500,000 or more inhabitants, with the risk of death being especially high in major cities. Notably, air pollution was not found to be a significant modifier of excess mortality. It is important to note that the results obtained may have been influenced by the use of raster-based data from climate reanalysis, which may be expected to underrepresent local urban heat island effects, and consequently to underestimate risk exposure in urban areas.

Worldwide, mortality was strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, both directly through COVID-19 deaths and indirectly through changes in other causes of death. Here, we examine the impact of the pandemic on COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 mortality in 24 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, England and Wales, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Using demographic decomposition methods, we compare age- and cause-specific contributions to changes in female and male life expectancy at birth in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 with those before the COVID-19 pandemic (2015-2019). We observe large life expectancy losses due to COVID-19 in most countries, usually followed by partial recoveries. Life expectancy losses due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality were widespread during the pandemic, including in countries with substantial (Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Baltic countries) and more modest (United States) improvements in CVD mortality before the pandemic. Many Anglo-Saxon countries, including Canada, Scotland, and the United States, continued their prepandemic trajectories of rising drug-related mortality. Most countries saw small changes in suicide mortality during the pandemic, while alcohol mortality increased and cancer mortality continued to decline. Patterns for other causes were more variable. By 2022, life expectancy had still not returned to prepandemic levels in several countries. Our results suggest important indirect effects of the pandemic on non-COVID-19 mortality through the consequences of COVID-19 infection, nonpharmaceutical interventions, and underreporting of COVID-19-related deaths.

For over half a century, life expectancy in Eastern European (former communist) countries has been appreciably lower than in Western Europe, although this difference has been narrowing since 2000. We investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these differences. The pandemic reversed the recent convergence and widened the gap to levels observed more than two decades ago (7.9 years for males and 4.9 for females in 2021). Moreover, the trajectory of excess mortality in the pandemic differed between East and West, with the first major peaks in Eastern Europe occurring on average six months after the first peaks seen in Western countries. Despite this, the East suffered greater losses in life expectancy, especially in 2021. This was due to larger relative mortality increases in the East rather than greater frailty of the Eastern European populations as indexed by higher pre-pandemic mortality levels. East-West differences in life expectancy losses in 2021 were substantially explained by COVID-19 vaccination, which together with trust in government accounted for half the gap. We conclude that the East-West differences in life expectancy losses are associated with structural and psychosocial traits that have their roots in the communist era. This includes differences in the connectivity of populations (which drives the differences in timing), as well as profound contrasts in levels of trust in science, authorities, and their capacity to enforce lockdowns and other regulatory measures (driving the huge differences in excess mortality from autumn 2020 onwards).

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed significant gaps in the coverage and quality of the existing international and national statistical surveillance systems. The most reliable approach to estimating mortality associated with short-term risk factors or factors fluctuating within calendar years is based on estimating weekly excess mortality. Although this approach is obvious, its application turned out to be problematic due to the lack of reliable data. In response to this challenge, a new Short-Term Mortality Fluctuations (STMF) data series was created in 2020. The Russian Short-Term Mortality Fluctuations Data Series (RuSTMF) is a further development of the STMF idea at the regional level. It contains weekly crude and standardized death rates for the Russian regions and Russia as a whole. The main source for calculating death rates is depersonalized individual data on the deceased provided by the Rosstat. This database provides for the analysis of short- and medium-term changes in mortality in males, females and total population in Russia as a whole and its regions, as well as the estimation of «excess» deaths during short-term sharp increases in mortality due to, for example, heat or cold waves, seasonal influenza epidemics, the Covid-19 pandemic or technogenic catastrophes.

Смертность трудоспособного населения, начиная как минимум с 1960-х годов, определяла тенденции изменения ожидаемой продолжительности жизни в России, чем заслуженно привлекала внимание демографов и иных специалистов в области изучения здоровья населения. «Молчаливая» антиалкогольная кампания 2005 г. и общий подъем уровня жизни населения привели к значительному сокращению смертности в трудоспособном возрасте в 2005-2019 гг., обусловив быстрый, хотя в некоторое степени и восстановительный, рост ожидаемой продолжительности жизни. Насколько устойчив окажется прогресс перед лицом новых вызовов? Сохраняются ли резервы для улучшения здоровья россиян в трудоспособных возрастах? В попытке приблизиться к ответам на эти вопросы мы рассматриваем главные, на наш взгляд, изменения в уровне и структуре смертности по причинам смерти россиян в возрасте от 15 до 60 лет. Исследование охватывает период с 2000 по 2021 г. и строится на данных официальной российской статистики; в том числе использована деперсонифицрованная база умерших, что позволило построить сопоставимые во времени ряды для некоторых причин смерти, что не всегда возможно в силу изменений в краткой номенклатуре причин смерти Росстата. Мы также используем данные Human Mortality Database в случае проведения сравнений со странами с наиболее низкими показателями смертности в трудоспособных возрастах. В XXI веке наиболее значительный прогресс в России был достигнут в борьбе с внешними причинами (убийства, самоубийства, несчастные случаи); в структуре смертности их постепенно стали вытеснять заболевания преимущественно экзогенной природы (в первую очередь, болезни печени и кардиомиопатия). Особенно ярко это проявилось среди женского населения. Связь динамики смертности трудоспособного населения от всех причин и от «алкогольных», изначально очень сильная, ко второй половине 2010-х годов заметно ослабевает. Наконец, пандемия COVID-19 привела к существенным потерям населения в трудоспособном возрасте вследствие как смертности от самой коронавирусной инфекции, так и избыточного числа умерших от таких причин смерти, как отравления наркотиками и кардиомиопатия. Несмотря на существенное сокращение в 2005-19 годах, смертность трудоспособного населения в России остается на весьма высоком уровне по мировым стандартам, сохраняя существенные резервы для ее дальнейшего снижения и, соответственно, увеличения продолжительности жизни. Пандемия COVID-19 и, вероятно, последующие события ставят новые вызовы на пути сохранения здоровья россиян в молодых возрастах.

Background: Russia has been portrayed in media as having one of the highest death tolls due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the world. However, the precise scale of excess mortality is still unclear. We provide the first estimates of excess mortality in Russia as a whole and its regions in 2020, placing this in an international context. Methods: We used monthly death rates for Russia and 83 regions plus the equivalent for 36 comparator countries. Expected mortality was derived in two ways using averages in the same months in preceding years and the same averages adjusted for secular trends. Excess death rates were estimated for the whole year and the last 3 quarters. We also estimated the relationships between excess mortality and reported COVID-19 cases and deaths across countries and Russian regions. Results: Estimating excess deaths rates based on the trend-adjusted average, Russia had the highest excess mortality of any of the 37 countries considered. Using the simple average, Russia had the third highest. Most of the excess deaths were recorded in the 4th quarter of 2020 and the level and trajectory of excess mortality in Russia and most of Eastern European countries differed from that in Western countries. While both the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases and deaths showed positive correlations with excess mortality across countries (r=0.65 and r=0.75, p < 0.001), the association across the Russian regions was, surprisingly, negative for cases (r=-0.34, p < 0.01) and deaths (r=-0.09, p=0.42). When we replaced reported deaths with final data from death certificates the correlation was positive (r=0.38, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Russia has one of the largest absolute burden of excess mortality in 2020 but there is a counter-intuitive negative association between excess mortality and cumulative incidence at the regional level. Under-recording of COVID-19 cases seems to be a problem in some regions.

Excess mortality has been used to measure the impact of COVID-19 over time and across countries. But what baseline should be chosen? We propose two novel approaches: an alternative retrospective baseline derived from the lowest weekly death rates achieved in previous years and a within-year baseline based on the average of the 13 lowest weekly death rates within the same year. These baselines express normative levels of the lowest feasible target death rates. The excess death rates calculated from these baselines are not distorted by past mortality peaks and do not treat non-pandemic winter mortality excesses as inevitable. We obtained weekly series for 35 industrialized countries from the Human Mortality Database for 2000-2020. Observed, baseline and excess mortalities were measured by age-standardized death rates. We assessed weekly and annual excess death rates driven by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and those related to seasonal respiratory infections in earlier years. There was a distinct geographic pattern with high excess death rates in Eastern Europe followed by parts of the UK, and countries of Southern and Western Europe. Some Asia-Pacific and Scandinavian countries experienced lower excess mortality. In 2020 and earlier years, the alternative retrospective and the within-year excess mortality figures were higher than estimates based on conventional metrics. While the latter were typically negative or close to zero in years without extraordinary epidemics, the alternative estimates were substantial. Cumulation of this "usual" excess over 2-3 years results in human losses comparable to those caused by COVID-19. Challenging the view that non-pandemic seasonal winter mortality is inevitable would focus attention on reducing premature mortality in many countries. As SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely to be the last respiratory pathogen with the potential to cause a pandemic, such measures would also strengthen global resilience in the face of similar threats in the future.

Elevated mortality (compared with the West) and significant spatial differences in life expectancy are serious challenges facing Russia. The goals of improving Russians' health and increasing their life expectancy by reducing inequality in mortality between regions and settlements are closely intertwined with the goals of spatial development of Russia, aimed at reducing interregional differences in the quality of life. This paper presents an assessment of the scope and dynamics of changes in mortality differences between the ‘center’ and the ‘periphery’ in 67 regions of Russia, which are home to three-quarters of the country's population. The selected research period - 2003-2018 - is characterized by a steady increase in life expectancy at birth (LE) in Russia. Using unpublished data from Rosstat for cities, we estimated life expectancy at birth in 67 regional centers and in the rest of the regions (‘periphery’). Depending on the magnitude of the differences in LE and the dynamics, we identified 6 types of regions. For those regions with a LE gap between center and periphery larger than the average, the decomposition method was applied, which made it possible to determine the key age groups and causes of death responsible for such high differences. In 36 regions of Russia classified as types I-III, the center-peripheral gap exceeded the average Russian level, while only in six regions in 2003-18 was there a tendency towards a reduction in the size of this gap. The decomposition results showed that elevated mortality of males in the periphery is due to a higher mortality rate at working age from external causes of death, especially from traffic accidents, homicides and suicides, as well as from ‘alcoholic’ causes of death; females in the periphery suffer from higher mortality rate at older ages from chronic non-communicable diseases. Despite the seemingly ‘objective’ nature of the mortality differences between the center and the periphery (the advantage of the former being due to the socio-demographic characteristics of its residents and the educational structure of the population, as well as to selective migration), the positive experience of other countries shows that effective public health policies can substantially reduce the degree of spatial inequality in mortality even if significant heterogeneity in the level of socio-economic development remains.

The twenty-first century marked the beginning of rapid health improvements in Russia. In the late 2000s and the 2010s, there was already a moderate decrease in inter-oblast mortality disparities, with the exception of the growing life expectancy (LE) advantage of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We have used newly available data to explore LE changes from 2003-2005 to 2015-2017 and determinants of LE differences across settlements of different types and population sizes. We distinguished between three major segments of the LE distribution: Moscow and Saint Petersburg at the top, large- and medium-sized cities in the middle, and smaller urban and rural areas lagging behind. The LE differences among these three groups increased, but the within-group differences decreased. The gaps between bigger cities and the "periphery" within oblasts grew, and this part of the total dispersion had increased substantially by 2015-2017. Education, together with population size, explained 62 percent (for females) and 67 percent (for males) of LE variation across 292 geographic units in 2015-2017. Our results suggest that slower health progress in small urban and rural areas is an important obstacle to further mortality reduction at the national level and is a matter of public health concern.

BACKGROUNDThere is considerable variation in mortality rates from myocardial infarction (MI) across high-income countries, some of which may be artefactual.METHODSTime trends in mortality rates from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and MI were analysed for a set of high-income countries from the end of the 1970s. Using individual-level mortality data from Russia (2005-2017) and Norway (2005-2016), we investigated factors associated with the proportion of total IHD deaths certified as due to MI.RESULTSIn most countries, MI mortality rates have dramatically declined from the 1970s. However, the share of MI in total IHD deaths varies substantially across countries. In Russia, only 12% of IHD deaths had MI assigned as the underlying cause vs 63% in Norway. IHD deaths occurring outside of hospital without autopsy were far less likely to be assigned as MI in Russia (2%) than in Norway (59%).CONCLUSIONSAlthough established international criteria for MI require specific clinical or post-mortem evidence, it appears that certifying specialists in different countries may interpret these criteria differently. At one extreme, Russian doctors may only assign MI as a cause of death when there is specific pathophysiological evidence. At the other extreme, their counterparts in Norway may be willing to specify MI as the cause even when this evidence is not available. Internationally established criteria for MI diagnosis are challenging to apply for out-of-hospital deaths. Differences between countries in how certifiers interpret these criteria may account for at least some of the international variation in MI mortality rates.

Высокий в сравнении со странами Запада уровень смертности и значительные пространственные различия в ожидаемой продолжительности жизни – серьезные вызовы, стоящие перед Россией. Решение задач повышения продолжительности жизни и улучшения здоровья россиян, в том числе за счет уменьшения неравенства в смертности как между субъектами РФ, так и на внутрирегиональном уровне, тесным образом переплетаются с целями пространственного развития России, направленными на сокращение межрегиональных различий в уровне и качестве жизни людей. В статье представлена оценка различий в смертности между «центром» и «периферией» регионов и динамика этих различий в 67 регионах России, в которых проживает три четверти населения страны. Период исследования – 2003-2018 гг. – характеризуется устойчивым ростом ожидаемой продолжительности жизни при рождении в России. Используя данные Росстата по городам, мы оценили ожидаемую продолжительность жизни при рождении для 67 региональных центров и для остальной территории регионов («периферии»). В зависимости от величины различий и динамики их изменений были выделены 6 типов регионов (I-VI). Для регионов, в которых наблюдается наибольший центр-периферийный разрыв в ожидаемой продолжительности жизни, применен метод декомпозиции, позволивший определить ключевые возрастные группы и причины смерти, ответственные за столь высокие различия. В 36 регионах России, отнесенных к I-III типам, центр-периферийный разрыв превышал среднероссийский уровень, при этом лишь в 6 из них в 2003-2018 гг. отмечалась тенденция к сокращению разрыва. Анализ результатов декомпозиции различий в продолжительности жизни для первых трех типов регионов показал, что у мужчин отставание периферии от центров обусловлено различиями в смертности в трудоспособном возрасте от внешних причин смерти, особенно от ДТП, убийств и самоубийств, а также от «алкогольных» причин смерти, у женщин – различиями в смертности в пожилом возрасте от хронических неинфекционных заболеваний. Несмотря на, казалось бы, «объективный» характер центр-периферийных различий в уровне смертности в России (преимущество центров в продолжительности жизни в первую очередь зависит от социально-демографических характеристик жителей, образовательной структуры населения, а также селективной миграции, направленной из периферии в центры), положительный опыт других стран показывает, что эффективная политика в области общественного здоровья может значительно сократить размах пространственного неравенства в уровне смертности даже при сохранении существенной гетерогенности в уровне социально-экономического развития территорий.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS:Eastern Europe is known to suffer from a large burden of alcohol-related mortality. However, persisting unfavourable conditions at the national level mask variation at the sub-national level. We aim to explore spatial patterns of cause-specific mortality across four post-communist countries: Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Russia (European part).DESIGN AND METHODS:We use official mortality data routinely collected over 1179 districts and cities. The analysis refers to males aged 20-64 years and covers the period 2006-2014. Mortality variation is mainly assessed by means of the standardised mortality ratio. Getis-Ord Gi* statistic is employed to detect hot and cold spots of alcohol-related mortality.RESULTS:Alcohol-related mortality exhibits a gradient from very high levels in northwestern Russia to low levels in southern Poland. Spatial transitions from higher to lower mortality are not explicitly demarcated by national boundaries. Within these countries, hot spots of alcohol-related mortality dominate the territories of northwestern and western Russia, eastern and northwestern Belarus, southeastern Lithuania, and eastern and central Poland.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:The observed mortality gradient is likely associated with the spread of alcohol epidemics from the European part of Russia to the other countries, which appears to have started more than a century ago. Contemporary socioeconomic and demographic factors should be taken into account when developing anti-alcohol policies. The same is true for the peculiarities of culture, norms, traditions and behavioural patterns observed in specific geographical areas of the four countries. Reducing alcohol-related harm in the areas identified as hot spots should be prioritised.

There is currently an increase in the number of heat waves occurring worldwide. Moscow experienced the effects of an extreme heat wave in 2010, which resulted in more than 10,000 extra deaths and significant economic damage. This study conducted a comprehensive assessment of the social risks existing during the occurrence of heat waves and allowed us to identify the spatial heterogeneity of the city in terms of thermal risk and the consequences for public health. Using a detailed simulation of the meteorological regime based on the COSMO-CLM regional climate model and the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), a spatial assessment of thermal stress in the summer of 2010 was carried out. Based on statistical data, the components of social risk (vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity of the population) were calculated and mapped. We also performed an analysis of their changes in 2010-2017. A significant differentiation of the territory of Moscow has been revealed in terms of the thermal stress and vulnerability of the population to heat waves. The spatial pattern of thermal stress agrees quite well with the excess deaths observed during the period from July to August 2010. The identified negative trend of increasing vulnerability of the population has grown in most districts of Moscow. The adaptive capacity has been reduced in most of Moscow. The growth of adaptive capacity mainly affects the most prosperous areas of the city.

За прошедшее десятилетие в России существенно увеличилось число медицинских организаций, выполняющих высокотехнологичные малоинвазивные операции при остром коронарном синдроме – чрескожные коронарные вмешательства (ЧКВ). В данной работе мы оцениваем степень влияния географических барьеров на доступность населения к этому наиболее эффективному способу лечения острого коронарного синдрома, в том числе инфаркта миокарда. Нами была собрана информация о медицинских организациях, выполнявших ЧКВ в 2010 и 2015 гг., а также данные о численности населения муниципальных районов и городских округов в России. Методами сетевого анализа было оценено время транспортировки и расстояние от физического центра каждого муниципального района/городского округа до ближайшего ЧКВ- центра в России. Расчеты были выполнены с использованием графа улично-дорожной сети В период с 2010 по 2015 г. число ЧКВ-центров в России увеличилось со 144 до 260. Медианное время доезда до ближайшего ЧКВ-центра составило 48 минут в 2015 г. (в 2010 г. ‒ 73 минуты). Две трети городского населения в 2015 г. могли быть доставлены в ближайший ЧКВ-центр за 60 минут и быстрее, а среди сельского населения такую возможность имела только одна пятая часть потенциальных пациентов. Создание 67 новых ЧКВ-центров в тех городских округах, где в настоящий момент имеется их дефицит, увеличит долю населения, находящегося в 60-минутной зоне доезда до ЧКВ- центра, до 62%, что эквивалентно 5,7 млн человек, для которых на данный момент невозможен своевременный доступ к данному виду вмешательства. В период между 2010 и 2015 г. происходило значительное, но неравномерные сокращение времени доезда до ЧКВ-центров. Несмотря на позитивные тенденции, Россия еще не приблизилась к уровню доступа, наблюдающегося в сопоставимых странах с большой территорией и неравномерно размещенным населением, таких как Австралия и Канада. Открытие относительно небольшого числа новых ЧКВ-центров (отделений) могло бы существенно улучшить доступ к медицинской помощи, тем самым сократив имеющееся неравенство.

Carrying out complex activities, including screening and early diagnosis of cancer, the integration of all medical workers in the cancer control process are the highest priorities of the healthcare system. Investments in the development of screening and programs for the early detection of cancer are especially important in the Moscow metropolis.

The Kolka Glacier, which rushed down the Genaldon valley on September 20, 2002 (North Ossetia), is now recovering after this catastrophe. One of the most important ways to predict a new disaster is to determine the rate of ice accumulation of the new glacier and to monitor the glacier volume regularly, since its trigger mechanisms have not yet been fully studied. Recent changes of the Kolka Glacier were investigated by means of ground stereoscopic photography. The field works were carried out in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Shooting was made manually with a digital camera Canon 5D Mark II (without using a tripod) at arbitrary points, the distance between which did not exceed 100 m. The reference points were placed on the elevated relief forms on the glacier surface and coordinated by a differential GNSS receiver in the "fast static" mode. Laboratory processing of the photos was performed using Agisoft Photoscan software in automatic mode, except for the procedure of identification of reference points on stereo images. The processing made possible to obtain digital models of the glacier surface in Geo-TIFF format, the vertical error of which amounted to 0.7 m, while the horizontal one – 2.3 m. In 2014–2017, the maximal increase in height of the surface (up to 30 m) was recorded in the low part of the glacier tongue that was the result of advancing of the Kolka front along the ice-free surface. Mean annual increase in the surface elevation was equal to 2.2 m/year. Lowering of the surface in some areas may be explained by the slowing-down of the glacier flow rate, which led to the appearance of thermokarst. The glacier volume increased by 7.4±0.7 million m3. As a result, the glacier tongue advanced by 50–70 m. Average over 2014–2017 increasing in the surface elevation (2.2 m/year) was slightly smaller than in 2004–2014 (3 m/year). Quick growth of the Kolka Gacier contrasts sharply with decreasing of volume of the representative Caucasus, Djankuat and Garabashi, over the same period.