Born Then
1889–1890

Life during the 1889–1890 flu pandemic ("Russian flu")

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

The first pandemic to spread by railway and steamship. It began in Central Asia and Russia late in 1889 and circled the world within months. It killed mostly the old.

Deaths: about 1 million worldwide.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.

Around the same time