Even though physical appearance perception differs based on the time and region, we can say that a common perception has formed nowadays thanks to the constantly developing communication tools and media etc. Given that our evaluation was conducted based on this common perception, here’s my theory about the formation period of the genetic features of Russian women whose beauty are considered as above the world standards.
The population of the Soviet Union was 168 million when the 2nd World War broke out. We can assume that 84 million of this population was male. During this war, Soviet Union lost 23 million, which is the highest number. Casualty at this rate was equal to the 13% of the population at that time. This rate had never been seen in any other countries before the Second World War during the previous century.
As you might have guessed, men between the ages of 18-30 form the vast majority of these casualties. Based on the population/age group statistics in the world, when we consider that the Soviet Union’s male population within this age group was around 15 million, we can say that there was almost no single and fertile men left in this country after the war. As a man usually marries one woman and has kids, it is very easy to estimate that there was a substantial increase in the number of marriable women for each man.
From bacteria to humans, the common instinct for all creatures is to reproduce. This instinct forms the mate selection behavior in men. Men want to reproduce with beautiful women as beauty indicates health. Health is an indicator that the woman is fertile. A fertile woman means the continuity of the lineage. In this case, we can say that the few celibate men in the Soviet Union after the Second World War, only reproduced with the beautiful women. As a consequence, with the generation born between 1945-50 the genes related to beauty such as proper nose structure, tall height and legs etc. was carried over to the next generations and unattractive features went extinct in those years with the women who couldn’t marry.
As a consequence, in modern societies each generation is born more beautiful than the previous but the catastrophes such as war during which men loss is quite high, might speed up this process.
