Short answers, pulled from the story.
A total count for the entire country did not exist until 1956 under Nikita Khrushchev. Before this date, historians could only estimate numbers based on fragmented local reports.
The number of suicides fell for a couple of years following anti-alcohol campaign partial prohibitions implemented by Mikhail Gorbachev. The deterioration of the socio-economic situation by the end of the 1980s reversed the trend completely.
Heavy alcohol use is a significant factor with an estimated half of all suicides correlated with alcohol abuse. Experts believe alcohol consumption is more of a factor than economic conditions alone.
Suicide rates rated as high were recorded in 37 of the 85 regions including the north, the Urals, Siberia, and the Russian Far East. The highest suicide rates appeared in the Altai Republic, the Transbaikal, and Buryatia.
There were 27,158 suicides in 1965 when figures matched the lowest level reached since that year. In 2021, the suicide rate was 10.7 per 100,000 people according to national sources.