1939 Soviet census

1939 Census in the Soviet Union Перепись населения СССР (1939) March 2023 hist thumb|USSR reverse of a January 23rd, 1939 registered cover sent in Leningrad. The text translates as: '17 January 1939, start of the All-Union Census. Citizen! Do not forget to go through the census.'The 1939 Soviet census (ru Всесоюзная перепись населения 1939 1939 All-Union Census Vsesoyuznaya perepis naseleniya 1939), conducted from January 17 to January 26, succeeded the 1937 Soviet census that was declared invalid. It happened only two years after the previous census, due to the failure of the preceding one. Results of 1939 census are considered unreliable, due to accidental counting issues and also intentional falsification to achieve political goals of the Joseph Stalin's regime. Preparation The 1939 Soviet census took place after the postponement of the 1930 census to first 1935 and then 1937, followed by the failure of that census.Schwartz Lee A History of Russian and Soviet Censuses 1986 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1g69xfv.8 Research Guide to the Russian and Soviet Censuses 48–69 CLEM RALPH S. Cornell University Press 10.7591/j.ctt1g69xfv.8 978-1-5017-0715-5 2022-05-22 In preparation for the 1939 census, a number of decisions were made to avoid ending with the same fate as the census of 1937. Due to the previous census showing believers in religion to form a majority among the population, the question on religion was dropped from the census entirely, and the occupation of priest was changed to "servitor of a cult" in the census forms.2015-06-18 The Lost Census https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1939-2/the-lost-census/ 2022-05-22 Seventeen Moments in Soviet History en-US1939-01-30 RUSSIA: Roll Call en-US Time https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,760685,00.html 2022-05-24 0040-781X Additionally, as many of the people in charge of organizing the previous census had been removed from their positions, Vladimir Starovsky ru Старовский, Владимир Никонович and Vyacheslav Molotov were put in charge of managing it. Census The census-taking started on January 17, ending on January 23 in urban areas and January 26 in rural areas.Gulomov Ilhomjon 22 April 2021 The 1939 Census (on the example of the Uzbek USSR) https://usajournalshub.com/conferences/index.php/iscrc/article/view/229/225 Its form contained 16 questions and was printed in 22 languages, as well as providing, for the first and only time, a way to count both convicted criminals and political detainees. While follow-up checks and several other new tabulation methods were instituted, forms were not issued to keep track of double counting. A total of 400,000 census takers were sent to facilitate the process over the country. There were some reports of various religious communities resisting the census, which were dealt with by use of legal means.2015-08-31 On Resistance Among Believers https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1939-2/the-lost-census/the-lost-census-texts/on-resistance-among-believers/ 2022-05-23 Seventeen Moments in Soviet History en-US Aftermath Within four months of it being taken, the preliminary census results were released. For unknown reasons, the full results were never made public. While initially the census was viewed inside the USSR as a "model census", it later became clear by the 1980s to the West that large-scale manipulation of the census results had taken place.Conquest Robert Cohen Stephen Wheatcroft Stephen G. 1986 [New Demographic Evidence on Excess Collectivization Deaths: Further Comments on Wheatcroft, Rosefielde, Anderson and Silver] https://www.jstor.org/stable/2499183 Slavic Review 45 2 295–299 10.2307/2499183 2499183 0037-6779 Accidental over-counting and under-counting were issues, along with falsification with the goal of obscuring population loss and meeting Stalin's stated goal of the population reaching 170 million.The Soviet Censuses of 1937 and 1939: Some Problems of Data Evaluation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233965646 https://web.archive.org/web/20220910145444/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233965646_The_Soviet_Censuses_of_1937_and_1939_Some_Problems_of_Data_Evaluation 2022-09-10 2025-01-08 ResearchGate en That claim of 170 million is estimated to have been inflated by around 3 million, or 1.8%.Tolts Mark January 1995 The Soviet Censuses of 1937 and 1939: Some Problems of Data Evaluation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233965646 2022-05-22 ResearchGate en 10.13140/2.1.2765.6641 Analysis of the results from the Kazakh SSR showed that distortions of the ethnic Kazakh population took place in an attempt to conceal population losses from the Kazakh famines of the 1920s and 30s.Tolts Mark 2006-03-01 Ethnic composition of Kazakhstan on the eve of the Second World War: re-evaluation of the 1939 Soviet census results https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930600903171 Central Asian Survey 25 1–2 143–148 10.1080/02634930600903171 143934454 0263-4937 subscription HistoriansMay 2023 have claimed that all the issues with fudged numbers and mistakes discredit the census as a reliable source. The Soviet leadership eventually learned from the mistakes made, and Vladimir Starovsky, head of the Central Statistical Directorate, corrected the points that led to accidental miscounts in the 1939 and 1937 censuses for the census of 1959, leading to a reliable count being taken. Results According to the official results, the total population of the USSR was found to be at 170,467,186. Compared with 1926 figures, the urban population more than doubled, from 26.3 million to 55.9 million, while the literacy rate rose from 51.1% to 81.2% in the same time frame.Turin S. P. 1941 Some Observations on the Population of Soviet Russia at the Census of January 17th, 1939 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2980034 Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 104 2 172–174 10.2307/2980034 2980034 0952-8385 subscription Such a rapid rate of urbanization was historically unprecedented at the time. The five largest nationalities in the USSR were found to be Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Uzbeks, and Tatars.Всесоюзная перепись населения 1939 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР All-Union census of the population of 1939. National composition of the population by republics of the USSR http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_39.php?reg=5 2022-05-23 www.demoscope.ru References Further reading All-Union census of the population of 1939: National composition of the population by republics of the USSR (in Russian) Category:1939 in the Soviet Union Category:Censuses in the Soviet Union Category:1939 censuses Soviet census Category:January 1939 in Europe