ABSTRACT
Demographic data can be extremely informative. Among other things, they tell us how many people are living where, whether they live among others of their own ethnic background or dispersed, or whether they live where they are "needed" in economic terms. We can learn which population groups are growing, which declining in size, and how these changes are linked to high or low birth rates, death rates, and life expectancies. Demographic data for the Soviet Union give us a revealing picture on all these counts. The first Soviet census of 1926, taken two years after Lenin's death, shows the Russians moving from 42 percent to 52 percent of the total population. The 1937 Soviet census has never been published. It was shelved because the resulting figures would have shown heavy human losses directly attributable to the forced collectivization campaign of 1929-32, the massive deportations of "kulaks," and the ensuing famine.
