Due to the devastating impact of the Second World War on the Soviet population, the total population in 1950 was almost 15.5 million fewer than in 1940, which is a decrease of eight percent. In Russia (RSFSR), the largest of the Soviet states, the population difference was almost nine million people; also eight percent. It would take until 1955 for the populations of either the USSR or Russia to reach their pre-war levels, which was a decade after the conflict had ended. Urbanization Despite this drop in total population, industrialization and urbanization saw a significant change in the USSR's population distribution between the given years. The Soviet urban population increased by 6.3 million, or ten percent, between 1940 and 1950; 5.8 million of this was in Russia, which was a 15 percent increase. In contrast, the Soviet Union's rural population dropped by 21.8 million (a 17 percent change), 14.5 million of which in Russia (a decrease of 20 percent). In terms of overall population, the urban population of the USSR rose from 33 to 39 percent between 1940 and 1950, and from 34 to 43 percent in Russia. By 1955, 44 percent of the Soviet population, and 49 percent of the Russian population, lived in an urban setting.
Throughout the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had relatively similar total populations. The U.S.' population grew from around 205 million to almost 250 million people between 1970 and 1990, while the USSR's population grew from around 240 to 290 million in this time. In these years, the Soviet Union had the third largest population in the world, and the U.S. had the fourth largest (behind China and India respectively). Despite their similar sizes, these populations differed in terms of distribution as the U.S.' population was approximately three quarters urban in this period, whereas the Soviet Union's urban population was just 56 percent in 1970 and 66 percent in 1989. Additionally, the Soviet Union's population was much younger than that of the U.S. due to a higher birth rate and lower life expectancy.
Russian estimates suggest that the total population of the Soviet Union in 1941 was 195.4 million people, before it fell to 170.5 million in 1946 due to the devastation of the Second World War. Not only did the USSR's population fall as a consequence of the war, but fertility and birth rates also dropped due to the disruption. Hypothetical estimates suggest that, had the war not happened and had fertility rates remained on their pre-war trajectory, then the USSR's population in 1946 would have been 39 million higher than in reality. Gender differences When it comes to gender differences, the Soviet male population fell from 94 million in 1941, to 74 million in 1946, and the female population fell from 102 to 96 million. While the male and female population fell by 19 and 5.5 million respectively, hypothetical estimates suggest that both populations would have grown by seven million each had there been no war. In actual figures, adult males saw the largest change in population due to the war, as a drop of 18 to 21 percent was observed across the three age groups. In contrast, the adult female population actually grew between 1941 and 1946, although the population under 16 years fell by a number similar to that observed in the male population due to the war's impact on fertility.
Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, Russians were consistently the largest ethnic group in the USSR. Of a total population of 262 million people in 1979, the share who were Russian was over 137 million, which is equal to roughly 52 percent. In 1989, the total population of the Soviet Union was almost 286 million, with the ethnic Russian population at 145 million, or 51 percent. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Tatars were the only of the ten largest ethnic groups not to be given their own independent country, with Tatarstan instead becoming one of Russia's federal republics.
In Soviet Russia (RSFSR) in 1939 and 1959, ethnic Russians made up the largest share of the total population, with a share of approximately 83 percent. Tatars were the second largest ethnic group, followed by Ukrainians. Russians were consistently the largest ethnic group in the Soviet Union as a whole, with an overall share of 53 percent in 1979.
In 1970, over 29 percent of the Soviet population were under the age of 15, however this figure fell below 25 percent in the subsequent decade. This was offset by the 15-24 age group making up a larger share of the population in 1980, due to the cyclical nature of baby booms and higher birth rates when certain generations reach childbearing age.
The Soviet population structure was also greatly affected by the Second World War. The long-term impact meant that the age groups between 35 and 54 in 1970, i.e. those who were teens and young adults in the 1940s, made up a lower proportion of the population compared to traditional age distribution models. This was due to the heavy death toll experienced during the war, particularly among males.
Die Sowjet – Zählung von 1989 (Erhebung: 12. - 19. Januar 1989) war die letzte und auch kompletteste Zählung in der früheren UDSSR. Die folgende Version der Ergebnisse ist eine Zusammenfassung der Daten in Form von Excel – Tabellen, geordnet nach den zwölf Themenschwerpunkten der Originalversion, die als publizierte Original - Edition seit 1992 vorliegt. “The present publication is the CD-ROM version of the results of the 1989 USSR Population Census. As such, it contains the entire contents of the printed (microfiche) edition of this publication, which was first published in the latter half of 1992. The major change has been to transform all the data in the printed (microfiche) edition into a set of tables, or files.The CD-ROM edition presents the data in twelve subject areas, corresponding to each of the twelve original volumes in the printed (microfiche) edition. Each of the general subject areas is subdivided into a number of specific subjects, which in turn correspond to a unique table in the printed (microfiche) edition.Statistical and demographic data on general subject areas: Vol. 1 Statistical and demographic data on; Vol. 2 Population Size and Distribution; Vol. 3 Age and Marital Status; Vol. 4 Family/Household Size and Structure; Vol. 5 Number of Children born; Vol. 6 Housing Conditions; Vol. 7 Education Level; Vol. 8 Nationality Composition; Vol. 8 Means of Livelihood; Vol. 9 Social Composition; Vol. 10 Employment by Economic Sector; Vol. 11 Occupations; Vol. 12 Migration.The data may also be approached from the point of view of geographic unit. Geographic units are: Russia; Ukraine; Belarus; Moldova; Uzbekistan; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Takikistan; Turkmenistan; Georgia; Azerbaijan; Armenia; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania.Finally, the 1989 USSR Population Census data may also be approached from the point of view of nationality. Nationalities: approximately 130 nationalities” (East View (ed.), 1996: The 1989 USSR CENSUS. Minneapolis).
Throughout the later decades of the Soviet Union, there was a consistent imbalance in the ratio of men to women. This was not only due to the legacy of the Second World War (during which time the Soviet Union lost up to 27 million people, the majority of which were men), but also due to a much lower life expectancy among men in the Soviet Union in later years. This disparity has been attributed to high rates of alcoholism and accidental deaths, which was exacerbated by economic difficulties in the final decades of the 20th century. In 1970, there were almost 20 million more women in the USSR than men, with each gender making up 54 and 46 percent of the population respectively. Natural births gradually offset the population imbalance created by the war (as the natural gender ratio at birth is generally 105 boys for every 100 girls born), and men made up over 47 percent of the population in 1989, however the gender imbalance and lower life expectancy among males remains a persistent problem across Russia and other former-Soviet states to this day.
The Second World War had a profound impact on gender ratios within the Soviet Union's population, and its effect on different age groups varied greatly. The Soviet population structure had already been shaped heavily by the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the famines of the early 1920s and early 1930s. The impact of these events on mortality and fertility meant that, in 1941, the generations whose births corresponded with these events had a lower population than would be expected on a typical population model. For example, in 1941, those aged between 5 and 9 had a significantly lower population than those aged 10 to 14, due to the effects of the Soviet famine of 1932-1933. Additionally, women outnumbered men in all age groups except the very youngest, due to the disproportionate effect of conflict and infant mortality on male populations. Impact of WWII In order to observe the impact of the war, one must compare populations of specific age groups in 1941 with the following age group in 1946. For men of "fighting age" in 1941, i.e. those aged between 15 and 44, these populations experience the most substantial decrease over the course of the war. For example, there are 5.6 million men aged 15-19 in 1941, but just 3.5 million aged 20-24 in 1946, giving a decrease of 38 percent. This decrease of almost forty percent can be observed until the 45-49 group, where the difference is 25 percent. Additionally, women aged between 15 and 34 saw a disproportionate decrease in their populations over this period, as many enlisted in the army and took an active part in the conflict, most notably as medics, snipers, and pilots.
The war's impact on fertility and child mortality meant that, in 1946, the total population under four years old was less than half its size in 1941. Generally, variations between age groups then fluctuated in line with pre-war patterns, however the overall ratio of women to men increased further after the war. For all age groups over 20 years, the number of men decreased between these years, whereas all women's age groups over 30 years saw an increase; this meant that, despite the war, women over 30 had a higher life expectancy in 1946.
https://heidata.uni-heidelberg.de/api/datasets/:persistentId/versions/3.0/customlicense?persistentId=doi:10.11588/DATA/10064https://heidata.uni-heidelberg.de/api/datasets/:persistentId/versions/3.0/customlicense?persistentId=doi:10.11588/DATA/10064
The geographic information system (GIS) is based on the first and only Russian Imperial Census of 1897 and the First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union of 1926. The GIS features vector data (shapefiles) of allprovinces of the two states. For the 1897 census, there is information about linguistic, religious, and social estate groups. The part based on the 1926 census features nationality. Both shapefiles include information on gender, rural and urban population. The GIS allows for producing any necessary maps for individual studies of the period which require the administrative boundaries and demographic information.
Representative samples of populations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This is our follow-up survey (from 2014) in the three Baltic countries but without additional sampling of their respective Russian speaking minorities. Special focus is on the handling of the covid pandemic in the Baltic countries, but the survey also covers attitudes towards the EU, migration, democracy, and Russia against the backdrop of its aggression in Ukraine.
Die Sowjet – Zählung von 1989 (Erhebung: 12. - 19. Januar 1989) war die letzte und auch kompletteste Zählung in der früheren UDSSR. Die folgende Version der Ergebnisse ist eine Zusammenfassung der Daten in Form von Excel – Tabellen, geordnet nach den zwölf Themenschwerpunkten der Originalversion, die als publizierte Original - Edition seit 1992 vorliegt. “The present publication is the CD-ROM version of the results of the 1989 USSR Population Census. As such, it contains the entire contents of the printed (microfiche) edition of this publication, which was first published in the latter half of 1992. The major change has been to transform all the data in the printed (microfiche) edition into a set of tables, or files. The CD-ROM edition presents the data in twelve subject areas, corresponding to each of the twelve original volumes in the printed (microfiche) edition. Each of the general subject areas is subdivided into a number of specific subjects, which in turn correspond to a unique table in the printed (microfiche) edition. Statistical and demographic data on general subject areas: Vol. 1 Statistical and demographic data on; Vol. 2 Population Size and Distribution; Vol. 3 Age and Marital Status; Vol. 4 Family/Household Size and Structure; Vol. 5 Number of Children born; Vol. 6 Housing Conditions; Vol. 7 Education Level; Vol. 8 Nationality Composition; Vol. 8 Means of Livelihood; Vol. 9 Social Composition; Vol. 10 Employment by Economic Sector; Vol. 11 Occupations; Vol. 12 Migration. The data may also be approached from the point of view of geographic unit. Geographic units are: Russia; Ukraine; Belarus; Moldova; Uzbekistan; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Takikistan; Turkmenistan; Georgia; Azerbaijan; Armenia; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania. Finally, the 1989 USSR Population Census data may also be approached from the point of view of nationality. Nationalities: approximately 130 nationalities” (East View (ed.), 1996: The 1989 USSR CENSUS. Minneapolis).
Representative samples of populations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This is our follow-up survey (from 2014) in the three Baltic countries but without additional sampling of their respective Russian speaking minorities. Special focus is on the handling of the covid pandemic in the Baltic countries, but the survey also covers attitudes towards the EU, migration, democracy, and Russia against the backdrop of its aggression in Ukraine. Representativa urval av befolkningen i Estland, Lettland och Litauen. Detta är vår uppföljande undersökning (från 2014) i de tre baltiska länderna, men denna gång utan ytterligare urval från de rysktalande minoriteterna i respektive land. Särskilt fokus ligger på hanteringen av covid-pandemin i de baltiska länderna, men undersökningen omfattar även attityder till EU, migration, demokrati samt Ryssland mot bakgrund av landets aggression i Ukraina.
The geographic information system (GIS) is based on the first and only Russian Imperial Census of 1897 and the First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union of 1926. The GIS features vector data (shapefiles) of allprovinces of the two states. For the 1897 census, there is information about linguistic, religious, and social estate groups. The part based on the 1926 census features nationality. Both shapefiles include information on gender, rural and urban population. The GIS allows for producing any necessary maps for individual studies of the period which require the administrative boundaries and demographic information.
In the early 1990s, Georgia entered a long period of dramatic changes as it moved from a centralized, totalitarian government, characteristic of the U.S.S.R, to an autonomous administrative, economical, political, and socio-cultural system whose priorities are state capacity building, transition to a democratic society, and development of a market economy. Since its independence from the Soviet Union in April 1991, Georgia has gone through a conflict with secessionist regions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and a civil war. During these challenging years, Georgia faced divisive ethnic disputes, economic hardships, and profound societal transformation, including rapid deterioration of the health care sector. The status of women's health in Georgia has suffered greatly during the last decade. The 1999 Reproductive Health Survey (99GERHS), the first population based national survey of this type ever conducted in Georgia, documented poor reproductive health indicators compared with other Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries.
The 99GERHS, conducted by the National Center for Disease Control, Tbilisi, with technical assistance from the Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta (DRH/CDC), interviewed a sample of 7,798 women 15-44 years of age, including an oversample of 1,655 internally displaced women living in government facilities. The oversample was applied for a programmatic reason—to evaluate the reproductive health status of the internally displaced women at the end of the reproductive health program implemented by UNHCR since 1994—and a methodologic reason— to ensure that the survey sample represent all women in Georgia, living either in residential dwellings or internally displaced housed in non-residential government facilities. The overall response rate was 99%. The survey was designed to collect information from a representative sample of reproductive-age women throughout Georgia. The questionnaire covered a wide range of topics related to reproductive health for all women regardless of marital status and included additional questions on family-life education and sexual behavior for women aged 15-24 years.
Almost two of three women (61%) with completed interviews were married or in a consensual union. One of two women had more than a secondary education. The majority population was Georgian (83%) followed by Azeri (9%), Armenian (5%) and Russian (1%) ethnic groups. Georgian was the main language spoken in 83% of households, followed by Azeri (8%), Armenian (4%) and Russian (3%). Although 94% of households had a television set, only 46% of respondents stated that they watch television daily, presumably because of the electricity shortage (7 hours per day, on average); similarly, only 30% of respondents stated that they listen to the radio daily. The average viewing and listening time among those who watch TV or listen to the radio daily was 4 and 3 hours, respectively. Only 16% and 6% of respondents reported seeing or hearing family planning messages on the television or radio, respectively.
The survey was designed to collect information from a representative sample of women of reproductive age throughout Georgia, excluding South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
6,143 respondents were selected from the universe of all females between the ages of 15 and 44, regardless of marital status, who were living in households in Georgia (excluding South Ossetia and Abkhazia) when the survey was carried out.
Sample survey data [ssd]
Results of the 99GERHS are based on in-person, face-to-face interviews with 7,798 women at their homes. The survey was designed to collect information from a representative sample of women of reproductive age throughout Georgia. Of the total, 6,143 respondents were selected from the universe of all females between the ages of 15 and 44, regardless of marital status, who were living in households in Georgia (excluding South Ossetia and Abkhazia) when the survey was carried out. In addition to the household sample, a separate sample of 1,655 internally displaced (IDP) women, who formerly resided in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and currently are living in state facilities, was performed in parallel with the household survey. This strata was added to provide a complete picture of reproductive health and women's needs in Georgia. Although about half of the IDPs in Georgia live in private dwellings (either alone or with relatives), an important segment continues to live in improvised households in communal centers (located in hotels, schools, kindergartens, farms, factories and other official buildings). Currently, it is estimated that over 100,000 IDPs are living in collective centers (UNHCR, 1999). The IDP sample of the 99GERHS was selected from the universe of IDP families living in government facilities (collective centers); these women would have otherwise been omitted from the survey, which used households in residential dwellings as the sample frame. The 1,655 women selected in the IDP sample were representative of all IDP women living in state facilities in Georgia and detailed information about their reproductive health status was published separately in the 99GERHS preliminary report (Serbanescu et al., 2000). In this final report, the IDP sample, with proper statistical weighting due to the fact that they were over-sampled, was combined with the household sample to allow the survey results to represent all women of reproductive age residing in Georgia, regardless of their housing arrangements.
Field work was conducted between November 7, 1999 and March 31, 2000. The desired sample was about 6,000 respondents for the household sample, including an oversample of women in the Imereti region, and 1,500 respondents for the IDP sample. Because the response rates were higher than expected, the actual sample size exceeds the projected sample size.
The household survey utilized a multistage sampling design using an updated sampling frame prepared by the State Department of Statistics (SDS) for the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted by UNICEF in collaboration with NCDC in July 1999. The MICS survey was designed to collect nationwide data (excluding Abkhazia and South Ossetia due to political instability) with subnational estimates. Twelve regions of the country were combined into seven survey regions and separate sampling was performed in each survey region. Grouping of regions was done taking into account the geographic location and similarity of socio-economic characteristics of the population. The SDS sampling frame contains all Georgian regions, districts, sectors, census enumeration units, census areas, and household addresses. The size of the smallest unit, the census area, contains 20-60 households; the following unit by size is the census enumeration unit incorporating 4-5 census areas with a size from 67 to 900 households; the sector is the combination of 3-5 census enumeration areas. All sectors are grouped in 53 raions (districts) that make up 12 regions (regrouped in seven regions for the MICS sampling frame). Some of the seven regions grouped for the UNICEF survey are small in size and do not always allow for independent estimates (e.g., Kakheti, Adjara). Thus, in this report the Kakheti region is part of the North-East region and Adjara is part of the West region.
The first stage of the three-stage sample design was a selection of census sectors with probability proportional to the number of households. This was accomplished by using a systematic sample with a random start in each strata; this first stage selection included 300 sectors as follows: Tbilisi (73), Imereti-Urban (28), Other-Urban (59), Imereti-Rural (27) and Other-Rural (113). In the second stage of sampling, clusters of households were randomly selected in each census sector chosen in the first stage. Cluster size determination was based on the number of households required to obtain an average of 20 completed interviews per cluster (38 households, on average). The total number of households in each cluster took into account estimates of unoccupied households, average number of women aged 15-44 per household, the interview of only one respondent per household, and an estimated response rate of 90% in urban areas and 92% in rural areas. Finally, in each of the households selected, one woman between the ages of 15 and 44 was selected at random for interview (if there was more than one woman in the household).
The 99GERHS sample includes two oversamples: a) a regional oversampling and b) an oversampling among the internally displaced population living in government facilities. Imereti region was oversampled for programmatic reasons. As in several other recent reproductive health surveys in eastern Europe conducted with CDC technical assistance (the 1996 and 1999 three-oblast surveys in Russia, the 1999 national survey in Romania and the 1999 national survey in Ukraine), the oversampling in Imereti region illustrates how surveys may be designed and integrated in the development, monitoring, and evaluation of new reproductive health programs. The oversampling of Imereti region was specifically designed to measure the impact of a region wide Women's Reproductive Health Project, a multi-faceted effort involving national and international cooperating agencies (USAID and American International Health Alliance). The project aims at reducing the reliance on induced abortion by increasing access and availability to effective contraceptive methods and promoting healthy behaviors among women, such as routine gynecologic exams, cervical and breast cancer screening. The project encompasses various interventions, such as the
Using representative surveys of the entire population, this research project analysed the similarities and differences between Soviet and Russian household behaviour in the informal economy during 1996-1999. The research was based primarily on unpublished archive material - Soviet family budget surveys - for the Soviet period, and regular Russian household/ adult surveys for the post-Soviet period. In particular, the project estimated and compared the size, dynamics and determinants of household behaviour in the informal economy in the two periods, and also assessed the impact of household informal economy activities on the Soviet or current Russian economy.
The continuous Soviet annual family budget survey (FBS), covering the entire population of the USSR was conducted from the early 1950s onwards under the auspices of the Soviet Central Statistical Administration. Comprehensive and detailed summary results of annual data from the family budget surveys of Soviet households aggregated by types of heads of households such as workers and state employees and collective farm workers are kept in three Russian archives. This dataset was created using some of the results from the FBS.
The Soviet Union was one of the most powerful nations of the 20th century. They were a communist nation that challenged the US. The Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics, the republics include Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. These republics would later become their own seperate countries at the fall of the Soviet Union. HistoryThe full name of the Soviet Union is the Union of the Soviet Social Republics (U.S.S.R.). It was a country in Northeastern Eurasia. It's borders expanded from the Baltic to Black Seas and expanded to the Pacific Ocean (Britannica). It was the world's largest country by area, it had an area of 8.65 million square miles, it had owned one-sixth of the world's land (Britannica). It had one of the most diversity, it had over 100 distinct nationalities, however the majority of the population was made up of East Slavs, which included Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians (Britannica).
Over the course of the Second World War, approximately 44.5 percent of the Soviet population and 8.7 of Soviet territory was occupied by the Axis forces at some point. Despite being allied in the war's early stages, with both countries invading Poland in 1939 via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany would launch Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR, in 1941, which would become the largest military invasion in history. Movement of the Eastern Front The surprise invasion began on June 22, and Axis forces caught the Soviets off-guard, quickly pushing their way eastward along a frontline that stretched from the Baltic to Black seas. The length of the front-line allowed Axis forces to execute pincer movements around cities and strongholds, which cut off large numbers of Soviet soldiers from their supply lines, as well as preventing reinforcements; in this process millions of Soviet troops were taken as prisoner. Within three weeks, the Germans had taken much of present-day Poland, Belarus, and the Baltic states, before taking Moldova and Ukraine in September, and pushing into western Russia between September and December. The front lines had reached the outskirts of Moscow by November, before exhaustion and cold weather helped Soviet forces hold the line and stall the German offensive. The Red Army was then able to regroup and turning the Germans' own tactics against them, using two-pronged attacks to encircle large numbers of troops, although harsh weather made this stage of the conflict much slower.
The lines remained fairly static until mid-1942, when the Germans focused their offensive on the south, concentrating on the Caucasian oil fields and the Volga River. By November 1942, Axis forces had pushed into these regions, establishing what would ultimately be the largest amount of occupied Soviet territory during the war. Once again, winter halted the Axis advance, and allowed the Red Army to regroup. Learning from the previous year, the Axis command strengthened their forces near Moscow in anticipation of the Soviet counter-offensive, but were caught off-guard by a second counter-offensive in the south, most famously at Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad would come to epitomize the extreme loss, destruction, and brutality of war on the eastern front, with conflict continuing in the city months after the rest of the Axis forces had been pushed west. As 1943 progressed, the Red Army gained momentum by targeting inferiorly-trained and equipped non-German regiments. The spring then became something of a balancing act for the Axis powers, as the Soviets consistently attacked weak points, and German regiments were transferred to reinforce these areas. In the summer of 1943, the front line was static once more, however the momentum was with the Soviets, who were able to capitalize on victories such as Kursk and gradually force the Axis powers back. By 1944, the Red Army had re-captured much of Ukraine, and had re-taken the south by the summer. When the Western Allies arrived in France in June, the Soviets were already pushing through Ukraine and Belarus, towards Berlin. In August 1944, the last Axis forces were pushed out of Soviet territory, and Soviet forces continued their push towards the German capital, which fell in May 1945. Soviet death toll In addition to the near-five million Soviet troops who died during Operation Barbarossa, millions of civilians died through starvation, areal bombardment, forced labor, and systematic murder campaigns. Due to the nature and severity of Soviet losses, total figures are difficult to estimate; totals of 15-20 million civilians and 7-9 million military deaths are most common. Further estimates suggest that the disruption to fertility, in addition to the high death toll, meant that the USSR's population in 1946 was 40 million lower than it would have been had there been no war.
This data set consists of roads, drainage, railroads, utilities, and population center information in readily usable vector format for the land area of the Former Soviet Union. The purpose of this dataset was to create a completely intact vector layer which could be readily used to aid in mapping efforts for the area of the FSU. These five vector data layers were assembled from the Digital Chart of the World (DCW), 1993. Individual record attributes were stored for population centers only. Vector maps for the FSU are in ArcView shapefile format.
Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. Using representative surveys of the entire population, this research project analysed the similarities and differences between Soviet and Russian household behaviour in the informal economy during 1996-1999. The research was based primarily on unpublished archive material - Soviet family budget surveys - for the Soviet period, and regular Russian household/ adult surveys for the post-Soviet period. In particular, the project estimated and compared the size, dynamics and determinants of household behaviour in the informal economy in the two periods, and also assessed the impact of household informal economy activities on the Soviet or current Russian economy. The continuous Soviet annual family budget survey (FBS), covering the entire population of the USSR was conducted from the early 1950s onwards under the auspices of the Soviet Central Statistical Administration. Comprehensive and detailed summary results of annual data from the family budget surveys of Soviet households aggregated by types of heads of households such as workers and state employees and collective farm workers are kept in three Russian archives. This dataset was created using some of the results from the FBS. Main Topics: Data are aggregated by types of heads of households (or social classes in Russian terminology), and include 35 income variables, 62 expenditure-related variables and nine savings-related variables. Each variable on the income side shows the sources of income (the state, collective farms, and other people) and each variable on the expenditure side shows to whom payment was made (the state sector, collective farms, or other people). In total, eight data files have been created: Russian workers and state employees' families (1969-1990), Russian collective farm ('kolkhoz') workers' families (1969-1990), Russian pure pensioners' families who retired from jobs relating to workers and state employees (1977-1990), Russian pure pensioners' families who retired from jobs relating to collective farms (1977-1990), Russian state farms ('sovkhoz') workers' families (1977-1990), Average family in the Soviet Union as a whole (1979-1990), Soviet workers and state employees' families (1969-1990), Soviet collective farm workers' families (1969-1990).
Due to the devastating impact of the Second World War on the Soviet population, the total population in 1950 was almost 15.5 million fewer than in 1940, which is a decrease of eight percent. In Russia (RSFSR), the largest of the Soviet states, the population difference was almost nine million people; also eight percent. It would take until 1955 for the populations of either the USSR or Russia to reach their pre-war levels, which was a decade after the conflict had ended. Urbanization Despite this drop in total population, industrialization and urbanization saw a significant change in the USSR's population distribution between the given years. The Soviet urban population increased by 6.3 million, or ten percent, between 1940 and 1950; 5.8 million of this was in Russia, which was a 15 percent increase. In contrast, the Soviet Union's rural population dropped by 21.8 million (a 17 percent change), 14.5 million of which in Russia (a decrease of 20 percent). In terms of overall population, the urban population of the USSR rose from 33 to 39 percent between 1940 and 1950, and from 34 to 43 percent in Russia. By 1955, 44 percent of the Soviet population, and 49 percent of the Russian population, lived in an urban setting.