Soviet Census (1937)
The Soviet Census held on January 6, 1937 was the most controversial of the censuses taken within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The census results were not published because the census showed much lower population figures than anticipated, although it still showed a population growth from the last census in 1926, from 147 million to 162 million people in 1937.
Delays
After the First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union of 1926, the next census was planned to be held in 1933. On 15 March 1932 the formal commission on census organization, chaired by Valerian Osinsky was created by the Statistical Commission of Gosplan. On 22 April 1932 Sovnarkom adopted the decision On Conducting the all-Union Census in December 1933. On 15 April 1933 Sovnarkom moved the date for the census to the beginning of 1935. On 23 June 1934 Sovnarkom further delayed the census to January 1936. On 15 June 1935 the census date was moved to December 1936. Finally the census was conducted on 6 January 1937.The multiple delays were most probably explained by the reluctance to show the catastrophic demographic results of the famine of 1932–1934. The Soviet leadership had fanned great expectations of population growth.
High expectations
On 26 January 1934 Joseph Stalin reported to the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party as one of the main achievements "Growth of population from 160.5 millions in the end of 1930 to the 168 millions in the end of 1933".On 1 December 1935 Joseph Stalin made a speech, on the Meeting of Kolkhozniks with the Soviet and Party leaders:
Combining his reports, one could have expected to have a population of about 180 million in 1937.
Official statistics based on the registered birth and death rates implied that the 1937 census should show a population of 170–172 million. On 21 September 1935 Sovnarkom adopted a decision On the organization of registration of natural population changes most probably authored by Stalin:
Historian A. G. Volkov, claims that idea that a significant number of individual deaths were double counted is absurd, but Soviet historians claimed otherwise. On the other hand, not registering deaths, especially those who died by famine or incarceration, was common. For example, during the Holodomor, starving peasants tried to escape to the cities where they could earn or beg for food. Many of them died in the streets. In 1933, the street-cleaning service of Kiev picked up 9,472 dead bodies. Only 3,991 of them were officially counted as deaths on state records, while 5,481 were disposed of without formal registration, per instructions from the prosecutor's office.
Preparation
The official commission for the preparation of the census was formed on 16 September 1935. It included:- Vyacheslav Molotov, the Chairman of Sovnarkom,
- Lazar Kaganovich, Narkom for transport,
- Anastas Mikoyan, Narkom for the food industry,
- Nikolay Antipov, Vice Chairman of Sovnarkom,
- Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman of Mossovet,
- Emmanuil Kviring, Vice Chairman of Gosplan,
- I. A. Kraval, the chief of TsUNKhU,
- A. S. Popov, deputy to the chief of TsUNKhU.
- Valery Mezhlauk, the Chairman of Gosplan, who chaired the commission.
A comparison between the two variants is shown in the table below:
| TsUNKhU proposal | Stalin's edit | - | - |
| Order | Question | Order | Question |
| 1 | Relations with the person that provides the main income | removed | |
| 2 | If temporarily absent, then: a) mention "temporarily absent" b) state the reason c) for how long absent | removed | |
| 3 | If lives temporarily, state "lives temporarily" | removed | |
| 4 | Sex | 1 | Sex |
| 5 | How many years since birth? For children younger than one year – months? Younger than one month – days? | 2 | How many years or months since birthday |
| 6 | Ethnicity | 3 | Nationality |
| 7 | Mother tongue | 4 | Mother tongue |
| 7 | Mother tongue | 5 | Religion |
| 8 | If foreign citizen, then of what state? | 7 | Citizen of what state? |
| 9 | Was born here? | removed | |
| 10 | If was not born here, then state: A. Where was born? a) Republic or oblast b) Uyezd? c) Raion? d) Name of the town, settlement? B. For how long lives here Whether able to read and write, or only read, or completely illiterate? b) If literate, then in what languages? | 8 | Whether literate? |
| 12 | Where do you study? Name of school, courses, etc. For the children going to a nursery, kindergarten, etc. state "kindergarten", "nursery", etc. | 9 | In what school do you study – primary, secondary or tertiary? |
| 12 | Where do you study? Name of school, courses, etc. For the children going to a nursery, kindergarten, etc. state "kindergarten", "nursery", etc. | 10 | What grade are you in? |
| 13 | Where have you studied? Name of the highest school | 11 | Have you graduated from secondary or tertiary school? |
| 14 | Main occupation a) Type of the occupation or job, position, profession, specialization b) Award category c) Position in the main occupation: worker, white collar, apprentice, member of a collective farm, commune, co-operative, small business owner, etc. d) Name of the office or enterprise | 12 | Type of occupation in present |
| 14 | Main occupation a) Type of the occupation or job, position, profession, specialization b) Award category c) Position in the main occupation: worker, white collar, apprentice, member of a collective farm, commune, co-operative, small business owner, etc. d) Name of the office or enterprise | 14 | What social group do you belong: workers, white collars, kolkhozniks, individual farmers, artisans, people of free professions, priests of a cult or nonworking elements? |
| 14 | Main occupation a) Type of the occupation or job, position, profession, specialization b) Award category c) Position in the main occupation: worker, white collar, apprentice, member of a collective farm, commune, co-operative, small business owner, etc. d) Name of the office or enterprise | 13 | Place of work |
| 15 | Secondary occupation a) Type b) Award category c) Position d) Name of the enterprise and its address | removed | |
| 16 | If you have income not from the occupation, state what type of income | removed | |
| 17 | If have no own income, then who provides for you | removed | |
| 18 | If married, then for how many years? | 6 | Are you married? |
While his Soviet contemporaries praised Stalin's clarity and brevity in the design of these forms, modern scholars have observed a significant dumbing-down of the original proposals. A lot of information, e.g., about the social structures and income, and migration, could not be deduced from the new forms. Some questions were extremely vague and allowed different interpretations. Volkov argues that it was done deliberately. Stalin removed the double accounting, thus significantly reducing the accuracy of the calculations. It was coupled with a very maladroit time for the census: the night from 5 to 6 January – that is, the eve of Russian Orthodox Christmas, when people are extremely mobile.
The main new question introduced by Stalin was the question about religion. According to Volkov, Stalin expected the great majority of people to self-identify as atheists.
Census
The census was held on 6 January 1937. In addition to the general census in the cities, towns and villages, a special census was held by the NKVD in the Gulag camps and among the border guards; by the Red Army, which took a census of military personnel; and the railroad, which took a census of passengers. When the data was first processed, it soon became obvious that the final enumeration would be little more than 162 million people. The worst disagreement between the expected and the obtained data were in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, North Caucasus and the Volga region, the areas that were the strongest hit by the Soviet famine of 1932–1934..On 11 January the chief of TsUNKhU Kraval sent telegrams requesting a total recount of a whole settlement if any doubt arose that somebody might be missing there. Still, despite the total recount in 25,000 settlements, only 4,887 previously unenumerated persons were found. The preliminary result of the census, reported to Stalin in the middle of March 1937, was 162,039,470 people, much lower than the "criminally decreased" registered numbers of 170–172 million or Stalin's expectation of 180 million people.
Another serious blow was a very high percentage of people who stated that they were religious. 55.3 million, or 56.7%, of those who provided answers stated that they were religious, 42.2 million stated that they were atheists, and around 1 million refused to give an answer. Historian V. B. Zhiromskaya stated that people expected to be persecuted if they declared themselves as belonging to a religion, but considered the answer to be important: If many people would say that they are religious, the authorities would have to open the churches, was a common attitude. The Soviet authorities were so upset by the results of the census that they did not include a question on religion in any future censuses.
Aftermath
In March 1937 the four main statistical professionals working on the Census in TsUNKhU - the chief of the Sector for Population, Mikhail Kurman; chief of the Census Bureau, Olimpiy Kvitkin; his deputy, Lazar Brand; and the chief of the Sector for transportation and communication, Ivan Oblomov, were arrested and imprisoned. Soon they were joined by the Chief of TsUNKhU, Ivan Kraval, and the chiefs of most of the regional statistical centers, and executions followed. Many statisticians, newly appointed in place of those arrested, were soon arrested themselves. There is evidence that many managers appointed to lead the statistical organization tried to avoid starting their new jobs in desperate attempts to escape persecution.On 25 September 1937 there was a special Sovnarkom decision proclaiming the census invalid and setting a new one for January 1939. A Pravda editorial stated that the "enemies of the people gave the census counters invalid instructions that led to the gross under-counting of the population, but the brave NKVD under the leadership of Nikolai Yezhov destroyed the snake's nest in the statistical bodies".
Stalin had to agree with the lower numbers of population growth. In his report to the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party he said:
The new Soviet Census showed a population figure of 170.6 million people, manipulated so as to match exactly the numbers stated by Stalin in his report to the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party. No other censuses were conducted until 1959.
Today there is a consensus that the results of the 1939 census were adjusted. Some historians consider the 1937 census the only more or less reliable source of demographic data for the period 1926–1959. However, demographers do not consider it as such. The data became influential for evaluating the number of victims of the Great Purge, World War I, and the 1930s famines, including the Holodomor.