Figure 1.-This Soviet era poster appeared after World War II in the late 1940s. The slogan is "Children is a joy for a Soviet family, future of our motherland!" |
|
I do not yet have complete details on Soviet birthrate trends. One overwealming factor was the industrializatioin pushed by Stalin. This meant a shift of population from rural areas to the cities. Urbanization always means a decline in the birth rate. This process continued throughout Soviet times. Another factor affecting the birth rate was asbortion. Decliniing birth rates became an increasing concern during the late Soviet period. Birth rates in the post-Soviet era have fallen to critical levels and has become a major concern of Russian polic makers. Population trends were also affected by other factors. One was public health programs which improved during the Soviet era. Another was Soviet policies like the Ukranian famine. And of course World War II and genocidal NAZI policies had a terrible impasct on the Soviet population.
One overwealming factor was the industrializatioin pushed by Stalin. This meant a shift of population from rural areas to the cities. Urbanization always means a decline in the birth rate.
Urban families normally foster fewer children than rural families. The urbanization process continued throughout the Soviet era. The process finally ended in 1992. In that year for the first time a smaller percentage of the Russian population did not live in cities than during the precious year. Thus urbanization which continued throughout Soviet times can be seen as a major reaspn for the declining birth rate. There was in the Soviet Union as in Americam a post-World War II baby boom. Soviet officials, however, began to report dramatically decling birth rates in the 1960s.
The Russian birthrate in the 1960s, declined from 23.2 per 1,000 population at the beginning of the decade to only 14.1 in 1968. Decliniing birth rates became an increasing concern during the late Soviet period. The Soviet government during the 1980s judged the USSR's population situation to be unfavorable. It was a concern of Mikhail Gorbachev whose Glasnost programs was unable to affect the falling birth rate. The Soviets introduced family incentives which had some succes. Birth rates recovered slightly to 17.3 per 1,000 (1983). Birth rastes began to decline again in 1987, and by 1993 the rate was only 9.4 per 1,000.
The fall in birth rates also occurred in Eastern European Communist countries. Another concern was that the declining birth rate is most pronounced for ethnic Russians. Other nationalities in the Soviet Union tended to have higher birth rates. And the fall was much shasrper than in Western Europe. And during the late Soviet period mortality rates and longegevity trends began to reverse. Birth rates in post-Soviet Russia era have fallen to critical levels and has become a major concern of Russian polic makers. The declining birthrate in modern Russia has been accompanied by rising mortality rates. Western Europe has also experienced falling birth rates, but not rising mortaslity rates. Russian leaders are calling it a "a demographic catastrophe". While the situation in Europe is serious, the declining birth rates in Russia are startling. Some observers have called it "a kind of upheaval never before seen in a modern industrial nation during peacetime". A 1993 account reports, "Since 1989--when the final crisis of the Soviet Empire commenced--birth rates have fallen by nearly 40 percent, and death rates are up almost as sharply. Survival chances for nearly every segment of the Russian population appear to have worsened significantly over the past four years: according to official numbers, even infant mortality and maternal mortality are on a steady rise. For Russian men, life expectancy has reportedly dropped by at least three years since 1989--possibly even more. "If the mortality rate remains this high in the immediate future," one Russian commentator warned in Izvestiya (March 3, 1993), "a third of the generation of youth, who are now 16, will not live until 60." Her projection, however, was based on the death patterns of 1992; conditions have worsened still further since then."
It is unclear why birth rates have fallen so sharp,y in Russia. The most likely reason is the social and economic difficulties resulting from the fall of Comminism and the transition to a market economy.
Family incomes have fallen and the social services once provided by the Soviet State have gradually disappeared. Families are less able to afford children, housing is a serious problem, and more Russian women are working. The number of common-law marriages has steadily increased sonce the 1960s and these unions tend to produce fewer children. And the number of children biorn to unsed mothers is increasing.
Another factor affecting the birth rate was asbortion. The Orthodox Church opposed abortion and thus there were few abortions in Russia until the Recolution. The Bolshevicks instituted a atheism campaign which removed religious leadrs from positions of authority. The Soviet Union became the first country to legalize abortion (1920). Soviet women began using abortion as a method of birth control, affecting birth rates. Soviet officials reversed course and prohibited abortion withj some limited exceptoions (1936). I am not sure why this change was made. But the impact of collectivization and the Ukramian famine may have been factors. Soviet autorities reversed course again and legalized abortion (1968). Abortion again became a common practice. Contraception devices were not commonly asvailable to Soviet women. Abortion was thus the only reliable method of avoiding unwated pregnancies. The Soviet Union had the highest abortion rate in the world and this continues to be the case in modern Russia.
One report indicated that Russia in the mid-1990s terminated 225 pregnancies per 100 births. Russia reports about 3.5 million abortions annually.
Population trends were also affected by other factors. One was public health programs which improved during the Soviet era. Public health trends have since reversed. Russian authorities reported that infant mortality rate rose from 17.4 per 1,000 live births to 19.9. This seems to be the result of the deteriorating child care and nutrition programs provided by the Soviet state. The actual situation may be worse than availavle Russianb statistics suggest.
One of the greatest crimes of the Stalinist era was horific famine in the Ukraine. The famine area included both the Ukraine and the Soviet northern Caucasus, as well as Russian areas in the lower Volga River basin. Famines are historically primarily the results of natural events such as drought, heat, diseases, insect infestations, and other natural causes. The Ukrsanian famine was primarily caused by Stalin's program of collectiving Soviet agriulture, especially the forced collectivization of the Ukraine. The Ukraine had been the bread basket of Russia. It was the prize sought by the Germans in two world wars. The rich, well watered soil made the Ukraine the most productive agrivcultural area of the Soviet Union. Two issues merged which resulted in dissaster for the Ukranian people. Not only did the Ukranian peasantry resist collectivization, but there was a strong Ukranian national spirit, especially in the western Ukraine. Stalin was determined to both bring agicultural under central control, but to crush Ukrainian nationalism at the same time. Stalin not only used the famine to crush the spirit of the Ukranisn peole, but he also purged the Ukrainian intelligentsia. Stalin even purged the Ukrainian Communist party. At the cost of millions of lives, many of them children, the famine succeedded in breaking any organized redsistance on the part of the peasantry to collectivization. Stalin's purges also succeeded in smashing the Ukranian national movement. Stalin's actions in the Ukraine were not without costs beyond the deaths of Ukranians. Agricultural production plummeted. Soviet agricultural became one of the most inefficent agricultural operations in the world. Stalin bought Ukranian agricultural under his control through collectivization, he also signicantly reduced the output of Soviet agriculture.
I am not sure to what extent the Soviet police state affected birth rates. The Purges of the 1930s affected men and women throughout the country. And the Gulag confined millions to labor camps through the 1950s. The Terror sunsided after Khreschev reforms vegining with the 20th Party Congress (1956). Even so the Soviet Union continued to be controlled by a police state.
And of course World War II and genocidal NAZI policies had a terrible impact on the Soviet population. The birthrate during World War II declined shggarply with condutions uncertain and so many men away at the front. This set up a cycle. There was a baby boom immediately after the war. But then low birthrate followed in the in the 1960s, which in turn affected the birthrates in the 1990s. Russian authorities reported thast between 1989 and 1993, the number of women in the important childbearing age-group decreased by 1.3 million, or 12 percent, a principal factor in the 27 percent decline in births during that period.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main Stalinist era page]
[Return to Main Soviet communism page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]