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Soviet Germans and the 1979 Census: A Note on the Reliability of Soviet Nationality Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Sidney Heitman
Sidney Heitman*
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
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Extract

One of the most important sources of demographic data concerning the Soviet nationalities is the official Soviet census reports. Considering the sensitivity of the nationality problem in the USSR today, however, how thorough and dependable are the published results of the Soviet censuses regarding the more than 100 Soviet nationalities? In January 1980, a preliminary and partial report on the 1979 enumeration was issued, and until the full reports are published, probably in a year or two, it is the best source of information concerning the current numbers and distribution of the Soviet nationalities. These figures have already been and will be used for comparisons with the 1970 census reports and projections, as well as for other analyses and computations. But how reliable are these most recent statistics? Can they be taken on face value as accurate, thorough reflections of the ethnic scene in the USSR in January 1979, when the count was taken?

Type
Notes and Comments
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Fall 1981 , pp. 231 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities (USSR and East Europe) Inc. 

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References

Notes

2. Naselenie SSSR po dannym vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1979 goda (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1980).Google Scholar

3. Sidney Heitman, The Soviet Germans in the USSR Today (Cologne: Bundesinstitut für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, 1980).Google Scholar

4. Ibid., p. 15.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 8.Google Scholar

6. Ibid., pp. 20–21.Google Scholar

7. Quoted from the “Abstract” of a report to the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, entitled “A Research Note on the Soviet Census of 1979.” The report, written by Rasma Karklins, has been published under the title “A Note on ‘Nationality’ and ‘Native Tongue’ As Census Categories in 1979” in Soviet Studies, XXXII, 3 (July 1980), 415-22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. See Heitman, op. cit., p. 83.Google Scholar

9. An “educated estimate” based on all known factors would place the actual number of Soviet Germans in 1979 at least 20% higher than officially reported, or about 2,323,200.Google Scholar