National and regional population trends in the USSR, 1979-89: preliminary results from the 1989 census

"This article investigates national, macroregional, and economic regional population trends in the USSR during the 1979-89 intercensal period based on preliminary results from the 1989 census. The national total population growth rate during 1979-89 was roughly similar to that of 1970-79. However, the urban growth and urbanization processes slowed, while the rate of rural population change increased due chiefly to reduced rural-urban migration. Regional variations in rates of total, urban, and rural population change generally resembled those of 1970-79. Central Asia continued to exhibit the most rapid overall growth, although Siberia experienced a resurgence."     

Regional migration and ethnic Russian population change in the USSR (1959-79)

"The related topics of regional net migration and ethnic Russian population redistribution and change in the USSR are investigated for the intercensal period 1970-79 in comparison to 1959-70 by economic regions and subdivisions. The results reveal that the main migration and Russian shifts continued to be from internal to peripheral regions. However, compared with the 1959-70 period, regional rates for 1970-79 were more equalized, and a south-to-north shift seemed to be occurring in both cases." The author notes that "aggregate measures...suggest that the traditional eastward movement of Russians is slowing. Correlation analysis indicates that migration and ethnic Russian change patterns are associated with selected indices of modernization. The south-to-north shift, in particular, has been fairly strong in relation to changes in capital investment. Prospects of a northward migration of Turkic Moslems from Central Asia are also discussed."     

New approaches to the study of population dynamics in cities of Moscow Oblast

New approaches to the study of population growth, spatial distribution, and urbanization in the USSR are presented. "Quantitative analysis of historical trends in city growth rates within Moscow Oblast (1926-1984) reveals two major components or city types: a group of cities with below-(oblast) average rates for each of five periods of analysis (1926-39, 1939-59, 1959-70, 1970-79, 1979-84) and a second category experiencing above-average growth until 1970, with subsequent reduction of rates below the oblast average."     

Demographic characteristics of settlement and a demogeographic regionalization of the USSR

"An approach to the delimitation of demogeographic regions in the USSR is proposed and a network of 27 regions is developed and mapped." Geographical differences in population reproduction, structure, and migration at various territorial levels are examined. Data are provided on changes in urban population between 1959 and 1979; total, urban, and rural population growth during that period; total and rural population density in 1979; and rates of natural increase as of 1960, 1965, 1970, and 1974.     

Economic region net migration patterns in the USSR: 1979-89

"This article investigates economic region net migration patterns in the USSR during the 1979-89 intercensal period. Net in-migration and net migration rate increases (compared to 1970-79) occurred in both the western and eastern portions of the Northern USSR region, while net out-migration and rate declines occurred throughout the Southern USSR. Net in-migration again occurred to Siberia, especially Tyumen' Oblast, and there was a reduced rate of net out-migration from the Nonchernozem Zone and Central Chernozem Region of European RSFSR."     

Rapidly growing towns in the former USSR and Russia, 1970-1993

"Using urban places of 15,000 or more inhabitants as its point of reference, this paper identifies and investigates the most rapidly growing towns and cities of the USSR during the recent intercensal periods of 1970-79 and 1979-89. Rapidly growing towns are defined as towns that grew by at least 50 percent overall for the intercensal period and at a rate of equal to or exceeding 4.1 percent annually. In addition, a category of 'doubling towns' is investigated, defined as towns that increased in population by at least 100 percent (or 6.3 percent or more annually). Special attention is devoted to the geographical aspects, economic functions, and size characteristics of the towns involved. Comparisons with 1959-70, an overall examination from 1959-89, and an update for contemporary Russia during 1989-93 also are undertaken."     

Recent and prospective population growth in the U.S.S.R.: 1979-2025

"This report presents the results and assumptions of a set of projections of the population of the USSR, 1979-2025. Trends in population size and age-sex composition as well as fertility, mortality, and emigration are discussed.... The projections show that the population of the USSR will grow throughout the period to 2025. The working age population will grow very slowly for at least the next 10 years, and will not recapture the rapid growth experienced in the 1970s. The pension-age population will double in size between 1980 and 2025."     

Ethnic results of the 1979 Soviet census

This article is based on summary results concerning ethnic composition in the USSR according to the 1979 census. "These results...have been rearranged... to reflect not only the ethnic composition of the USSR and of its republics over time (1959, 1970, 1979), but also shifts in the distribution of particular ethnic groups. Furthermore, ethnic groups are discussed in a regional sequence. In combination with the migration tables based on previous results of the 1979 census...some conclusions can be drawn concerning the ethnic makeup of migrants among republics."     

Some comments on Soviet population change, 1970-1979

The author comments on an article by Wixman and Caro concerning the analysis of population growth in the USSR during the period 1970-1979. Possible methods of analyzing and mapping absolute population change for statistical units of varying sizes are evaluated with respect to their ability to provide an adequate picture of growth intensity.     

Territorial differences in population growth in the USSR, 1970-79

The authors comment on an article by Bond and Lydolph (see 46: Title 1088) concerning population growth in the USSR during the inter-censal period 1970-1979. In the present article, the authors use a more detailed analysis of the preliminary results of the 1979 census in order to illustrate other major developments     

Declining towns in the former USSR

"The paper comprises an update of an earlier study...focused on towns with declining population during the 1959-1970 period. Based on recently published data on individual urban centers with 15,000 or more inhabitants reported in the 1979 and 1989 censuses, it identifies centers where population declined from 1970 to 1989. The study also assesses selected geographical aspects, economic functions, and size characteristics of such urban centers. Comparisons with data from the 1959-1970 period are made to arrive at a 30-year perspective."     

Population trends of Soviet cities, 1970-84

This article contains a time series for the population of cities of the Soviet Union for the period 1970-1984. The data are from the Soviet censuses of 1970 and 1979 and from official estimates for 1974 and 1984. The article is designed as a continuation of an earlier time series developed by Chauncy D. Harris for the period 1897-1967. "The updated material consists of a series of tables following the patterns of the earlier material, a methodological explanation, and a discussion of significant trends in the population size of Soviet cities."     

Regional population trends in the city of Moscow during the 1979-1989 intercensal period

"This article investigates regional population trends in the city of Moscow during the intercensal period of 1979-1989. Results indicate that the Outer Zone grew more rapidly than the Inner Zone, which experienced population decline overall. As a result, the population of Moscow continued to shift to the Outer Zone. Although the Inner Zone still had a higher population density, the density gradient between the zones had flattened appreciably. Regional population growth rates were strongly and positively related to changes in housing space."     

Shifts in the distribution of rural population in the non-Chernozem zone of the RSFSR

"Rural population change within the Non-Chernozem zone of the RSFRS [Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic] is examined over the period 1959-79 at several levels of analysis: the Non-Chernozem zone as a whole, its major economic regions, individual oblasts, individual rayons and individual farms and rural places. The overriding tendency at all levels of analysis has been the increasing spatial concentration of rural population." The authors observe that "this concentration assumes a variety of forms, from the concentration of rural population in the suburban zones of large cities and the immediate surroundings of rayon seats to a decline in the number of rural places (from 180,000 in 1959 to 118,000 in 1979) and the growth of local centers against a general background of rural population decline. The authors hint that the observed tendency is a positive development, in keeping with the policy of converting Soviet agriculture to a more intensive path of development."     

Changes in the metropolitan and large city populations of the USSR: 1979-85

"This paper investigates the post-census growth of metropolitan areas and large cities in the USSR from 1979 to 1985. The Soviet population continues to be increasingly concentrated in large metropolitan areas and large cities, and although suburbanization occurs within metropolitan areas, a striking feature is that all central cities continue to grow and typically contain the vast majority of the metropolitan population. This reflects the fact that individual large cities continue to loom large, despite policies to limit their growth. Although the growth rates of large cities have slowed, so have those of smaller towns, and a merging of growth rates by size class is occurring."     

Urban settlement size trends in the former USSR: 1970-1989

"Based upon recently published data, this paper investigates urban settlement size trends in the former USSR and its republics during the intercensal periods of 1970-1979 and 1979-1989. Results indicate that although a trend toward largeness of the Soviet urban hierarchy continues, a slowing in this direction has occurred. Among republics, all had an increasing trend towards largeness on at least one and usually all three summary measures of urban settlement size structure. The RSFSR [Russia] and Armenia especially consistently evidenced a relatively high degree of largeness, while the former Baltic republics generally revealed a relative smallness."     

The cities of the RSFSR: trends and prospects of development

The relationship between function and city size in cities of the Russian part of the USSR with a population of over 100,000 is examined for the period 1939 to 1980. The results suggest that "the relationship between city growth and functional change is wavelike in nature. In the initial stages of development of a city, it is the construction and transport functions that predominate, and they are associated with high rates of population growth. Increasing functional complexity leads to slower rates of population growth. When the given city reaches a higher stage of development...it again begins to attract population, with relatively low rates of growth."     

Use of the population potential model for predicting the growth of cities in a region (with reference to Moscow Oblast)

"A modification of the population potential model is used to analyze the structure of the potential of population for cities of the Moscow region, to develop a relationship between population potential and city size, and to use this procedure to forecast future population change in Moscow Oblast cities." Cities in the region with a population of 50,000 or more at the censuses of 1959, 1970, and 1979 are included.     

Social-demographic development of Vologda Oblast during the intercensal period 1970-79

"Demographic trends in Vologda Oblast are analyzed on the basis of 1979 census results as a case study of an oblast involved in the [development] program for the Nonchernozem Zone of the RSFSR. The trend in the 1970-79 intercensal period was for continuing growth of urban population, especially in the two major urban centers of Vologda and the iron and steel city of Cherepovets, and depopulation of rural areas. The age-sex structure is distinguished by a strong aging trend and sex imbalance, especially in rural areas. Despite the proclaimed aim of fostering abandonment of tiny rural places (with 25 residents or less), the number of places in that size class actually increased during the intercensal period (from 40% of all rural places in 1970 to 52 percent in 1979)."     

Declining towns in Russia, 1989-1993

This "article based on data for the last census of the former USSR and population estimates for 1993 for urban places of over 15,000 population in the Russian Federation surveys the regional distribution, economic functions, and size characteristics of urban settlements in Russia with declining population over the period 1989-93. Interesting comparisons are drawn with patterns prevailing during previous periods, revealing recent increases in the number of such towns in major manufacturing regions and the North and an increase in the number of large cities. Towns experiencing the very greatest percentage declines (-10.0 percent or more) also are investigated."