The 1937 census and the limits of Stalinist rule

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8957952
AutoresCatherine Merridale (University of Bristol, autor correspondente)
Ano1996
Volume39
Fascículo1
Páginas225-240
Data de publicação1996-03-01
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x00020744
OpenAlexW2086742946
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas7

In January 1937 the government of the USSR conducted its first population census in eleven years. This article, which is based on the archives of the census organizations and on reports from some local offices for the registration of births, marriages and deaths, describes the campaign of data collection, the questions that were asked (including, for the first and last time, a question about the respondent's religion) and the response which people give to this personal contact with their rulers. The information gathered was exceptionally thorough and complete. Crucially, however, the census was entirely suppressed, and the officials responsible for organizing it promptly arrested and executed. The reasons for doing this – which largely centred on the sensitivity of evidence of high mortality during the famine of 1932–3 – are discussed, as are the potential implications of the suppression of such information. Finally, the article questions how complete any statistics about famine mortality in this period can be, and calls for a discussion of the broader questions of memory and loss which underlie the bare statistics of death

Census · Data collection · Demographic statistics · Famine · Genealogy · Geography · Government (linguistics · Official statistics · Political science · Population · Population statistics · Respondent · Social science · Sociology · Statistics · Demography · Health and Conflict Studies · History · Law

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