Summary

Thirty-six ethnie groups in the USSR are analyzed as to fertility differentials. The analysis is based on data from the 1959 nationwide census. To explain the fertility differentials found, ethnographic and sociological features of these groups are traced as a possible contributing factor. One of the poignant observations of the study is the fact that almost all ethnic groups with fertility above the median are those belonging to Moslem and Buddhist traditions. They are primarily located in the Central Asian republics, the Caucasus, and some parts of southern Siberia. Low fertility levels are by and large associated with the Eastern Orthodox Slavs and the Protestant Balts.

Ratios of the number of children aged 0–9 to the number of women in the 20–49 age group are related to independent variables in the following order of importance: traditional religion, percentage of married women in the 20–49 age group, degree of literacy, male-female literacy differential, and sex ratio. The multiple correlation of 0.911 was obtained between the child-woman ratio and the first four of the most important independent variables. Sex ratio appeared significant only after the influence of the percentage of married women was eliminated from the analysis of multiple and partial correlations.

The data suggest that the urban-rural differential is a non-linear function of the urban-rural migration. A more complete explanation of the divergence between urban and rural child-woman fertility ratios should be made the subject of separate studies.

Resumen

Se analiza las diferenciales de la fecundidad en 26 grupos étnicos de la URSS. El análisis se basa en los dotos del Censo Nacional de 1959. Para explicar las diferenciales de la fecundidad encontradas, se ha seguido como posibles factores contributivos, algunos hechos sociológicos y etnográficos de estos grupos. Una de las observaciones importantes de este estudio es el hecho de que casi todos los grupos étnicos con una fecundidad por encirna de la mediana, son los que pertenecen a las tradiciones musulmana y budista. Estan localizados principalmente en las repúblicas del Asia Central, el Cáucaso, y algunos partes del sur de Siberia. Bajos niveles de fecundidad caracterizan a los Eslavos Ortodoxos del Este y a los Bálticos protestantes.

Las proporciones entre niños de las edades 0–9 años y el número de mujeres en el grupo de 20–49 años de edad, están relacionadas con las variables independientes en el siguiente orden de importancia: religión tradicional, porcentaje de mujeres casadas en el grupo de 20–49 años, grado de alfabetismo, diferencial de alfabetismo entre hombres y mujeres, y proporción de cada sexo. Se obtuvo un índice de correlación múltiple de 0.911 entre la proporción niños-mujeres y las primeras cuatro variables independientes más importantes. La proporción de sexos parece ser significante sólo después de que se ha eliminado del análisis de las correlaciones múltiple y parcial, la influencia del porcentaje de mujeres casadas.

Los datos sugieren que la diferencial urbano-rural es una función no-lineal de la migración urbana rural. Una explicación más completa de las divergencias entre las proporciones de fecundidad niñomujer urbana y rural deben ser el tema de estudios separados.

Ethnic Group, Rural Population, Married Woman, Fertility Differential, Traditional Religion
The text of this article is only available as a PDF.

References

1
Vostrikova, A. M. (
1964
).
Examination of Fertility, Marriage and the Family in the USSR
. In Szabady, Egon (Ed.),
Studies on Fertility and Social Mobility
(pp.
214
–
28
).
Budapest
:
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
.
Google Scholar
 
2
A classic example of such studies was prepared for the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress and published in the document under the title Dimensions of Soviet Economic Power (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1962). Also see James W. Brackett, Projections of the Population of the USSR, by Age and Sex: 1964–1985 (Series P-91, No. 13, prepared by Foreign Demographic Analysis Division, Bureau of the Census [Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1964]).
3
Heer, David M. (
1965
).
Abortion, Contraception, and Population Policy in the Soviet Union
.
Demography
,
II
,
531
–
39
. 10.2307/2060137
Google Scholar
 
4
The amount of publications on maternal and child health, sanitation, and public health in general is at once impressive and staggering. The main journal in this group, Sovetskoe Zdravookhranenie (“Soviet Public Health Care”), published by the Ministry of Public Health of the USSR, gives the most exhaustive coverage of this subject. The basic Russian works include Tsentralnoye Statisticheskoye Upravlenie, Zdravookhranenie v SSSR (“Public Health in the USSR”) (Moscow: Gosstatizdat, 1960); M. D. Kovrigina (ed.), Sorok Let Sovetskovo Zdravookhraneniia (“Forty Years of Soviet Public Health”) (Moscow, 1957), also available in English translation published by the United States Joint Publications Research Service (880-D, August 25, 1959); S. A. Novoselskii, Voprosy Demograficheshoi i Sanitarnoi Statistiki: Izbrannye Proizvedeniia (“Problems of Demographic and Sanitation Statistics: Selected Works”) (Moscow: Medgiz, 1958). See also various sources in English, such as United Nations, Economic and Social Council, “Planning for Balanced Social and Economic Development in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic,” in Report on the World Social Situation, and Y. Lisitysn, Achievements of Soviet Medicine (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960).
6
Tsentralnoye Statisticheskoye Upravleniye pri Sovyete Ministrov SSSR, Itogi Vsesoyuznoy Perepisi Naseleniya 1959 Goda, SSSR: Svodniy Tom (“Results of the All-Union Census of Population of 1959, USSR: Summary Volume”) (Moscow: Gosstatizdat, 1962), pp. 211–25, 232–39. Also RSFSR Volume (1963), pp. 338–409, 414–25.
7
Podyachikh, P. (
1959
).
The Population of the Soviet Union
.
Voprosy ekonomiki
,
II
(
5
),
20
–
24
.
Google Scholar
 
8
Bogue, Donald J., & Palmore, James A. (
1964
).
Some Empirical and Analytic Relations among Demographic Fertility Measures, with Regression Models for Fertility Estimation
.
Demography
,
I
(
1
),
316
–
38
.
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
9
Materials on the Preparation and the Conduct of the USSR All-Union Population Census of 1959
(pp.
28
–
29
). (
1959
).
Washington, D.C.
:
Government Printing Office
.
12
McNemar, Quinn (
1955
).
Psychological Statistics
(pp.
196
–
97
). 2d ed.
New York
:
John Wiley & Sons
.
Google Scholar
 
13
P. G. Podyachikh, Naselenie SSSR (“Population of the USSR”) (Moscow, 1961), pp. 101–14. For the more detailed discussion of the size, composition, and distribution of the ethnic groups the reader is referred to James W. Bracket and John W. De Pauw, “Population Policy and Demographic Trends in the Soviet Union,” New Dimensions in the Soviet Economy (89th Cong. [Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1966]), pp. 632–39.
14
Fitzsimmons, Thomas, Malof, Peter, & Fiske, John C. (
1960
).
USSR
(pp.
478
–
79
).
New Haven
:
HRAF Press
.
Google Scholar
 
15
Teodorowitsch, N. A. (
1960
).
A Fresh Campaign against Islam in the USSR
.
The East Turkic Review
,
3
,
48
–
57
.
Google Scholar
 
16
Izvestia, November 24, 1959.
17
S. M. Abramzon et al., Byt Kolhoznikov Kirgizskikh Selenii Darhan i Chichkan (“The Way of Life of the Collective-Farm Peasantry of the Kirgiz Villages of Darkhan and Chichkan”) (“Trudy,” New Series, Vol. XXXVII [Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, Institut Ethnografii, 1958]). M. A. Bikzhanova, Semia v Kolkhozakh Uzbekistana (“The Family of the Collective Farms of Uzbekistan”) (Tashkent: Uzbekskoi SSR Academy of Sciences, 1959). L. N. Terentava and N. V. Shlygina (eds.), Semia i Semeinyi Byt Kolhoznikov Pribaltiki (“The Family and Family Life of the Collective Farmers of the Baltic Region”) (“Trudy,” New Series, Vol. LXXVII, 1962); and other works.
18
N. A. Kisliakov, Semia i Brak u Tadzhikov (“Tamily and Marriage among the Tadzhiks”) (“Trudy,” New Series, Vol. XLIV, 1959).
19
Krader, Lawrence (
1963
).
Peoples of Central Asia
(pp.
147
–
147
).
Bloomington
:
Indiana University Press
.
Google Scholar
 
21
Krader, Lawrence (
1963
).
Peoples of Central Asia
(pp.
150
–
150
).
Bloomington
:
Indiana University Press
.
Google Scholar
 
22
Luzbetak, Louis J. (
1951
).
Marriage and the Family in Caucasia
(pp.
44
–
49
).
Vienna-Moedling
:
St. Gabriel’s Mission Press
.
Google Scholar
 
23
Krader, Lawrence (
1963
).
Peoples of Central Asia
(pp.
151
–
151
).
Bloomington
:
Indiana University Press
.
Google Scholar
 
24
Levin, M. G., & Potapov, L. P. (
1964
).
The Peoples of Siberia
(pp.
437
–
437
).
Chicago
:
University of Chicago Press
.
Google Scholar
 
25
Volkova, N. G. (
1965
).
Changes in the Ethnic Composition of the Urban Population of the North Caucasus during the Soviet Period
.
Soviet Sociology
,
IV
(
2
),
17
–
33
.
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
26
Levin, M. G., & Potapov, L. P. (
1964
).
The Peoples of Siberia
(pp.
277
–
277
).
Chicago
:
University of Chicago Press
.
Google Scholar
 
27
An excellent summary of this subject is given in Kingsley Davis, “Institutional Patterns Favoring High Fertility in Underdeveloped Areas,” Eugenics Quarterly, II, No. 1 (March, 1955), 33–39. Also see Kingsley Davis and Judith Blake, “Social Structure and Fertility: An Analytic Framework” Economic Development and Cultural Change, IV, No. 3 (April, 1956), 211–35.
30
M. V. Daragan, “Economic Development and Internal Migration” (English text), Proceedings of the 1965 World Population Conference, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The original figures were first given six years earlier by Podyachikh, who attributed the 1939–59 urban growth to three sources: administrative changes (7 million); natural increase (8 million); and permanent migration from rural to urban areas (25 million). See Podyachikh, “The Population of the Soviet Union,” Problems of Economics, II, No. 5 (September, 1959), 20–25.
© Population Association of America 1967
1967