Demographics of the Soviet Union
Main cities
| Main Cities of the Soviet Union (1989) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | City | Population | |||||
| 1. a | Moscow | 8 769 000 | |||||
| 2. a | Lenin | 4 456 000 | |||||
| 3. a | Kiev | 2 587 000 | |||||
| 4. a | Tashkent | 2 073 000 | |||||
| 5. a | Baku | 1 757 000 | |||||
| 6. a | Járkov | 1 611 000 | |||||
| 7. a | Minsk | 1 589 000 | |||||
| 8. a | Gorki | 1 438 000 | |||||
| 9. a | Novosibirsk | 1 436 000 | |||||
| 10. a | Sverdlovsk | 1 367 000 | |||||
| 11. a | Tiflis | 1 260 000 | |||||
| 12. a | Kúibishev | 1 257 000 | |||||
| 13. a | Yerevan | 1 199 000 | |||||
| 14. a | Dniepropetrovsk | 1 179 000 | |||||
| 15. a | Omsk | 1 148 000 | |||||
| 16. a | Cheliábinsk | 1 143 000 | |||||
| 17. a | Odessa | 1 115 000 | |||||
| 18. a | Donetsk | 1 110 000 | |||||
| 19. a | Kazan | 1 094 000 | |||||
The Soviet Union had a population of 290 million people in July 1990, having then become the third most populous country in the world and surpassing the United States by some 40 million people.
Ethnic groups
The ethnic groups were distributed as follows: 75% Russian Slavs, 12% Turks and 13% other ethnic minorities. It had a labor force of 152 million people, of which more than 80% worked in industrial sector activities and the remaining 20% was distributed in agricultural activities.
Population growth
Due to World War II, the USSR lost about 26 million people, but this did not prevent it from growing by more than 2 million inhabitants each year. During his term as President of the Council of Ministers, Iósif Stalin used important economic actions that promoted demographic growth by improving the quality of life in the USSR.
Nationalities
The sprawling multinational empire that the Bolsheviks inherited after their revolution was created by Tsarist expansion over nearly four centuries. Some groups of nations joined the empire voluntarily, but most were forcibly joined. Generally, the Russians and the majority of the non-Russian population of the empire shared little in the way of culture, religion, and language. More often than ever, two or more diverse nationalities were placed on the same territory. Thus, national antagonisms developed over the years not only against the Russians, but often between some of the subject nations as well.
For nearly seventy years, Soviet leaders had maintained that frictions between the many nationalities of the Soviet Union had been eradicated and that the Soviet Union consisted of a family of nations living harmoniously together. However, the national ferment that shook every corner of the Soviet Union in the 1980s proved that seventy years of communist rule had failed to eradicate national and ethnic differences and that traditional religions and cultures would re-emerge given the slightest opportunity. This reality faced by Gorbachev and his colleagues meant that, with little confidence in the traditional use of force, they had to find alternative solutions in order to avoid the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The concessions made to national cultures and the limited autonomy tolerated in the Union republics during the 1920s led to the development of national elites and a heightened sense of national identity. The subsequent repression and Russification provoked resentment against Moscow's domination and promoted the further growth of national consciousness. National sentiments were exacerbated in the Soviet multinational state by increased competition for resources, services, and jobs.
Religious groups
The State was separated from the Church by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on January 23, 1923. Official figures for the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union were not available in 1989. But according to various Soviet and Westerners, about a third of the people in the Soviet Union, professed some religious belief. Christianity and Islam vied for the majority of believers. Christians belonged to various Churches: the Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers; Catholic; the Baptist and several other Protestant churches. There were many churches in this country (7500 Russian Orthodox Churches in 1974). Most of the adherents of the Islamic faith were Sunnis. Judaism also had many followers. There were other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, including Buddhism, Lamaism, and Shamanism, a religion based on primitive spiritualism. The role of religion in the daily life of Soviet citizens varied greatly. Since Islamic religious tenets and Muslim social values are closely interrelated, religion appeared to have a greater influence on Muslims than on Christians or other believers. Two thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including CPSU members and high-level government officials, were atheists. Therefore, for most Soviet citizens, religion was irrelevant.
Demographic evolution between 1959 and 1991
| Rеpublica | 1959 | 1970 | 1979 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soviet Union | 208 827 000 | 241 720 000 | 262 436 000 | 286 731 000 | 288 624 000 | 290 077 000 |
| Russian RSFS | 117 534 000 | 130 079 000 | 137 551 000 | 147 000 | 148 041 000 | 148 543 000 |
| RSS Feeds of Ukraine | 41 869 000 | 47 126 000 | 49 755 000 | 51 707 000 | 51 839 000 | 51 944 000 |
| Belarus RSS | 8 055 000 | 9 002 000 | 9 560 000 | 10 200 000 | 10 259 000 | 10 260 000 |
| RSS feeds Uzbekistan | 8 106 000 | 11 799 000 | 391 000 | 19 905 000 | 20 322 000 | 20 708 000 |
| SSR of Kazakhstan | 9 310 000 | 13 009 000 | 14 684 000 | 16 536 000 | 16 691 000 | 16 793 000 |
| RSS of Georgia | 4 044 000 | 4 686 000 | 5 015 000 | 5 443 000 | 5 456 000 | 5 464 000 |
| Azerbaijan SSR | 3 698 000 | 5 117 000 | 6 028 000 | 7 038 000 | 7 131 000 | 7 137 000 |
| RSS of Lithuania | 2 711 000 | 3 128 000 | 398 000 | 3 690 000 | 3 723 000 | 3 728 000 |
| RSS of Moldova | 2 884 000 | 3 569 000 | 3 947 000 | 4 338 000 | 4 362 000 | 4 367 000 |
| RSS of Latvia | 2 093 000 | 2 364 000 | 2 521 000 | 2 680 000 | 2 687 000 | 2 681 000 |
| SSR of Kyrgyzstan | 2 066 000 | 2 934 000 | 3 529 000 | 4 290 000 | 4 367 000 | 422 000 |
| Tajikistan | 1 980 000 | 2 900 000 | 3 801 000 | 5 109 000 | 5 248 000 | 5 358 000 |
| SSR of Armenia | 1 763 000 | 2 492 000 | 3 031 000 | 3 288 000 | 3 293 000 | 376 000 |
| RSS feeds of Turkmenistan | 1 516 000 | 2 159 000 | 2 759 000 | 3 534 000 | 3 622 000 | 3 714 000 |
| Estonian RSS | 1 197 000 | 1 356 000 | 1 466 000 | 1 573 000 | 1 583 000 | 1 582 000 |
| Control of authorities |
|
|---|
Data: Q2633463
Multimedia: Demographics of the Soviet Union / Q2633463