Gennady Egorovich Kornilov,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Transformation of Demographic Structures Into Urban Settlements (Based on the Materials of the Ural Region in 1923–1934)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-4-11
The analysis of changes in the demographic situation and, accordingly, the demographic structures of the urban population is carried out within the framework of the Ural region, which existed in 1923–1934. This created area with its center Yekaterinburg/Sverdlovsk as was experimental, during which the search for the optimal combination of industrial and agricultural production was carried out. The administrative boundaries of the territory did not change, which allowed for calculations not to resort to recalculations. The region by the end of its existence had turned into one of the most industrially developed regions of the country, another thing was that at the beginning of 1934, when it was disbanded, statistics did not summarize the demographic state for 1933, only the materials of recounts for the newly formed regions (Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Ob-Irtysh) were deposited in the archives. The main factor in the transformation of demographic development was the policy of industrialization and collectivization. They gave a powerful boost to the growth of cities and the urban population of the region. The main source of their replenishment was voluntary and forced migration, which led to the fact that most of the citizens were in a post-migration state. The article is based on relatively little-studied sources, such as the urban population census conducted in April 1931, the tax records of 1931, 1932, the trade union census of 1932–1933, the current population census, and the published materials of the population censuses of 1920, 1923, and 1926. The article analyzes the dynamics of the urban population of the Ural region, identifies the stages of its growth, the main factors. The phenomenal growth of citizens has dramatically transformed its demographic structures: it has changed the gender and age composition, family structure, and employment structure of the population. The article notes that in the 1920s there was a demographic transition, but the demographic situation was not stable. Food difficulties and the outbreak of famine in the early 1930s affected demographic development, it coincided with the demographic cycle that began after the disaster of the early 1920s, these two factors were evidence of the demographic crisis and determined the subsequent development of the population.
Publishing: 28/08/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 19.05.2021
How to cite: Kornilov G.E. Transformation of Demographic Structures Into Urban Settlements (Based on the Materials of the Ural Region in 1923–1934) // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 4 (18), pp. 121–132. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-4-11.pdf
Links: Issue 4 2021
Keywords: urban population; population censuses; gender, age and family structures; Ural region
The study was carried out with the financial support of the RFBR within the framework of the scientific project No. 20-09-00032 “Transformation of Demographic Structures of Russian Society in the Late XIX – Early XXI Centuries: a Regional Aspect”.