Natalia Vladimirovna Gonina,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Demographic Dialectics of Krasnoyarsk in the 1960s
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-4-15
In the 1960s, there was an increase in the birth rate and a decrease in mortality in the RSFSR. The success of healthcare has contributed to an increase in the survival rate and an increase in the life expectancy of the population. Cities were being improved, the range of available goods increased and life became more and more comfortable. This contributed to the attraction of migrants from rural areas and the mechanical growth of the urban population. The so-called young cities, where young people predominated, looked especially good, and the level of improvement was high. However, in large cities and especially regional centers, a different situation was observed. This is where the demographic transition came into its own. The number of second and third children in families has sharply decreased. The age of a woman at the birth of her first child increased. The “echo of war” also played its role. In the 1960s, a small and weak generation of the war years entered the reproductive age. As a result, the prerequisites for a reduction in the population gradually developed. The active migration influx did not solve the problem, since the departure from Krasnoyarsk was almost equal to the number of arrivals. An additional factor was the young cities, which attracted a significant part of the migrants. A monocentric agglomeration was formed in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Krasnoyarsk concentrated 50 % of the region’s population. Housing construction did not keep up with the population growth. Queues formed for well-equipped apartments. Many young families lived in barracks and communal apartments, which did not stimulate the birth rate. The indigenous residents of the city who inherited the ancestral nests – wooden one-story houses – could not get an apartment, since they were considered to be provided with living space. Supplying the largest city was also a difficult task. For example, after the ban on keeping cattle in the cities, fresh milk became a shortage. Thus, a paradoxical situation developed. The overall favorable indicators did not give the desired results. And although the number of the population of Krasnoyarsk increased, but already in the late 1960s, the birth rate was declining and, in general, the growth rate was falling.
Publishing: 28/08/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 30.07.2021
How to cite: Gonina N.V. Demographic Dialectics of Krasnoyarsk in the 1960s // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 4 (18), pp. 163–173. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-4-15.pdf
Links: Issue 4 2021
Keywords: birth rate; infant mortality; supermortality; natural growth; migration; mechanical growth; the 1960s; Krasnoyarsk
The study was carried out with the financial support of the RFBR, the Government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Regional Science Foundation within the framework of the scientific project No. 19-49-240002.