1926 Soviet census

The first all-Union census was preceded by two partial censuses carried out by the Bolsheviks after their seizure of power in Russia. The first, the general census of 1920, took place during the Civil War and the Soviet-Polish War. It was thus unable to deal with the Crimea, much of Transcaucasia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Far Eastern, Siberian, and Central Asian parts of the Soviet Union as well as with its Far Northern parts. Yet it is worth to note that there was only 15,000,000 population increase between 1920 and 1926 constituting in some 131,304,931 people according to the TIME magazine while is still undisclosed in Russian history.[3] The 1923 Census was restricted to cities. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the only Russian Empire Census was done in 1897.

By classifying the population in terms of narodnosti (nationalities)—as opposed to tribe or clan—along with policies which gave these nations land, resources, and rights, experts and local elites were encouraged to interfere with the information collecting.[4]

The Georgian and Ukrainian delegations each had concerns with the formulation of narodnosti proposed in the census. The Georgian delegation proposed classifying the population in terms of natsionalʹnosti, as they considered it better suited for developed nations like Georgians. Ukrainian representatives preferred to use native language for classification instead of nationality. These protests did not lead to changes.[5]

Responses to the question of nationality were at times reevaluated (changed) by census takers or later by state analysts for "correctness", as it was believed that some people would "confuse" nationality with such other categories as place of residence, native language, or clan.[6]

This list, called Programmy i posobiya po razrabotke Vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya 1926 goda, vol. 7, Perechen i slovar narodnostey, Moscow 1927, was developed by the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR.[7]

•  Russian SFSR – 100,891,244 (urban 17,442,655)
  • Kazakh ASSR – 6,503,006 (urban 539,249)
  • Kirghiz ASSR – 993,004 (urban 121,080)
•  Ukrainian SSR – 29,018,187 (urban 5,373,553)
  • Moldavian ASSR – 572,114
•  Uzbek SSR – 5,272,801 (urban 1,102,218)
  • Tajik ASSR – 827,200
•  Byelorussian SSR – 4,983,240 (urban 847,830)
•  Transcaucasian SFSR
  •  Georgian SSR – 2,666,494 (urban 594,221)
  •  Azerbaijan SSR – 2,314,571 (urban 649,557)
  •  Armenian SSR – 880,464 (urban 167,098)
•  Turkmen SSR – 1,000,914 (urban 136,982)
• Total in the Soviet Union – 147,027,915 (urban 26,314,114)

• All-Union census 1926 (Demoskop Weekly) (in Russian)

• Henry Joachim Dubester (1948). "USSR: Census of 1926". National Censuses and Vital Statistics in Europe, 1918–1939: An Annotated Bibliography, with 1940–1948 Supplement. USA: Gale Research Company.