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1989 Soviet National Census
Soviet State Emblem
General Information
Date Taken	January 12, 1989
Total Population	286,730,819
Percent Change	9.3%
Most Populous SSR	Russia 147,400,537
Least Populous SSR	Estonia 1,572,916
Logo

The 1989 Soviet census, conducted between January 12-19 of that year, was the last one conducted in the former USSR. It resulted in a total population of 286,730,819 inhabitants.^[1] Not only in that year, but during its entire nearly seven-decade existence, the country ranked as the third most populous in the world, above the United States (with 248,709,873 inhabitants according to the 1 April 1990 census), although it was well behind China and India.

Some details[link]

In 1989, about half of the Soviet Union's total population lived in the RSFSR, and approximately one sixth (some 18%) of in Ukraine. Almost two thirds (some 65.7%) was urban, leaving the rural population with some 34.3%.^[2] In this way, its gradual increase continued, as shown by the series represented by 47.9%, 56.3% and 62.3% of 1959, 1970 and 1979 respectively.^[3]

The last two national censuses (held in 1979 and 1989) showed that the country had been experiencing an average annual increase of about 2.5 million people, although it was a slight decrease from a figure of around 3 million per year in the previous intercensal period, 1959-1970. This post-war increase had contributed to the USSR's partial demographic recovery from the significant population losses of some 27 million deaths that the USSR had suffered during the Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front of World War II), and before it, a few million more during Stalin's Great Purge of 1936-1938. The previous postwar censuses, conducted in 1959, 1970 and 1979, had enumerated 208,826,650, 241,720,134 and 262,436,227 inhabitants respectively.^[3]

In 1990, the Soviet Union was more populated than both the United States and Canada together, having some 40 million more inhabitants than the USA alone. However, after the dissolution of the country in late 1991, the combined population of the 15 former Soviet republics stagnated at around 290 million inhabitants for the period 1995-2000.

This significant slowdown may in part be due to the remarkable changes socio-economic that followed the disintegration of the USSR, that have tended to reduce even more the already decreasing birth rates (which were already showing some signs of decline since the Soviet era, in particular among the people living in the European part of the Soviet Union).

SSR Rankings[link]

Rank	Soviet Republic	Population as of 1979 Census	Population as of 1989 Census[4]	Change	Percent change
1	Russian SFSR	137,551,000	147,400,537	9,849,537	7.2%
2	Ukrainian SSR	49,755,000	51,706,742	1,951,742	3.9%
3	Uzbek SSR	15,391,000	19,905,158	4,514,158	29.3%
4	Kazakh SSR	14,684,000	16,536,511	1,852,511	12.6%
5	Byelorussian SSR	9,560,000	10,199,709	639,709	6.7%
6	Azerbaijan SSR	6,028,000	7,037,867	1,009,867	16.8%
7	Georgian SSR	5,015,000	5,443,359	428,359	8.5%
8	Tajik SSR	3,801,000	5,108,576	1,307,576	34.4%
9	Moldavian SSR	3,947,000	4,337,592	390,592	9.9%
10	Kirghiz SSR	3,529,000	4,290,442	761,442	21.6%
11	Lithuanian SSR	3,398,000	3,689,779	291,779	8.6%
12	Turkmen SSR	2,759,000	3,533,925	774,925	28.1%
13	Armenian SSR	3,031,000	3,287,677	256,677	8.5%
14	Latvian SSR	2,521,000	2,680,029	159,029	6.3%
15	Estonian SSR	1,466,000	1,572,916	106,916	7.3%
	Soviet Union	262,436,000	286,730,819	24,294,819	9.3%

See also[link]

• Demographics of the Soviet Union
• Republics of the Soviet Union
• Soviet Census (1937)
• First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union
• Soviet Union

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Growth and diversity of the population of the Soviet Union", The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , Vol. 510, No. 1, 155-177, 1990.
• Ralph S. Clem, Ed., Research Guide to Russian and Soviet Censuses, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.
• John C. Dewdney, "Population change in the Soviet Union, 1979-1989," Geography, Vol. 75, Pt. 3, No. 328, July 1990, 273-277.

External links[link]

• Subjects of Russia, on the www.statoids.com website (it includes the demographic evolution of the Soviet Union's population).

v t e Soviet Censuses (State Committee for Statistics) 1920 1923 1926 1937 1939 1959 1970 1979 1989

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2010)

Evgeny Morozov, born 1984 in Soligorsk, Belarus,^[1] is a writer and researcher who studies political and social implications of technology.

Life[link]

Morozov is a visiting scholar at Stanford University,^[2] a fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing editor of and blogger for Foreign Policy magazine, for which he writes the blog Net Effect. He has previously been a Yahoo! fellow at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, a fellow at the Open Society Institute, director of new media at the NGO Transitions Online, and a columnist for the Russian newspaper Akzia. In 2009 he was chosen as a TED fellow where he spoke about how the Web influences civic engagement and regime stability in authoritarian, closed societies or in countries "in transition."^[3]

Morozov's writings have appeared in various newspapers and magazines around the world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, The Guardian, New Scientist, The New Republic, Times Literary Supplement, Newsweek International, International Herald Tribune, Boston Review, Slate, and the San Francisco Chronicle.^[4]

Thought[link]

Morozov expresses skepticism about the popular view that the Internet is helping to democratize authoritarian regimes, arguing that it could also be a powerful tool for engaging in mass surveillance, political repression, and spreading nationalist and extremist propaganda. He has also criticized what he calls "The Internet Freedom Agenda" of the US government, finding it naive and even counterproductive to the very goal of promoting democracy through the Web.^[5]

[edit] The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

In January 2011, Morozov published his first book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (ISBN 978-1586488741). In addition to exploring the impact of the Internet on authoritarian states, the book investigates the intellectual sources of the growing excitement about the liberating potential of the Internet and links it to the triumphalism that followed the end of the Cold War.^[6] Morozov also argues against the ideas of what he calls cyber-utopianism (the inability to see the Internet's darker side) and Internet-centrism (the growing propensity to view all political and social change through the prism of the Internet.) ^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Personal website
• Net.Effect, Morozov's blog at Foreign Policy magazine
• netdelusion.com, the Net Delusion book site (includes excerpts and additional information about the book)
• Video (with mp3 available) of discussion about cyber-war and social media with Morozov and Ethan Zuckerman on Bloggingheads.tv
• "The Digital Dictatorship" in The Wall Street Journal, 2010-2-20.
• "Texting Toward Utopia: Does the internet spread democracy?" in Boston Review (March/April 2009)
• "Cyber-Scare: The exaggerated fears over digital warfare" in Boston Review (July/Aug 2009)
• "Edit This Page: Is it the End of Wikipedia?" in Boston Review (Nov/Dec 2009)
• "The Internet in Society: Empowering and Censoring Citizen?", an animated talk presented by the RSA
• "TED Talks: How the Net aids dictatorships", Morozov's TED talk
• "Twitter Can't Save You", review of The Net Delusion in "The New York Times"
• "Caught in the net", review of The Net Delusion in "The Economist"
• "Political Repression 2.0", Morozov's oped in "The New York Times"
• "Form and Fortune: Steve Jobs's pursuit of perfection—and the consequences", Morozov's essay in The New Republic