SOVIET POPULATION INCREASING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14259, 7 January 1947, Page 5

SOVIET POPULATION INCREASING

ESTIMATED AT 351,000,000

BY 1970

EXTRA TERRITORIES NOW INCLUDED

A Russian commentator, speaking recently over Radio Moscow, pointed out that in the 12 years immediately preceding the recent war, the population of the United States had increased by only 11 per cent; while that of the Soviet Union over the same period had increased by 15.9 per cent. He estimated the present population of the Soviet Union at 193,000,000. If, at first glance, that figure appears incredible, particularly with Soviet war fatalities, a study of “The Future Population of Europe and the Soviet Union,”' published by the League of Nations in 1944, and the increased number of Soviet election districts reported at the recent elections, both tend to corroborate it. In fact, the electoral figures appear to indicate that since 1937 the population of the Soviet Union has increased by nearly 34,000,000, since a Soviet election district contains t usually about 300,000 inhabitants, and the number of election districts last year was 682 as compared with 569 in 1937.

Population Indicated

In other words, based upon these figures, the Soviet population, numbering roughly 171,000,000 in 1937, is new upwards of 204,000,000. However, deductions must be made for the voters in the Soviet armed forces abroad, and the number of these has not been disclosed.

On the other hand, League of Nations figures, based on a Soviet population of roughly 173,000,000, anticipate a population of 189,000,000 in 1945 and 203,000,000 in 1950. Hence, allowing, for an annual increase of 2,800,000 during the years of 1945 to 1950, the 1946 population should approximate 19 2,000,000. But the League figures, based upon increases through, births, do not take into account additions to the Soviet population through territorial acquisitions during and since the war. These acquisitions, which have added upward of 12,000,000 in population, comprise: Eastern Karelia, the Isthmus of Viipuri, and islands in the Gulf of Finland, ceded by Finland;, the.-three Baltic States, Lithuania, Esthonia, and Latvia; part of East Prussia, including Konigsberg; large parts of Poland, incorporated in the White Russian and Ukrainian Republics; Ruthenia, obtained from Czechoslovakia; and Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, from Rumania. Secret Pact Moreover, under the secret Yalta agreement of, February 12, 1945, the Soviet Union was given sovereignty over Southern Sakhalin and the Kurils Islands.

j'c-day, the White Russian Republic has a population of 9,300,000; the Ukrainian Republic, 41,OOOiOOO, including 900,000 Ruthenians; and the new Federated republics: Moldavian, 2,700,000; Lithuanian, 3,00 0,000; Esthonian, 1,500,000; Latvian, 2,100,000; and Finno-Karelian, 600,000. If these numbers reflect frontier changes, the population figures of the big cities disclose a tendency toward urbanisation already marked before the war. Moscow’s population, at the end of 1945, was estimated a.t 4,500,000; Leningrad’s, at 3,300,000; and even Stalingrad sheltered in its ruins 600,000. Kiev had 1.200.000 and Kharkov, 900,000. At Murmansk, above the Arctic Circle, the population has passed the 150.000 mark.. The new port of Igarka, at the mouth of the lenissei in Siberia, has 50,000, although a few years ago this gloomy locality •boasted nothing larger than fishing villages.

200,000,000 Passed

There appears to be little doubt that the population of the Soviet Union, including newly-acquired territories, is to-day above the 20 0,000,000 mark. Hence it has more than five times as many inhabitants as Prance and three times as many as Germany. While elsewhere in Europe the trend is towards stabilisation of population, the Soviet population is among the most prolific in the world. The League of Nations study, quoted above, anticipated a population of 251,000,000 for the Soviet Union in 1970, as compared with 417,000,000 in the rest of Europe. Indications are that the Soviet figure may be surpassed. But whether it is, or not, Stalin should not lack human capital for the execution of his new five-year plan.