Russian Census Will Assess Post-Soviet Health of Nation

 
MOSCOW -- Russia has embarked on its first nationwide census since the breakup of the Soviet Union, in an attempt to assess what impact 11 years of turbulent reforms have had on its people.

During the next eight days, more than 400,000 counters will spread out across Russia to take the temperature of a nation that has endured coups and crises, a financial collapse and two wars in Chechnya since the last census was held in 1989.

Russia's radical shift to a market economy has plunged millions into poverty, while rising mortality and a falling birth rate have raised fears of drastic population decline. Official estimates put Russia's present population at 143.5 million, compared with 147 million 13 years ago. It is hoped the census will give a more accurate and detailed demographic picture.

Census-takers first will have to overcome a serious hurdle -- Russia's traditional mistrust of officialdom. Many Russians fear information they give could end up in the hands of police, tax authorities or army-recruitment officials. That could cause trouble for the millions of Russians who dodge the draft, evade taxes and violate the country's draconian registration requirements.

Goskomstat, the state statistical agency in charge of the census, has promised full confidentiality. Respondents will be asked to state their sex, date and place of birth, marital status, citizenship and ethnic affiliation, but not their name, religion or native language. Other questions will touch on education, source of income and employment, while one in four participants will be asked to fill in a more detailed form with 13 additional questions. Unlike in Soviet times, citizens won't be obliged to take part.

But Goskomstat's liberal approach has come under fire from some academics, who say the census should have been made obligatory. Valery Tishkov, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, says it might fail to count between three and five million people he estimates are living in Russia illegally, most of them laborers from other former Soviet republics like Georgia and Ukraine.

"You need to count the people who are living here temporarily, who are not registered or are illegal immigrants -- people who work as market-traders or builders, who often live rough or in railway wagons or with relatives," he said. Academics and sociologists expect the count will reveal a gradual shift in population from colder, more remote parts of Russia such as Siberia and the Far North to the warmer southern and western areas. It is also expected to confirm continuing depopulation of rural areas as young people move to cities, and a shift in Russia's ethnic composition, with growth in non-Russian nationalities.

Despite an aggressive advertising campaign built around the slogan "Write yourself into Russian history," some 3% of Russians say they're boycotting the head count, in protest of government policy. Some have singled out decisions to raise the cost of public transport, increase customs duties on imported used cars and prevent the Communist Party from holding a referendum to ban the sale of land.

The history of the census in Russia has been troubled since its introduction in 1897. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin made the results of the 1937 count secret after they revealed the devastating effect of years of famine, repression and mass arrests. At the same time, in a country that prided itself on its militant atheism, a big majority turned out to be Christian Orthodox or Muslim believers, while a quarter of the population above the age of 10 was illiterate. Shortly afterwards, Stalin had most of the census' organizers arrested and imprisoned as "enemies of the people." Some were later shot.