Ethnodemographic processes among the udmurts from the mid-1930s through the 1950s

Abstract

The article examines the ethnodemographic processes among the Udmurts from the mid-1930s through the 1950s. The study identified ethnodemographic changes in Udmurts that occurred at the start of the demographic transition of this ethnic group. The authors use information from the All-Union Population censuses of 1937, 1939, 1959 and current accounting data, namely Form 3, which made it possible to analyze the reproduction processes of Udmurts in the regional context. Researchers identify the main regions of the Udmurts' presence. Then, on the basis of information from the All-Union Population censuses, the dynamics of the number and composition of Udmurts in the studied regions are analyzed. Due to industrialization, the share of Udmurts in the most urbanized regions of their presence increased, a trend which continued in the post-war period. In the Udmurt ASSR, the number and proportion of Udmurts decreased.

In the second half of the 1930s, the Udmurts still had a traditional type of reproduction. Fertility was high, as was mortality, in the overall structure of which infant mortality was significant. Famine, socio-economic transformations, domestic and foreign policy had a strong impact on the reproduction of the population. By the end of the 1930s, Udmurts living in cities were experiencing changes in demographic behavior.

By the end of the 1950s, as a result of the impact on demographic processes of the Great Patriotic War and the socio-economic changes of the post-war period, the Udmurts were experiencing significant changes in the processes of reproduction of the population.