Soviet Census (1937)

The Soviet Census held on January 6, 1937 was the most controversial of the censuses taken within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The census results were destroyed and its organizers were sent to the Gulag as saboteurs because the census showed much lower population figures than anticipated.

After the First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union of 1926, the next census was planned to be held in 1933. On March 15, 1932 the formal commission on census organization, chaired by Valerian Osinsky was created by the Statistical Commission (Tsentral'noye Upravleniye Narodno-Khozyaystvennogo Uchyota, TsUNKhU) of Gosplan. On 22 April 1932 Sovnarkom adopted the decision On Conducting the all-Union Census in December 1933. On 15 April 1933 Sovnarkom moved the date for the census to the beginning of 1935. On 23 June 1934 Sovnarkom further delayed the census to January 1936. On 15 June 1935 the census date was moved to December 1936. Finally the census was conducted on January 6, 1937.

The multiple delays were most probably explained by the reluctance to show the catastrophic demographic results of collectivization and the Famine of 1932-1934, including the Holodomor. The Soviet leadership had fanned great expectations of population growth.

On 26 January 1934 Joseph Stalin reported to the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (b) as one of the main achievements "Growth of population from 160.5 millions in the end of 1930 to the 168 millions in the end of 1933". On 1 December 1935 Joseph Stalin made a speech, on the Meeting of Kolkhozniks with the Soviet and Party leaders:

Combining his reports, one could have expected to have a population of about 180 million in 1937.

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