In 1937, the Soviet Union conducted its first population census in eleven years.
Soviet leaders, especially Stalin, had great expectations on its outcome.
He predicted that the population growth would be over 35 million citizens from the last census.
It is of course true.
But this has led the population to breed much faster than in the old days.
The birth rate is higher, the death rate is lower and the pure population growth is far stronger.
It is of course good and we welcome it.
Stalin was also surprised when more than half of the population declared themselves to be religious.
After a decade of anti-religious persecution, he had hoped that there would be more atheists.
Even statisticians, newly appointed to replace those arrested, were soon arrested themselves.
Many managers appointed to lead the statistical organizations avoided showing up for work in desperate attempts to escape persecution.
The census itself was a momentous enterprise, for it was conducted on the course of a single day.
To conduct a one-day census, nearly a million enumerators were employed to collect data.
While the majority of those questioned were friendly towards the enumerators, some were hostile.
These people took out years of anger and discontent for the government on the enumerators.
Some enumerators were beaten up, while others were stabbed and punched.
Employees processing data collected during the census of 1937.
The data collection itself was not very well thought-out.
Questions about ethnicity and birthplace were removed prompting many foreigners to identify themselves as Russians despite being born elsewhere.
Other questions about the social structure and income were significantly simplified or removed altogether.
This made them unavailable for interview.
The original questionnaire had that shortcoming covered by accounting for those temporarily absent.
But Stalin had struck that section out.
The only question Stalin introduced, not present in the original questionnaire, was the question about religion.
A government official asking about religion created great suspicion and was met with the widest resistance.
Believing that all believers would be persecuted, some lied about their religion.
Still others preferred to hide in the woods when the enumerators visited the village.
Eventually, a new census was ordered in 1939.
The question on religion was eliminated because the results were too troubling.
Historians believe that the actual figures were about 1.5 million less.
The population of the USSR from 1927 to 1939.
Published data versus actual data.
The head of the statistical office, I.
So while Stalin knew about the famine, he may have grossly underestimated the extent of the damage.
When the preliminary findings of the 1937 census emerged, it shocked even those bureaucrats who anticipated far worse.
The documents relating to the census of 1937 were locked up for nearly half a century.
They emerged only after the break up of the Soviet Union.
