The first census of the Soviet population to be taken since the war—exactly twenty years after the last census—was conducted from January 15 to January 29, 1959. It provides some basic demographic facts about the Jewish population in the Soviet Union, facts which have for many years remained within the realm of speculation.

The questionnaire itself was designed to get on record the full name and address of the respondent, and to elicit from him information classified under fifteen headings; these included the respondent’s age, marital status, nationality, native language, citizenship, education, occupation, and class membership. For the benefit of Soviet citizens, the daily newspapers prominently printed the information that only oral answers from respondents were required—no documentary verification of anything said was needed. In addition, the press further emphasized that the census-taker was instructed to put down whatever information about nationality and native language the respondent gave precisely as he gave it. The nationality and the native language of children were to be specified by their parents.¹

The results of the present census are being revealed slowly, notwithstanding the use of modern tabulating machines. (The results of the 1937 census were never published; they were considered “too counterrevolutionary.”) Some preliminary data of the census under discussion, however, were published as early as May of last year, giving population figures by cities, provinces, and republics, and analyzing the urban-rural distribution.² On February 4 of this year, additional information was released, including data that pertained to marital status, education, age distribution, nationality, and native language.³ The last two factors, those of nationality and native language, allow us to gain some valuable insights into the current status of the Jews in the Soviet Union.

As of January 15, 1959, the number of Jews in the USSR was 2,268,000—1.09 per cent of the total Soviet population. Twenty years previous, as taken January 17, 1939, the figure was 3,020,000, or 1.78 per cent of the total population. Thus, there are today 752,000 fewer Jews in the Soviet Union than there were twenty years ago. If, moreover, we consider the (estimated) 1,900,000 Jews who were added to the Soviet population from the annexed territories of Eastern Poland, the Baltic countries, Bessarabia, and Northern Bukovina, during the years 1939—41, then the figure would be about 2,652,000 fewer Jews in the Soviet Union today than existed in 1941.

_____________

As mentioned above, at the census-taking the respondent himself was to specify the nationality to which he (or she) belonged. The special emphasis which the Soviet press put on the voluntary character of the answer to this question (and to the question of native language as well) may have been meant to encourage citizens belonging to certain national minorities to identify themselves as Russians. Undoubtedly some Jews took advantage of this opportunity; possibly some of those who have inter-married have avoided identifying themselves as Jews, and they would almost certainly avoid calling their children Jews. But, even though no documentary verification of the answers was required, the prolonged conditioning of Soviet citizens makes it unlikely that many of them would have given information at variance with their internal identification passports. It may be safely assumed, therefore, that the official figure of 2,268,000 is a reasonably accurate one, and that the total number of Jews, including those who declared themselves otherwise, is not much over two and a half million.

It is notable that although the Jews constitute a mere one per cent of the total Soviet population, they occupy eleventh place in the numerical standing of some 108 national groups. It should also be observed that the numerical spread between the national groups occuping seventh to eleventh place is less than 700,000. The relative importance of Jews increases immeasurably, however, by the simple fact that so many of them are urban dwellers. From the ideological, economic, and social points of view, the importance of the Soviet urban population is far greater than that of the rural elements.

The data released so far give no urban-rural distribution by nationalities, but do present the urban-rural distribution for each republic. Since we know the figures for the nationality groups in each republic, it is possible to estimate, with reasonable accuracy, the number of urban dwellers by nationality. Such an estimate assumes that the ratio of urban dwellers in a given nationality equals the ratio of all the urban dwellers in a republic to which this nationality lends its name. In actuality, with the exception of the Russian Federation and the Ukraine, the ratio of urban dwellers within the indigenous nationality is certainly smaller than the corresponding percentage for the entire republic.

Even at the most conservative estimate, at least 90 per cent of the Jewish population, or slightly over two million, live in the cities. (The figure for 1939 was 87 per cent.) Thus, only the Russians and Ukrainians, and possibly the Byelorussians and Tartars, rank higher than the Jews as the most urbanized group among the Soviet nationalities. The figures on occupational and educational status, when they are published for each nationality group, will beyond doubt further support the contention that the relative importance of Jews in the Soviet Union is far greater than their mere numbers suggest. It has already been revealed that about 11 per cent of all Soviet scientists are Jews.

The distribution of the Jewish population according to republics is shown in the following table.

The discrepancy between the previously cited total of 2,268,000 Jews and the total of 2,173,000 as shown in the table, is explained by the fact that no figures for Jews were given for several republics; their numbers were evidently considered too negligible, in relation to other nationalities, for inclusion. These 95,000 Jews live in six republics, four of which are located in Central Asia and two in Trans-Caucasia. In none of these republics, with the likely exception of Azerbaidzhan (the city of Baku), does the number of Jews exceed 25,000.

_____________

An interesting light is cast by these data on the changes in territorial distribution of the Jewish population. In the first place, the data confirm the known fact that the greatest losses among the Jewish population occurred in the occupied territories of the Ukraine and Byelorussia. The Ukraine is typical. In 1939, 1,533,000 Jews, or 50.8 per cent of the total Jewish population, lived there; now the Ukraine has only 840,000 or 37.4 per cent of Soviet Jewry.

Due in part to these losses, the geographical center of the Jewish population has shifted eastward: at the present time, 38.1 per cent of Soviet Jews live in the Russian Federation; twenty years ago, the Federation contained only 31.4 per cent. Furthermore, although no nationality figure was given for the provinces, it is also true that many Jews moved—with, incidentally, millions of Slavs—from the European regions of the Russian Federation to the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East.

A third conclusion to be drawn from the distribution shown in the table concerns Jews in the non-Slavic republics. The republics of Uzbekistan and Georgia are the only ones in which the number of Jews has increased, in both absolute and relative terms, yet the increment there has been exceedingly small. It is somewhat surprising, in fact, to find so very few Jews in the region of Central Asia, which was one of the main centers of the wartime evacuation. It may be that most of the Jewish evacuees returned to Europe; or perhaps other factors, not easily explicable, are responsible for this situation. In any event, the small number of Jews in the non-Slavic republics throws a dubious light on statements made repeatedly by Soviet leaders, to the effect that as the national cadres in those territories come of age educationally and professionally, they naturally tend to replace the allegedly many Jews in positions of responsibility. Even if all the adult Jews were members of the intelligentsia, their small numbers are virtually meaningless in the competition for good jobs—especially since the number of important posts has increased steadily as a result of the growing industrialization. The Soviet leaders are right in stating that the native intelligensia desires the more important positions; what they fail to add is that this desire is frustrated by the Russians themselves. It is the Russians who are the masters in those areas, monopolizing the strategically crucial positions.

Finally, the peculiar situation in Birobidzhan deserves special attention. The entire population of this province (no nationality distribution is available) has increased in the last twenty years from 108,000 to 163,000, or by about one-half. The population of the city of Birobidzhan has increased from 30,000 to 41,000, or by about one-third. This increase is markedly lower than the figure of 70 per cent for the population of the entire Far East over the same period—an eloquent testimony to the low priority that the Soviet leaders have assigned to the development of the “Jewish home” in Birobidzhan.

Translated literally from the Russian, the term “native language” also means “one’s own language.” In Soviet usage, this concept not only implies a language acquired in early childhood, but also a language to some extent currently used by the speaker. The Soviet press, which was careful to instruct its readers about many other questions asked by the census-takers (for example, a person nineteen years and eleven months old was reminded that he should give his age as nineteen and not twenty), did not discuss the official definition of “native language.” (It is possible that instructions as to the exact meaning of this phrase were given to the census-takers.) Although our knowledge of how the respondents understood this term is somewhat obscure, the fact remains that 472,000 Jews, or 20.8 per cent of the total, gave Yiddish as their native language.

Compare this with 70.4 per cent who named Yiddish as their native tongue in the census of December 1926. The census of 1939 was silent on this subject; all that an authoritative Soviet source had to say was that “. . . Yiddish is the language of a certain part of the Jewish population in the Soviet Union.”⁴ It is of interest to note that the other nationalities about whose native language no data were released in 1939 were the Poles, Germans, Greeks, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Koreans, Chinese, Persians, and Arabs. All of these groups have in common the fact that most of their co-nationals live outside Soviet frontiers and that in the eyes of the Soviet leadership they are tainted with the “cosmopolitan virus.”

On the basis of a series of computations, which are too lengthy to be discussed here, it is possible to deduce that only a very small proportion of these groups did give the language of their nationality as their native tongue. Whether the low figures for native language of these nationalities reflect accurately the then existing situation, or whether they are a result of official pressures, is a matter of conjecture. Although there is no way of proving it on the basis of the official data, the number of Jews who gave Yiddish as their native tongue may well have been lower in 1939 than in 1959, however paradoxical this conclusion appears.

Of all the national groups who specified in 1959 that their native language was the language of the nationality to which they belonged, the Jews with 20 per cent represent the lowest figure. The Poles come next with 45 per cent, the Gypsies with 59 per cent, and then the Germans with 75 per cent. The corresponding figure among all the major “purely Soviet” nationalities is 78 per cent and up, and in most cases, it is in the nineties. These figures confirm the obvious; Russification pressures are greatest among peoples who live among other major national groups and especially in the cities.

_____________

Yet it is remarkable that despite the absence of any officially approved outlets for the cultivation of the Yiddish language, and in the face of pressures both political and social, almost half a million Jews declared Yiddish to be their native tongue. That most of them are probably elderly need not diminish the significance of this situation. Against this background, the assertions of the Soviet leaders and of their Western apologists that not enough interest in Yiddish exists to justify the publication of Yiddish books and newspapers, and the work of Yiddish theaters and perhaps also of Yiddish schools, simply appear ridiculous.

Our analysis deals with the living population, but the dead must not be forgotten. The figures released by the Soviet government provide a new basis for an attempt to estimate, however crudely, the losses suffered by the Jewish population during the war. The computations involved will not be described here, but the figure finally arrived at is that 1,345,000 Soviet Jews were killed during the war, and if the Jews from annexed territories are considered, then the figure rises to 2,945,000. But to appreciate the magnitude of the disaster, it is also necessary to estimate the numbers of those who might have been born were it not for the war. The estimated deficit among the Soviet Jews is 1,412,000, and if those from the annexed territories are included, then the deficit reaches the astronomic figure of 3,692,000.

The fact is, however, that with all the devastation, over two and a quarter million Jews still live in the Soviet Union, constituting one of its largest national groups. Considering their predominantly urban character and their social and occupational status, the Jews must be ranked among the most important nationalities in the USSR.

_____________

¹ A sample of the census form was reproduced in Pravda, May 7, 1958. The same issue also contained some information about the” census-taking techniques. For a more elaborate discussion of the questions asked during the census see the article by Prof. V. N. Starovsky, Director of the Central Statistical Administration, Pravda, January 12, 1959 and February 5, 1960.

² Pravda, May 10, 1959.

³ Figures pertaining to the current census were published in Pravda, February 4, 1960. Data pertaining to previous censuses are derived from: Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia), 2nd ed. Moscow, 1957, vol. 50; Solomon M. Schwarz, The Jews in the Soviet Union, Syracuse, New York, 1951; Frank Lorimer, The Population of the Soviet Union, Geneva, 1946.

⁴ Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. 1957, vol. 50, p. 114.