Regional Population Trends in the Former USSR, 1939-51, and the Impact of World War II

Abstract

The Soviet Union probably suffered greater population losses than any other country during World War ll. Estimated deaths plus estimates of nonbirths place total population losses at probably more than 40 million. Although the last census of the USSR prior to the war was taken in 1939, or fairly close to the eve of the war, the first postwar census was not completed until twenty years later in 1959 or nearly fifteen years after the end of the war, by which time the prewar population had been reached and surpassed by nearly 20 million.