The 1926 Soviet Census took place in December 1926. It was an important tool in the state-building of the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, provided the government with important
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
information, and helped in the transformation from Imperial Russian society to Soviet society. The decisions made by ethnographers in determining the ethnicity (''narodnost'') of individuals, whether in the Asiatic or European parts of the former Russian Empire, through the drawing up of the "List of Ethnicities of the USSR", and how borders were drawn in mixed areas had a significant influence on Soviet policies. Ethnographers, statisticians, and linguists were drawing up questionnaires and list of ethnicities for the census. However, they also had the more ambitious goal of deliberately transforming their identities according to the principles of
Marxism–Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology which was the main communist movement throughout the 20th century. Developed by the Bolsheviks, it was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, its satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various c ...
. As Anastas Mikoyan put it, the Soviet Union was: "creating and organising new nations".
Previous censuses
The First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union followed two partial censuses carried out by the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
following their seizure of power in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
, much of
Transcaucasia
The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
n, and Central Asian parts of the Soviet Union as well as with its Far Northern parts. Yet it is worth to note that there was only 15,000,000 population increase between 1920 and 1926 constituting in some 131,304,931 people according to the TIME magazine while is still undisclosed in Russian history. The ''1923 Census'' was restricted to cities. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the only Russian Empire Census was done in 1897.
Methodology
By classifying the population in terms of ''narodnosti'' (nationalities)—as opposed to tribe or clan—along with policies which gave these nations land, resources, and rights, experts and local elites were encouraged to interfere with the information collecting.
List of ethnicities
This list, called , vol. 7, , Moscow 1927, was developed by the
Central Statistical Administration
The Central Statistical Administration (or Board or Directorate) (russian: Центральное Статистическое Управление), abbreviated TsSU (russian: ЦСУ), was the main statistical organization of the former Soviet ...
of the USSR.
#Russian – 77 791 124
#
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
– 782 334
#
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
Serb
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
#
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
#
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Arnaut
Arnaut ( ota, ارناود) is a Turkish ethnonym used to denote Albanians. ''Arvanid'' (), ''Arnavud'' (), plural: ''Arnavudlar'' (): modern Turkish: ''Arnavut'', plural: ''Arnavutlar''; are ethnonyms used mainly by Ottoman and contempora ...
)
#
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
( Ashkenazi) – 2,599,973The total population of the six different Jewish recognized groups was 2,680,823; Ashkenazim were listed simply as "Jewish", being seen as default. James Stuart Olson, ''An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994. pp. 317-321 etc.
# Crimean Jewish – 6,383
# Mountain Jewish (Dag Chufut) – 25,974
# Georgian Jewish – 21,471
# Bukharan Jewish (Dzhugur) – 18,698
# Karaim – 8,324
#
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
Vepsian
Veps, or Vepsians (Vepsian language, Veps: ''vepsläižed''), are a Baltic Finns, Finnic people who speak the Veps language, which belongs to the Finnic languages, Finnic branch of the Uralic languages.
According to the 2002 census, there were 8 ...
Kven
KVEN (1520 AM, "La Voz 1520 AM & 96.3 FM") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language news/ta ...
Zyrian
The Komi language ( kv, коми кыв, ''komi kyv''), also known as Zyryan, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (Komi: коми-зырян кыв, komi-zyrjan kyv),Permyak
# Udmurt (Votiak)
# Besermyan
# Mari (Cheremis)
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Mordva
The Mordvins (also Unified Mordvin people, Mordvinians, Mordovians; russian: мордва, Mordva, Mordvins (no equivalents in Moksha and Erzya)) is an obsolete but official term used in the Russian Federation to refer both to Erzyas and Moks ...
Gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
Mansi
Mansi may refer to:
People
* Mansi people, an indigenous people living in Tyumen Oblast, Russia
** Mansi language
* Giovanni Domenico Mansi
Gian (Giovanni) Domenico Mansi (16 February 1692 – 27 September 1769) was an Italian prelate, theolog ...
(Vogul)
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Khanty
The Khanty ( Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, togethe ...
Shors
Shors or Shorians ( Shor: , ''shor-kizhi'', , ''tadar-kizhi'', , ''shor'', , ''tadar'', , ''shor-kizhiler'', , ''tadar-kizhiler'', , ''shorlar'', , ''tadarlar'') are a Turkic ethnic group native to Kemerovo Oblast of Russia. Their self design ...
Sagai
Khakas (also known as Xakas, endonym: хакас тілі, ''khakas tįlį'', тадар тілі, ''tadar tįlį'') is a Turkic language spoken by the Khakas people, who mainly live in the southwestern Siberian Khakas Republic, in Russia. The ...
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Koybal
The Koibal are one of the subdivisions of the Khakass people of Southern Siberia. Although they speak the Turkic Khakas language, the Koibal have mixed ancestry and used to speak the Kamas language, which is now extinct. They formed in the late ...
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Beltir
Khakas (also known as Xakas, endonym: хакас тілі, ''khakas tįlį'', тадар тілі, ''tadar tįlį'') is a Turkic language spoken by the Khakas people, who mainly live in the southwestern Siberian Khakas Republic, in Russia. The ...
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Dolgan
Dolgans (; Dolgan: , , (Sakha); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They adopted a Turk ...
Tungus
Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main branches, northern (Evenic or ...
Negidal
Negidals (; Negidal: ''элькан бэйэнин'', ''elkan bayenin'', "local people") are a people in the Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, who live along the Amgun River and Amur River.
The ethnonym "Negidal" is a Russification of the Ewenki ...
(Negda, Eleke Beye)
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Orochi
, or simply , is a legendary eight-headed and eight-tailed Japanese dragon/serpent.
Mythology
Yamata no Orochi legends are originally recorded in two ancient texts about Japanese mythology and history. The 712 AD transcribes this dragon name ...
Koryaks
Koryaks () are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south ...
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Kamchadal
The Kamchadals (russian: камчадалы) inhabit Kamchatka, Russia. The name "Kamchadal" was applied to the descendants of the local Siberians and aboriginal peoples (the Itelmens, Ainu, Koryaks and Chuvans) who assimilated with the Russ ...
Yukagir
Yukagir (russian: Юкагир; sah, Дьүкээгир, ''Cükeegir'') is a rural locality (a '' selo''), the only inhabited locality and the administrative center of Yukagirsky National (Nomadic) Rural Okrug of Ust-Yansky District in the Sak ...
Aleut
The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the ...
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
#Japanese
#
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
Kabard
The Kabardians ( Highland Adyghe: Къэбэрдей адыгэхэр; Lowland Adyghe: Къэбэртай адыгэхэр; russian: Кабардинцы) or Kabardinians are one of the twelve major Circassian tribes, representing one of t ...
Batsbi
The Bats people ( ka, ბაცი, tr) or the Batsbi (ბაცბი), are Nakh-speaking Tushetians in the country of Georgia. They are also known as the Ts’ova-Tush (წოვათუშები) after the Ts’ova Gorge in the historic Geo ...
Khinalug
Khinalug, Khynalyg, or Khinalyg ( az, Xınalıq; Khinalug: ''Kətş''; also rendered as Khanaluka, Khanalyk, Khinalykh, or Khynalyk), is an ancient Caucasian village going back to the Caucasian Albanian period. It is located high up in the mounta ...
Andi Andi or ANDI may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Andy (given name), including people and fictional characters with the name Andi
* Andi people, an ethnic group of Dagestan, Russia
Places
* Andi, Guizhou, a town in Jinsha County, Gu ...
(Andiitsy, Kwanally)
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Botlog
The Botlikh people (also known as Bótligh, Botlig, Botlog or Buikhatli) are an Andi–Dido people of Dagestan. Until the 1930s they were considered a distinct people. Since that time they have been classified as Caucasian Avars and have faced ...
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
Bosha Bosha may refer to:
* The Kingdom of Garo
The Kingdom of Garo, also known as Bosha after its ruling dynasty, was an Oromo-Sidama kingdom in the Horn of Africa. Established by the Sidama people, it was situated on the periphery of the Gibe regi ...
Talysh Talysh may refer to:
*Talysh people
* History of Talysh
*Talysh language
*Talysh Khanate, in existence from 1747 to 1828
*Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic, a self-declared autonomy, which existed briefly in the south of Azerbaijan in 1993
*Talysh ...
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Ottoman Turk
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
Fergana
Fergana ( uz, Fargʻona/Фарғона, ), or Ferghana, is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km west of Andijan, and less than 20 km fr ...
Kypchak
The Kipchaks or Qipchaks, also known as Kipchak Turks or Polovtsians, were a Turkic nomadic people and confederation that existed in the Middle Ages, inhabiting parts of the Eurasian Steppe. First mentioned in the 8th century as part of the Se ...
Taranchi
Taranchi () is a term denoting the Muslim sedentary population living in oases around the Tarim Basin in today's Xinjiang, China, whose native language is Turkic Karluk and whose ancestral heritages include Tocharians, Iranic peoples such as ...
Dungan Dungan may refer to:
* Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes spelled Dungan
* Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin
** Dungan language
** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally
* Dungan Mountains in Sibi Dist ...
#
Afghan
Afghan may refer to:
*Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia
*Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity
** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
, conventional_long_name = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic
, common_name = Transcaucasian SFSR
, p1 = Armenian Soviet Socialist RepublicArmenian SSR
, flag_p1 = Flag of SSRA ...
, Georgians were considered the Titular Nationality.
Population of the USSR sorted by most common nationalities in 1926
Population by republics
* – 100,891,244 (urban 17,442,655)
**
Kazakh ASSR
The Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic (russian: Казахская Автономная Социалистическая Советская Республика; kk, Qazaq Aptonom Sotsijalistik Sovettik Respublikasь), abbreviated as K ...
Moldavian ASSR
* ro, Proletari din toate țările, uniți-vă! (Moldovan Cyrillic: )
* uk, Пролетарі всіх країн, єднайтеся!
* russian: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!
, title_leader = First Secr ...
– 572,114
* – 5,272,801 (urban 1,102,218)
**
Tajik ASSR
The Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR) (russian: Таджикская Автономная Социалистическая Советская Республика) was an autonomous republic within the Uzbek SSR in the Sovi ...
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...