1897 Russian census

The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897 ( pre-reform Russian: ) was the first and only nation-wide census performed in the Russian Empire (the Grand Duchy of Finland was excluded). It recorded demographic data as of .

Previously, the Central Statistical Bureau issued statistical tables based on fiscal lists (ревизские списки).

The second Russian Census was scheduled for December 1915, but was cancelled because of World War I, which had begun during 1914. It was not rescheduled before the Russian Revolution. The next census in Russia only occurred at the end of 1926, almost three decades later.

Organization

The census project was suggested during 1877 by Pyotr Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, a famous Russian geographer and director of the Central Statistical Bureau, and was approved by Czar Nicholas II in 1895.

The census was performed in two stages. For the first stage (December 1896 — January 1897) the counters (135,000 persons: teachers, priests, and literate soldiers) visited all households and filled in the questionnaires, which were verified by local census managers. For the second stage () the counters simultaneously visited all households to verify and update the questionnaires. The census was performed during winter as the population was less mobile then. Despite this being the only imperial census, historians are able to estimate the Russian Empire's population during earlier times by collecting city censuses.

The data processing required 8 years using Hollerith card machines. Publication of the results started during 1898 and ended in 1905. In total, 119 volumes for 89 '' guberniyas'', as well as a two-volume summary, were issued.

Data fields

The questionnaire contained the following questions:
* Family name, given name, patronymic or nickname (прозвище)
*Sex
*Relation with respect to the head of the family or household
*Age
*Marital status
*Social status: ''sosloviye'' (estate of the realm), rank or title (сословіе, состояніе, званіе)
*Place of birth
*Place of registration
*Usual place of residence
*Notice of absence
*Faith
*First language (родной язык)
*Literacy
*Occupation (profession, trade, position of office or service), both primary and secondary

In the census summary tables, nationality was based on the declared primary language of respondents.

File:Russian-census-1897-p1.jpg, The first page of a census form from Kiev Governorate.
File:Russian-census-1897-p2.jpg, The second page of a census form from Kiev Governorate.
File:Russian-census-1897-p3.jpg, The third page of a census form from Kiev Governorate.
File:Russian-census-1897-p4.jpg, A description page for a census form from Kiev Governorate.

Census results

The total population of the Russian Empire was recorded to be 125,640,021 people, 62,477,348 or 49.73% of whom were men and 63,162,673 or 50.27% were women—the median age was 21.16 years.

By native language

By religion

Population by modern-day countries

* Russia 67,476,000 (from this Siberia 5,758,822)
* Ukraine 23,430,407 (from this Crimea 1,447,790)
* Poland (Vistula basin) 9,402,253
* Belarus 6,927,040
* Kazakhstan 4,000,000
* Lithuania 3,135,771
* Georgia 2,109,273
* Uzbekistan 2,000,000
* Moldova 1,935,412
* Latvia 1,929,387
* Azerbaijan 1,705,131
* Estonia 900,000
* Armenia 797,853
* Kyrgyzstan 750,000
* Tajikistan 646,000
*Turkmenistan 350,000

Largest cities

Largest cities of the Empire according to the census:

* Saint Petersburg – 1,264,900
* Moscow – 1,038,600
* Varshava (Warsaw) – 626,000
* Odessa – 403,800
* Lod (Łódź) – 314,000
* Riga – 282,200
* Kiev (Kyiv) – 247,700
* Kharkov (Kharkiv) – 174,000
* Tiflis (Tbilisi) – 159,600
* Vilna (Vilnius) – 154,500
* Saratov – 137,100
* Kazan – 130,000
* Rostov-on-Don – 119,500
* Tula, Russia, Tula – 114,700
* Astrakhan – 112,900
* Ekaterinoslav (Dnipro) – 112,800
* Baku – 111,900
* Kishinev (Chișinău, Chişinău) – 108,500
* Helsinki – 93,000
* Nikolayev (Mykolaiv) – 92,000
* Minsk – 90,900
* Nizhny Novgorod – 90,100
* Samara, Russia, Samara – 90,000
* Orenburg – 72,400
* Yaroslavl – 71,600
* Dvinsk (Daugavpils) – 69,675
* Vitebsk – 65,900
* Reval (Tallinn) – 64 572
* Libava (Liepāja) – 64,489
* Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) – 65,600
* Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) – 55,200

Data availability

Each enumeration form was copied twice, with the three copies filed in the Volost (county) archives, the Governorate (Russia), governorate archives, and the Central Statistical Bureau in St. Petersburg. The copies in St. Petersburg were destroyed after they had been tabulated. Most of the copies stored locally and regionally have also been destroyed; however, the complete census for the Arkhangelsk Governorate, Arkhangelsk and Tobolsk Governorate, Tobolsk governorates has been preserved, and the census for portions of several other governorates is also extant.

Assessment

The results may have been influenced by national policy of the authorities: the population of Russian ethnicity was somewhat exaggerated.Anna Geifman, ''Russia Under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894-1917'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1999,
Google Print, p. 118-119
/ref> Thus for example, the number of Poles is underrepresented.Jerzy Borzęcki, ''The Soviet-Polish peace of 1921 and the creation of interwar Europe'', Yale University Press, 2008,
Google Print, p.10
/ref> Imperial officials classified the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages as belonging to the Russian group and labeled those nationalities as Little Russian for Ukrainians and Belarusians, White Russian for Belarusians.

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* ''Первая всеобщая перепись населенiя Россійской Имперіи''. Под редакцiею Н. А. Тройницкаго. — СПб.: Изданiе центральнаго статистическаго комитета министерства внутреннихъ делъ, 1905. (The First Total Census of Russian Empire. A publication of the central statistical bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Editor N. A. Troynitsky.)
* ''РОССИЯ. Полное Географическое Описание Нашего Отечества''. Под ред. П. П. Семенова-Тян-Шанского. — СПб., 1913. (Semenov-Tyan-Shanskiy, P. P. (Ed.): ''RUSSIA. Complete Geographical Description of our Fatherland''. — St. Petersburg, 1913. This latter work reproduces most of the results of the census, and is a good deal easier to find in western libraries than the original publication.)

Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку и регионам
(First General Russian Empire Census of 1897. Population breakdown by mother tongue and regions) (Demoscope.ru)

The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897. Breakdown of population by mother tongue and districts in 50 Governorates of the European Russia (1777 territorial units)

Other websites

A website containing an interactive map with native language, religion, and urbanization data for each Russian district (uyezd) in the 1897 Russian census for a district's total population, urban population, and rural population

{{Russian censuses

Society of the Russian Empire
Demographics of Russia
Censuses by country
1897 in the Russian Empire
1897 censuses, Russian Empire