THE ALLUNION CENSUSES 1959, 1970 AND 1970 AS A SOURCE OF STUDYING POPULATION TITULAR NATION OF UKRAINIAN DURING THE 60’S70’S OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

The article analyses the All-Union censuses in 1959, 1970 and 1979 as a primary source for a comprehensive studying the population dynamics and the settlement of Ukrainians in different regions of the Ukrainian SSR during the 60’s – 70’s of the XXth century. The author has studied a state of preservation of their native language, has defined the factors which under the totalitarian regime negatively influenced the change of demographic processes, especially the ethnic composition of Ukrainian society at the outlined period. The article also describes the national policy of Soviet authorities which guided by the national priority of state and nationwide community of «the Soviet people» and ignored the value of an ethnic nation. The author also finds out that Ukrainians were the dominant nation almost throughout the USSR in the outlined period. The number of Ukrainian grew exclusively by natural population growth, while the number of representatives of the Russian nation increased as a result of internal republican migration. The article brings the idea that Ukraine was one of the centers of accumulation of immigration flows in the Soviet Union, and because of this fact the multicultural Ukrainian SSR society, which constituted basically of the Ukrainians, gradually turned into bi-national, where Ukrainian majority coexisted along with continuously growing Russian minority. Such resettlements were carried out primarily for political reasons and were aimed at the loss by native people their national characteristics – language, culture and the like. The main task of migration, which was run by the Soviet government was the assimilation, denationalization and the russification of the Ukrainian people which was hidden by slogans of rapprochement of nations.