The Russian revolution of 1917 through the prism of demographic modernization

Abstract

In late imperial Russia demographic indicators improved, the efficiency of population replacement increased somewhat, a certain rationalization of demographic behavior occurred, and intra-familial relations were humanized. But arguably the most important changes were that a significant part of the population began to differentiate sexual, matrimonial, and reproductive behavior and to develop individual birth control, changes regarded in demography as criteria for the first demographic transition. The primary explanation for these positive changes lies in the participation in this demographic revolution of approximately 14 percent of Russian citizens, mainly from the educated and affluent population living in large cities, as well as Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant residents of the western regions. The majority of the rural and urban population, of Orthodox, Muslim, pagan, and other non-Christian religious affiliations (approximately 86 percent of the entire population), was superficially affected by the new trends. People who were actively and consciously drawn into the demographic transition, who had been transformed psychologically, mentally, and culturally, were also receptive to innovation in the social, political, cultural, and economic spheres and were the most prepared for and willing to refashion social life on a bourgeois-democratic basis. Their numbers were sufficient for the slow, gradual, overall modernization of the country, but inadequate for rapid and profound revolutionary bourgeois-democratic transformations. Consequently, the Revolution of 1917 proved premature. Political midwives hurried and artificially hastened the birth of a new Russia. The newborn was born preterm. As a result, the revolution could not meet the challenges set by its leaders and organizers.