IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/intare/v17y2014i2p184-204.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Death by demography: 1979 as a turning point in the disintegration of the Soviet Union

Author

Listed:
  • Monica Duffy Toft

Abstract

The 1979 census conducted across the vast expanse of the Soviet Union revealed that the make-up of the country’s population had undergone enormous change. The census recorded low birth-rates among the Slavic population relative to their Central Asian compatriots, among other trends. The results were worrisome to Soviet planners in that they feared that these domestic population trends were going to undermine the country’s power. At the same time, Soviets faced the defeat of communist allies in Afghanistan at the hands of fighters beholden to religion, and an Islamic revolution in Iran. What these dynamics revealed was a complex interplay between domestic, regional and international politics. Interpreted through the lens of population dynamics, the convergence of these events revealed 1979 to be a critical turning point in the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Suggested Citation

  • Monica Duffy Toft, 2014. "Death by demography: 1979 as a turning point in the disintegration of the Soviet Union," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 184-204, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:17:y:2014:i:2:p:184-204
    DOI: 10.1177/2233865914535597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2233865914535597
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2233865914535597?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghoncheh Tazmini, 2001. "The Islamic revival in Central Asia: A potent force or a misconception?," Central Asian Survey, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 63-83.
    2. Monica Duffy Toft, 2007. "Population Shifts and Civil War: A Test of Power Transition Theory," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 243-269, July.
    3. Silver, Brian, 1974. "Social Mobilization and the Russification of Soviet Nationalities," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 45-66, March.
    4. White, Stephen, 1982. "The Supreme Soviet and Budgetary Politics in the USSR," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 75-94, January.
    5. Michael Ellman & Vladimir Kontorovich, 1997. "The collapse of the Soviet system and the memoir literature," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 259-279.
    6. Rasma Karklins, 1994. "Explaining regime change in the Soviet Union," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 29-45.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthew I. Mitchell, 2018. "Migration, sons of the soil conflict, and international relations," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 51-67, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Monica Duffy Toft, 2012. "Demography and national security: The politics of population shifts in contemporary Israel," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 21-42, March.
    2. Brian Silver, 1974. "The impact of urbanization and geographical dispersion on the linguistic russification of soviet nationalities," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 11(1), pages 89-103, February.
    3. Mueller, Klaus, 1997. "East European studies, neo-totalitarianism and social science theory," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 97-004, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Barbara Anderson & Brian Silver, 1983. "Estimating russification of ethnic identity among non-Russians in the USSR," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 20(4), pages 461-489, November.
    5. Olsson, Ola & Valsecchi, Michele, 2010. "Quantifying Ethnic Cleansing: An Application to Darfur," Working Papers in Economics 479, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    6. Khan, Haider, 2023. "War and Peace in East Asia: Avoiding Thucydides’s Trap with China as a Rising Power," MPRA Paper 117089, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Murali, Ranjini & Redpath, Stephen & Mishra, Charudutt, 2017. "The value of ecosystem services in the high altitude Spiti Valley, Indian Trans-Himalaya," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(PA), pages 115-123.
    8. Wassily Kafouros, 2009. "Economic Planning: Time to Reconsider?," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 56(4), pages 527-534, December.
    9. Ragnhild Nordås, 2014. "Religious demography and conflict: Lessons from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 146-166, June.
    10. Lesia Nedoluzhko & Victor Agadjanian, 2015. "Between Tradition and Modernity: Marriage Dynamics in Kyrgyzstan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 861-882, June.
    11. Gilles Grandjean & Petros G. Sekeris, 2017. "The timing of contests," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 137-149, March.
    12. Andrey Shcherbak, 2013. "Nationalism in the USSR: A historical and comparative perspective," HSE Working papers WP BRP 27/SOC/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    13. Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba, 2014. "Coffins versus cradles: Russian population, foreign policy, and power transition theory," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 205-221, June.
    14. HÃ¥vard Strand & Henrik Urdal, 2014. "Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing: Can states reduce the risk of armed conflict by banning census data on ethnic groups?," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 167-183, June.
    15. Wolters, Alexander, 2014. "The state and islam in central asia: Administering the religious threat or engaging Muslim communities?," PFH Forschungspapiere/Research Papers 2014/03, PFH Private University of Applied Sciences, Göttingen.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:17:y:2014:i:2:p:184-204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.hufs.ac.kr/user/hufsenglish/re_1.jsp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.