Demographic changes in the Russian province caused by the First World War (by the materials of the Penza province)

Abstract

Background. Changes in the sociodemographic structure of the population of Russia, the growth of its number at the beginning of the 20th century, became a serious challenge for the imperial authorities. Drawing the country into World War I did not resolve, but exacerbated the growth of contradictions. The purpose of the work is to analyze the impact of the military conflict on the composition and structure of the population of the region, which was not a war zone, to identify and describe the results of the deformations that occurred. Materials and methods. The implementation of the study tasks was achieved by processing and systematic analysis of the materials of the general censuses of the population of 1897 and 1926, statistical yearbooks and statistical materials extracted from the funds of the State Archive of the Penza Region. Methods of extrapolation, systemic and demographic analysis of data were used. Results. The regional material examined the re-sults that led to mass mobilizations, determined the degree of their influence on the birth rate, on the natural growth of the population. Revealed changes that occurred in the sex and age pyramid. Conclusions. The First World War was a powerful cataclysm that left its mark on the demographic history of the Penza province. At the same time, it was able only for a while to slow down the main trend, characterized by an extremely high natural population growth in rural areas, but not to change it. Due to the fact that the war did not radically change the structure of the population, the region took only a few years to smooth out the consequences of the war and return to pre-war demographic behavior.

Keywords

• penza province
• world war i
• mobilization
• demographic changes
• population structure