Development of the Ethnic Structure of the Population in the Stalingrad Region in 1939 – 1959s.

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the most difficult times of the ethnodemographic history of both the USSR and Stalingrad region. This territory used to be a part of the so-called Caspian passage and gave passage to a number of nomads and immigrants for many centuries. By the early 1940’s the region had become polyethnic, it was inhabited by Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Kazakhs, Tatars and Kalmyks who began to settle here since the XIV century.

With the statistics data presented in the text in a table, the author shows in what way such factors as the Great Patriotic War, the deportation of peoples, changes in internal and external borders, evacuation flows and labor migration had influenced the ethnic structure of Stalingrad region in the intercensal period (1939-1959).

The article reveals the main trends in the ethnodemographic history of the region in this period.

These trends include a significant reduction of number of the ethnic groups that formed permanent population of the region (Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Kazakhs).

As a result of the deportation policy, the number of Kalmyks and Germans decreased respectively by 5 and 3 times, which led to the levelling of their significance in the ethnic structure of the region.

At the same time, there was an influx of Belarusians, Moldovans, Chuvash, Koreans, and Caucasians, which was associated with the development of once deserted territories after the war, as well as deportations and the intensive economic development of the region.