Alexander Yakutsky. All-Russian counting rhymes

All-Russian counting rhymes
Alexander Yakutsky

Publication date: December 10, 2001

Almost every Russian already knows that a population census awaits us in October next year. Almost everyone has already formulated some opinion regarding the upcoming procedure. But here's what's interesting. The main page of the official website dedicated to this event is crowned with a quote from Leo Tolstoy : “ The purpose of the census is scientific. The census is a sociological study. The purpose of the science of sociology is the happiness of people .” On the other hand, a fairly large proportion of Russian citizens are already talking about their intention to hide real data about themselves. What is the matter, where does such a lack of understanding of one’s own interests come from? Where does the reluctance to trust Lev Nikolaevich come from, after all? Probably, it’s all about the same mutual distrust that the new Russian state and its citizens are experiencing. They want to count us?! This is to enhance control. You don't want to provide reliable information about yourself? This means there is something to hide. Distrust intensified, sideways wary glances multiplied, the state and citizens again misunderstood each other.

But whatever you say, the quote from Tolstoy strongly resembles an advertising slogan and smacks of the utopianism characteristic of the count. Let censuses be carried out more often - and then everyone will be happy. Meanwhile, it is worth recognizing that the happiness of people has never been part of the specific plans of any state. After all, the state is an administrative apparatus; it is inspired by more material ideas than the general happiness of citizens. The latter is from the realm of ideological delights. And sociology in its pure form, fortunately, has nothing in common with ideology.

So what is a census, how did it come about and what is needed? It must be said that any state that considers itself civilized strives to know as much as possible about its citizens. And not at all for the happiness of the latter. Let's open the US Constitution . The document is old, written in 1787. Here is the first article, which states clearly and clearly: " Representation in the House and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States within the union in proportion to their population... The enumeration of the population shall be made within 3 years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States and then repeat every 10 years ." And not a word about the all-encompassing happiness that should envelop citizens at the mere thought of the upcoming census. Everything is presented dryly and pragmatically: in order for the state to function, taxes must be paid. To be able to forecast tax revenues, it is necessary to conduct population censuses. But if the state gets the opportunity to correctly forecast and collect taxes, and then directs what is collected to really necessary purposes... That’s when happiness will come. At least it will come close. And here’s what’s typical: three years after the adoption of the Constitution, in pursuance of the quoted fragment of the first article, on March 1, 1790, the President of the United States signed a bill on the first census (qualification) of the population, which took place on the first Monday of August 1790. Since then, for more than 210 years, a census has taken place every decade. The state and citizens understand each other. For one simple reason: the Constitution says so. The Basic Law, simply put. The census procedure is as regular as brushing your teeth every day. And who is wondering, “why brush your teeth?” That's right, foolish little children.

But let's leave the States aside. They have their own life, and therefore their own concepts of life. Let's return to Russia. How long have we been conducting censuses? And in general, how are they carried out? Historical documents provide a lot of instructive and simply curious material on this topic.

Let's start with the fact that for the first time a census of the population of all Russian lands was carried out by the Tatar-Mongol conquerors. They wanted to clearly understand what amount of tribute should be collected from this or that principality. True, a quantitative population census as such in those days could not give anything. Counting houses or “smoke” turned out to be much more effective. Tribute, a kind of tax at that time, was levied precisely depending on the number of “smoke” rising above one or another courtyard. This was how the differentiated approach of the Tatar-Mongols to taxation was manifested. Years passed, centuries passed. The Golden Horde left the historical scene. But the accounting of farmsteads for tax purposes was preserved, having undergone only some changes. This continued until the accession of the most irrepressible reformer in Russian history, Emperor Peter Alekseevich Romanov.

Having opened a window to Europe, Peter I at the same time created a powerful regular army. A huge number of people at the end of the Northern War were not supposed to return to peaceful life, but to continue continuous improvement in military craft. How, at whose expense, can all this horde of warriors be supported? Peter makes a wise decision: to count and compare the number of civilians obliged to pay taxes and the number of soldiers in the Russian army. And then each regiment is assigned to support a certain number of civilians. On December 7 (November 26, old style), 1718, the emperor signs the highest decree on conducting the first capitation census of the Russian Empire. This decree itself is a vivid example of the hasty thought of a reformer. Let us give only an excerpt from it: “ Take everyone’s fairy tales, give them a year’s time, so that the truthful ones bring how many male souls there are in which village, declaring to them that whoever hides anything will be given to the one who announces it; write down how many souls a private soldier has with a share of the company and regimental headquarters, putting the average salary ". In other words, it was necessary to enumerate the entire tax population, obligated to pay taxes to the state treasury. The deadline for the execution of the decree was a considerable one - one year. Having read such a royal expression of will, all the then owners of peasant souls instantly realized that further discussion would be about introducing some kind of tax, which will directly depend on the “fairy tales” submitted. Therefore, the lists were compiled with terrible distortions and in violation of all conceivable deadlines.

Finally, at the beginning of 1722, the tales were submitted and the population was counted. It turned out that 5 million male souls lived in Mother Russia at that time. Now it became necessary to place the entire available army in apartments, “ spread out the troops on the ground ,” based on the data obtained during the census. Following the model of Sweden of that time, Peter divided his empire into provinces, sending “dispatchers” to each, giving them broad powers and strictly instructing them to double-check the data received from the first capitation census. Thus began a secondary revision of fairy tales, which gave a stunning result: in a number of provinces the number of living population was underestimated by half! Repeated checks, rechecks and clarifications led to the fact that in 1724 they settled on the following figures: the total tax (taxable) population was 5,570,000 souls, of which 169,000 were the urban population. The capitation salary was set at 74 kopecks. This is how the Russian state conducted a census for the first time - and immediately encountered sluggish but persistent sabotage from the population.

Since then, audits similar to those of Peter the Great were carried out regularly, until the abolition of serfdom. Each such audit took place over several years; only persons forced to pay the poll tax were taken into account. The landowners were in no hurry to update the information in their fairy tales - and Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol wrote the poem “Dead Souls”.

After the abolition of serfdom, the need to compile tales about the tax population disappeared by itself. From now on, censuses were carried out in individual cities and provinces using methods that were very different from each other. In addition, data on most censuses of that time were not preserved at all: they were destroyed as unnecessary.

Only in 1895, on the initiative of the famous Russian traveler P.P. Semenov Tien-Shansky, work began on conducting a comprehensive All-Russian census. A main census commission was created, headed by the Minister of the Interior. Local census commissions also emerged in provinces and districts. The provincial ones were formally led by the governor himself, and the district ones were led by local leaders of the nobility. The critical date for the census was February 9 (January 28, old style) 1897. A few days before this date, so-called enumerators from among teachers, priests and literate reserve soldiers distributed census forms for their initial filling. On February 9th, the sheets were checked again and if any changes occurred, they were immediately corrected.

During that census, enormous material was collected not only about the quantitative, but also about the qualitative composition of the Russian population. Suffice it to say that the material was processed and analyzed over a period of eight years.

It was in that census that Leo Tolstoy took part as a census taker. He deliberately chose for himself a section of Protochny Lane, where one of the dirtiest Moscow night shelters was located. Having seen enough of the horrors of the Moscow “bottom,” Lev Nikolayevich wrote an article with a hysterically bitter title: “ So what should we do? ” “ The peculiarity is that sociological research is not carried out by the work of scientists in their offices, observatories and laboratories, but by two thousands of people from society. Another feature is that the research of other sciences is carried out not on living people, but here on living people. The third feature is that the goal of other sciences is only knowledge, but here the welfare of people. Foggy spots can be explored alone, but for research Moscow needs 2000 people. The purpose of the study of the foggy spots is only to find out everything about the foggy spots, the purpose of the study of the inhabitants is to derive the laws of sociology and on the basis of these laws to establish a better life for people. The foggy spots do not care whether they are studied or not, they waited and They are ready to wait for a long time, but the residents of Moscow care, especially those unfortunate people who make up the most interesting subject of the science of sociology.

The census taker comes to the shelter, in the basement, finds a man dying from lack of food and politely asks: rank, name, patronymic, occupation; and after a little hesitation about whether to add him to the list as alive, writes it down and moves on ."

How did the population perceive that census? Let's ask Lev Nikolaevich:

“ When they explained to us that people had already found out about the bypass of the apartments and were leaving, we asked the owner to lock the gate, and we ourselves went into the yard to persuade the people who were leaving .” So even in those days, the Russian people treated the census without much enthusiasm. Until now, many researchers explain this by the distrust of the popular masses in everything that comes from the government, that is, from the state.

What changed after the Bolshevik revolution? Censuses were carried out. But in addition to sociological tasks, an ideological flavor was increasingly visible in them. Of course, under Soviet rule no one persuaded the population to take part in the census. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin has long appreciated and understood the essence of the American system of regular qualifications. Therefore, almost immediately after the seizure of power by the Council of People's Commissars, attempts were made to adopt overseas experience in this area. Already in 1920, in the context of the ongoing civil war, the first census of the actual population was carried out. A distinctive factor of that event can be called the increased interest of the state in what knowledge and professions its subjects possess. This is understandable: the civil war was coming to an end, it was necessary to prepare for a peaceful life.

In 1926, the second, already all-Union, census took place. This time, a personal sheet was used for the first time, in which each respondent was required to provide various information about himself. For example, the level of literacy was determined. The respondent who could read syllables and sign his/her name was considered literate. Employment data was also examined. Those who had jobs provided information about their occupation and earnings, while the unemployed had to tell at whose expense they lived and what the breadwinner’s source of income was.

A population census was also carried out in 1937. But the thirty-seventh year is a special year in Russian history. Taking into account the size of the population in conditions of total state terror is a useless exercise. All data collected that year was destroyed, and those responsible for conducting the census were included in the list of repressed persons.

In 1939, when the bloody wave of terror subsided, the Department of National Economic Accounting of the USSR State Planning Committee repeated the research attempt. This time the census took place and its data were made public. The main feature of this census is the establishment of norms for permanent and temporary residence. But this data also became outdated very quickly - the Great Patriotic War began. Only in 1959 did the Soviet Union again find the strength to conduct a census.

1970 In the questionnaire, Soviet citizens indicate their nationality, and foreigners indicate their citizenship. For the first time, the parameters of internal migration of the population, as well as the number of people employed in seasonal work, are being studied. For the first time, women indicated how many children they have under the age of 16, and what educational and leisure facilities they need for their children. In a word, the state got to know its citizens in more and more detail. The accumulated factual material, if properly used, could well reveal pressing social problems.

In 1979, another innovation was introduced. For the first time, the questionnaire was compiled in such a way that it could be used for further entry into a computer. Census materials were processed centrally at the Main Computing Center of the USSR Central Statistical Office.

Finally, the last All-Union Census was conducted on January 12, 1989. In addition to the established set of standard questions, the questionnaire included clarification of the living conditions of the respondent: the last utopia of developed socialism, the Housing 2000 program, was making itself felt.

Almost thirteen years have passed. Not the calmest in Russian history. The structure of the economy has changed. Opposition parties constantly talk about the ongoing decline in Russia's population. New classes and strata of society emerged. The year two thousand has passed, and not everyone in need still has housing. Russia has changed from top to bottom. It’s time to take a closer look at yourself and draw some conclusions. It will simply not be possible to do this without a competently conducted population census. Just fewer phrases about the happiness of all people en masse. Russians don’t believe slogans, it’s time to understand this. It’s not for nothing that 55% of Russians believe that the upcoming census is needed by the authorities, and not by ordinary citizens. If this opinion does not change in the time remaining before the census, then it is better not to spend budget funds: it will not be possible to collect objective information.