Birth Rate

BIRTH RATE. Marxist teaching on birth rate is based on Marx's position: "...to every particular historical mode of production there correspond particular laws of population having historical significance. The abstract law of population exists only for plants and animals, until man historically intervenes in this sphere" ("Capital", Vol. I, Ch. XXIII). Thus, the key to understanding and explaining the laws of population, in particular the laws of B., lies in studying the specifics of a particular social formation, in studying the historical features of a particular mode of production of each historical epoch. Bourgeois scientists stubbornly fail to understand this, who stand on the point of view of some eternal, purely demographic laws of B., independent of the social conditions of the formation. In the light of Marxist-Lenin theory, the differences in birth rates for individual classes and social groups, the peculiarities in the level of birth rates in cities and rural areas, and the dynamics of B., characteristic of the capitalist system, become clear. Birth rate in various social groups. Marx wrote: "Indeed, not only the number of births and deaths, but also the absolute size of families is inversely proportional to the level of wages, i.e., to that mass of means of subsistence which the various categories of workers dispose of. This law of capitalist society would sound like nonsense if it were applied to savages or even to civilized colonists. It reminds us of the mass reproduction of animal species, individually weak and subject to cruel persecution" ("Capital", Vol. I, Ch. XXIII). The enormous accumulated material accumulated could not better confirm the correctness of the positions put forward by Marx. As early as the end of the last century (1897), the famous French demographer Bertillon, in his report to the VI Congress of the International Statistical Institute "On the influence of well-being on the birth rate of the population", presented the following data on the number of marital births in the largest capitalist cities (Table 1). Despite the imperfection of classification (classification by class attribute is replaced by classification by property attribute, which only indirectly gives an idea of the class nature of the phenomenon), the essence of the matter is clearly outlined: B. sharply increases in the direction from the ruling, exploiter classes to the producer-proletariat class, and within the latter from the top, highly paid groups to low-paid groups. Bertillon himself formulated his conclusions as follows: "The birth rate of the population is everywhere in inverse relation to the average level of its well-being: in the poorest classes it is 3 times higher than in the rich classes of urban residents." In Holland, family registers were used (Stuart) in a number of urban and rural communes. Here too, a relationship was established between well-being and family size in the sense of "inverse dependence": "sufficiency is a limiting cause for fertility and large families." During the census of 1906 in France, the size of families in relation to the social position of the head of the family and the duration of marriage was determined; at the same time, the maximum B. was established in the families of workers and sailors, the minimum - in the families of military personnel and rentiers. In England, according to the 1911 census, data on the number of births and the composition of children were distributed by belonging to families into 4 socio-professional groups. And here it was noted that the highest fertility at any duration of marriage fell to the share of mining workers, followed by day laborers; conversely, the lowest birth rate fell to the share of the "higher" and then the middle social classes. In later times, these observations received further confirmation. Dynamics of B. Coming to replace the feudal mode of production, early capitalism required for the creation of broad opportunities to use as capital the accumulated wealth through robbery and violence - a huge increase in the labor force. Early capitalism is especially characterized by the huge use of child labor as cheaper and more easily exploitable. According to Marx's testimony, the development of the cotton industry "introduced child slavery in England" ("Capital", Vol. I, Ch. XXIV, p. 610). The machine gave the capitalist in a number of cases the opportunity to push the adult worker out of production and replace his labor with the labor of children. "The value of labor power is determined for us by the working time necessary for the existence not only of an individual adult worker, but also of the working family. By throwing all members of the working family onto the labor market, machines distribute the value of the labor power of the man among all members of his family. Therefore they lower the value of his labor power... For the existence of one family now four must provide capital not only with labor, but also with surplus labor" (Marx, "Capital", Vol. I, Ch. 13, p. 300, GIZ, 1928). With the intensification of the degree of exploitation, the worker is forced to sell his wife and children to the labor market in order to create the possibility of "family existence". "He (the worker) becomes a slave trader" (Marx, ibid., p. 301). Thus, a larger offspring is for the worker in that period a source of increasing the level of family existence. This circumstance and became the most serious stimulus for increasing the birth rate among the proletariat in the first period of capitalism. In the same direction other reasons also acted. Among them, for example, the early independence of the proletarian (both male and female), which contributes to entering into marital relations. It is known that women in young ages (20-25 years) have the highest fertility; on the other hand, early marriage extends the period during which a woman can give birth. All this together also leads to an increase in the B. of the proletariat. For this period (early capitalism) is also characterized by an increase in B. for other classes. The abolition of guild restrictions contributed to an increase in B. of the small commodity producer in the city; the abolition of serfdom - of the small commodity producer in the countryside (peasant). Due to all these circumstances, with the beginning of capitalism, an increase in B. is noted, which continues until the 80s of the 19th century, after which a sharp decline begins. Sombart gives the following figures of birth rate coefficients for Europe: Number of infants born alive per 1,000 population. In 1841-50......37.9 In 1871-80...... 38.9 » 1851-60 .....37.9 » 1881-90......38.1 » 1861-70 .....38.6 » 1891-1900.....37.0 ("Modern Capitalism", III half-volume, p. 373, GIZ, 1930). Data on the dynamics of B. by individual countries (see Table 4) show even more clearly the turning point in the level of B., starting from the 1880-90s in the direction of its decline. Understanding this phenomenon requires in-depth analysis. The general B. coefficient (which is the ratio of the number of births for a certain period of time to the average population size, multiplied by 1,000) cannot reveal the internal content of different levels of B. The general B. coefficient is a certain resultant value reflecting the interaction of a whole series of moments. On the one hand, this includes the peculiarities of the social and age-sex structure of the population, on the other hand, the peculiarities of the elementary characteristic of B.-the so-called coefficient of general female fertility (and for more refined calculations - coefficient of age-specific fertility). Both sides are explained primarily by the course of development of capitalism. A specific feature of modern capitalism is the ugly urbanization, leading to the formation of large centers with a population of hundreds of thousands and millions of people, crowded in small segments of space. This phenomenon has become especially characteristic of developed capitalism, during the period of increasing concentration of industry. The modern capitalist industrial city requires and creates for itself not only a certain social structure of the population, but also a certain age-sex structure. The capitalist needs not only workers in a certain number, corresponding professions and qualifications, but also workers of a certain age and sex. The capitalist city therefore creates for itself an age structure with a predominance of the population of working age (this determines the difference not only in the social, but also in the age composition of the urban and rural population). A specific age structure of the population in the city is achieved mainly through processes of population migration. A mass of people, mainly of working age, in the conditions of developing capitalism rushes from the countryside to the city.

At the same time, the existing composition of the population—with its social and age-sex structure, characterized by specific indicators for each group of birth rate, mortality, life expectancy, family size, etc.—is also a factor that largely determines the future age-sex structure of the population. Thus, from the standpoint of its social and age-sex structure, the urban population, due to the concentration in it of a huge amount of working population and the significant predominance of groups in the so-called working age, has the potential for a high birth rate. However, despite the favorable composition of the population, the birth rate in cities is falling, since female fertility has been steadily declining since the last decades of the 19th century. Thus, the growth of the urban population causes a general decrease in the birth rate. The decline in fertility is primarily explained by modern economic conditions and the socio-hygienic living conditions of the proletarian and semi-proletarian masses, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the urban population. If during the period of early capitalism all the main groups of the population had a tendency to increase the birth rate, then the second stage is characterized by the opposite phenomenon. Within the modern capitalist city, in the interests and for the benefit of the bourgeoisie, special working quarters are formed, distinguished by incredible overcrowding, insanitation, the presence of special worker barracks, etc. Capitalism, in order to extract the maximum possible surplus value, increasingly draws into production the more cheaply paid part of the working class—women. The latter, being occupied throughout their long working day in production, under conditions of the most severe, ever-increasing exploitation, the sweat system, under incredibly difficult housing and living conditions, forced after the working day to nurse children, wash laundry, etc., naturally give a decreasing fertility. Hence, under the conditions of capitalist 'rationalization,' the very fact of a woman's participation in production is often the cause of a decrease in a woman's ability to give birth. To an even greater extent, socio-domestic conditions act to reduce fertility, forcing proletarian women to artificially reduce the birth rate. The use of all kinds of contraceptives, the widespread prevalence of abortions, especially secret ones, are the broad methods of limiting childbirth created by capitalism, primarily among the urban population. Modern research has shown how great the proportion of abortions is in the total number of pregnancies. As a rule, the number of abortions exceeds the number of births. The socialist system not only completely eliminates such dangerous to women's health secret abortions, but also creates all conditions for the gradual and significant reduction of the so-called 'legal' abortions. It is impossible to single out any one of the listed causes of low female fertility among the urban population as decisive and fundamental. All of them act together, influencing each other, since each of them and all of them together are to one degree or another a reflection and result of the development of the capitalist mode of production, a result of the growth of the relative and absolute impoverishment of the proletariat. For the ruling class, the class of capitalists, the current low fertility is caused by other reasons. Among them, one should first point to the unwillingness of the bourgeoisie to scatter their capital among many heirs, reflecting the tendency of the capitalist system to concentrate capital in the hands of more powerful capitalists. 'The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family relations their touching sentimental veil and turned them into a matter of simple monetary calculation' (Marx and Engels, 'Communist Manifesto'). For the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie, later marriage is also characteristic, which naturally affects the decrease in female fertility. Under the capitalist system, the ruling classes—the large bourgeoisie, landowners—exploit not only the proletariat. The petty bourgeoisie is also subjected to the most severe, ever-increasing exploitation. Only a small number of those who come from its environment manage to 'get ahead,' to reach a materially secure, economically independent position. It becomes more and more difficult for him, the struggle for existence becomes more and more ruthless, his and his family's position becomes more and more hopeless. The fact is indisputable, the petty bourgeois protests against it. But how does he protest? He protests as a representative of a class, hopelessly perishing, despairing of its future, oppressed and cowardly. Nothing can be done. If only there were fewer children, suffering from our torment and penal servitude, from our poverty and our humiliations—this is the cry of the petty bourgeois' (Lenin, 'The Working Class and Neo-Malthusianism'). Thus, although for different reasons, all the classes characteristic of capitalism, concentrated mainly in the urban population, give a continuously decreasing fertility. It goes without saying that capitalist urbanization, which determines the tendency to decrease the birth rate, is in no way contradictory to the above-mentioned position of Marx about the inverse relationship between the birth rate, family size, mortality, and the mass of means of subsistence. The capitalist mode of production leads to a decrease in the birth rate for all classes, and within capitalist society the above-mentioned position about the inverse dependence of the birth rate on the mass of means of subsistence is fully justified. The peculiarities of capitalist urbanization, outlined above, also explain the lower level of the birth rate in cities compared to rural areas. As capitalism penetrates agriculture, the gap between the levels of the birth rate in the city and rural areas narrows. The decline in fertility is shown in Table 2, which is an excerpt from materials of international statistics on the movement of female marital fertility (age-15-49 years) for the period from the 1870s to the beginning of the World War in 12 major Western European countries. These data are supplemented by similar information on female fertility (age-15-45 years) for the post-war years (1920-30) for the same countries. From the materials it is clear that the consistent and continuous decrease in the marital fertility of women of childbearing age is a general rule in Western Europe since the end of the last and in the current centuries; it is observed at all levels of fertility, both in the Netherlands and Germany, where it was high, and in France, where it is minimal. For the periods 1875-1905, the decline in fertility occurred more evenly than in the last decade before the World War, when this decline was more sharp, especially in highly industrialized countries (England, Germany, Belgium). On average, the level of marital fertility of women (15-49 years) in Europe (11 countries without France) was 255.5 per 1,000 women in 1875-84; in 1885-1894—246.2; in 1895-1904—232.3 and in 1905-14—202.8. In France, the decline in female marital fertility followed a faster pace, standing out from the rest. The dynamics of female fertility after the World War (for the general female group 15-45 years, married and unmarried), is expressed in a clearly continuing tendency to decrease. The most affected were the warring states—England, Germany, Belgium. However, the process of declining fertility is proceeding irresistibly even in neutral countries, such as Switzerland and the Scandinavian states—Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark. The average values of female fertility in Europe for these years: 1920—103.1 per 1,000 women; 1921—100.4; 1922—95.5; 1923—92.8; 1924—92.5; 1925-26—

(England, Germany, France) - 76.7; 1927-28 - 72.1; 1929-30 - 69.8 per 1,000 women. Thus, the decrease in female fertility of childbearing age for Western European countries must be recognized as indisputable for the entire period of available observations (since the 1880s of the last century); this is the basis for the decrease in the birth rate. The continuously declining female fertility, which characterizes the ever-increasing exploitation of the working masses, bourgeois science explains... by the rise in well-being and the 'increase in cultural level'. Theories are created, suitable for all times, peoples and social formations, stating that with the increase in cultural level, fertility decreases, that high fertility means a low cultural level, etc. For example, as early as the 19th century, the famous French statistician-economist Bertillon (the elder) attributed the decrease in the birth rate in France to 'the progress of civilization and the spirit of foresight developing in sufficiency and wealth'. The political economist Leroy-Beaulé formulated the same position, asserting that 'democratic culture is hostile to unlimited reproduction and, as democratic consciousness penetrates the deep layers of civilized peoples, the birth rate will everywhere approach that of France. The cause of the decrease in the birth rate lies in the new democratic order of society and the family'. Among German researchers, G. Mayr believed that 'in modern times, to a wide extent, as a special national psychological trait, there is an ever-increasing aversion to the unlimited production of children, which worsens the living conditions of the family. The progress of public education apparently also shows a certain influence in this regard'. Prinzing believes that 'the causes of the decrease in female fertility in Europe lie in the better living conditions than before, greater expenses for physical and spiritual needs, in the increased tasks regarding the upbringing of children and not only in higher social circles but also in the working environment'... Those adhering to such a theory believe that the high fertility and the associated high birth rate in our Soviet Union (see below) is so high because we are not sufficiently cultured and that with the development of culture we must approach the birth rate level of the 'cultural' West. The main methodological flaw of this class-hostile theory lies in the misunderstanding of the fact that the cultural level is not something abstract, detached from the economic structure of society, that culture is a superstructure over this economic structure. In the light of the Marxist-Leninist approach, our Soviet culture is higher than capitalist culture. Examples of the highest culture are the participation of millions of proletarians and collective farm workers in socialist competition and shock work, the mass urge to study, participation in the economic and political life of the deep layers of the working masses, and a number of other most characteristic features of the Soviet system. As for the level of material well-being, it is already significantly, immeasurably higher for the working people of our country and has a tendency to continuously increase. The peculiarities of the dynamics of fertility and the birth rate in the USSR are explained by completely different reasons than those put forward by the authors of the thoroughly bourgeois 'cultural' theory. At the same time, the figures also break this theory for capitalist countries. Average birth rate coefficients at the beginning of the 20th century (1896-1905) for a number of capitalist countries are as follows: ________________________________________table S. Countries

j Coefficient.

Countries

28.6

21.8

35.2

Holland . . . .

33.2

26.4 Thus, in second place in terms of high birth rate stands Germany with its highly developed technology and industry, which at the beginning of the 20th century could by no means be considered the most backward country among other European countries. This 'cultural' theory, like all similar theories, explains nothing about the dynamics of falling fertility (and birth rate). The Marxist theory of population fights in every way against Malthusian ideas of all kinds (see Malthusianism), which declare the fall in birth rate under capitalism as a sign of civilization and progress and preach the petty-bourgeois wisdom of sexual abstinence. Lenin wrote: 'The working class is not dying out, but is growing, strengthening, maturing, uniting, becoming enlightened and being tempered in struggle.' '...We are already laying the foundation of a new building, and our children will complete it. That is why—and only for that reason—we are enemies of neo-Malthusianism, this trend for the petty-bourgeois couple, who are hidebound and selfish, who mutter fearfully: let us ourselves, thank God, somehow hold on, but children are better not needed' (V. I. Lenin, 'The Working Class and Neo-Malthusianism'). In light of the above, the characteristic falling dynamics of birth rate in developed capitalism becomes understandable (Table 4). Remarkable is this uniformly uniform picture of a slowly and continuously declining birth rate of the population in all European states. Against this general background, from time to time moments of emergency decline in birth rate arise, affecting individual states or groups of states; usually they are short-term and in the following year are replaced by some also short-term increase, after which the main process of long-term moderate decline is restored. Investigation reveals that the zigzags of the birth rate curve reflect crises, wars, inevitably inherent in the capitalist system. Such was the situation of average Europe in the second half of the 19th century, in the era of a severe economic crisis that led to a fall in birth rate in a number of states. And further, in the 20th century, the history of economic crises of each of them can be reconstructed along the lines of birth rates of individual European states. The outbreak of the imperialist war of 1914-18 served as the beginning of a huge decline in birth rate, moreover not only among states that took direct part in the war, but also among those that remained neutral, not only in Europe but also in other parts of the world: The beginning was everywhere 1915. In France, the extreme minimum of births occurred already in 1916-17, in Germany and Austria in 1917-18, in England in 1918-19. The conclusion of peace put an end to the decline in birth rate, and already in 1920 birth rate everywhere in Western Europe rose to the full pre-war level. That colossal damage which world birth rate suffered and the population increase as a result of the imperialist war was taken into account at the time (in Russia—the work of S. A. Novoselsky). Birth rate suffered enormous damage in Germany—over 3,700 thousand 'unborn' souls (according to the norms of 1913 peace birth rate); France and Italy—over 1.5 million each state; Great Britain—in Europe about 900 thousand and in British India about 4 million. Russia's share for the same years amounted to about 5 million 'unborn'. The overall balance of human 'underbirth' for 1915-19 (compared to 1913 norms) was: in the Entente states—4.5 million (+4 million British India), in the German coalition countries—57₃ million, in Russia—5 million, in neutral states about 250 thousand. Total about 19 million. Such was the colossal breach in population birth rate in the era of imperialist war, a breach whose elimination in the balances of age composition of the population will require a century. In the post-war period, birth rate in European states, having reached the previous level (1920), already from 1921 again sets out on the path of its previous continuous decline, but now it occurs in general with greater speed than before the war. Only agrarian and comparatively little industrialized states—Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands—show more calm and uniform movement. Thus Europe reacts in the years of direct elimination of the war and disarmament of Germany, so-called 'relative stabilization of capitalism,' and further in the period of general economic crisis. In this sphere, the deep damage to birth rate is revealed not only in the defeated countries (Germany, Austria), but also in the camp of victorious countries (England). When looking at Figure 1, it seems that in another 4-5 years the birth rate of the 'great powers' of Western Europe will fall to the critical levels of the world war period. The rampant zoological nationalism, characteristic of the current stage of bourgeois ideology, the hastily created 'theory' of race as one of the pillars of fascist 'worldview' found their reflection in the views of a significant group of modern bourgeois ideologists on the problem of birth rate. In the struggle for 'national revival' fascist men are vigorously propagandizing an increase in the number of marriages (of course on the condition of maintaining 'racial purity') and an increase in birth rate. In such a formulation, low birth rate is already not a 'good' (sign of culture, material prosperity), but an 'evil' (sign of national decline, etc.).

Despite the external opposition of the old 'cultural' theory and the 'new' fascist one, their bourgeois essence is clear in both cases. The fascist 'theory' of birth rate is especially densely imbued with a shamelessly imperialist, ultra-chauvinistic spirit. Statistics of the birth rate of populations in non-European countries (including in the USA) do not have long-term observations. In a number of cases here too, the manifestation of the same European pattern of continuous decrease in the birth rate is observed (Table 5). Table 5. Countries 1910-1914 1915-1919 1920-1924 1925-1929 Union of South Africa Australian Union . . New Zealand.... 31.6 37.0 31.9 27.8 26.0 28.6 48.9 27.3 25.7 24.3 25.4 33.0 25.8 24.4 21.0 26.2 30.9 24.8 21.4 20.1 However, it must be noted that in most cases the level of birth rate in non-European countries is higher, and is highest in colonial and semi-colonial countries: Ceylon and British India-35-40 births per 1,000 population, Philippines-33 and 34, Egypt-40-45 and others. Being primarily sources of raw materials and markets for the capitalists of the metropolis, colonial and semi-colonial countries have predominantly agr. character, and hence the relatively small proportion of population concentrated in large cities. This basically explains the high level of birth rate in these countries. It must be added here that along with the high birth rate characteristic of colonial and semi-colonial countries, they are also characterized by an extremely high mortality rate, which annually carries millions of human lives to the grave. In recent years, international statistics has the most extensive, almost world-wide material for reviewing population movement. On the basis of this information, the current state of birth rate in the main capitals and larger cities of the world for the recent period 1928-31 is presented in Fig. 2 and 3 and Tables 6 and 7. The first places in terms of the height of the urban population's birth rate in modern Europe are occupied by: Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy; the cities of Seville, Madrid, Saragossa, Athens, Lisbon, Palermo, Naples, etc. occupy the first rank in terms of the height of birth rate at the level of 20-25 per thousand population. The second step, 15-20 per thousand, belongs to the cities of England, France, Poland, the capitals of Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria. In the third tier at the level of 10-15 per thousand are the cities of Switzerland and other parts of the world. European levels of birth rate, 15-20 per thousand, correspond in most capitals and cities of the USA and Australia.

Birth rate of the population in the main cities and capitals of European countries per 1000 population

Birth rate of the population in the main cities and capitals of European states per 1000 population

10 on 1000 population

10 on 1000 population

40. Birth rate of the population in some capitals and cities of Africa, America, Asia and Australia. Legend: :^^Bi-iB28 g. i , mesog. u///////\ - yoyag Щ£2ШЩ-1»31Г. Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Germany, Sweden. Minimum R., below 10 per thousand, is found in Berlin, Vienna and Oslo.-A somewhat different picture is revealed in the urban centers of Japan and South America, which are at a higher level - 25-35 per thousand. The modern maximum R. is observed in urban centers on the northern shore of the continent (see Table 6. Birth rate of the population in cities of European states and main cities in 1928-31. States Cities Spain Greece Portugal Italy United Kingdom Bulgaria Poland Holland Hungary France Latvia Denmark Switzerland Czechoslovakia Belgium Germany Sweden Norway Austria Seville . . Madrid . . Saragossa . Granada . . Barcelona . Athens . . . Lisbon . Palermo . . Naples . . Rome . . . . Venice . . Milan . . . Leningrad. Moscow . . . Glasgow . . . Liverpool. Birmingham Manchester . London . . Sofia . . . Warsaw . . Lodz . . . Amsterdam , The Hague . . . Budapest . Bordeaux . . , Marseille . . Paris . . , Riga . . . . Copenhagen Zurich. . . Bern . . . . Geneva . . Prague . . , Brussels , Munich . . Hamburg . . Berlin . , Stockholm . Oslo . . . . Vienna . . . . Table 7. Birth rate of the population in some capitals and cities of Africa, America, Asia and Australasia. City names Population (in thousands) Birth rate per 1000 population Africa Cairo ..... Alexandria . Suez Canal . Tunis ..... Algier . . . . Johannesburg . N. America Mexico....... New York...... Chicago........ S. America Santiago (Chile) . Salvador .... Buenos Aires . . . Rio de Janeiro . Asia Singapore Yokohama Osaka . . Kobe . . . Tokyo . . Australasia Sydney....... Melbourne ..... Adelaide ..... 1196 646 222 202 252 206 974 7 218 3 393 336 2 167 1730 446 735 2 604 854 2 102 42.5 40.7 41.2 33.5 23.5 22.8 44.0 18.8 17.5 29.4 30.8 23.2 20.5 35.1 34.3 27.2 24.8 24.8 19.0 18.1 18.4 44.5 44.3 42.7 35.9 24.7 23.9 42.7 18.2 17.7 26.3 30.9 22.5 20.9 86.6 31.4 25.3 25.2 23.0 18.2 16.4 15.6 44.5 41.9 45.2 37.0 26.5 26.6 42.5 17.6 17.1 33.7 29.8 22.4 20.3 35.7 28.5 24.9 25.0 23.4 17.6 16.2 14.4 44.6 42.8 45.4 34.9 26.4 25.7 36.8 16.3 38.7 17.7 £6.8 28.3 32.2 25.9 25.4 16.3 14.6 12.7 Africa (Alexandria, Cairo, Suez Canal, Tunis), as well as in the city of Mexico in America-the usual level of R. here is 40-42 per thousand. As for former Russia, in the pre-war period there is a high birth rate of the population, one could say disproportionate to the Western European scale; the downward trend since the end of the 19th century is equally pronounced; the line maintains a constant parallelism relative to Western European states (see Table 8). The amplitude of annual fluctuations in Russian birth rate is comparatively wider than in the West. All the difficult moments of crop failures, famines, cholera and war years are clearly evident; 1905 (the first revolution) stands out. The era of imperialist war in relation to population movement in Russia remains poorly illuminated due to the insufficiency of statistical materials.-The post-war increase in R: in Soviet Russia somewhat lags behind Western Europe, presumably due to the perturbations of the civil war; it reaches its former peak in the USSR in 1925. In subsequent years, the birth rate of the population in Table 8. Birth rate (per 1,000 pop.) Population (in thousands) 29.0 £0.0 30.5 29.3 25.6 26.4 27.2 26.9 26.5 26.0 26.8 26.9 24.6 23.8 25.1 25.2 23.1 23.1 24.2 22.6 25.9 25.6 28.2 26.0 23.5 22.5 22.3 20.5 29.3 27.9 30.5 25.1 22.3 26.5 22.4 22.8 22.9 22.3 21.7 20.8 21.2 18.1 14.3 14.8 15.3 14.8 2 260 22.6 22.0 21.2 20.9 22.5 21.7 20.8 22.1 22.3 21.2 21.5 20.9 22.0 21.7 21.8 21.6 17.8 17.5 17.4 17.1 17.1 17.5 17.0 16.0 4 374 16.2 15.8 15.8 15.0 19.8 17.9 19.4 16.6 19.3 18.1 20.0 17.6 18.5 18.7 17.5 15.6 18.2 17.7 17.4 16.7 17.6 17.0 17.4 16.8 17.5 16.9 16.7 16.2 17.1 16.6 16.7 15.2 15.3 14.1 13.9 2 895 15.0 14.7 14.6 14.3 14.2 14.0 14.9 14.9 16.2 15.6 15.5 15.0 13.0 13.6 14.0 13.4 12.9 13.2 13.2 12.5 9.1 10.2 9.5 10.5 11.5 12.2 11.2 12.0 11.8 12.2 11.7 12.4 12.1 13.1 10.8 12.7 12.3 12.3 11.4 4 289 9.8 9.6 9.5 8.8 10.9 10.2 10.3 10.8 9.3 9.5 10.3 8.8 9.5 8.8 9.4 8.8 Number of births Number of births Years (per 1000 Years (per 1000 population) population) 1869-1873 50.4 1894-1898 49.7 1874-1878 50.0 1899-1903 48.8 1879-1883 Б0.2 1904-1908 46.6 1884-1888 50.5 1909-1913 41.3 1889-1893 49.9 USSR also undergoes some decrease, but even at this stage the birth rate of the population of the USSR remains at an unattainable height compared to Western Europe. Table 9. Birth rate (per 1000 population). Territories - s- so o o SP S3 European part of RSFSR Ukrainian SSR........... 42.7 42.5 44.9 42.7 41 8 44.4 42.1 40.7 43.7 44.744.1 40.3 38.0 41.7 35.3 34.7 39.8 38.7 Я?, 9 £8.7 43.3 36.4 42.2 35 3 European part of USSR 42.9 44.2 36.9 The noted some decrease in R. in the Soviet Union is explained mainly by the fact that in the transitional period from capitalism to socialism, certain still uneliminated causes of capitalist origin continue to exert influence (for a certain time). However, alongside them and increasingly displacing them, causes of the opposite order, arising from the socialist nature of our system, also act and strengthen. The 'leap from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom' being made in the USSR, the construction of the foundation of a socialist economy, expressed in the basic elimination of capitalist classes and thus almost in the complete destruction of the exploitation of man by man, in the colossal growth of the living standard and cultural level of the working class, the beginning of the transformation of all collective farmers into well-to-do people-all this provides everything necessary for eliminating the influence of capitalist causes on R. 'Mankind could multiply faster than is compatible with modern bourgeois society' (Engels, Letter to Lange of 29/III 1866). For the coming years, the trend of R. in our Soviet Union will most likely first stabilize for the urban population, and then increase steadily, although slowly, to a certain optimal level. For the rural population, we will most likely have some further decrease at first, followed by an increase. The gap between the level of R. of the urban and rural population will constantly decrease. The steady line of decline in R. under capitalism and the line of steady increase in it in a developed socialist society (especially in countries where it was previously at a low level)-such are the fundamentally different paths of R. under capitalism and in a developed socialist society, conditioned by the fundamental and irreconcilable difference in the position of the broad working masses. The high level of R. and the sharp decrease in mortality under the Soviet regime, which are a direct result of the fact that 'workers and peasants live with us in general not badly' (Stalin, Report to the XVI Party Congress), also lead to the greatest differences in the dynamics of population growth in the USSR and in capitalist countries. Population growth in the USSR in 1930 became 30% greater than in tsarist Russia in 1913, while in capitalist Europe as a result of the general crisis of capitalism for the same years it fell by 10%. And now the annual population growth of 160 million peoples of the Soviet Union, successfully building socialism, equals the growth of 360 million population of the degenerating capitalist Europe.'