Turning the pages back... December 30, 1990 (12/30/01)

Turning the pages back...

December 30, 1990

Back in 1990, in our December 30 issue, we reported on the results of the 1989 census in Ukraine, which were released in Kyiv and reported in the weekly Ukraina (No. 33). The figures indicated that Ukraine's population had grown to 51.7 million persons, 72.6 percent (that is, 37.5 million people) of whom were Ukrainian; Russians comprised 22 percent of the population (11.37 million); and the remaining 5.4 percent (2.8 million) represented varied ethnic backgrounds.

Statistics of language usage seemed to indicate that the Russification process had abated since Ukrainian was named the native language by 87.7 percent of Ukrainians (32.8 million). Among the non-Ukrainian citizens (27.1 percent of the total population), 13.3 percent said they speak Ukrainian fluently. A further breakdown showed that almost half of the Jews (46.5 percent), a third of the Russians, a quarter of the Greeks and a fifth of the Germans who reside in Ukraine spoke the Ukrainian language well. Russian was spoken fluently by almost half of the total population, with a similar ratio reflected among ethnic Ukrainians. Only 0.5 percent of the republic's population spoke other languages; among Ukrainians, 0.001 percent were proficient in any language besides Ukrainian and Russian.

Of the total number of Ukrainians in the USSR, 84.7 percent resided in Ukraine, while the remainder lived in other republics. Of the latter group, 4.4 million lived in Russia; 900,000 in Kazakhstan (now called Kazakstan); 600,000 in Moldavia (today known as Moldova); 290,000 in Byelorussia (today called Belarus); and 154,000 in Uzbekistan.

With respect to published materials, the 1989 census indicated that 70.3 percent of the newspapers in Ukraine were written in Ukrainian, 29 percent in Russian, and the remainder (six titles, in all) in other languages. However, only 20 percent of books and brochures were printed in Ukrainian, with the overwhelming majority in Russian.

Of interest also were statistics concerning mixed marriages in the Ukrainian republic, as well as in the Soviet Union. A total of one-third of Ukrainian men and women married outside of their ethnic background. Details showed a fairly even male/female split in that aspect: 22.4 percent of Ukrainian women and 20 percent of Ukrainian men chose non-Ukrainian spouses. In 1988 the number of children from mixed marriages grew to 16.1 percent of the total number of offspring born to Ukrainian mothers.

On December 5 of this year Ukraine began a new census - the first count of its population since the country declared independence in 1991. The census is expected to show a population decline of as much as 4 million.

Source: "For the record: New census statistics on Ukraine," The Ukrainian Weekly, December 30, 1990, Vol. LVIII, No. 52.

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