Ethnic composition of Kazakhstan on the eve of the Second World War: re-evaluation of the 1939 Soviet census results

For the Communist regime in the Soviet Union, population statistics as well as other kinds of statistics served propaganda purposes. However, demographic catastrophes were an integral part of USSR history and the Soviet authorities frequently and blatantly interfered in the collection and publication of population data. In the early 1930s, Kazakh population losses, which were caused by the Soviet policy of forced collectivization accompanied by famine, were extremely severe. This resulted in the statistics for Kazakhstan becoming one of the most striking examples of distortion in the results of the 1939 Soviet census, as will be seen in our analysis. Re-evaluation of these census results shows us what are apparently unintentional consequences of manipulations made in an attempt to conceal Kazakh population losses. We shall establish that there were very serious distortions in the data of the ethnic composition of Kazakhstan, which resulted from the inflation of the real census figures in this Soviet republic.