Because of the large size of the population of the Ukrainian republic one must be cautious about making generalizations with regard to Russian-Ukrainian relations there or in drawing comparisons with the other republics. The first fact one notices about the census in Ukraine is the extraordinary numerical power of the Russian element—over 9 million in 1970—and a growth exceeding 2 million since 1959. When one translates the absolute figures into percentages and compares the laner with ethnic relationships in other Union republics, however, the apparent power of the Russians no longer appears to be so unusual or overwhelming. Taking only Eastern European republics for this comparison, one notes, first, that in 1970 there were relatively more Russians in Estonia or Latvia than in Ukraine and, second, that the Russian increase between censuses in Belorussia, Moldavia, and Estonia proceeded faster than in Ukraine. (In addition, Russians increased faster in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizia, and Tadzhikistan.) Finally, the relative strength of the republic's principal nationality, Ukrainians, was and remained higher than that of the principal nationalities in a majority of the Soviet republics (in East Europe Ukrainians ranked above Estonians, Latvians, and Moldavians but were behind Lithuanians and Belorussians).”
The Nations of the VSSR in 1970 51
The preceding are precisely those generalizations and comparisons that, however correa they may be in themselves, do not probe much below the surface. A republic whose size is about equal to that of France (with a smaller population than France), Ukraine is a composite of regions with different historical experiences in modern times and with different population, especially ethnic, patterns. Although it takes little account of these dissimilarities, a division of the 47 million strong republic into three areas, corresponding to the so<alled “Large Economic Regions of the Gosplan," is nonetheless a minimum step for a better understanding of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship in Ukraine and its evolution between 1959 and 1970. (See table 2.7.) [For a map of oblasts of Ukraine, see chapter 3.)
World History
