RARE PHENOMEN IN SIBERIAN DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY: POPULATION EXPLOSION IN THE SECOND HALF IN THE 1920S
In modern scientific literature, the population explosion is interpreted as a sharp increase in the population growth rate. The basis for this phenomenon is increased fertility, decreasing mortality and a corresponding expansion of natural growth. As a rule, a population explosion is closely linked to the process of demographic transition from the agrarian (traditional) to the industrial (modern) type of population reproduction. It is proved that the population explosion is territorially localized in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chronologically, it is fixed, as is believed in demographic literature, in the second half of the 20th century. This article hypothesizes that for the first time in demographic history, a population explosion occurred in the 1920s. It was due to the accelerated socio-economic development of the Siberian region in the 1920s, based on the new economic policy. This, in turn, caused the rapid development of global processes of demographic transition and was manifest primarily in a marked reduction in mortality rates. At the same time, the article shows that the decrease in the birth rate expected during the demographic explosion did not happen. On the contrary, for Siberia in the 1920s an increase in fertility rates was characteristic. The causes of this phenomenon are thoroughly investigated by the author. It is shown that the special conditions of family work in Siberia, the distribution of benefits from younger generations to older ones, and the absence of full-fledged pension provision were important factors in stimulating fertility. Based on the increase in natural growth, the population growth rate sharply increased, which caused a population explosion. The article analyzes not only the causes of population explosion, but also shows the socio-economic consequences of this phenomenon, reveals its short duration and reveals the factors that led to its rapid completion.