AHC/PC/WI: Bigger Russian Population

Since this may need pre-1900 PODs, I'll put it here.

Basically have Russia's population be much bigger than it is today. Aside from no Stalinist purges what needs to be done to advance the number of Russian people? And what could possibly happen?
 

Ryan

Donor
Doesn't needs pre-1900 pod, just avoid the civil war, communism and ww2. Iirc someone on this sight calculated that without those things, Russia's population would be ~400 million.
 
Doesn't needs pre-1900 pod, just avoid the civil war, communism and ww2. Iirc someone on this sight calculated that without those things, Russia's population would be ~400 million.

The domestic agriculture can't support it. There'll be deaths by the millions every time a harvest goes a bit wrong.
Best idea IMO is an earlier colonisation and Russification of Central Asia. That'll allow the USSR to retain all the Central Asian SSRs.
 
In European Russia what's wrong with agriculture?

Awful climate. Very short vegetation period - 5 months at Moscow latitude, more to the southern regions, of course. Pretty high chances that you won't have any crops at all.
Also, it isn't only food that would be problem for bigger population. In Russia you must spend much more into construction (your housing _must_ stand colds of -40C), and heating - that means so much coal\gas or whatever else... you also need generally much more fuel for transportation - compare the distances in Europe and european Russia.
Besides, it looks like a traditional problem with Russia that its government is totally imbecile when it comes to agriculrure matters.
 
The domestic agriculture can't support it. There'll be deaths by the millions every time a harvest goes a bit wrong.
Why would there be "deaths by the millions"? Sure, that would probably hold true in the beginning of 20th century, but with the emergence of global market it would become a non issue. Soviet Union was buying an increasing percentage of it's food abroad since the 60's, and there was no famine even in the 90's.
It also doesn't count the fact that without RCW and Soviet Union's war communism and, later, collectivization polices the productivity and production of agrarian sector of economy would probably continue to grow, instead of stagnating till said 60's IOTL.
 
Awful climate. Very short vegetation period - 5 months at Moscow latitude, more to the southern regions, of course. Pretty high chances that you won't have any crops at all.
Also, it isn't only food that would be problem for bigger population. In Russia you must spend much more into construction (your housing _must_ stand colds of -40C), and heating - that means so much coal\gas or whatever else... you also need generally much more fuel for transportation - compare the distances in Europe and european Russia.
Besides, it looks like a traditional problem with Russia that its government is totally imbecile when it comes to agriculrure matters.

Ironic Russia used to supply Europe with food. Southwestern Russia perhaps?

Plus would earlier introduction of existing greater technologies and methods help? And what level of population you think is sustainable?
 
No one?

Anyways so regarding to Russia's population in European Russia and Central Asia how much more can be supported with earlier introduction of agriculture technology because even in the 20th Century Russia lagged in that.
 
It's not difficult, in the pre World War I period, Russia had a higher total fertility rate that was the highest in Europe, and was 70% higher than that found in the average in the Anglosphere settler societies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States). In many ways, Russia's demographic trends were 30-40 years behind Germany and Scandinavia, as it still had a higher infant mortality rate and death rate. Despite this, the natural growth of the population was 1.8% per annum, a rate higher than any of its European peers. This allowed the population of the Russian Empire to grow by 50% in the 25 years during the reign of Nicholas II. Emigration increased, but over half of these were Jews, with the rest being Poles, Finns, Lithuanians and ethnic Germans. Ethnic Russians and Ukrainians accounted for less than 5% of all emigrants from the Russian Empire during this period.

The easiest way to grow the population of Russia is to butterfly away the world wars and the Soviet Union. If the empire follows the same demographic trends as say the Balkans did (excepting the wars), its population would have numbered around 450 million today. If the country undergoes a rapid demographic transition in the 1960s, the population would still be 355 million today. If the first figure is taken into account, at least 200 million of these would be ethnic-Russians and another 80 million would be Ukrainian.

Keep in mind that in World War I, Russia lost between 2.8 to 3.4 million people, couple that with the Russian Civil War and Pre-Stalinist Purges and famines adding another 9 million. Stalin was responsible for the death of another 20 million and World War II another 27 million were killed. That alone gives you 59 million unnecessary deaths.
 
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