The former Soviet Union entered the twentieth century as a conglomerate of life-styles, religions, and cultures. During the course of the century, socioeconomic development evolved at different times and proceeded differently in contrasting regions and sociodemographic groups. Today the western and northern parts of the former Soviet Union have the demographic charatersics of a developed country while the Central Asian republics share the demographic patterns of the Third World. This book provides an overview of demographic trands and patterns in the republics of the Soviet Union. Presenting data evaluated by leading Soviet and Western demographers, much of it only recently available, the book forms the first compendium of demographic research on the former USSR. With the exception of migration (of which there is insufficient data) the book provides a comprehensive and detailed review of Soviet demographic change - fertility, marriage and the family, age and mortality - through the twentieth century.