Authors

Discussion

This paper addresses demographic surveys conducted in the 1960s-1970s and the representation of their outcomes for the wide audience. Drawing upon the publications of three Soviet scholarly institutions specialised in demographic research, I will present the discussions on the ‘demographic crisis,’ as well as scholarly projections and social policy guidelines on this issue. By focusing on the discursive utterances the ‘needs for children’ and the ‘woman’s destiny,’ I will demonstrate the approaches of communication between the social scientists and the audience––readers of published media. The adherence to Marxism-Leninism that not only deprived the scholars to deliver the most topical results but also supplied them with clumsy language and outdated ideological cliche will be of my special interest. Finally, I am going to show to what extent the public discussion on the 'demographic crisis' of the 1970s has been adopted for the approaches to social policy in post-Soviet Russia.