>>>It was interesting that during the early Communist days (and as far back as they existed as a society), they had boatloads of kids. That was the only way they could repopulate so quickly after Stalin’s work and WW2. Now that they live in (relative) peace and much greater prosperity, they quit having kids - go figure.<<<
In fact they had at least two baby booms: from mid-50s into 60s and another massive boom during Gorbachev’s presidency (1984-1991).
>>”I’ve read Russia has lost more than 40,000 population centers down from total 158,000 it had in 1990”
WOW! The triumph of Communism endures!
In a sane educational system, “The Gulag Archipelago” would be required reading in the tenth grade.<<
To be honest, depopulation started right after a Soviet collapse. With the exception of Civil War, 1932-1933 Holodomor and WWII Russia always had a massive population growth from 1918 to 1991.
BTW, “The Gulag Archpelago” required reading in their secondary school system since about 1985.
“In a sane educational system, “The Gulag Archipelago” would be required reading in the tenth grade.”
True.
http://pjmedia.com/blog/putin-makes-solzhenitsyn-required-reading/
We can call Putin the biggest bastard that we want to, but it is HIM, not the United States, that is teaching his kids what the TRUTH of Communism is.
Having read half a dozen books on the Soviet Union, I can tell you, almost first-hand, that the SINGLE best way to get American youth to respect this country is to have them read what their “heroes” were really all about.