The 1979 census conducted across the vast expanse of the Soviet Union revealed that the make-up of the country’s population had undergone enormous change. The census recorded low birth-rates among the Slavic population relative to their Central Asian compatriots, among other trends. The results were worrisome to Soviet planners in that they feared that these domestic population trends were going to undermine the country’s power. At the same time, Soviets faced the defeat of communist allies in Afghanistan at the hands of fighters beholden to religion, and an Islamic revolution in Iran. What these dynamics revealed was a complex interplay between domestic, regional and international politics. Interpreted through the lens of population dynamics, the convergence of these events revealed 1979 to be a critical turning point in the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
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