USSR population bomb
Liber, George
organizational chart. But such need not be the case. must be taken that such a policy review does not become the In fact, and for reasons probably not contemplated by...
...The recent revolution in Iran will The conscription of more non-Russians, whose knowledge of most likely, help revive Soviet Pan-Islamic aspirations...
...If a radical relocation of industry republics and of developing alphabets and literary languages from the west to the east is not implemented soon, this populafor the Muslims in the 1920s thwarted the spread of Pan- tion shift will intensify both the manpower shortage in the Islamic and Pan-Turkic movements...
...But a fresh wind of thought could do much to president the opportunity to make an extraordinary contribu- restore confidence in our ability to seek excellence...
...total Soviet population declined from 53.4 percent in 1970 to What is to be done...
...Soviet census And who played politics well enough eventually to become school superintendents, or some like position, before entering the valhalla of such educators, the Office of Education...
...Separation from food and water, as were those of my could establish with words...
...the Baltic republics, by 7-9 percent...
...bordering the Soviet Union...
...It is quite literally in my that his communication with us personhood to a native land as one does bones, nourished by Minnesota air and seems to be on a deeper level than any we to father and mother...
...Soviet relations with the Islamic Third World, China and the Greater pressure for the admission of Central Asians into the United States...
...ence a number of political crises in the first decades of the While it isn't fair to ascribe the blame for all of that to the twenty-first century...
...stultifying hand of federal bureaucracy, it must be admitted Since the last census in 1970, the Soviet population, which that the monster has not been helpful...
...Oh, not all of them, of course...
...Yet there is one of his gestures Poles in Chicago . . . this, despite his the land to which we came-our promwhich I feel has little resonance in almost lyric description of our "new un- ised land...
...The Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Russian republics Nine, critics can exhibit devastating examples of bureaucratic grew by only 6 percent...
...It is time yearning for that which they had left gesture...
...But not ours...
...These changes will have serious economy and the military preparedness of the Soviet Union, ecoomic and political consequences not only on the future testing the Russian-dominated Soviet government's ability to balance of power within the Soviet Union, but also on future control its restive non-Russian areas...
...intensify and even lead to the revival of Pan-Islamic or Pan- Most importantly, the high Muslim birth rate will potenTurkic movements with the desire to join the Islamic states tially alter the ethnic composition of the Soviet armed forces...
...Office of Education...
...The ones who got there via a well- HUGH MAGISTER traveled, good of boy route...
...The Russians will increase by only 10 thoughtful citizens who have no vested interest in the present percent, but their share of the population will fall to 44 persystem, and charge them to undertake a full review of this cent...
...The THE PRELIMINARY results of the latest Soviet census, voucher system may well pass in California...
...And almost conducted in the week between January 17 and 24, everywhere it is hard to overstate the disgust that parents feel 1979, show a marked decline in the growth of the Slavic over the quality of education their children are receiving...
...He could can Finally, as a society we ought to relieve the educationar the lot of them...
...Commonweal: 646 The Turkic Central Asians are, for the most part, a has the lowest standard of living and education...
...Who started off as Physical (Hugh Magister, a pseudonym, is a government official Education coaches, and perhaps after a losing season were familiar with the Office of Education...
...made assistant principals...
...Asto call into question the fundamental premise of education in a suming that these statistics are correct, the Russian share of the democracy...
...It will also harm the republics...
...Our failure to do so may worked and overpaid bureaucrats who comprise the bulk of the prevent us from doing anything else very well at all...
...Whether it is busing or bilingual, Title One or Title pace...
...On the deepest level he parents and grandparents and greatspeak to the universal, to that which is can only conceive it in that way as was grandparents, too...
...It is one reason Polish earth...
...Throughout the new department, which approximately 52 percent at present...
...This population and a dramatic increase in the number of Soviet despite the fact we are spending more in real dollars for Central Asians...
...The (George Liber is Ph.D...
...But the mystical pull grandparents seemed to spend very little It is not that it is not a deeply felt of native soil remains strong in him...
...Like most nineteenth century American hearts-that of kissing the soil ity," an idea which certainly appeals to first-generation immigrants, my greatwhen he arrives in a new land...
...These nations will then number over 80 best people both within and without the educational com- million, a gain of almost 30 million since 1979, and will munity, constitute over one-quarter of the Soviet population, instead of At the same time, the president should assemble a group of the present 18 percent...
...There was a strong oral tradition the man whose ancestors for more than a Russia" like a refrain in 19th century in our family but I am struck now by the 23 November 1979: 647...
...him intellectually...
...The construchomogeneous group of people, who still retain their traditional tion of new housing, the expansion and renovation of ~ the way of life and who are immune from assimilating into the region's public services and the increased expenditutts for Russian cultural sphere...
...Care Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India...
...leadership and policy-making circles will be one of the most GEORGE LIBER important consequences of this demographic change...
...But,' due to their rapid growth, their resentment productivity of the Soviet economy...
...candidate in Soviet and East Euronewly-promoted Central Asian elite will most likely attempt to pean history at Columbia University and co-editor of Nonconallocate more capital investment for Soviet Central Asia, formity and Dissent in the Ukrainian SSR, 1955-1975: An which in contrast to the country's Russian and European areas, Annotated Bibliography...
...Most of whom...
...If this trend continues, the USSR will experieducating fewer children than at any time in the postwar era...
...Let them learn...
...federally sponsored remedies for social and educational prob- Each region and nationality, however, grew at a different lems...
...Who faithfully returned to the state teacher's college summer after summer until, by dint of perseverance rather than merit, they secured first a master's and then, that most dishonored degree, a doctorate in education...
...The gestures that land is tragic...
...It's a depressing place to be...
...Azerbaidzhan-18 percent, Kirghistan-20 percent, More to the point, far from assuring greater equality in educa- Armenia-22 percent, Turkmenia-28 percent, tion, they have actually diminished freedom and merit so far as Uzbekistan-30 percent, and Tadzhikistan-31 percent...
...This downturn in proagainst the influx of migrants from the European areas of the ductivity will increase Soviet dependence on agricultural and USSR, and the increasing realization of their colonial status, technological imports from the West, contributing to the Tatthe ethnic assertiveness of the Central Asians will most likely ter's spiraling inflation...
...This high birth rate, with a low positions should be declared open and subject to competition...
...For him one owes one's tical sense...
...Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy literature)-and one which has proved providential for Poland...
...By the year 2000, demographers at the altar of civil service will rage...
...The Soviet Union will then most likely contain the fifth country's educational policies...
...We deserve to know what largest concentration of Muslims in the world (after Indonesia, works, and what doesn't, and how it can be made better...
...will include not only the Office of Education, but much of the Central Asians have been growing at a phenomenal average Office of Civil Rights as well, vitrually all of the professional rate of over 3 percent annually...
...But with skillful reorgani- expect the Kirghizes, Turkmens, Uzbeks and Tadzhiks to zation and writing of job descriptions, it can be done...
...At the turn of the twentieth century, education in non-Russian languages will strain the Soviet, the peoples of Central Asia had little sense of their national economy, already overburdened by the demands of its identity...
...Most of the dull, uninspired, under- Let them teach...
...But most of system of being the dumping ground for all our pet diversions...
...During the Soviet period, European USSR and the growing pressure of large, immobile the Muslims came to identify themselves with their respective labor reserves in Soviet Central Asia...
...In most major cities, the middle class, white and black, have all but abandoned public schools...
...Russian is minimal and whose allegiance on issues important As a res6lt'of the ethnic shift in the Soviet population growth to Muslims may be at variance with the policies of the central and the emergence of Central Asian assertiveness, the Mus- government, will compromise its combat readiness and relialims will exert great pressure on the political structure, the bility, especially in Asia...
...Those who worship natural increase in the world...
...stupidity, red tape and willful ignorance which time and again But the Caucasus and Central Asia experienced even greater have discredited legitimate efforts to redress social injustice growth: Georgia-7 percent, Kazakhstan-13 percent, and enhance educational opportunities for the disadvantaged...
...them...
...tion to the improvement of education in America...
...The Soviet policy of dividing Turkestan into separate military-industrial complex...
...must be taken that such a policy review does not become the In fact, and for reasons probably not contemplated by spon- self-serving document that so many previous commissions sors of the measure, the creation of the new agency affords the have produced...
...Was Min0 UR JOHN PAUL II has a gift for the thousand years have lain in consecrated nesota my native land in this rather myssymbolic gesture...
...Country and land are sacred to a very Slavic trait-(think of "Mother behind...
...Then the triple their present size, and the Azerbaidzhanis and Kazakhs selections should truly be made on merit, summoning forth the to double theirs...
...And it is a beautiful trait...
...I was preparing a talk on my Minnesota heritage when the Pope touched NATIVE SOIL ground in Boston and the speculation I LOVE IT BUT I DO NOT HOLD IT SACRED aroused 'in me by his gesture-which had not seemed so strange to me when he arrived in Ireland and Mexico-colored my thinking from then on...
...death rate, gives the Central Asians one of the highest rates of The federal employee unions will scream...
...But it was not so much common in our experience as children of apparent in his consoling remarks to the the land from which we have sprung as God...
...consists of over one hundred nationalities, increased by 9 Credible doubts exist as to the effectiveness of a host of percent-from approximately 241,000,000 to 262,442,000...
...This country faces a crisis of USSR POPULATION BOMB public confidence in public education more severe than at any CENTRAL ASIANS ON THE RISE time since its founding...
Vol. 106 • November 1979 • No. 21
