Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic - Urbanisation

Urbanisation

Urbanisation in post-Stalin Ukraine grew quickly; in 1959 only 25 cities in Ukraine had populations over hundred thousand, in 1979 this grew to 49. During the same period, the growth of cities with a population over one million increased from one to five; Kiev alone nearly doubled its policy, from 1.1 million in 1959 to 2.1 million in 1979. This proved to be a turning point in Ukrainian society, for the first time in Ukraine's history, the majority of ethnic Ukrainians lived in urban areas; 53 percent of the ethnic Ukrainian population did so in 1979. The majority were employed in the none-agricultural sector, in 1970 31 percent of Ukrainians were employed in agriculture, in contrast, 63 percent of Ukrainians were industrial workers and white-collar staff. In 1959 37 percent of Ukrainians lived in urban areas, in 1989 it had increased to 60 percent. In contrast to what many believed, the number of those claiming the Ukrainian language as their mother tongue did not sharply decrease with the urbanisation campaign. A Soviet study in the 1970s and 1980s proved that, for Ukrainians, the language wasn't as important to Ukrainian identity, as the geographical boundaries of the Ukrainian SSR and its material culture. According to political scientist Bohdan Krawchenko, the Soviet policy of urbanisation and russification actually strengthened Ukrainian national identity.