Socialist Theory of Population and Family Planning: The Soviet Union at the World Population Conference in 1974

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00941
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 03010:Historical studies in general-related
• Research Institution: Hokusei Gakuen University
• Principal Investigator: Nakachi Mie 北星学園大学, 文学部, 教授 (90567067)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 社会主義人口論 / 家族計画 / 世界人口会議 / マルサス主義 / ソビエト連邦 / 人口超過論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study examined the reasons that the Soviet Union, which had previously held anti-Malthusian views and denied the validity of family planning, came to accept family planning at the 1974 World Population Conference. What became clear through the analysis of discussions among Soviet demographers was that partial acceptance of the validity of family planning under certain conditions had already begun in the early 1960s, and that this was made possible by a reinterpretation of Marx and Lenin's anti-Malthusianism. However, even after the shift of 1974, there was no intention to abandon the anti-Malthusian position as a whole.

Free Research Field

ユーラシアの歴史、ジェンダー

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

1991年のソ連崩壊の一因には、脱社会主義化があったと考えられているが、本研究は人口論に焦点を当てて、その過程を明らかにした。人口論をめぐる国際関係史という観点からは、冷戦の枠組みの意義と限界が確認された。ジェンダー史の観点からは、ソ連の学者が、子どもの数は自立した女性が自由に決めるべきであると主張していたことは、その後に起こった1980年代のフェミニズム運動の主張と重なるものであり、意義のある発見である。