Demographic characteristics of the gainfully employed population of the RSFSR in the 1920s - mid-1930s

The study reviews the age-sex composition of the gainfully employed population of Russia in one of the most difficult periods of its history, i.e. the 1920s - mid-1930s. The research is based on the materials of the All-Union Censuses of 1926 and 1937. The paper demonstrates the influence of the First World War, Civil War, allied intervention, and the extreme events of the 1930s (forced collectivization and industrialization, hunger) on the age-sex composition of the gainfully employed population. The long-term effects of the above-mentioned events are revealed. They include a decreasing part of young people of the most able-bodied and reproductive age group; premature aging of the population, especially rural one; excessive use of female labor, in particular assigning women to unskilled heavy labor; early employment of young people who are under age.