“Now has come a hard time unheard of for centuries on end”: the demographic consequences of collectivization and the great patriotic war in the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1928-1945)

The archive-based article researches the social and economic conditions of rural population and demographic situation in Yakutia on the eve of and during the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The author highlights the mass collectivization with its results and resettlement (poselkovanie) connected with it. The article covers demographic consequences for Yakuts caused by the collectivization, resettlement and the war. It is concluded that the social, economic and demographic consequences were aggravated by severe climate conditions in the North which resulted in high mortality among rural population in Yakutia.