Agricultural Censuses in Siberia in 1920s: Organization and Processing Methods
Regular accounting of peasant farms basic quantitative indicators in USSR in 1920s, including crop areas and livestock, was carried out by annual selective comprehensive agricultural censuses. Organization of censuses was entrusted to CSU department of agricultural censuses and its regional divisions. Its leaders and specialists had pre-revolutionary experience in statistical work and used developments of Zemstvo statistics. Main method of censuses was personal survey of householders. To obtain general results, information of individual peasant farms sample censuses was extended to their administrative-territorial aggregates. Difference coefficient method was main methodological method of distribution in early 1920s. An increase in sample to 10 % since 1926 made it possible to switch over to calculation of crop area and the number of livestock according to the method of average farming. Peasants withheld from statistical accounting part of sown area and livestock, because they believed that results could be used by the fiscal authorities to increase level of taxation. Statistical authorities, in order to find out the extent of underestimation, carried out control measures, used materials from budget and other surveys, and applied the balance method. Improving methodology for determining the amount of underestimation led to periodic correction of officially accepted statistical indicators.