The aim of the project is to create an on-line electronic repository of Russian historical statistics. The repository operates on the principle of a historical data-hub, bringing together data extracted from various published and unpublished sources in one place. Its principal focus is Russian economic and social history of the last three centuries (18th-21st).
The Electronic Repository of Russian Historical Statistics will be the first research tool of its kind and scope to be created in the Russian Federation. It will cater to the needs of the scholarly community, of teachers and students in the social sciences in higher education, and aims to provide the basis for an informed public debate on Russia's past and present social and economic performance. Data will be available online for all interested users, free of charge.
The repository will provide regional level data for the territory of the current Russian Federation over the last two centuries (1800-2000), standardised to facilitate access and to enable comparative research over time and across space. Data are gathered on a standard programme, along five principal lines of inquiry and for five cross-sections of Russian history.
The five principal lines of inquiry aim to provide a basic set of indicators for measuring social and economic development:
- population
- labour and employment
- land
- capital
- production (agriculture, industry, services)
The five cross-sections for which data will be made available coincide with crucial junctions in the development of modern Russia and divide the last two centuries into more or less equally long 50-year intervals:
- Late 18th - Early 19th Centuries (1795)
- 1850-1860 (1857)
- Late 19th - Early 20th Centuries (1897)
- 1950s (1959)
- Early 21st Century (2002)
For each cross-section data will be gathered for the year mentioned in brackets. These are the years in which population censuses and proto-censuses were held: the fifth and tenth revision in 1795 and 1857 respectively, all-Russian population censuses in 1897, 1959 and 2002. Data-collection for indicators not covered by the population censuses will be pitched to these benchmark-years.
Time schedule
1 September 2010 - 31 August 2013.
Participating institutions
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Studies in History, Economy and Society (ICSHES)
- International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (IISH)
- New Economic School, Moscow, Russia (NES)
Staff
The project is carried out at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research in History, Economy and Society in Moscow by a team of five researchers, headed and co-ordinated by Dr. Andrei Markevich (NES/ICSHES) and Dr. Gijs Kessler (IISH/ICSHES).
Subsidy
The project is financed by the 'Dynasty' foundation, Moscow, Russia.
Further information
If you want more information about the project, please contact Dr. Gijs Kessler: gke@iisg.nl or Dr. Andrei Markevich: AMarkevich@nes.ru
More information on the IISH collaboratory website.