Construire le socialisme par les chiffres
Abstract
What is the relationship between the Soviet power system and the use of statistical tools in the USSR? Is there anything particular about social surveys and population censuses in socialist countries? From the moment of the October Revolution, statistical tools became instrumental in the construction of socialism.
The situation was unprecedented, with a new type of state, a new socioeconomic model and a new method of data production. Figures - both financial and statistical - became political instruments, intended to serve the new state as scientific and numerical proof of its legitimacy and of the validity of its political action. From this point of view, the massive use of quantification as a tool of government in the USSR offers a particularly interesting case study.
Although the new Bolshevik government inherited the statistical structures created under Tsarist rule - the zemstvo statistical offices - headed by statisticians who saw their discipline as a science, the work of these structures and their mode of operation led to rapidly growing tensions from the 1920s onward.
The statisticians advocated a scientific approach to data production, while the political leaders saw statistics as a tool to serve the socialist state, Soviet economic planning and the construction of a classless society.
The history of socialist statistics is a chronicle of the efforts made by statisticians to adapt to this new situation and to the powerful system of economic planning. The scale of the debate and the changes that ensued until the end of the Soviet era raise the question of the true content of a system presented as a radically new approach to the quantification of activity and of economic and social phenomena.
Studying these disputes and controversies sheds light on the place of the intellectual and scientific professions in socialist Russia and, in particular, on the way in which political leaders pictured society and howit should be governed.
Contents
Préface de Theodore M. Porter
Introduction
Chapitre ILa découverte du social (1870-1917)
I. Une professionnalisation des enquêtes sociales
II . Des médecins observateurs sociaux
III . Statistique et réforme sociale en Russie
Chapitre IIUn effort de généralisation statistique (1880-1917)
I. Construire les méthodes et les outils
II . Le statisticien et les paysans
Chapitre IIICompter et classer la population
I. Du recensement européen au recensement soviétique
II . La permanence des formes du recensement soviétique
Chapitre IVConstruire la « réalité socialiste »
I. Occupation et profession en 1920
II . L'introduction des classes en 1926
III . Recenser une société sans classes en 1937
Chapitre VDu tout à la partie
I. Genèse des enquêtes par sondage en Russie (1880-1916)
II . Un besoin croissant de chiffres après 1917
III . Multiplication des enquêtes par sondage dans les années
1920
IV. Compromis entre le type et l'aléatoire en URSS
Chapitre VILes budgets des familles, outil de connaissance
I. Le budget, outil de connaissance
II . L'apport méthodologique de Chtcherbina
III . Enquêtes sur les budgets des familles dans les années 1920
Chapitre VII Enquêtes sur les budgets et planification
I. Les budgets paysans et le Plan
II . Le tournant des années 1930
III . Mesurer le niveau de vie dans une société socialiste
IV. La société soviétique au miroir des enquêtes budget
Chapitre VIIIQuantifier les usages sociaux du temps
I. Les premières enquêtes de budget-temps
II . Évaluer les usages du temps
III . Mesurer le temps libre en URSS
Conclusion
Références bibliographiques
Fonds d'archives consultés
Repères chronologiques