From Typical Areas to Random Sampling: Sampling Methods in Russia from 1875 to 1930: [1]

Abstract

A Use Generated by Administrative Needs In Russia, as in other European countries, the first sampling surveys came into being because it was impossible for the State statistics administration to carry out censuses or exhaustive surveys throughout a given territory every time they had to collect quantitative information that they needed in order to work out economic and social measures. Another kind of sampling survey had been developed in pre-revolutionary Russia: during World War I, the Provisional Government needed information about nutrition and encouraged statisticians to carry out food consumption surveys.