Goods such as guns, tobacco, tea, sugar, and vodka became widely available to Itelmens in the 19th century.[8] Over time, many Itelmens accepted baptism into the Russian Orthodox Church, though animism remained widespread in practice.[8] The Itelmen population was recorded as 4,029 at the 1889 census; by 1959, this had fallen to 1,109, though the population had risen to 2,480 by the 1989 census.[8] Russian-medium schooling became the norm in the 1930s, and as of the 1989 census, fewer than one Itelmen in five could speak the Itelmen language.[8]