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That Putin's regime has been able to put the memory of the Great Patriotic War (GPW) to political use is hardly news to any observer of Russia. What is often overlooked, however, is that the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has contributed to the instrumentalization of this memory by the Kremlin. In this article, I aim to bridge this gap. Drawing on an analysis of the ROC's commemorative activities, I reconstruct the specific, martyrological, interpretation of the GPW that it is forging. With sin, atonement, and glory as its central concepts, this interpretation invests the suffering and losses of the GPW with patriotic sense. Thus, it turns the politically problematic traumatic memory of the GPW into a politically useful one. Simultaneously, it is consistent with the triumphant cult of the GPW advanced by the Kremlin. It also perfectly suits the statist historical narrative focused on the continuity of Russia's past, which is crucial for the ideology of Putin's regime. Furthermore, this interpretation does not contradict the Soviet memory of the GPW that the regime relies on. Finally, in combining Orthodox Christianity with militarism, the martyrological interpretation of the GPW is highly suitable for the regime's political business of the day, which is waging its war against Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the process of evacuation of industrial facilities and civilian population to the territory of the Kemerovo region – Kuzbass during the Great Patriotic War. The author provides information on the number of evacuated enterprises, and also clarifies their locations before and after the relocation. The largest industrial facilities in Kuzbass are highlighted, which were created even before the start of the war and were industrial sites for the commissioning of equipment from arriving factories. The evacuation of the civilian population in most cases occurred in clear dependence on the relocation of industrial facilities. In this regard, the author raises question about the number of evacuated citizens, both in the region as a whole and in individual cities and districts. Based on these statistics, it gives the percentage of the number of evacuees to the total population. In addition, based on archival documents, the author pays attention to aspects related to the evacuation process: reception and accommodation, medical and consumer services, employment. Also, the work highlights the difficulties that evacuated citizens had to face, as well as ways to solve them.

Based on an analysis of the activities of party and Komsomol organizations in the city of Omsk, the article shows the main directions and forms of mass political work carried out by local authorities to form the 75th Stalin volunteer separate rifle brigade of Omsk-Siberians. The author traces this activity from its beginning until the brigade was sent to the front. The study is conducted on the basis of a set of published and unpublished records of the Omsk city and regional committees of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the NKVD for the Omsk region and the memoirs of brigade veterans. It is carried out on the basis of a microhistorical approach, which made it possible to detail the features of mass political work in the process of forming a military unit during the Great Patriotic War. The article reveals the public mood of Omsk residents, which they demonstrated regarding the creation of a volunteer brigade. In conclusion, an assessment is made of the activities of party and Komsomol organizations in the city of Omsk and the most important principles of mass political work to form a brigade of Omsk-Siberians are formulated.

This study examines the process of evacuating Soviet automotive industry enterprises during the Great Patriotic War using the example of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after I. V. Stalin. The relevance of the research is justified by the necessity to reconstruct the activities of the highest bodies of party-state management during the industrial evacuation. Archive documents of the Evacuation Council under the People’s Commissariat of the USSR were analyzed. The Council operated from June to December 1941 as a commission under the Soviet government and was responsible for evacuating enterprises and institutions. The sources of the study were documents of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, the highest body of party-state power in the country during the Great Patriotic War. Correspondence between the plant management and various institutions and departments, as well as evacuation reports, were used as research materials. The existing evacuation options for of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after I. V. Stalin, discussions among Soviet agencies on the location of the plant in rear areas of the country were examined. Based on statistical summaries and reports, the intensity of the evacuation process and its outcomes were studied. It is concluded that the evacuation of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after I. V. Stalin contributed to preserving the country’s industrial potential and had a long-term positive impact on the development of the Soviet automotive industry.

This article examines the volunteer partisan movement in the Rostov region during the Great Patriotic War. It analyzes its content, as well as the general and specific regional characteristics. The sources for this study include both published and newly identified archival materials, some of which are introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time. The author substantiates the conclusion that the local steppe landscape and the lack of natural shelters had a profoundly negative impact on the scale and nature of the partisans’ military operations. It is established that partisan units, under local conditions, were small in number and could only conduct localized military operations. Many operated solely as reconnaissance and sabotage groups. The analysis conducted by the author leads to the conclusion that the primary tactical forms of combat employed by local partisans were swift and brief military raids and strikes, sabotage actions, as well as military incursions. The author identifies that one of the significant features of the partisan movement in the Rostov region was the Cossack factor. It is argued that the majority of Don Cossacks did not embark on a path of collaboration and actively participated in the partisan movement.

The authors used the chronological method to trace and periodize the evolution of domestic historiographic approaches to the population evacuation from the European part of the Soviet Union to Western Siberia during Great Patriotic War. They revealed three main stages in the civilian evacuation studies: 1941–1955, 1956–1990, and 1991 until now. Representatives of the first stage faced with the problem of classified sources and propaganda. Civilian population evacuation developed into an independent research topic during the second period, which also experienced the ideological component as a constraining element for comprehensive studies. Historiographers of the current stage have free access to new archival documents that cast light upon some new aspects of the evacuation process. The authors reviewed publications from all selected periods and identified economic, social, and demographic approaches. The economic approach has always prevailed because the civil evacuation has always been connected with industrial relocation. Scarce as they might be, social and demographic publications cover such important issues as accommodation, employment, medical care, social composition, numbers, etc.

The phenomenon of mass participation of Soviet women in the Great Patriotic War has no analogues in the history of world wars. Despite this, their contribution to the Victory was not immediately reflected in historiography and is still not sufficiently covered both in encyclopedic publications and in school textbooks, which determines the relevance of our study. The purpose of the work is to trace the development of scientific approaches to the study of the participation of Soviet women in the Great Patriotic War. The author uses methods of historiographic analysis, historiographic synthesis, and periodization. The study led to conclusion that in Soviet historiography the main emphasis was made on the leading role of the party in organizing the military service of women, on their heroism and military merits; works on certain categories of female military personnel did not add up to a complex picture. The only generalizing studies on the problem published during the Soviet period were the works by V.S. Murmantseva, based on archival materials. The turning point of the Soviet historiography was the documentary essay by S.A. Alexievich «War’s Unwomanly Face», where, based on oral history materials, a female perspective on the events of the Great Patriotic War was presented for the first time. At the turn of the 20th–21st centuries, when new scientific directions emerged – military-historical anthropology and military-historical psychology, established by E.S. Senyavskaya, – conditions are being created for deeper and more comprehensive study of the phenomenon of women in war. However, no general work devoted to the frontline everyday life of Soviet women soldiers has yet appeared, which makes the study of this problem promising in contemporary historical science.

This study addresses the enhancement of agitational and propagandistic measures to activate Cossack volunteerism in the Don region during the Great Patriotic War. Various sources, including archival and published documents, periodicals, testimonies, and contemporaries’ memoirs, were utilized. A comparative-historical analysis of agitational and propagandistic activities conducted in the Don region from 1941 to 1945 indicates significant changes in Soviet approaches and methods of agitation during wartime. Initially, internationalism and socio-political motives (class-based approach) dominated Soviet propaganda at the war’s outset, akin to the pre-war period, leading to the primary involvement of communists, Komsomol members, and Civil War veterans in the Cossack volunteer movement. However, pre-war propaganda approaches quickly lost their effectiveness. By autumn 1941, national-patriotic motives took precedence in Soviet agitation and propaganda efforts. In the Don region, these changes manifested in propaganda appealing to the illustrious combat history of the Don Cossacks and exalting regional patriotism. It is demonstrated that adjusting agitational and propagandistic measures towards strengthening national-patriotic motives proved highly effective, ensuring a steady influx of volunteers into Cossack cavalry formations.

The aim of this article was to show the labor valour during the Great Patriotic War of the employees of the first research institute in Irkutsk, which began its history in 1912, as well as their success of the present time. The oldest scientific institution in the Irkutsk region was originally created on the initiative of the Siberian Medical Society as a laboratory and was transformed into the Chemical and Bacteriological Institute in 1918, and in 1930 it became the Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the People’s Commissariat of Public Health of Russia.By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the institute had an epidemiological department and a microbiological laboratory that carried out epidemiological surveillance and diagnosis of a wide range of infections in Siberia. During the war years, the manufacturing sector with the production of vaccines and serums acquired particular importance. By the end of the war, 285 employees worked at the institute, 32 of them had higher education. During the war years, the production of vaccines against typhoid, paratyphoid, dysentery, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and smallpox was significantly increased. Serums against tetanus and measles, and a dysentery bacteriophage were produced. At the same time, research projects and thesis works were carried out. The employees of the institute received national and departmental awards, commendations, honorary distinctions, and rewards for their scientific work and production excellence.Currently, the institute continues the glorious traditions of the past and demonstrates truly heroic efforts in the development of virology and microbiology, working in priority areas of medical and biological science. Of course, the works of scientists of the present time will be appreciated only by descendants, as is now happening with the assessment of the work of the Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology during the Great Patriotic War.

This study examines the disruptions in the operations of state trade enterprises and consumer cooperatives in providing food to the population of Bashkortostan during the Great Patriotic War. The article is based on unpublished documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Bashkortostan, as well as materials from periodicals. It is revealed that the weakening of the state’s control functions led to an increase in embezzlement and theft in trade and public catering enterprises. The combination of reduced trade turnover and the rise in abuses within the supply system resulted in severe food shortages. Supply disruptions affected workers, officials, evacuated populations, children, and medical institutions. Various abuses are discussed, including food ration card counterfeiting, different forms of self-supply, and instances of double provisioning. Attention is given to violations in accounting for population groups and inflated supply norms. It is established that combating abuses in the supply system was complicated by the involvement of enterprise leaders, shop workers, accountants, and representatives of auditing bodies in criminal activities. The conclusion is drawn that despite numerous violations, the supply system only minimally provided essential food items to the population of Bashkortostan with interruptions and not in full.

This article examines the migration policy of the state in the Astrakhan region following its formation from 1944 to May 9, 1945. The study is based on materials from the archives of state and party authorities in the State Archive of the Astrakhan Region. The reasons, goals, content, and outcomes of the authorities’ migration policy are identified. The number of migrants is established, showcasing the geography of departure points and migration directions of the population. It is demonstrated that during the final stage of the war (1944 — May 9, 1945), the migration policy aimed to provide labor resources for the fishing industry, new livestock farms, and government initiatives for the development of the Volga-Akhtubinsk floodplain. In the years under consideration, migrations occurred on a voluntary basis and were incentivized by state benefits. In 1945, during the organization of relocations from the Volga-Akhtubinsk floodplain, migrants were recruited from areas with climates and soil conditions similar to those of the Astrakhan region (Kazakhstan). However, the challenging material and living conditions in the settlement areas led to mass return migrations. The Astrakhan region was unprepared to receive and integrate migrants due to insufficient funding for relocations and local authorities’ lack of attention to the needs of newcomers.

This article is part of a series of publications, which the author devoted to the fate of a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, who followed the path of a confessor after the revolutionary events of 1917. In the publication, the researcher focuses on the events of life of the Kuban Archpriest Vasily Timofeevich Nikulchev (1876–1949). Before the revolution, Father Vasily’s life was filled with unremarkable activities of a rural pastor and, if not for the change of the political system and the wave of persecution of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, it would hardly have become interesting for a historian. During the Civil War, the priest was arrested, convicted and sent to serve his sentence in the walls of the once flourishing women’s monastery — the Kazan Convent, which then housed the Ryazan provincial concentration camp. The conditions of imprisonment made the priest nearly disabled. Returning to the Kuban in 1922, he was forced to join the representatives of Renovationism. In 1930, being a Renovationist priest in the Pshekhskaya village, Father Vasily was again arrested, convicted and sent to the Far East. After imprisonment he was supported by his sons. During the occupation of the Kuban, Priest Vasily Nikulchev repented of being in the Renovationist schism and returned to priestly duties, but the repressions broke his fortitude and strength of mind, so when the front approached, the priest left his service and had to flee, eventually he found himself in a Nazi camp. In 1945, Father Vasily was liberated by the Soviet Army and returned to the Kuban, receiving a parish in the village of Kavkazskaya. In the process of studying the biography of Archpriest Vasily Nikulchev, the author used data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, State Archive of the Krasnodar Territory, State Archive of the Ryazan Region, State Archive of the Stavropol Territory, and State Archive of the Tula Region, as well as copies of the criminal cases of Priest Vasily Timofeevich Nikulchev from the Archive of the Federal Security Service Directorate for the Krasnodar Territory. At present, information about Father Vasily and his difficult fate is little known in the Kuban. With this publication, the author seeks to revive the lost memory of the confessor’s path of the priest who died in 1949.

This article examines how the Soviet grand narrative of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) was used in the school educational institution in one of the two Donbas "people's republics" between 2014 and 2021. Using as a case study a Luhansk school with one of the most pro-Russian and pro-occupation administrations, it explores which GPW sub-narratives were present in the school discourse of extracurricular activities, described in the school VKontakte online community. This article employs the elements of discourse analysis to assess visual and verbal texts, published by the school administration, which depict how schoolchildren engage in different Soviet-military contexts, celebrating, commemorating, or learning about GPW-related events. The article concludes that although the school administration incorporated the main Soviet narratives of the Great Patriotic War, present in contemporary Russian education, it also employed two regional GPW sub-narratives, which provide the Luhansk "republican" authorities with the local ideological foundation for militarizing the school youth. The article demonstrates that such militarization of the semiformal school setting is linked with the Russian educational policy and has implications on how pupils of different ages see the social reality and their role in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the motivations behind citizens joining volunteer formations during the Great Patriotic War. The study relies on archival and published sources on the history of volunteer movements in the Rostov region. The research is based on a military-anthropological approach, aiming to understand the worldview of volunteers and the qualitative and quantitative parameters of volunteer movements in the Don region. The relevance of the study lies in the necessity of attracting more attention from researchers to understand what drove individuals to act during wartime. A detailed analysis of the archives at the Center for Documentation of Recent History of Rostov Region revealed characteristic models of voluntarism. The author concludes that the mechanism of agitation and propaganda intertwines with deeply personal motives of resistance against the enemy. A classification of tools influencing participants’ motives is proposed, including visual imagery, state symbolism, the work of agitators and propagandists, and oath-taking. The novelty of the research lies in the author’s exploration of the mechanism influencing public consciousness in a specific region with limited time to prepare the population for resistance against the adversary.

The Great Patriotic War is one of the highlights in the history of Soviet-American cooperation. The USSR and the United States managed to overcome the inertia of mutual mistrust that persisted throughout most of the interwarperiod, taking together the lead in the fight against the Axis powers. However, rapprochement between the two future superpowers was neither plain nor swift; rather was it constantly hampered by mutual suspicion, aggravated by differences in their political cultures. Under these conditions, the fate of their alliance depended on the willingness of the ‘Big Three’ leaders to respect each other’s interest and concerns, as well as on the personal initiative and determination of individual politicians and diplomats. In this regard, the figure of M.M. Litvinov, appointed ambassador of the USSR to the United States at the most alarming and dangerous moment of the Great Patriotic War, deserves particular attention. Having played a major role in the Soviet-American cooperation in 1941–1943, M.M. Litvinov has been then forgotten for many years in both Soviet and Russian historiography. On the basis of new archive materials, the authors reexamine the activities of M.M. Litvinov as an ambassador to the United States and the specifics of his relationship with J.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov during the period under review. The first section covers the initial steps of M.M. Litvinov in his new position. Special attention is paid to his efforts aimed at clarifying the Soviet position on the most sensitive issues of bilateral relations and establishing contacts with various groups of the American political, economic and intellectual elites. The second section analyzes M.M. Litvinov’s activities in the context of increasing contradictions between the Allies with regard to the opening of the second front and disruption of supplies under lend-lease. The authors show that M.M. Litvinov used all the diplomatic tools available to defend the interests of the USSR, instantly reacting to any changes in the moods of the U.S. military and political establishment and immediately reporting them to Moscow. In this context, the authors question the widespread claims in historiography about the ambassador’s excessive independence and willfulness. On the contrary, M.M. Litvinov can be said to have consistently adhered to the official foreign policy line of the Soviet leadership in both his speeches and practical steps. This indicates the need for further study of the M.M. Litvinov’s figure in order to avoid oversimplified, cliched assessments of this personality.

The extent to which the Soviet command was aware of German offensive plans against the Kursk Salient in the Summer of 1943 remains an area of controversy in the historiography of the Eastern Front. This article provides an up-to-date assessment of both the information available and the use to which it was put. It concludes that ultimately it was the sound judgment of key Soviet military leaders in the face of an incomplete intelligence picture that was crucial in the Soviet decision to mount a robust defense of the Kursk Salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The review analyses A.M. Sokolov’s monograph “1944: The crushing blows of the Red Army” dedicated to the description of the offensive operations of 1944 which received the name of “Ten Stalin’s blows” in Soviet historiography. The proposed review examines the structure of the book, the sources used by the author when writing the monograph, the logic of presenting the material, and proposes advantages and disadvantages of the work. In conclusion, the author of the review finds that the information presented in the book can be used in teaching military history in educational organizations as well as for the patriotic education of the younger generation.

During winter of 1945, Soviet Red Army units, defeating the Wehrmacht on the pre-1939 territories of the Second Polish Republic, left behind many wartime graveyards. From early spring of 1945, the Soviet military command ordered the construction of monumental war memorials. In this article, I argue that material structures and spatial features of those cemeteries-mausoleums show and articulate a direct political aim behind their establishment — one of Soviet imperial policy towards Poland. By close examination of necropolies in three middle-sized or small Polish towns — Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Kalisz and Wolsztyn — I discuss their urban contexts, ideologically marked elements of form and spatial arrangements. This study offers a new approach to Soviet cemeteries in Poland, shedding light on their long-time usage as tools of imperial propaganda, related to the Great Patriotic War of the USSR.

For studying the Great Patriotic War history, the testimonies of direct participants and eyewitnesses of the events of the war years are of great importance. The purpose of the article is to give a comprehensive description of documents of personal origin (memoirs, diaries, letters) reflecting the participation of Siberians (soldiers and home front workers) in the Great Patriotic War. The article designates these documents by the generalizing term “ego-documents”, generally accepted in the social sciences and humanities. The authors make a brief review of domestic and foreign publications on the introduction into scientific circulation and the evolution of the concept of “ego-document”. To solve the research problems, they identified a documentary stream (DS) of publications containing ego-documents. It was based on the materials of the bibliographic database (DB) “Scientific Siberica: nature, history, economics, culture, science of Siberia and the Far East” (“Nauchnaya Sibirika: priroda, istoriya, ekonomika, kultura, nauka Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka”), generated by the SPSTL SB RAS, supplemented by data of publications from other authoritative sources. The article presents a bibliometric analysis of the DS content: the type-species composition of publications, types of ego-documents, the dynamics of publications in a time perspective (1945–2022), geographical data on the places of conscription, the residence of ego-documents authors, topics of publications, etc. An overview of some number of ego-documents publications from DS is given. Research results: a steady dynamics of quantitative increase in publications of ego-documents has been revealed since the 90s. XX century; the diversity of the type-species structure of DS was determined; the geographical connection of DS publications with the territories of 20 regions of Siberia and the Far East is shown; the main topics of ego-documents have been identified with a brief description of individual publications.

This article endeavors to delineate the conceptual landscape occupied by the notions of prospective multipolarity within the strategic discourse of Soviet diplomacy during the latter phases of the Great Patriotic War. Particular emphasis is placed on the intellectual contributions of two prominent Soviet diplomats, M.M. Litvinov and I.M. Maisky. The author substantiates these insights by drawing upon both published and archival source materials, including the diaries and records maintained by officials within the Soviet Foreign Office, as well as documents emanating from the "Litvinov commission."While the diplomatic theories formulated by Litvinov and Maisky during the years 1943–1945 have been subject to analysis by Russian and international scholars, the majority of extant scholarship has traditionally focused on the content and nuances of their perspectives on specific international "questions." Departing from this convention, this article adopts a methodological approach that seeks to explore the underlying conceptual foundations upon which the ideas of Litvinov and Maisky were constructed. Additionally, the essay introduces a novel dimension by surveying the viewpoints of other Soviet diplomats (S.A. Lozovskii, B.E. Shtein, Ia.Z. Surits, E.V. Tarle), who have garnered relatively less scholarly attention.Of paramount interest is the manner in which Litvinov and Maisky envisaged the post-World War II international landscape, albeit without explicitly employing the term "multipolarity." The article addresses critical questions, such as their perception of the global scenario following WWII, their consideration of the inevitability of Soviet-American bipolarity, and the factors and circumstances that influenced their conceptualizations. The contemporary resurgence of discussions surrounding the trajectory of multipolarity in the twenty-first century underscores the pertinence of this historical inquiry.The article's key conclusion posits that the conceptual framework embraced by Soviet diplomats during 1943–1945 was not centered on notions of bipolarity or an imminent Cold War. While acknowledging the potential escalation of tensions between the USSR and Western nations led by the USA and Great Britain, they favored collaboration among the principal powers of the antiHitlerite coalition, grounded in an implicit understanding of their respective "spheres of influence." Although Soviet Foreign Office officials did not discount the possibility of the formation of a united Anglo-American front against the USSR, they believed that Soviet diplomacy should actively work to prevent such an outcome by capitalizing on the fissures between Washington and London.

On the basis of published and archival ego-documents, the article reconstructs the stories of military medical assistant Timofei M. Malygin and junior lieutenant of the Red Army Vladimir S. Nyrkin who were held captive by the Germans for a short period of time in 1941–42. These stories are of interest because in addition to the event-related aspect associated with the captivity of the Red Army commanders and their subsequent escape, there are hidden mental structures of the narrative: fatalism, high level of adaptability to circumstances, willpower, enterprise, ability to find non-standard solutions, and rejection of any kind of racial superiority and humiliation. The article consists of 5 main sections and brief conclusions. In the first section, the authors characterize the explanatory concept adopted by them within the framework of the anthropological perspective of historical knowledge. We were interested in particular instances that allow us to see what cannot be descried in a universal historical perspective: characteristic features of time and place, people’s actions and relationships described by those people. The article focuses on the participation of both main characters in helping the wounded Soviet prisoners of war. The second section contains a brief historiographical overview of the subject of and presents methods for working with sources, among which are the records of interrogations of Vladimir S. Nyrkin and Timofei M. Malygin in the investigative bodies of the NKVD. Three subsequent sections reveal the stages of being in captivity: the act of being taken captive, being held in captivity, and escape. The conclusion summarizes the results of the study. Despite their privileged position, the Red Army commanders fled from the camp at the first opportunity: V. Nyrkin established contact with the partisans, and T. Malygin used available material resources and exchanged valuables and money for the local residents’ services necessary for the escape. Authentic German documents related to the topic are presented in the article in the form of illustrations: a “passport” handwritten by a German military doctor and a typewritten “Ausweis” signed by the commandant of the transit camp for prisoners of war in the city of Smolensk.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the German and Romanian captivity of the cadets of the Yaroslavl Military Aviation School of Fast Bombardiers. There is no special research devoted to this group of prisoners of war in Russian and foreign historiography. The author has determined the time, place, and circumstances of taking the cadets captive; counted their number; found out the location of the camps where they were held. Based on sources of personal origin, the author has established survival strategies in difficult conditions of captivity, forms of resistance, the fate of cadets after their release as well as the names and dates of death of some cadets who died in captivity. The author concludes that Yaroslavl cadets differed from the vast majority of Soviet prisoners of war in their level of education and intelligence, unconditional adherence to communist ideology, good physical fitness, and a sense of camaraderie. They were captured as a result of the defeats of the Red Army in the battles of May–July 1942 at the Crimean and Southern fronts. Like other Soviet prisoners of war, Yaroslavl cadets became victims of the Nazi genocide. Some of them died during the first months in captivity of starvation and diseases caused by it, targeted executions, and suicides. Some improvements in nutrition and accommodation of Soviet prisoners of war, made by the Nazis in order to maximize the use of their labor, increased the cadets’ chances for survival. They spent more than two years in Romanian captivity, and almost three years in German captivity. Maintaining friendly relations with former co-servicemen and other prisoners of war turned out to be a successful survival strategy for the captured Yaroslavl cadets. Along with this, they resorted to concealing their military rank and the presence of a special military education from the enemy. The main forms of anti-fascist resistance of cadets were sabotage at workplaces, escapes, and the continuation of armed struggle with the enemy in Soviet and foreign partisan detachments. Like other Soviet prisoners of war, they were subjected to checks by Soviet security agencies after their release and then tried to prove their loyalty to the Motherland on the war fronts. Nevertheless, for decades, the fact of having been held captive created obstacles to continuing education, career growth, and normal life.

The activities of the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR for the protection of the rear of the active army and the organization of camps for enemy prisoners of war in the Stalingrad area are among the most significant and still little-studied problems in the history of the Great Patriotic War. Stalingrad and its environs were not only the place of fierce resistance of enemy troops when they were surrounded but also the place of one of their most large-scale and deciding defeats. The subsequent reception and accommodation of Hitler’s prisoners of war became unprecedented in its scale and composition, which required solving new significant tasks by the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR. The purpose of this work is to summarize the experience of the NKVD internal troops in working with prisoners of war of the Wehrmacht captured during the Battle of Stalingrad. The author analyzed the process of forming the Stalingrad prisoner-of-war camps; determined the main lines of work with prisoners of war in the conditions of the front-line area; summarized the practices of creating proper living conditions for prisoners of war, organizing their nutrition, medical support, escorting them under guard, etc. The author has shown that the Soviet military authorities, bodies of internal affairs, and commanding officers of internal troops made every effort and used every available opportunity to preserve the lives and health of enemy prisoners. Despite the fact that faults and shortcomings in organizing the reception, transportation, and accommodation of prisoners of war were quite common, as a rule, they were of a individual rather than general nature and led to the strictest responsibility. The leadership of the NKVD bodies and troops did not remain indifferent to violations of the rules for the reception and detention of prisoners of war and persistently fought to eliminate the shortcomings, applying appropriate sanctions to those responsible regardless of their titles and military ranks. The conclusions and generalizations made in this article expand the understanding of Russian history during the Great Patriotic War and of the organization and activities of the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR in wartime conditions.

The article examines the phenomenon of the “deserters of the flag,” i.e. the defection of the Wehrmacht soldiers to the Red Army. The chronological scope of the article is limited to the period between 1941 and 1943, which is due to the existence of a significant number of archival documents that contain information about the facts of deflection of the enemy’s military personnel to the Red Army during this specific period in the fonds of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO) as well as the corresponding captured Wehrmacht documents stored in the US National Archives. This circumstance allows us to compare the attitude of the warring parties to the phenomenon under study. In particular, the questionnaires filled in by the Soviet side for prisoners of war necessarily contained information about voluntary surrender or defection to the Red Army. Based on the analysis of documents from Russian and foreign archives, the number of defectors was determined and the motives for such a strategy of behavior of military personnel of the German army and its allies were identified. It is noted that instances of defection of Wehrmacht military personnel to the enemy’s side were recorded even during the period of the most successful German operations in 1941–42. It is emphasized that the number of defectors increased significantly during any crises at the Eastern Front. According to the authors, when the decision to cross the front line was made, personal rather than ideological motives played the main role. A significant part of the Wehrmacht defectors included military personnel of non-German ethnicity, who were less resistant to the effects of unfavorable developments at the front.

In this article, the author examines little-studied and controversial aspects of the issue of defectors from among soldiers of the German army and its allies on the Eastern Front during the Great Patriotic War. Special attention is given to the methodology and source study of the problem under consideration as well as to the analysis of the ideological and psychological prerequisites for the phenomenon of defecting to the enemy. The author comes to the conclusion that a comprehensive study of the problem of defectors opens up new perspectives for studying the history of military captivity during the Great Patriotic War.

Introduction. The year 2023 commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Kalmyk deportation (28 December 1943) to the eastern parts of the Soviet Union. In December 1943, ethnic Kalmyks were groundlessly repressed and forcibly relocated from native lands to be scattered across Siberia toward the Far East and Extreme North for the long thirteen years (1943–1957). Key aspects of Kalmykia’s contribution to the Great Victory have been duly investigated. However, the deportation and exile proper had remained untackled for quite a long time, and this period of Kalmyk history still lacks comprehensive investigation. It is urgent to assemble a complete picture of how people were relocated and survived in special settlement areas, which makes further endeavors aimed at obtaining additional related material timely enough. In February 2023, Kalmyk Scientific Center (RAS) arranged a scientific expedition to the Republic of Kazakhstan for documentary material on Kalmyks deported to the Kazakh SSR. The employees were granted a unique opportunity to consider documents housed at the Archive of the President of Kazakhstan, repositories of Almaty Region, Qyzylorda Region, and Aral District Archive proper. Goals. The article attempts a review of some documents discovered at Aral District Archive (Qyzylorda Region, Kazakhstan) and dealing with Kalmyks deported from Lagansky Ulus of the Kalmyk ASSR in the late 1943. Materials. So, the paper focuses on official papers contained in the mentioned repository and related scholarly publications. Conclusions. Insights into the documents prove instrumental enough in outlining how residents of Lagansky Ulus were relocated to the target territory and adapted to new living conditions. The former primarily deal with the years 1944, 1946, 1948, and 1950. However, even the reduced data are of utmost significance. The still unanswered questions are how many residents of the Ulus were deported to the Kazakh SSR and Siberian territories, and what the actual proportions were. The archival papers say that in January 1944, the Bureau of Aral District Party Committee and District Soviet of Workers’ Deputies decided to accept and accommodate a total of 745 households to be engaged in local fisheries. Another dispatch of April 1944 addressed to the Secretary of Kazakhstan Party Committee and the Head of Qyzylorda NKVD Department mentioned 1,200 individuals or 400 households of ‘special settlers’, while additional 2,200 fishermen and their family members were accepted thereafter. So, the actual number of accommodated Kalmyks was larger than the one in published scholarly works. Further detailed insights into the papers from Aral District Archive shall shed light on living conditions and challenges faced by relocated residents of Lagansky Ulus across special settlement areas.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the servicemen of the Red Army ― residents of the Kalmyk ASSR, buried at the Mamaev Kurgan ― a key point of the defense of Stalingrad during the Great Patriotic War, as well as to the historical and statistical study of their collective portrait. Materials and methods. When writing the article a complex of various general scientific and special methods was used, including historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological, historical-systemic, as well as statistical method. The materials for the work were the logs of combat operations of units in the defense of Stalingrad, reports on irrecoverable losses of personnel, materials of the Books of Memory of the Volgograd region and the Republic of Kalmykia, lists of the dead, inscribed on the mosaic banners in the Hall of Military Glory on the Mamaev Kurgan, lists of burials on the Mamaev Kurgan. Results. In the course of the research on the basis of various sources the database of the Red Army servicemen - residents of Kalmyk ASSR, buried on the Mamaev Kurgan was compiled. Following this, their collective portrait was analyzed by such categories as place and time of birth, place of conscription, time and place of death. Conclusions. The analysis shows that natives of Kalmykia actively participated in the defense of Stalingrad. At the same time, the majority of the deceased belonged to young people born in 1924 and younger. It is obvious that most of the studied personalities were mobilized in 1942 and, even without completing their training, were thrown to the defense of Stalingrad. At the same time, most of the losses occurred in September-October 1942 – the period of the most intense battles for Stalingrad. At the same time, the analysis of information about other defenders of Stalingrad, not included in the list of those buried at Mamaev Kurgan, allows us to assert that they were also buried at this memorial, but without specifying their names.

The aim of the article is to analyze the activities of various industries of the Kazakh SSR during the Great Patriotic War, aimed at providing raw materials to enterprises of the military-industrial complex and their own production aimed at improving the defense capabilities of the Soviet state. The relevance of the study was determined by the need to identify trends in the development of industry in the Kazakh Republic during the Patriotic War. The source base of the work was the works of Soviet, Russian and Kazakh authors, information from the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dedicated to the history of the Great Patriotic War. The peculiarities of technological production aimed at increasing labour efficiency in the coal, non-ferrous, oil, chemical and energy industries of the republic are given. The growth trends of the indicators of these industries are revealed. The main ones are: increase of raw materials extraction at Karaganda coal basin, construction of auxiliary industrial enterprises, such as brick, cement works, explosive materials plant, woodworking plant, etc. In non-ferrous metallurgy, growth of non-ferrous metal output during the war years increased manifold compared to the pre-war periods. In oil industry – growth of high-quality oil production in Western Kazakhstan. In the chemical industry – increase of the list of products through construction of new shops and workshops of the operating enterprises of the chemical industry of the republic. In the energy sphere – construction of new power stations from regional to industrial levels. It is concluded that the identified trends in industrial development in Kazakhstan during the Great Patriotic War were a definite contribution to the improvement of the defensive capability of the USSR and in its victory over Germany.

Introduction: the article examines the practice of bringing to criminal liability of accomplices of Nazi occupiers from among Soviet citizens after the end of the Great Patriotic War. Purpose: based on the analysis of the archival case to reveal the mechanism of criminal prosecution of collaborators. Methods: theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic, empirical methods of description and interpretation, historical and biographical, textual and formal legal methods. Results: the study of archival materials demonstrates the tragedy of the fate of Soviet servicemen who were captured by the Germans during the Great Patriotic War. In relation to Soviet prisoners of war, the Nazis provided for a cruel regime that doomed them to gradual death from starvation and inhuman treatment. Persons who collaborated with the Nazis became accomplices of the criminal occupation policy. After the defeat of the German army and its surrender, most collaborators were sent to special (screening and filtration) camps of the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs). The Smersh Counterintelligence Department carried out operational and investigative measures to establish and document the facts of treason to the Motherland and cooperation with the Nazi occupiers. Persons whose criminal activity could be confirmed by evidence were tried by a military tribunal on the basis of Article 58-1 “b” of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and Article 2 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On penalties for Nazi villains guilty of murder and torture of Soviet civilians and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors to the Motherland from among Soviet citizens and for their accomplices” of April 19, 1943. As a rule, accomplices of Nazi crimes served their sentences in penal camps of the Gulag.

Introduction. This study is concerned with a problem of current interest, namely, the everyday political life of workers at the USSR Peoples’ Commissariat of Foreign Affairs during the Great Patriotic War. The novelty of the present study lies in the fact that the problem has been little investigated, while several documents are thereby introduced into general use for the first time. Materials and methods. The sources were the document complex in the Archive of Foreign Politics of the Russian Federation. The methodology is based on general scholar, special historical and source studies methods. Results. One of the components in the everyday political life of the Soviet diplomat Palgunov, who headed the Press Department in the Peoples’ Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, consisted of contacts with foreign correspondents who represented the mass media of the Allies, namely, Great Britain and the US. The correspondents were eager for getting the information concerning the war effort of the Soviet Union and the contributions into the defense of the country on the part of its citizens in the rear. However, this was hindered by the presence of strict political censorship in the USSR. The situation was aggravated by acute competition between British and American correspondents. Given these conditions, Palgunov acted as a kind of referee who was called upon to aid, both in obtaining information on the situation on the front and for help in the needs of their everyday life. Conclusions. The present author used the unpublished job diary of Palgunov for 1941–1942 to get a more accurate list of the British and American correspondents who were accredited in the USSR during that period of time. When combined with Palgunov’s memoirs, this source was used to present a true picture of how the Press Department was interacting with foreign correspondents. This author emphasized subjects such as the peculiarities in the activity of foreign correspondents in Moscow and Kuibyshev and in questions relating to the organization of their trips to the front zone. It has been found why they blamed Palgunov for bureaucracy and incompetence.

The article analyzes the history of the creation and development from the founding in 1973 to the present day of the School Museum of Military Glory of the 75th Guards Brigade, located in the Secondary School of the city of Omsk No. 41. The research was carried out on the basis of museum materials and documents of the veteran organization of the military unit, stored in the Historical archive of the Omsk Region. An assessment of the experience and social significance of the patriotic work carried out in the museum is given. Particular attention is paid to the comparative historical study of the forms of work on the patriotic education of youth in the Soviet and modern Russian periods of national history. In conclusion, recommendations are given for improving the work of the museum.

The article discusses a range of issues related to labor mobilization during the emergency conditions of wartime in the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. One of the main objectives of this article is the publication of sources in a scholarly manner. The materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the State Archive of Recent History of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania on the topic are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The materials containing decisions on implementing defense measures, creating a system of defensive fortifications, and mobilizing citizens through labor duty are analyzed. Attention is paid to the activities of the Ordzhonikidzevsk (Vladikavkaz) Defense Committee and local authorities in organizing work in these areas. The relevance of the study lies in shedding light on historical experience in taking defense measures with active support from the population in the rear. The authors emphasize that rear work helped the army to accomplish its tasks. The authors conclude that during the Great Patriotic War, heavy physical labor became a norm of life for women, children, and adolescents who replaced able-bodied men who had gone to the front. Labor mobilization allowed for the quick organization of work by a large number of people and brought victory closer.

Copyright of Quarterly of the History of Material Culture / Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej is the property of Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Russkaa Starina is the property of Cherkas Global University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Russkaa Starina is the property of Cherkas Global University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The means of smoke camouflage made it possible to carry out many effective operations, while saving and saving many soldiers' lives. The purpose of the work is to summarize the experience of using smoke to mask the combat operations of the Red Army troops during the Great Patriotic War. Materials and research methods. In chronological order, we analyzed documents stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Podolsk), field manuals of the Red Army of that time, materials on various electronic resources and memoirs of participants in the events. The discussion of the results. If the first year of the war, smoke screens were used to a limited extent only on the Leningrad and Karelian fronts, then in the period from August 1942 to August 1943, 161 smoke screens were placed only on the Kalinin front in order to secure the flanks, as well as divert the attention of the enemy and blind him , which in many cases ensured the absence of irretrievable losses of personnel and combat vehicles. In 1943, the use of smoke became a means of ensuring crossings, for example, during the period of forcing the Dnieper River. The following data speak of the scale of the use of smoke in 1944: in the second half of the year alone, 1,449 smoke screens were delivered on a common front of 1,351 km. In April 1945, 630 smoke screens were delivered with a total front of 700.2 km, both on the main and secondary directions. They were used for operational camouflage on an army front scale. Conclusion. The facts of the use of masking smokes given in the review indicate that smokes were an active means of masking the military operations of troops during the Great Patriotic War, the principles of their use can be used during a special operation in Ukraine.

Abstract This article reviews P.S. Kabytov and N.A. Fedorova’s monograph on the life and work of Professor I.M. Ionenko. Both authors were supervised by I.M. Ionenko as students and postgraduate students. They share what they know about his life experience, his development as a historian and lecturer, and his involvement in public activities. The personality of I.M. Ionenko, the esteemed teacher and true mentor who encouraged his students to take a professional approach to discover the historical truth, is considered in the context of the times in which he lived and worked. He believed that the success of teaching the younger generation of historians depends not only on how they learn to use certain tools in their research but also on how strong the bond is between the students and their teacher. The authors managed to vividly describe the natural charm of I.M. Ionenko as a person. He taught them to extract information correctly, to fit it into the system of moral coordinates, as well as to avoid attributing every historical problem to ideology and politics. I.O. Ionenko adhered to the following two principles: “a historian must first of all have a conscience” and “without the truth of history there is no truth of life.” The monograph is primarily helpful for young people who want to become professional historians.

The authors of the article explore the Turkmen people’s contribution to the Victory of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War at the front and in the rear. It describes the great heroism and valiant courage of the soldiers of Turkmenistan. They were among the first to defend the country, covering their names with the unfading glory of the feat on the fronts. It is shown how every resident, young and old, brought the Great Victory closer with every minute of his selfless work. It is emphasized that many Turkmen families, understanding and accepting the responsibility of the fatefulness of saving the country and family, sent all men of draft age to the front. In one of these families, all 11 sons went to the front. These are the greatest examples of the fact that the victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War became possible only owing to consolidation of the spirit and faith in a righteous cause, the unity of the army and the people, the military brotherhood and mutual assistance of the Soviet Union peoples, heroism, courageб and selfless service of Soviet soldiers to their Fatherland.

During the Great Patriotic War, figures from various areas of arts, employees of entertainment institutions took part in the creation of works aimed at uniting the people, maintaining and developing patriotic feelings, and performed in front of the soldiers of the Red Army as part of front-line concert brigades. The dastan “The true story about political instructor Kemal Kasumov,” discovered in the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, is being introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time. Written by a famous ashug – poet and performer of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialistic Republic, member of one of the front-line concert brigades, M. Bayramov. It was during the war years when the dastan about K. Kasumov became widely known both among the front-line soldiers and among the civilian population. At present, the study and publication of the dastan “The true story about political instructor Kemal Kasumov” serves to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and reveals the forgotten feats of an ordinary Soviet soldier.

The newspaper ‘Gazavat’ is considered in the article as a source of printed propaganda by Nazi Germany among the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus in the national formations of the Wehrmacht. In Russian and foreign historiography, the materials of ‘Gazavat’ have been poorly studied and insufficiently introduced into scientific circulation. The aim of the article is to analyze the articles of ‘Gazavat’ for 1943–1944 in order to identify the content of Germany’s specialized propaganda aimed at the peoples of the North Caucasus. Based on content analysis and thematic analysis methods, the author identifies four thematic blocks: national history, political future, fighting spirit, and religion. The conducted research showed that Germany used well-thought-out political technologies to manipulate the real costs of integrating the North Caucasus into the Russian Empire and the USSR. The release of the newspaper ‘Gazavat’ for North Caucasus units of the Wehrmacht was significantly delayed. The specialized propaganda was aimed at converting traditional institutions, national hopes, and historical traumas of the mountain peoples into a call for retribution against the Soviet regime. At the same time, a combination of the potential and expert knowledge of mountain emigrants, German political and military actors was implemented.

This article focuses on the creative activities of the Penza poster workshop “Agit-Window” — a provincial equivalent of the “TASS Window” for creating large-format mass publications during the period of the Great Patriotic War. For the first time, archival documents are introduced into scientific circulation. The creative practices of the group of artists who organized the production of agitational materials in Penza are described. The cultural interaction of the artistic intelligentsia at the level of “union center — province” is characterized. The role of the heritage of the Penza art school in the creation and development of the genre of military-defense posters is highly appreciated, as well as the contribution of those artists who were evacuated to Penza during the war. The author focuses on describing the content of the posters “Agit-Window” published in Penza, attempts to classify and differentiate them from other artistic practices. Based on an analysis of surviving original posters, the narrative and artistic evolution of Penza’s “Agit-Window” is traced through its visual features and methods of creation. The author concludes that despite cyclical periods of liquidation and restoration, the Penza workshop for military-defense posters maintained its distinctive style and contributed to the creation of vivid examples of satirical and patriotic graphics.

The review is an analysis of the monograph by Kabytov P.S., Fedorova N.A. «Professor Ivan Mikhailovich Ionenko: personality and time». Professor I.M. Ionenko is a prominent Kazan historian, one of the founders of the study of the problems of the events of 1917 in the Volga region, a specialist in the field of agrarian history, head of the Department of History of the USSR at Kazan State University. The book was prepared on a diverse source base, including materials from central and regional archives, periodicals, and numerous memoirs of students and colleagues. Let us especially note the appeal to the extensive personal archive of Ionenko and his publications. The monograph presents a reconstruction of the main stages of the scientist's life path: childhood and youth in the Smolensk region, training at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute, front-line years, work in the Kazan State Pedagogical Institute, Kazan State University. The review provides an analysis by the authors of the monograph of the scientific activity of I.M. Ionenko – problems of the Great Russian Revolution, agrarian history of the Volga region. In addition, the family environment, pedagogical and administrative activities of the scientist are shown.

The review analyses the main problems reflected in the generalizing study by G.A. Shirokov. Relying on a diverse corpus of archival and published documentary sources, periodicals, statistical materials, as well as scientific literature on the problem under study, the author distinguishes two stages in the development of the Kuibyshev region. He presents a reconstruction of the mobilization measures carried out during the first stage (1941–1942). The author reconstructs the process of formation of new branches of regional economy on the basis of industrial equipment of evacuated factories, shows the restructuring of industrial production, which led to the formation of diversified economic potential of the region. Factors that had a negative impact on the development of agricultural production are revealed. New materials are given about labour everyday life and adaptation of the population to the conditions of the war years. Characterizing the second stage (1943–1945), the author provides information on measures to introduce new technologies and conveyors at industrial enterprises, to provide qualified workers and employees, to develop agriculture and transport infrastructure. The monograph focuses on the development of health care, public education and higher education, shows social and political life of the population during the Great Patriotic War. The central problem of the monograph is the labour feat of the population of Kuibyshev region, which ensured the unity of the front and rear and the victory in May 1945.

Revealing the specific portrayal of information about the Battle of Stalingrad in the English press during the Great Patriotic War, this article analyzes publications in the newspaper ‘British Ally,’ which was published in Great Britain in the Russian language for Russian readers. The question arises about the necessity of applying a new direction in global science — imagology — for such research. The novelty of this study lies in being the first to examine material from a publication that has not attracted much attention from Russian scholars from the perspective of this field. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to uncover a new perspective in studying the British press during wartime. The contexts of mentions about the Battle of Stalingrad in the weekly ‘British Ally’ are presented. It is proven that although an admiring attitude towards the Soviet victories at Stalingrad slips through in some articles, the publication does not give special attention to the Battle of Volga. It is shown that the newspaper emphasizes the idea of the selfless resistance of the British army against Nazi Germany in Africa and Sicily, as well as their desire to open a second front. The authors conclude that the newspaper presents these events and desires as equivalent to the struggle of the Soviet people, which does not find approval or desired response among the newspaper’s readers (the Russian people).

The article analyzes the practice of military defense work in the early years of the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk National Okrug, the largest rear area in Western Siberia. The main attention is paid to the study of the activities of the Party and Soviet authorities involved in organizing activities aimed at providing the army with trained manpower reserves. The central place in this process was the organization of mass military training of the population. The study is carried out on the basis of office documentation of the Party and Soviet authorities from the State Historical Archive of the Omsk Region and the State Archive of the Socio-Political History of the Tyumen Region. Based on statistical data, the author comes to the conclusion about the significant contribution to the training of combat reserves for the Yugra front in 1941–1943. The successful military-defense work in the region was provided by the Vseobuch system and the activities of the Osoaviakhim and Red Cross organizations.

The article examines the problem of organizing centralized and additional food supply for the population during the Great Patriotic War, using the example of the rear city of Tyumen. The functioning of retail trade and the ration card system are studied. Examples of mutually beneficial cooperation between the city and the village in the context of the topic under consideration are provided. The authors characterize the public catering system, both for children and adults, as well as the organization of subsidiary farms and individual gardens. Attention is paid to food procurement and targeted assistance to those in need, as well as the participation of various categories of the population in this work, such as labor collectives, schoolchildren, etc. Conclusions are drawn about the main trends in the organization of food supply to the city’s residents. These include the efforts of central and local authorities to provide the population with the necessary minimum of food, proactive actions by city residents and entire enterprises to solve the food problem, and efforts to combat abuse. The relevance of the study is determined by the enduring importance of food security as an element of national security. The main sources of the work are materials from the newspaper “Krasnoe Znamya,” as well as documents from the archives of the region and the Tyumen Museum-Education Organization, some of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

The article deals with the problem of studying the Soviet-Japanese War in the system of basic general education, through a comprehensive analysis of information material in school textbooks from 1952 to the present. The relevance of this topic is explained by certain specifics of Russian-Japanese relations, which can be described as restrained, due to a number of territorial, economic and political contradictions. Almost every year, Japan raises the issue of the territorial affiliation of some islands of the Kuril ridge, putting forward claims and calls for a revision of decisions taken following the Second World War. But Japanese diplomacy faces a firm position of the Russian Federation on this issue. Such diplomatic battles have been going on since the middle of the last century to this day and are the reason that a peace treaty between the countries has not been concluded yet. In modern conditions of aggravation of international relations, the topic of the Soviet-Japanese war of 1945 and the results of the Second World War in the education system are becoming one of the key topics. In the study of educational materials of textbooks on the topic of the Soviet-Japanese war, the main attention was paid to the volume of historical material presented to students for study, illustrative material, the content part, that is, how much the topic is disclosed as fully and in detail as possible, as well as schematic maps. Thus, the analysis of the content of the text material in textbooks revealed the wave-like dynamics of the information volume, from the quantitative and qualitative growth of historical information, especially in the early 1980s, to its sharp reduction in the materials of modern textbooks.