About Some Aspects of Public Health Care and Socio-Cultural Sphere of Yugra in Extreme Conditions of the War

Abstract

The subject of the article is the little-studied issues of the state of health care and socio-cultural sphere of Khanty-Mansiysk National District (1941–1945). The conditions and factors of changes are determined; the main tasks and their implementation in the studied spheres based on the introduction of new documents into the scientific circulation. In the center of attention is the analysis of the factors that influenced the financial, personnel, material support of the state institutions in the changed wartime conditions. The author reveals the existence of typical problems in the situation of health care, education and culture, ways of overcoming difficulties. Much attention in the article is paid to the analysis of facts showing the work of the health care system within the framework of the tasks defined by the People's Commissariat for Health of the USSR to protect the health of the population (children are in the first place), to prevent epidemics. In the state of school affairs, the discussion issues concerning the number of schools, the contingent of students at different levels of education, the problem of universal education coverage of children aged 8–15, the number and staffing of teachers are characterised. The material on staff training in the district's specialised secondary educational institutions is systematised, quantitative indicators and conditions of activity, teachers’ and students’ material and living conditions are analysed. The cultural sphere was financed on a residual principle, in fact, it deprived of the district centralised management, but made its best contribution to the solution of problems on cultural services to the population, being a transmitter of state-patriotic ideas. The author formulates the conclusion that health care, education and culture, despite the enormous difficulties of wartime, in general withstood the tests, fulfilled the assigned tasks, and as a very significant part of the home front, contributed to the victory in the hardest war of the Soviet people. Scientific novelty and practical significance of the presented materials are determined by the introduction of new archival documents into the scientific turnover, clarification and expansion of ideas about socio-cultural processes in the region, their theoretical understanding on the basis of modernisation paradigm and system approach. The obtained new knowledge, systematised and structured, can be applied both in scientific research and in the educational process, as well as in socio-cultural projects of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District. It is quite obvious that the interpretation of the history of Yugra during the war years as a rear area needs a significant expansion of the traditional topics and setting new research problems. It is necessary to pay attention to different aspects of life on the home front, including the social sphere. The complexity of the military era (including everyday life of different categories of people in the district: the main population, temporary (evacuees) and special contingent) requires the identification of peculiarities in their social, material and economic situation. There is a need to rethink the subjects related not only to the analysis of the effectiveness of the Party and state management structures in the spheres of health care, education and culture, but also to the legal situation, the real role of the ruling Communist Party, and in a broader context – to find out the key characteristics of the military-political regime and its relationship with society on the materials of the region.