Socio-professional structure of the Belarusian-Russian-Ukrainian border area rural population on the eve of the Second World War

Abstract

The article comprehensively examines the original archival materials of the 1939 census and analyzes the social structure and professional composition of the rural population of the Belarusian-Russian-Ukrainian border region, the development of which for «strategic reasons» was not a priority in the plans of the Soviet mobilization modernization. It highlights main reasons and stages of gender imbalance development, changes in rural population of the region dynamics, in which the titular ethnic groups absolutely dominated and more than half were women. The historical and comparative analysis allowed us to establish a number of specific features of rural population socio-professional structure in the Belarusian part of the border region, which is emphasized in the article. The share of the titular ethnic group among specialists, education workers, service workers, new professions related to maintenance of machinery and mechanisms, planning and selection work, and professional activities requiring high qualifications and education was lower in the Belarusian regions compared to Russian and Ukrainian ones. The author concluded that technical and socio-cultural modernization in agriculture in Belarusian village took place more slowly than in neighboring border regions, as evidenced by the socio-professional appearance of its rural population on the eve of the Second World War, which interrupted this progressive process.