The Evacuation Policy of the Soviet Union During the Second World War

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on an analysis of state documents, this article analyzes the features of the evacuation policy of the Soviet government during the Second World War, using the example of the Kazakh SSR. It is shown that material resources were of primary importance, and human resources — even those people who would have been of use to the war economy and the nomenklatura — were of secondary importance in the wartime evacuation policy of the Soviet state. On the basis of declassified archive sources, the article shows that the evacuation policy of the Soviet government on the whole reflected the social hierarchy that had developed and the system of privileges of the Soviet state. The families of the nomenklatura and the higher leadership personnel were in a more favored position, regardless of their personal labor contribution. The article examines the specific features of the material and everyday services, medical and sanitation services, and social support of the people evacuated to Kazakhstan. The difficulties and problems the evacuees faced with respect to resettlement, conditioned by the catastrophic shortage of material resources, food, and industrial goods, are also examined.