Saratov Region

The article presents a general picture of the involvement of human contingents from the Saratov region to recruit the Armed Forces of the USSR on the eve and during the Great Patriotic War. The article highlights in detail the conduct of three waves of the so-called general mobilization of the military in 1941, subsequent party-komsomol and other special mobilizations, as well as the regular conscription of recruits in 1942–1945. The role of the training of military-trained reserves through Vsevobuch, the people’s militia and defense organizations is shown.

In the article the author addresses one of the little-studied issues of the history of the Great Patriotic War in regional historiography. The construction of defensive lines on the territory of the Saratov region, which was located for a long time in the near rear of the Soviet-German front, was carried out for a year and a half, took on a large spatial scale and required large-scale expenditures of human and material resources. From the autumn of 1941 until March 1943, six field-type defense lines with a total length of over 600 kilometers were built in the region.

This article is devoted to the analyses of not numerous and very specific population group of the Saratov province – the citizens of the Central Powers, who stayed on the province’s territory without changing their citizenship. Special attention is paid to the reconstruction of those events, which occurred in their lives after the beginning of World War I. The chronology of administrative actions taken in respect of that population group is being reestablished.

The article examines the state of agriculture and the financial situation of rural residents of the Saratov region during the Great Patriotic War from the point of view of the mobilization model of the Soviet economy. The specific indicators and ways of implementing the state policy in the region to maximize the mobilization of human, logistical, food and financial resources of the village in the interests of the army, the impact of this factor on the livelihoods of the population are analyzed.

The article is devoted to the participation of the Saratov Region’s citizens in the activities devoted to the 100-year anniversary of the Patriotic war of 1812

The article is based on the unknown documents and memoirs considers the evacuation of the orphanage № 1 for Spanish kids to the village Kukkus (now – Village Privolgskoe of Rovensky district of  Saratov region). The author is analyzing  the work of the administration of the orphanage. The article examines the difficulties  that the kids  and the staff faced at the new place during the war. The article mostly focuses on the problem what was done to improve living conditions of the kids. 

On the basis of archival and published sources, the author explores the number and occupations of the inhabitants of the district towns of Saratov province in the 1780s — early 1800s. This article also tells about changes in the social-economic development of settlements after receiving city status.

The article substantiates the necessity and possibility of wide attraction of money of the population during the Great Patriotic War, due to which the revenue part of the state budget and inflation control were largely provided. The regional practice of implementation in 1941–1945 of tax policy of the state, mobilization of means of workers through acquisition of bonds of loans, monetary and ware lotteries, placement of deposits in savings banks, and also mass national movement on creation of Fund of defense is analyzed.

The article reveals the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in the initial period of World War II on the territory of the Saratov Volga region. The author explores the rapid change in state policy towards the Russian Orthodox Church: from openly hostile to benevolent by the end of 1942. On the analysis of concrete facts, the author identifies the most important reasons for such a transformation. Among them, the author also highlights the mass opening of churches in the occupied territory.

The article reveals the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church (the ROC) in the late 1940s on the territory of the Saratov Volga region. After several years of a forced truce, the state began to tighten its religious policy again and resumed an active anti-religious campaign. One of the reasons was the scandal in the Saratov region in 1949, connected with the mass bathing on the Epiphany holiday and the subsequent publication of I. Ryabov’s feuilleton called “Saratov font” in the Pravda newspaper.