Specifics of demographic losses in the rear region during the Great Patriotic War (on materials of Vologda Oblast)

The article is aimed to clarify the magnitude and factors of demographic losses of one of the rear parts of the country - Vologda Oblast - during the Great Patriotic War. Vologda Oblast has a great specificity: its territory had almost no military operations (except Oshtinski area), but the level of mobilization here, in the frontline region, was one of the highest in the country. In addition, Vologda Oblast is a region with a predominantly rural population, so the process of demographic transition is reflected rather poorly. The region is considered one of the most demographically affected by the effects of war in the Soviet Union. In 1941, the region totaled 1.7 million people, in 1945 less than 1.3 million. Reasons for this situation are investigated in the article. On the basis of the first-time published statistics from the State Archive of the Russian Federation data are analyzed on births, deaths, natural increase, marriage and divorce rates of the population of Vologda Oblast during the war. Attention is drawn to an important demographic factor of the war years, the presence of evacuees to the Vologda land. In fact, this fact most seriously affected the increase in the frequency of deaths in 1942: the majority of the evacuees were Leningrad blockade survivors. The demographic data of the region showed that the population dynamics trends are broadly in line with the movement of the number of the rear population of the USSR. 1942 and 1943 were the most intense years in terms of natural increase - births were extremely small, and the number of deaths has increased. In connection with the mass mobilization of the male population to the front, the number of marriages during 1942-1944 was low (2.5-3 times lower than in 1941). The number of divorces was generally low, and in 1945 it seriously reduced. The main conclusion is that the main components of the population decline during the war were losses at the front and a sharp decline in fertility during the war years. During the period of 1941-1945, the area "lacked" 150 thousand children, who were likely to have been born if not for the extreme wartime conditions. The earlier assumption of the high mortality of the rear population of Vologda Oblast in the war was not confirmed.

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