The Supply of the Urban Population of Novosibirsk Oblast with Consumer Goods During the Great Patriotic War

The article describes the supply of consumer goods for the urban population of Novosibirsk Oblast during the Great Patriotic War. At the time, a lot of industrial plants converted to defense production for obvious reasons. The range of light industrial goods also changed notably: goods for munitioning took the lead. The aim of the article is to reveal the characteristics of the supply of nonfood items for the population of Novosibirsk Oblast. The research is based on data from archival documents. The production of consumer goods for people in the rear decreased sharply, e.g., the manufacture of cotton, wool and flax textile, leather and rubber footwear, soap decreased by three to five times, back to the level of the mid-1920s. The population process in the urban areas of Novosibirsk Oblast was dynamic and controversial. The urban population was reducing significantly due to the mobilization of military-aged males to the front, the increase in the death rates in the urban areas due to the lasting malnutrition, illnesses and poor living conditions. But the counterstream of evacuated people and country dwellers increased the number of the population. People were mobilized to work at defense plants in urban areas. On the whole, the population in, for instance, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo and Tomsk Oblasts grew by the end of the war. Under the circumstances, the problem of supplying the population with common household goods became urgent. Since the spring of 1942, the standardized supply with non-grocery goods was introduced in the urban areas of the region and in the whole country. The standardized non-grocery goods were selling within the established limit for each population category in form of fixed conditional units (coupons) for each item of goods. In view of the limit and the number of coupons for each item, a ration card owner could choose and buy standardized goods on offer. Over the last years of the war, the card system of industrial goods was replaced by special orders, which allowed people in the urban areas to buy these goods. Non-grocery goods were in an increasingly short supply despite of governmental plans. Local and cooperative industry plants could not remedy the situation because of their weakness and the lack of raw material. Clothing, footwear, soap and other goods were a severe shortage during the wartime. Thus, the government never saw the improvement of living conditions as a high-priority problem even before the war. The priority was to increase production capacity. The article concludes that during the war poor living conditions, which had already been bad, changed for the worse. People had to survive while they starved, were exhausted by intense work at plants, were ill and worried about their family members and close ones fighting at the front. People worked without cease, endured hardships and waited for the improvement of living conditions after the upcoming victory.

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