Labor Resources of the Northern Village in 1939-1959 (Based on the Materials of Vologda and Kirov Oblasts)

The article attempts to show changes in the number and composition of the rural population of Vologda and Kirov Oblasts during the period of history crucial for the village, the key event of which was the Great Patriotic War. To analyze the demographic processes that took place in Vologda and Vyatka villages, a wide range of sources were used, based on published and archived statistical materials. The published data include the all-Union population censuses of 1939 and 1959, which contain information about the total number of inhabitants of the regions and show the rate of urban and rural population. Information about the number of citizens mobilized to the front and those who died during the war years is taken from the federal and regional memorial books. Data from reports of civil registry offices and resettlement departments allowed characterizing changes in the natural migration of the rural population from the village to the city. The annual reports of the collective farms helped to form an idea of transformations of the working-age population and the gender and age composition of the villagers. The analysis of the presented sources allowed drawing the following conclusions. By the early 1940s, in the majority of the country's regions, including the areas under study, the rural population dominated, and their agricultural specialization determined their belonging to the collective farm system. The usual way of life was disrupted by the war, most of the citizens mobilized to the front were called up from rural areas. This situation had a negative impact on the village labor resources. In the village, there was a shortage of male workers, which was compensated by increasing the burden on women, children, and the elderly to meet the state agricultural indicators. The reduction of labour force affected the quality of work leading to delays in its timely completion. The end of the war and the Red Army demobilization could not fill the village labor resources as many men perished on the war fronts. The state policy in the post-war emergency period did not change in relation to the village, which continued to be used as a labor and raw material resource for urban reconstruction and development. The rural residents' active migration in the post-war period led to a further reduction in the population of rural settlements. The reduction of rural labor and the state policy of enlarging collective farms contributed to the formation of a new settlement pattern, demonstrating the decay of small villages. Disintegration of the peasantry in villages, which collectivization had started, entered the final straight in the 1940s-1950s.

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