Tomsk State University students' living and educational process conditions during the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War

In the article the author analyzes the living and educational process conditions of students studying at Tomsk State University during the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). The War had a dramatic impact on educational process and students' everyday live. In the years of war 400 students were called in field army or voluntary left for the front. The total number of students at the university reduced from 1130 people on the eve of war to 812 by the beginning of 1942/43 academic year. The majority of people leaving to protect the Homeland were young men, so the overwhelming part of the students were girls. The material base changed cardinally, too. Since the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941 the university's student dormitories, as well as some lecture buildings, were transformed into hospitals for soldiers injured on the battlefields. Nevertheless even in those harsh conditions students continued their education. The author examines the scholarship provision at the university during the war period, despite severe economic situation both at the university and in the country as a whole. Special attention in the research is paid to the situation regarding students' food supply and work of the university's catering establishments. Extremely unsatisfactorily was the provision of students with meals ready to eat, because their delivery was late, interrupted and quite often of poor quality. In the years of war there was a shortage in providing students with manufactured goods : shoes, linen, outerwear, socks, soap, etc. Some aspects of life and educational process of the disabled war veterans who decided to start or continue their education at Tomsk State University are also covered in the article. Students' biographical data, as well as different university's official documents and personal history records, were analyzed as important facts sources for the research. The documentary base of the research includes a wide complex of sources, such as official documents, students' portfolios, sources of personal origin. Owing to these sources there is an opportunity to track the material living conditions of of Tomsk University students' life in the conditions of wartime. Thus, students of Tomsk University in the years of war were compelled to study in difficult material and living conditions. All this, undoubtedly, affected the educational process. But, despite it, students endured all the hardships of military burdens, combining study with active public work and help to national economy.

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