Child protection measures during the Great patriotic war: from regional history

Abstract

The article is devoted to a topical scientific topic that has, first of all, social significance, which has not yet received special consideration in regional historiography - the topic of war childhood. Based on a large range of documentary materials and various sources, the support of children at the state level during the Great Patriotic War is considered on the example of one of the rear regions of the USSR - the Bashkir ASSR. Shows the adoption of legislative and regulatory acts on the protection of various categories of the child population and their implementation. Attention is drawn to the solution of the problem of child homelessness and neglect, aggravated in wartime conditions. The activity of power structures, public organizations of the republic to provide assistance to children and children's institutions, the existing difficulties and omissions are analyzed. A special place in the article is occupied by children's institutions that were evacuated in the republic from various regions of the Soviet country, including those with Spanish pupils.

Introduction: The article examines the scientific topic of military childhood using a regional example. It should be noted that, in general, a lot has been done in the study of the history of the Great Patriotic War in Russian historiography: a large number of monographs, collections of articles, conference materials, documents and materials have been published. But this topic has not yet received special consideration. The same is typical for regional historiography.

 Methods: The content of the article is based on various research methods, first of all, on the method of historicism, a consistent presentation of the events of regional significance in close connection with all-Union events, which allows us to show the specific features of the development of these events in a given region. Methods of objectivity and scientificness were also applied, aimed at studying the main points of the topic in consistent dynamics, identifying objective information and facts. In the presentation of the article, the methods of comparative historical analysis, problem-chronological and logical ones were used. 

Results: The article is based on archival documents found in the National Archives of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the State Archives of the Russian Federation, as well as on various sources such as materials from periodicals, local museums and memories of war children. This made it possible to consider the provision of assistance to children in a specific region of the Soviet country during the war years, to identify difficulties and miscalculations.  The documentary materials and various sources used in the article made it possible to draw the appropriate conclusion: the support of childhood at the state level was contradictory, which was associated with objective reasons.