Romanov Roman E.,
Candidate of Historical Science, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Passive Protest of Working Youth of Novosibirsk Region During the Great Patriotic War (“Letters to the Authorities”)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-5-10
This article introduces in scientific circulation the “letters to the authorities”, written by a Komsomol member N.Z. Nechaeva (Tomsk) and by the students of the industrial school No. 3 (Novosibirsk), and discovered in the funds of the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region (SAofNR). The content of these letters is essential for understanding the reasons and forms of a passive protest of working youth of the region during the Great Patriotic War. The publication of the letters is preceded by an introductory article, which analyzes the material problems and the reaction of young workers of the Siberian rear to these. It was found out that teenagers and young people experienced great difficulties in adapting to the extreme everyday life of rear cities. One of the acute problems was a considerable reduction of the real wage against the backdrop of increasing taxation and public loans, inflation due to the rapid increase in retail prices on urban markets. The wages of the majority of young workers allowed them to count on receiving only the most basic material goods: food and a roof over their heads. The revealed negative phenomena in the sphere of the barrack life of wartime were related to the lack of living space, harsh living conditions, the shortage of manufactured goods and foodstuff, and poor quality food. A large part of young factory workers lived in the barrack-type dormitories, often without any public utilities or conveniences, was lacking in clothes and shoes, and was eating low-calorie products in the factory canteens. Material hardships and privations caused negative moods among working youth, which led to a passive protest in the form of a frequent absenteeism and unauthorized leaves. The mass desertion from the military manufacturing was shown. Also, the practices of verbal communication between the local party, Komsomol authorities and young workers, both direct and indirect, were reconstructed. It is concluded that the protest actions of young factory workers, as a rule, acquired the character of a typical behavioral norm (the threat of unauthorized leave), and in some cases of an atypical behavioral incident (the threat of suicide).
Publishing: 31/10/2019
How to cite: Romanov R.E. Passive Protest of Working Youth of Novosibirsk Region During the Great Patriotic War (“Letters to the Authorities”) // Historical Courier, 2019, No 5 (7), pp. 138–146. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-5-10.pdf
Links: Issue 5 2019
Keywords: Great Patriotic War; working youth; passive protest; “letters to authorities”; Novosibirsk region