Life in Evacuation: Leningraders in Evacuation in Bashkiria during the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

This article describes the evacuation of civilians from Leningrad and the Leningrad region to Bashkiria during the Great Patriotic War, with special focus on children’s institutions that arrived in the republic. Documentary materials reveal what measures were taken and how assistance was rendered by local authorities and population: provision of living quarters, distribution of clothes, shoes, food, support for health, employment, etc. This indicates difficulties encountered and unresolved issues. These materials also show the positive and negative sides of the temporary stay in the republic of Leningrad, in the context of emergency wartime conditions. In general, their reception and accommodation, the provision of necessary social assistance, solutions to pressing issues of employment, enrolling children in preschools and schools, providing medical assistance, etc., all took place under favorable conditions. However, there were negative cases in dealing with housing issues, employment for evacuees, allocating of food, providing health care, especially for children and children’s institutions, and even more so for orphans. Thanks to this large-scale unprecedented operation, millions of Soviet citizens, agencies, institutions, and industrial enterprises saved the lives of citizens, and everything was done for the successful conclusion of the war.