Who belonged to the production workers in the period of the Second World War. Agriculture of the region during the years of the Second World War

The peasants were deeply indignant at the striving of foreign conquerors to seize their sweat-drenched land, bread, and livestock. “You see, what a time has come,” a member of the collective farm turned to fellow countrymen-peasants. New life»» Kirensky district of the Irkutsk region I.G. Popov. - The fascist climbed onto our land, she liked him, the vulture. We watered it, dear, with our sweat and made it fertile, look at our bread! We will stand up for them!.. We will not give the villains a single piece of land” (Patriotism of the workers of the Irkutsk region during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945): Collection of documents and materials. - Irkutsk, 1965. P. 14).

Many more such statements of peasants can be cited. They are noteworthy, in particular, in that they explain the “strange phenomenon” of mass patriotism (military and labor) of collective farmers, which is incomprehensible to many foreign (and some domestic too) figures and publicists. They do not understand how it was possible to fight for the land that the Soviet government in 1929-1933, in the course of the collectivization of agriculture and the formation of collective farms, allegedly “selected”, “withdrawn”, “confiscated”, “expropriated”, etc. All this argumentation would be fair only if the "selected" land went to some other owners, but it remained in the collective possession of the same peasants. Whole array historical sources, which we have, irrefutably indicates thatSoviet peasants for the most part did not consider the collective farm land as allegedly alien and did not at all intend to give it away without a fight to foreign conquerors.

In order to adequately understand the origins and motives of the mass patriotism of the Soviet people (and especially the many millions of peasants), it is desirable for the researchers themselves to be at least a little Russian patriots. But, since this “slightly” is completely absent among American, British and other foreign researchers, they perceive much in this matter in a false and distorted light. The real stumbling block for them was the phenomenon of mass patriotism of the collective farm peasantry. Widespread in Western historiography was the tendency to interpret this phenomenon as "mistakes" and "miscalculations" of the German invaders in terms of attracting to their side the bulk of the population of the USSR (and primarily peasants), as if groaning under the "yoke" of Bolshevism and, in order to throw it off " yoke”, ready to cooperate with the occupiers. The English historian A. Seaton put forward a completely delusional, in our opinion, idea of ​​a “rejected outstretched hand”, the meaning of which is that, they say, the Germans, having shown exorbitant rigidity from the first days of the occupation, failed to attract the population to their side, allegedly pushed away “the outstretched hand” (see: Seaton A. The Russ-German War. 1941-1945. - L., 1971. P. 54).

The failure of this "idea" is quite obvious, since in fact there was no "outstretched hand". The facts of complicity activities of individual representatives of the peasantry were not of a mass nature and, therefore, they should in no case be put at the forefront. It should be clearly understood:the collaborationism of some part of the peasants is not the rule, but an exception to the rule.

In this regard, even in the behavioral position of the former kulaks (and this, as you know, the stratum of the peasantry most affected by the Soviet power), patriotic motives prevailed. We consider it our duty to refute a fairly strong stereotype in the public mind, according to which the former kulaks who ended up in the occupied territory allegedly almost without exception became policemen or punishers. Of course, part of the former kulaks, guided by motives that can be conditionally called "class revenge" or "an attempt at class revenge", went to the police or other service to the enemy. However, we have good reason to assert that they constituted a smaller part of the total number of former dispossessed peasants who were in the occupied territory, and most of them did not stain themselves with treasonous activities.

As an example, let us cite the situation with special settlers - former kulaks who lived in special settlements ("kulak exile") of the Stavropol Territory. As of October 1, 1941, 43,360 people were registered here (see: State Archive Russian Federation(GARF). F. 9479. Op. 1. D. 89. L. 189-191). In the second half of 1942, the "kulak exile" of the Stavropol region found itself in the zone of German occupation. In January 1943, together with the retreating Germans, 412 special settlers fled from there (ibid. F. 9401. Op. 1. D. 2510. L. 318). We define them as the total number of active collaborators. And how did the rest of the special settlers prove themselves? We find the answer to this question in a letter from the Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU (b) A. Orlov, dated June 11, 1946 and addressed personally to I.V. Stalin. The letter, in particular, said: “During the Great Patriotic War, 7,636 people were drafted from among the special settlers into the Red Army, and many of them distinguished themselves in battles for the Soviet Motherland. Of the special settlers, 3 people were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union, 303 people were awarded orders, 471 people were awarded medals and 564 people returned to special settlements as disabled veterans of the Patriotic War. During the period of temporary occupation of the region, the absolute majority of special settlers were in favor of Soviet power, against the Nazi invaders. There were facts when special settlers hid communists and Jews in their houses” (ibid. F. 5446. Op. 48a. D. 2544. L. 3). Based on all this information, we can draw an unambiguous conclusion:the vast majority of former kulaks, despite serious claims against the Soviet government, showed themselves to be quite patriotic.

In the first months of the war, the top leadership of the USSR apparently had certain doubts about the reliability and patriotic spirit of the peasantry. To a large extent, this explained the creation, by decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of November 17, 1941, of emergency political bodies - political departments at the MTS and at state farms. In the future, it became more and more obvious that the behavioral position of the overwhelming majority of the peasantry was unconditionallypatriotic,in connection with which there was no need for the existence of these emergency political bodies in the countryside. One can basically agree with V.T. Aniskov, who characterizes the situation with the introduction of political departments at the MTS and state farms in November 1941 and their abolition in May 1943 as follows: “Apparently, Stalin and his entourage were restless in relation to the peasantry after the recent repressions during collectivization and in the midst of famine and pestilence in the country in the early 1930s. That is why they took care of recreating the already “tested” emergency bodies with understandable preventive goals. But the concern turned out to be excessive, because, as numerous reports from the same political departments testify, the collective farm peasantry turned out to be much more trustworthy than they could think about it (exceptions do not count here). Moreover, as is clear from the same reports, the political departments soon had not so much to "supervise" the collective farmers politically, but, knowing the truly patriotic moods and deeds in the countryside, more and more often stand up for the protection of the peasants themselves from the exorbitant and unreasonable over-confiscation of their products. This was one of the reasons for the unexpectedly rapid abolition of political departments in the countryside as early as May 1943. (Aniskov V.T. Peasantry against fascism. 1941-1945: History and psychology of feat. - M., 2003. S. 36-37).

The war was extremely hard on the state of the productive forces of agriculture. In its first months, as a result of the occupation, large areas of crops fell out of economic circulation. Before the war, the agricultural regions occupied by the enemy had a significant material and technical base.

The expenditures of the USSR budget for agriculture by 1943, in comparison with 1940, decreased by 2.5 times (from 12.6 billion to 5.1 billion rubles). The main part of the equipment, and the best, the collective farms and MTS transferred to the front. New powerful caterpillar tractors, almost 75% of the car park, 60.2% of working horses were almost completely withdrawn from the village. In total, agriculture lost almost 54% of all its mechanical energy capacities, of which 21.8% remained in the occupied territory and 32.6% was transferred to the Red Army (see: History of the Soviet Peasantry. - M., 1987. T. 3. P. 174-175, further - ISK. T. 3). The supply of fuel, spare parts, tools, timber, tarpaulin, etc., was sharply reduced. Materials such as glass, roofing felt did not arrive at all. It was possible to carry out the increased volume of work only under the condition of enormous labor stress, an increase in the volume of equestrian and manual work.

Meanwhile, the labor resources of the collective-farm village have been reduced quite a lot. According to the annual reports of collective farms, at least 13.5 million peasants went into the army and industry during the war years. Dynamic information about changes in the labor resources of collective farms is given intable 1. By the beginning of 1945, the number of able-bodied people decreased by 13,471.5 thousand (38%), including men by 12,430.5 thousand (73.7%), women by 1,041 thousand (4.4%). The total number of able-bodied people in the collective farms decreased until 1944, and men - until 1945.

The reduction in the mechanization of basic work inevitably led to a sharp drop in the productivity of agricultural labor, the length of the working day, and an increase in the cost of physical effort. If in industry labor productivity during the war years as a whole increased by 14%, then in collective farms, state farms and other state agricultural enterprises it decreased by 40%.

Table 1.

Number of able-bodied collective farmers (as of January 1 of each year)

In the conditions of war, every workday, as well as every kilogram of bread, was given at the cost of additional physical exertion. Therefore, only in a few regions (Gorkovskaya, Ivanovskaya, Yaroslavskaya, Kostroma and some others), where there were more favorable conditions for replenishing the loss of labor force at the expense of the urban, evacuated population, extensive assistance from military units (with relatively small sown areas and more developed diversified production ), it was possible to keep production at the pre-war level and even surpass it in some respects. In most regions of the country, especially in the east, where the shortage of labor and agricultural machinery proved impossible to fill, there were no conditions for expanded production. And it is quite understandable that here, on the whole, in the comparable territory of the rear areas, production during the war period decreased from year to year. Due to the reduction in the number of tractors in the MTS, collective farms were recommended to use horses, oxen and even cows from private farms more widely in field work. The first wartime collective farm plans provided for more than usual use of the simplest mechanisms and tools of manual labor, organization of work at night, etc. Broad initiative and rationalization were combined with forced measures, such as a partial return to simplified farming methods - shifting system, shallow plowing, sowing on stubble, reducing autumn plowing, deviating from crop rotations and caring for crops, etc.

Thus, the war had a strong destructive effect on the state of the productive forces of agriculture. It was only thanks to the steadfastness and selflessness of the peasantry that it was possible to survive and provide the country with the necessary food and agricultural raw materials.

Cattle were widely involved in field work - there were bulls and cows in the team. To maximize the use of horses, strict personal responsibility for their condition was introduced, production rates, payment conditions and benefits were established for collective farmers who worked on their cows. Even in the leading grain regions, the volume of work on live draft already by the spring plowing of 1942 amounted to more than 50% of the total volume of field work performed, while in the spring of 1941 it reached only 4%. Just as unusually, the share of manual labor also increased. If in 1941 on collective farms Western Siberia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 10-20% of spring grain crops were sown manually, then in the spring of 1942 - about 50%. According to incomplete data, in 1942 about 88 thousand heads of cattle, mainly cows, were trained to harness here (see: ISK. Vol. 3. P. 180). In land-poor regions of the country, for example, in the Non-Chernozem region, the increase in the share of equestrian and manual work was even more striking.

The labor activity of the peasantry intensified. This was facilitated, in particular, by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of April 13, 1942 “On increasing the mandatory minimum of workdays for collective farmers” (see: The most important decisions on agriculture for 1938-1946 - M., 1948. S. 310-311). Each member of the agricultural artel had to produce at least 100-150 workdays per year (depending on the region). At the same time, the main share of labor participation had to fall on the most important periods of agricultural work. For the first time, a mandatory minimum of workdays was introduced for adolescents, who were given separate work books. Collective farmers who did not work out the established minimum of workdays were considered to have left the collective farm and were deprived of their personal plot. For non-production of workdays for periods of work for unjustified reasons, able-bodied collective farmers could be brought to justice and punished with corrective labor work in the collective farms themselves for up to 6 months.

However, the main form educational work methods of persuasion remained among the collective farmers. The sanctions recommended by the decree of April 13, 1942, were not used very often. In 1940, in the rear areas, collective farmers who did not work out the minimum amounted to 12.6% of the able-bodied population, 7.7% were excluded from the collective farms; in 1944, with 11.1% of able-bodied people who did not work out the minimum, statutory sanctions were applied to only 3.3% (see: ISK. Vol. 3. P. 181).

Consequently, there is reason to assert that during the war years, the use of legal measures as an incentive means of activating the social labor of collective farmers not only did not increase, but, on the contrary, noticeably decreased. This personally refutes those that are widely used in foreign, and in last years- V domestic literature allegations about so-called forced labor on collective farms during the war years, that supposedly only with the help of coercive measures it was possible to maintain the labor tension of the peasantry. Such statements have nothing to do with historical truth. Perhaps there was not a single peasant family in which one of the family members would not be at the front. The bulk of the peasantry did not need to be forced to work with full dedication of their strength and thereby provide all possible assistance to their relatives and friends who were fighting against foreign invaders.

The leitmotif of the moral and psychological state and attitude to work among the vast majority of the peasantry was patriotic motives, the desire to provide all possible assistance to the front. This statement of ours is far from unfounded, but is based on numerous facts indicating that countless different patriotic initiatives came from among the workers of the village, which usually received wide distribution.

However, M.A. Vyltsan, in his book published in 1995, called the mass labor heroism of the peasantry “established in historical literature clichés and stamps. At the same time, he did not say a word about patriotic motives in the behavior of the peasantry, but the motivation for labor activity explained by the fact that, they say, “in the behavioral structure of the peasants, the feeling of fear, the inevitability of punishment for failure to fulfill “his civic duty”, the order of higher and local authorities, was not the last place” (Vyltsan M.A. The peasantry of Russia during the Great War. 1941 -1945: Pyrrhic victory. - M., 1995. S. 17). If we follow the logic of Vyltsan, then it turns out that the main motive for the labor feat of the peasants was not patriotic motives, but fear of punishment. This pseudo-innovative concept could be the subject of discussion if it were not for the presence of a huge array historical facts that directly refute it. Moreover, Vyltsan is well aware that many patriotic initiatives came from among the peasantry. Therefore, we cannot regard his conclusions otherwise than as a deliberate falsification, as a conscious desire to deheroize and trivialize the greatness of the labor feat of the Soviet peasantry.

In an article published in 2004 by M.A.Vyltsan and V.V.Kondrashin, the statistics of criminal prosecution for non-fulfillment of the mandatory minimum workdays is given, and on the basis of this, a completely wrong and perverted, in our opinion, conclusion is drawn: “The facts presented cast doubt on the widespread in literature, clichés and clichés about the “mass labor heroism” of the peasants, “the sacrificial feat of the village” during the war years. Yes, many thousands, tens of thousands of peasants worked, sparing no effort, to provide the front with everything necessary, but why was it necessary to introduce a mandatory minimum of workdays? The peasants, of course, were aware of the inevitability of the hardships and hardships caused by the war, but, perhaps, to a greater extent, their attitude to work was affected by the fear of punishment for failure to fulfill their “duty”, the order of the central and local authorities ”(Vyltsan M.A., Kondrashin V. V. Patriotism of the Peasantry // War and Society, 1941-1945, book 2. - M., 2004, p. 56).

For an insufficiently prepared reader, the above statement by Vyltsan and Kondrashin may seem convincing, but it is far from being the case. Their concept contains a monstrous distortion of historical truth. From the logic of their reasoning, it follows that the massive labor feat of the Soviet peasants was not the result of their patriotic motives, but the fear of some kind of punishment. We categorically cannot agree with such a "concept". It is very strange that Vyltsan and Kondrashin, who are among the leading agricultural historians, do not see one obvious thing, namely:the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of April 13, 1942 was not directed against the majority of the peasantry. It was not directed either against the Stakhanovites and shock workers, or against those millions of rural workers who conscientiously carried out the assigned tasks, driven by patriotic motives. This decree was directed primarily against loafers, idlers and parasites, as well as against half-lumpen and drunken subjects in order to force them to work. And it was imperative to make them work - this was required by the emergency military situation, in which there was an acute shortage of labor in agriculture.

The collective farmers of many artels, on their own initiative, made decisions to approve the amount of the mandatory minimum workdays, which exceeded the state established. Here is one of these decisions, recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the artel. S.M. Budyonny, Belovsky district Novosibirsk region dated March 21, 1942: “We heard: about the revision of the minimum workdays for an able-bodied collective farmer of the artel named after. Budyonny. Decided: to approve for 1942 a minimum of workdays for an able-bodied woman - 200, for an able-bodied man - 300 ”(Soviet Siberia, March 28, 1942). When discussing the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of April 13, 1942, many collective farmers noted that the established minimum was low. Noteworthy in this regard is the speech of the 83-year-old collective farmer of the artel named after V. XVII party congress of the Ekhirit-Bulagat aimag of the Irkutsk region A.F. Malyanova: “120 workdays and a disabled person can work out. Wartime requires us to work for two or three. Last year I worked out 436 workdays, and this year I will work out at least 500 ”(ISK. T. 3. S. 181-182).

Peasant women, escorting their brothers, husbands, sons, grandchildren to the front, tried, as far as their strength allowed, to help them with their hard work. So, expressing common feelings and thoughts, A.P. Dyugaeva, a collective farmer of the agricultural artel “Lenin's Way” of the Chkalovsk region, who sent two sons and a grandson to the front, said: “I will work for two. I have enough strength. I know that my work will benefit the front ”(Ural - front. - M., 1985. P. 130). Such initiatives were massive.

A real, selfless battle for military bread unfolded with the start of harvesting in 1941. The work went on almost around the clock. During the day they mowed bread, at night they stacked and threshed. The whole life of many artels has moved to field camps, current. Field farmers, especially young people from remote brigades, did not return home for weeks, or even until the end of the harvest. Small children, old people, and part of the livestock breeders remained in the villages. But they also guarded the collective farm and personal property of fellow villagers, repaired harness and containers, were employed in personal plots, and when the opportunity arose, they were connected to cleaning, fodder, and auxiliary work. The combination of professions has become widespread. “How long I lived in the world, I don’t remember that my fellow countrymen worked so amicably,” recalled I.A. Buyanov, a veteran of the collective farm construction of the Moscow Region. - Where did the forces come from? And in the midday heat, and in the stuffy nights - in the harvest, in the threshing, in the digging of tubers, in the harvesting of row crops, on farms - people worked and worked, not knowing rest, tirelessly ”(Buyanov I.A. Thee, life. - M., 1965. S. 130).

On the Put Ilyicha collective farm in the Kalmansky district of the Altai Territory, the average daily output per haymaker in teams consisting of women rose to 8 ha instead of the normal 4.5 ha. In the Novaya Zhizn agricultural artel in the Tyazhinsky district of the Novosibirsk region, a group of women led by a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Chmyr imposed 6,000 sheaves daily, using a separate-link method of work. Collective farmers of the Beloglazovsky district of the Altai Territory Kornev and Shcheglov at a rate of 520 sheaves imposed 1150-1500 per day. There are many such examples.

The heroic efforts of the collective farm peasantry, aimed at the timely harvesting of the first war harvest, were generally crowned with success. The collective farms in the rear areas harvested 51,630,000 hectares, that is, almost the same harvested area as in 1940. The difficulties of the war and difficult weather conditions affected. Nevertheless, the rear areas fulfilled the grain procurement plan by 80% - more than a billion poods of grain (174.7 thousand centners) were delivered to the bins of the Motherland. It was a major victory for the agricultural workers. It is important to note that in 1941 the collective farms and state farms handed over to the state 43.3% of the gross grain harvest against 38.1% in 1940 (see: Arutyunyan Yu.V. Soviet peasantry during the Great Patriotic War. - M., 1970. pp. 44-45, Soviet economy during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945, M., - 1970, p. 263).

Harvesting and procurement work was carried out everywhere under the slogan "In work, as in battle!". It acquired direct significance in the frontline areas, where harvesting and saving bread was a real combat mission. Often, collective farmers came under fire and bombing, fought against the arson of enemy paratroopers and saboteurs. Brigades of volunteers led by communists were created to harvest and transport grain in especially dangerous areas; night collective farm patrols patrolled here.

1942 was an exceptionally difficult year for the peasantry. The enemy has occupied such rich agricultural regions of the country as the Don, Kuban, North Caucasus, Ukraine. The eastern regions of the country became almost the only suppliers of agricultural products. Having concentrated their efforts on harvesting the 1941 harvest and expanding winter crops, the collective farms were unable to simultaneously prepare the land for the 1942 harvest. The volume of plowed fallows and fallows to spring sowing decreased in the comparable territory by more than 2.5 times (from 26.4 million to 10.5 million ha). Especially unfavorable with the preparation of land for the harvest of 1942 was in the regions of the Center, the South-East and the Urals, where the area of ​​fallows and fallows decreased by 3.5-5 times. Accordingly, the volume of spring arable work and the proportion of spring sowing by spring plowing increased sharply. To deal with these extremely difficult tasks, we needed the utmost exertion of forces and organization.

Having passed the first severe trials, the peasantry gained experience in working under war conditions. In January-February 1942, the All-Union competition of rural workers began. The plenums of party committees that took place were of great mobilizing significance, followed by the regional and district meetings of agricultural leaders, who discussed the results of the past 1941 and the tasks of the upcoming sowing.

On January 12-15, 1942, during a discussion at the plenum of the Novosibirsk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the issue of the plan for agricultural work for the new year, a delegation of collective farmers from the Kupinsky district challenged their neighbors from the Toguchinsky district to the competition. A few days later, the participants of the regional meeting of agricultural leaders adopted an appeal: “We warmly welcome the initiative of the collective farmers, workers of the MTS and state farms of the Kupinsky and Toguchinsky districts of the region, who have begun competition among themselves for exemplary sowing, for a high harvest ... Let's expand the competition in each link, in each brigade , in each collective farm and between districts. Through selfless labor in the fields, we will provide powerful support to the valiant Red Army.”

The first weeks of 1942 showed that the collective-farm village was experiencing an unprecedented labor upsurge. milestone in the preparation of the All-Union competition was the patriotic initiative of the agricultural workers of the Altai Territory. In the newspaper "Socialist Agriculture" dated February 14, 1942, a letter was published by the collective farmers of the artels "Rodina", "Red Fighter" and the staff of the Shipunovskaya MTS of the Altai Territory to all collective farmers, workers of the MTS, land authorities of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan with a call to join the socialist competition for the best help to the front. “The eastern regions,” they wrote, “became the main bases for the production of grain and other agricultural products. The rear of the Red Army is mainly based in these regions. This imposes on us, Siberians, as well as on the Urals, Volga, residents of Kazakhstan, Central Asia, a colossal responsibility. This requires a fundamental improvement in work on all collective farms and MTS... Enter into socialist competition for the best assistance to the front, for the best spring sowing. Remember, there are no trifles in this business, for success it is equally important to prepare seeds, personnel, draw up a plan in a timely manner, repair every collar, every line. All the heroic power of the collective farm system - to help the front!

The peasantry of Altai did not then call the competition he started all-Union, but his initiative, in fact, reflected this idea for the first time in the country. The initiative of the Altai peasants was highly appreciated by the country's leadership. Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M.I. Kalinin wrote: “It is not only possible to agree with their proposals, they must be welcomed and resolutely implemented ... The obligation taken by the collective farmers shows that the Altaians correctly understood the requirements of the moment. All collective farms and other regions should follow this path ... ”(Kalinin M.I. On spring field work. - Yaroslavl. 1942. P. 7).

On May 4, 1942, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks approved proposals for organizing the All-Union Socialist Competition. On June 8, 1942, the State Defense Committee adopted a resolution on the organization of the All-Union Socialist Competition of collective farms, machine and tractor stations, districts, regions, territories and republics, and on June 10 Pravda and Izvestia published its conditions.

In directing the competition, party and Soviet organizations relied on the experience of the pre-war years. But then the working conditions were different, and the scope of the competition was not so massive. In 1940, for example, 55% of the collective farms and 58% of the MTS competed. Less widespread and far from universal before the war was the competition between districts, regions and republics. Beginning in 1942, in agriculture, as well as in industry, All-Union competition embraced all collectives and administrative-territorial regions without exception. On new stage intra-farm competition has risen, as well as the competition of tractor brigades and individual machine operators, Komsomol youth brigades for the implementation various kinds works, the competition of plowmen, harrowers, team workers, field farmers, milkmaids, calves, etc. The competition reached its greatest intensity during ten days, monthly, labor shifts associated with the shock completion of the most important work and in honor of victories on the war fronts.

According to the results of the spring sowing of 1942, 680 tractor drivers were awarded the badge "Excellence in Socialist Agriculture". The first place in the All-Union competition was won by the female tractor team D.M.Garmash from the Rybnovskaya MTS of the Ryazan region. During the spring sowing period alone, it processed (in terms of soft plowing) 1,296 hectares with 487 according to the plan and saved 2,110 kg of fuel and 838 kg of lubricating oils. By decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, she was awarded the challenge Red Banner of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. In 1943, D.M.Garmash was awarded the Stalin Prize. M. Kostrikina from the same team worked out 260 hectares of conditional plowing on a KhTZ tractor in the spring sowing, fulfilling the plan by 426% while saving 360 kg of fuel, A. Demidova - 250 hectares (409.6% of the plan), saving 344 kg of fuel. The brigade of D.M. Garmash kept the championship in the competition of women's tractor brigades of the country in subsequent years.

The women's tractor team of the Bolshe-Rakovskaya MTS of the Kuibyshev region, which was among the initiators of the All-Union competition, completed the annual work plan by 201%, and the tractor driver A. Kazakova - by 213%. In the Sverdlovsk region, women's tractor teams D. Larionova from the Irbit MTS and L. Zhirova from the Useninovskaya MTS were among the first to be created. Both brigades were recognized as the winners of the regional competition, in which 140 women's tractor brigades (4,636 tractor drivers) participated. D. Larionova took over the leadership of the brigade, which, before being called to the front, was headed by her husband. This team included novice tractor drivers, but they all quickly mastered the technique and achieved high performance. Labor prowess was shown by the collective farmer V.K. Borisova from the artel. XVII party congress of the Ubinsky district of the Novosibirsk region. The mother of five children, she went to work on a tractor and in the spring of 1942 she plowed and sowed over 200 hectares.

Those who worked manually also had high results. Even many peasants, who were quite old, showed examples of highly productive labor. For example, 75-year-old I. Tretyakov and I. Proshukhlin from the Krasnoyarsk Territory mowed a hectare or more of wheat per day with a norm of half a hectare. In many areas, the competition of women mowers has unfolded. On the collective farm On May 1, in the Ust-Abakan region of the Khakass Autonomous Region, the Komsomol link of three collective farmers - E. Drebentsova, M. Drebentsova and K. Kasatkina - at the harvest of 1942 for the first time applied a new, separate operation, line method of work. On average, a link tied up to 11 thousand sheaves per day at a rate of 1,500. The link method of E. Drebentsova found numerous followers. Only in the Krasnoyarsk Territory it was used by up to 3 thousand units.

Since the spring of 1942, the valuable initiative rational use the remaining horse stock, collective farm equipment and labor, shown by V. Nagorny, a 17-year-old boy from the Krasny Partisan collective farm, Krasnoturansky District, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Using replacement horses, on the first day of work, he plowed 4 hectares in a new way, completing more than four norms. In the following days, production rose to 500%. The plowmen of the same collective farm D. Pershin, E. Shagorakova, I. Timchenko achieved the same high results - more than 20 people in total. The initiative of the innovators, which was promptly reported by the local and central press, was picked up not only in Siberia. Not only plowmen, but also harrowers, seeders, tractor drivers, and then hay-mowers and harvesters joined the struggle for overfulfillment of the norms according to the Nagorny method. Erofeev, Ivanov, Stepanov, Katkov achieved outstanding success in harvesting using the Nagorny method. They mowed more than 30 hectares in a day with two lobo-warmers, while the usual production rate was 5-6 hectares. But this achievement was not the limit. The all-Union record for the production of a lobo-heater was set on the collective farm. Shekhovtsev Chelyabinsk region. Here the chairman of the artel, P.N.Altynov, himself sat down at the jacket. Work began at 4 o'clock in the morning on three shift horses and continued all day. Since one lap of the field was over 3 km, the horses were harnessed after 17 laps. Altynov was replaced by a partner who worked until 12 midnight. As a result, the output per one jacket was 21 hectares (see: ISK. T. 3. P. 189).

In 1943, the patriotic undertakings of rural workers often arose in response to specific events. The defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad, the historic victory at Kursk, the further victorious offensive Soviet troops ever higher they raised the nationwide patriotism. “Work the way our fellow countrymen fight!”, “The tractor is our tank, which we lead into battle for a high harvest!”, “More bread, meat, vegetables - I will hit the enemy harder!” - these slogans determined all the deeds and thoughts of the home front workers.

At the beginning of September 1943, front-line ten-day meetings were held in many regions to strengthen grain procurements in honor of the liberation of Kharkov. So, in the Novosibirsk region, the advanced collective farms and entire districts successfully completed front-line tasks: the Narym district - by 102%, the Verkh-Irmensky district - by 118%.

A powerful upsurge in the days of harvesting caused a message about the liberation of Donbass. The collective farmers of the Pavlovsky district of the Altai Territory appealed to all agricultural workers of the region with an appeal to hold a Labor Week in honor of this event from September 13 to 20, 1943. The initiative of the Pavlovites found a warm response in the collective farms and industrial enterprises of Altai. During the Labor Week, thousands of hectares of grain were harvested, many collective farms completely removed the grain collected from the plots sown in the fund for victory and assistance to the liberated regions.

The Yaroslavl farmers undertook to complete the grain procurement by October 20, 1943, to hand over 700,000 poods of grain in excess of the plan to the Red Army Fund and take it to state warehouses no later than November 5. Round-the-clock threshing of grain was organized everywhere, Komsomol-youth tractor brigades were created, and days of mass red convoys were held. Industrial enterprises Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and other cities were allocated 328 motor vehicles, 350 horses and hundreds of workers to transport grain, load and unload carts to help the collective farms. As a result, the state grain procurement plan was completed on October 16 - 4 days ahead of the deadline assumed by the obligation. And by October 20, the region handed over 200,000 poods of grain to the Red Army fund in excess of the plan. By November 1, the Yaroslavl collective farmers had already fulfilled the plan for the supply of potatoes.

The struggle to restore the culture of agriculture has intensified the competition between brigades and especially units for high yields. Even in the pre-war years, the competition of five hundred women of beet fields in Ukraine, the movement for a 100-pood harvest among grain growers of the Volga region, etc., were widely known. Since the beginning of the war, many noble field growers went to the front, some links fell apart. Already in 1942, high-yield links began to revive, they were included in the All-Union competition. But this movement gained a wider scope in 1944-1945, becoming an all-collective farm and predominantly Komsomol youth movement. If in 1943, according to 28 regions, territories and republics, 24 thousand Komsomol youth units participated in it, then in 1944 their number increased to 64 thousand, and by the end of the war - up to 100 thousand.

In Altai, the Efremov movement for obtaining high grain yields, which was initiated by M.E. Efremov in 1936, was again gaining strength. If in 1941-1942 here in different time there were no more than 200 Efremov units left, then in 1944 there were 1,140 of them, and in the spring of 1945 - 1,600. The grain harvest on the plots assigned to them was 2.5 times higher than the average yield in the Altai Territory. In the collective farms of the Novosibirsk region in the spring of 1942, only 112 links of high yields competed, and in 1943 - already 926, in 1944 - 1,012. The youth links here achieved a harvest significantly higher than the average for the region. The movement of links of high yields has also become widespread in Moscow, Kalinin, Voronezh, Sverdlovsk and other regions.

In the last years of the war, the mass nature and effectiveness of competition in professions increased. This was facilitated by the establishment in the regions, territories and republics of the honorary titles "Best Ploughman", "Best Sower", "Best Harrower", "Best Reaper", "Best Sheave Binder", and among livestock breeders - "Best Groom", "Best Milkmaid", "The best sheep breeder" with the presentation of relevant diplomas and certificates. In the Molotov region, following the results of the competition for 1944, by the decision of the bureau of the regional committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, good job 500 young plowmen and harrowers. Over 100 young collective farmers and collective farmers deserve honorary titles"Best Machine Driver", "Best Reaper", "Best Sheaf Binder". In the Yaroslavl region in 1944, the names of 1,002 agricultural leaders awarded with diplomas I, II and III degree. It is significant that 75% of them were women. This number included flax harvesters, agricultural machinery drivers, mowers, plowmen, etc. Of the 277 mowers of the Yaroslavl region, awarded with diplomas, 273 were women.

In addition to the planned procurement of collective farm products, which accounted for the main share of food and raw materials, the state received a large amount of funds and food from the peasantry in the form of voluntary contributions to the defense fund, etc. Numerous documents and memoirs of contemporaries indicate that immediately after the attack of Nazi Germany, together with the first conscripts from the collective farms, the first carts with bread, meat, and vegetables were drawn. The movement of the peasantry for deductions to the defense fund of part of the workdays worked out with the products due to them was expanding. Following the example of Muscovites and Leningraders, who began deducting part of their wages to the defense fund, the peasants of the Leninsky Put collective farm in the Chkalovsky district of the Chkalovsky region began to deduct 10 workdays from each able-bodied collective farmer to this fund. “If all the collective farms of the region follow our example, then by doing so they will give an additional one million poods of grain,” their appeal said (Izvestia, August 6, 1941). Already in the first period of the war, the peasantry of the country contributed tens of millions of workdays to the defense fund, on account of which millions of poods of bread, hundreds of thousands of rubles in money, as well as meat, milk, vegetables and other products came from the collective farm village (see: Sinitsyn A.M. All-People's Assistance to the Front. - M., 1979. P. 142).

A vivid expression of the deep understanding of the tasks of the whole people was the movement of the peasantry to replenish the grain and other food reserves of the country. After the delivery of surplus food from the pre-war harvests, the village workers came up with such a new patriotic initiative as the over-plan sowing of grain and other crops for the defense fund. The idea of ​​"hectares of defense" was born during the winter sowing of 1941. Collective farmers of the Buzuluksky district of the Chkalovsky region, the Kamensky district of the Chelyabinsk region, and others spoke with it. The entire crop harvested from the “hectares of defense” was surrendered to the state.

This movement gained even greater scope in 1942. The initiative was made by the collective farmers of the Artel. N.K. Krupskoy, Vyselkovsky district, Krasnodar Territory. They called on all agricultural workers of the country to organize over-planned crops in the fund for defense and assistance to collective farms affected by the occupation. Kuban collective farmers sowed about 11,000 hectares of spring crops into this fund. Their patriotic initiative became widespread and became all-Union. According to tentative estimates, in total, at least 200 thousand "hectares of defense" were sown in the country. In terms of the average grain yield in 1942, about 60 million poods of grain were obtained from these areas (see: ISK. Vol. 3. P. 251).

The patriotism of the collective-farm peasantry was truly universal. “There are almost no collective farms that would not consider it their moral obligation, in addition to the supplies established by the state, to hand over part of the products to the Red Army fund,” noted M.I. Kalinin (Kalinin M.I. On communist education. - M., 1947 pp. 235). At the same time, it was quite often not the superfluous that was surrendered, but the most necessary and even the last. Typical in this regard is the decision of the general meeting of collective farmers of the agricultural artel "Red Plowman" of the Shenkursky district of the Arkhangelsk region. When the question arose of additional delivery of another 200 centners of grain to the defense fund, the chairman of this farm, P.I. And there people die for us.” And the decision was unanimous: "Give 200 centners to defeat the enemy" (Ovsyankin E.I. During the years of severe trials. - Arkhangelsk, 1965. P. 80).

Evidence of the labor feat of the peasantry during the war years are given intable 2statistical data on the output of workdays, taken from the annual reports of collective farms. They testify that since the beginning of the war, there has been an increase everywhere in the average output of workdays by each able-bodied collective farmer, which exceeded the established minimum by 2-2.5 times. Especially high increase in the production of workdays was among women - over 30%. True, in 1941 the average output of workdays by collective farmers somewhat decreased. This is explained by the fact that from the second half of 1941, 428 thousand women came to replace the retired 1.9 million men. Until the end of the year, they, of course, could not reach the average annual level of output. In 1944, compared with 1940, the percentage of women who did not work out the obligatory minimum of workdays decreased on the collective farms in the rear areas from 18.3 to 12.8%. During the war, the average output of one elderly or sick person was 130-135 workdays, or half of the average annual output of one able-bodied person. The output of one teenager aged 12 to 16 rose from 74 workdays in 1940 to 103 workdays in 1944 and began to account for 42.2% of the average annual output of an adult able-bodied person (see: ibid. p. 67; ISK. Vol. 3 pp. 195).

Table 2.

Production of workdays on collective farms for one man, one woman and one able-bodied

The most important production task of the peasantry in the first years of the war was to make up for the losses caused by the fascist occupation as much as possible.table 3). The issue of sown areas acquired particular importance in connection with the loss of huge land masses in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, the Don and other regions. The deterioration of the entire complex of agricultural technology practically excluded the possibility of a rapid and tangible increase in agricultural production on the old arable lands of the rear areas. But here, all the same, especially in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals, there were favorable conditions for the rapid expansion of the area of ​​crops due to the development of free land. Already in 1941, despite the unprecedented reduction in productive forces, agricultural workers, often on their own initiative, began to expand the area under winter crops, especially grain. In 1941, 21,671 thousand hectares of winter wedge were sown (1.5 million hectares more than in 1940). The largest increase was observed in the collective farms of Western Siberia - 762 thousand hectares, the Urals - 470 thousand, Kazakhstan - 280 thousand, Central Asia - 186 thousand hectares (see: ISK. T. 3. P. 209).

This predetermined the course towards the expansion of sown areas as the only possible way to replenish and stop the further reduction in agricultural production. At the same time, not only the urgency of this event was taken into account, but also its reserve value in case of further advance of the enemy. It follows from this that the expansion of crops was a necessary measure, caused by the desire to prevent an even greater complication of the food situation. But since it was carried out in an environment of growing difficulties, it did not always lead to an absolute increase in the products received, since the continued reduction in material, technical and labor resources, aggravated by unfavorable weather conditions 1941-1943, caused a decrease in yields on the entire area of ​​crops, including old arable land.

The growth of sown areas in the rear areas, of course, alleviated the food difficulties of the first, most difficult years of the war. But he could not make up for the main losses: the total sown area in the country decreased from 150.6 million hectares in 1940 to 84.7 million hectares in 1941 and to 87.5 million hectares (or by 41.9%) in 1942 (see: History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. 1941-1945. - M., 1961. T. 2. S. 167, 516). This was the main reason for the sharp decline in agricultural production. Datatable 3show that the amount of bread received in 1942 decreased by 72% compared to 1940. There was also a significant reduction in the overall production of vegetables, potatoes and other crops.

The war created difficult conditions for animal husbandry. More than half of the public herd was evacuated from the areas threatened by the fascist occupation, but no more than 13% of the cattle raised for evacuation reached the deep rear: some of it died on the way, many animals were handed over to military units, and then in the form of blanks at the expense of mandatory supplies of collective farms in the rear areas (ISK. T. 3. S. 212).

Table 3

Cultivated areas, productivity and gross harvest of agricultural crops in collective farms*

The number of livestock has decreased significantly (see table 4). Conditions for keeping livestock worsened, weakened veterinary service increased animal diseases. The forage base was reduced, there was almost no concentrated feed. Grain and even potatoes were now used only for food needs. With all this, the collective farms of the eastern regions, in difficult wartime conditions, increased the number of productive livestock, including cattle from 11.4 million heads at the beginning of 1941 to 12.5 million heads at the beginning of 1943, sheep and goats - respectively from 28.1 million to 34.2 million heads (see: Voznesensky N.A. Military economy of the USSR during the Patriotic War. - M., 1948. P. 97). Even the number of pigs during the first year of the war in the rear areas remained virtually unchanged, although it was this livestock sector that suffered the most due to limited resources of concentrated feed and during the evacuation.

Table 4

Number of livestock in collective farms (at the end of each year, million heads)

The deterioration of the fodder base and the conditions of livestock could not but lead to a decrease in its productivity. Nevertheless, the situation in animal husbandry was much better than in crop production. If the productivity of the main field crops by the end of the first period of the war fell by 150-200%, then the productivity of animal husbandry - on average only by 10-25%. The milk yield of cows, for example, decreased during this time by 20% - from 949 liters in 1940 to 764 liters in 1942. At this level, it was maintained until the end of the war. The highest milk yield per cow (in liters) was in Ivanovo (1,288), Yaroslavl (1,237), Moscow (1,236), Ryazan (1,181), Gorky (1,142) regions (Yu.V. Harutyunyan, op. op. S. 194, 442-443).

The production of meat, lard, and animal fats dropped sharply. If in 1940 the gross output of animal husbandry (in terms of the slaughter weight of livestock and poultry) was 939 thousand tons, then in 1941 - 729.6 thousand tons, and in 1942 - only 441.5 thousand tons, or in More than 2 times less than before the war (see: Country of Soviets for 50 years. - M., 1967. S. 122, 130, 149; History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. 1941-1945. - M., 1965. T 6, pp. 67, 69). Such a tangible difference was, first of all, a consequence of the enemy's occupation of part of the country's territory.

The war greatly weakened the social economy of the collective farms. Only a few of them managed to maintain, let alone surpass, the pre-war level of development. In the Moscow region, such farms included the Kolkhoz im. V.I. Lenin, in Yaroslavl - the collective farm "Gorshikha", in Ivanovo - agricultural artel named after XVII Party Congress, in Gorky - them. K.A. Timiryazev, in Sverdlovsk - the collective farm "Zarya", in the Altai Territory - the collective farm "Rodina", in Krasnoyarsk - the collective farm "Power of Labor", in the Tomsk Region - the collective farm "Molot", etc. (see: ISK. T 3, p. 221).

But there were few such farms. The overwhelming number of collective farms not only stopped their progressive development, but also reduced production due to extraordinary difficulties. In order to minimize the inevitable losses, and most importantly, to maintain the volume of state procurements at an acceptable level, the collective farms were forced to reduce wages in kind. As a result, the share of products allocated for the material support of collective farmers decreased.

Food deductions in favor of the state grew at the expense of consumption funds, which were declining from year to year. In 1943, 16.7% of grain was allocated to pay for workdays instead of 22.9% in 1939. In physical terms, this difference was even more tangible, since in fact less than was provided. In 1942, out of 44 million centners of grain supposed to be distributed to collective farmers for consumption, 24 million were issued, and in 1943 - 29.5 million centners instead of 36 million (see: History of the Socialist Economy of the USSR. - M., 1978 T. 5. S. 387). A significant part of the grain intended for the consumption fund was voluntarily transferred by the collective farmers to the defense fund. Thus, in 1942, out of 2,283,000 centners of grain allocated for workdays to the collective farmers of the Urals, 35.6% was allocated to the fund for defense and assistance to workers. In 1942-1943, an average of 650-800 g of grain, 200-400 g of potatoes were given out per workday, that is, approximately 200 g of grain and 100 g of potatoes per capita per day, or almost 2 times less than in 1940 ( see: ISK, vol. 3, p. 241).

The peasantry also showed a high understanding of patriotic duty in the procurement of livestock products. In 1943, out of the total share of the sold collective farm herd, state procurement of cattle amounted to 84.1% against 62.9% in 1940, pigs - 30.5% against 20.9%, sheep and goats - 79.2% against 44 ,2% (see: Arutyunyan Yu.V. Decree. cit. P. 210). In the same most difficult year for agriculture (1943), the collective farms sold almost as much meat (686.3 thousand tons) as in 1940 (691.5 thousand tons) on obligatory deliveries, although the number of collective farms the time of occupation was reduced by almost 40% (see: ISK. Vol. 3. P. 241). The beginning of the liberation of the occupied regions did not alleviate the situation, since thousands and millions of heads of cattle were sent to revive farms.

During the war, the achievements of the Yaroslavl and Kostroma breeders were repeatedly noted. They not only preserved, but also increased the population of the public herd: cattle - by 15%, pigs - by 25%, sheep and goats - by 32%. The highest productivity was famous for the dairy farms of the collective farms named after. XVII party congress of the Yaroslavl region, "Red Collectivist" of the Nekrasovsky region of the Yaroslavl region, where they received from each cow 5 thousand liters of milk or more per year. In these and other farms, individual cows of the Yaroslavl and Kostroma breeds gave 8, 9 and even 11 thousand liters of milk during the milking period.

Livestock breeders all over the country knew the name of the Vologda pig farm A.E. Lyuskova - the wife of a front-line soldier, the mother of seven children - from the Budyonovets collective farm in the Mezhdurechensky district. By improving her rearing and fattening methods and developing her recommendations for the care of pigs, she received annually 26-27 piglets from each sow. Together with her friends L.N. Korotkova and A.I. Anosova, A.E. Lyuskova raised a 5,000-strong herd of pigs during the war, prepared 40 tons of pork for the state (see: ibid., p. 223).

In the cultivation of potatoes and vegetables, the Yutka movement became widely known. In the pre-war years, the link of A. Yutkina from the collective farm "Krasny Perekop" in the Mariinsky district of the Novosibirsk region received 600-800 centners of potatoes per 1 ha. The average harvest for the war years was higher - 900-1000 centners. The link of A. Kartava from the artel "The Way of a New Life" of the same region did not lag behind, which in the difficult year of 1943 exceeded the figure of the Yutka link that competed with it. The yield per hectare of the experimental plot rose here to 1,680 centners of potatoes, and on the entire fixed area to 400 centners.

The competition of the Yutka units was organized in many regions and republics of the country. In the Moscow region, by the end of the war, 350 youth units had grown 350 centners of potatoes per hectare and more, and vegetables - more than 400 centners each. The highest achievement belonged to the competing units of T. Krutova from the collective farm "Five Year Plan at Four Years" and K. Shorina from the artel "Harvest Day" of the Kolomna region. All the years of the war, both links received 500-600 centners of potatoes per 1 hectare. In 1945, K. Shorina's unit grew 1,110 q and won the championship in the All-Union competition of high-yield youth units (see: ibid., p. 222).

Despite the difficult working conditions, the lack of mineral fertilizers and good seeds, many field growers still received high and even record yields. Outstanding results were achieved by the well-known grain grower A.Ya. Karpov from the collective farm “The Way to Socialism” of the Askizsky District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, who removed up to 80 centners of wheat from a fixed plot. On the collective farm "Lenin's Precepts" of the Shadrinsk district of the Kurgan region, the innovator-experimenter T.S. 25 quintals of spring wheat per 1 ha. This was 3-4 times higher than the average yield in the country and 5-6 times in the Kurgan region during the war years. Without stopping scientific work in the field of rational methods of tillage and sowing of cereals, T.S. Maltsev developed two new varieties of high-yielding potatoes (see: ibid. P. 222; Kommunist, 1967, No. 11. P. 99).

All this is evidence of the achievements of outstanding masters of agriculture. Such examples are not isolated, but at the same time, the mass indicators of the development of production were, of course, much lower. The most difficult working conditions of wartime, the lack of material and technical means, more often than ever, reduced even the maximum efforts of the collective farmers to a minimum. During the war years, labor productivity in agriculture, as noted, decreased by 40% (see: National economy of the USSR for 60 years: Jubilee statistical yearbook. - M., 1977. S. 12, 14). At the same time, it must be taken into account that the mentioned percentage of reduction refers to 1945, when the restoration of the productive forces of the collective farm village had already begun. If we compare the level of pre-war labor productivity with the corresponding level of 1943, then the reduction will be at least 50% and will be approximately equal to a similar drop in gross agricultural output (see: Strana Sovetov for 50 years. - M., 1967. P. 122, 128, 130-131).

The given data on the state of labor productivity are based on average annual calculations without taking into account hourly and daily output, and even more so without adjusting for the actual labor stress of the peasants throughout the entire labor day. Such an account, of course, could not have been then. But everyone is well aware that during the war years, the working day of the peasants lasted from dawn to dawn and the total volume of workdays worked out by them was equal to the pre-war level, while the number of able-bodied population was reduced at the same time.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that even in the most difficult time for agriculture, which was 1943, when the lowest gross agricultural output for all the years of the war was obtained on comparable territories, the collective farms produced 94.2% of all grain preparations in the country, and this turned out to be enough to provide the population and the front with the necessary food (see: ISK. T. 3. P. 224). The peasantry contributed greatest contribution to achieve economic victory over the enemy.

We cannot agree with Vyltsan’s reasoning that, they say, “agriculture was on the verge of collapse” and clearly does not “fit in” with the “economic victory” and that “the definition would be more suitable for him:“ Pyrrhic victory ”(Vyltsan M op. cit. p. 24). Such assessments sin against the truth, and besides, they clearly hide the desire to belittle the significance of the labor feat of the Soviet peasantry. It is our deep conviction that the results of the labor of agricultural workers fit well into the concept of "economic victory". Despite all the losses and hardships, Soviet agriculture was not at all on the verge of collapse. On the contrary, already in 1944 the decline in the vast majority of indicators of agricultural production stopped, and in some indicators there was even a tendency to increase. This is precisely the greatness of the labor feat of the Soviet peasants, that they made a significant contribution to achieving economic victory over the enemy and, despite all the losses and hardships, did not allow the collapse of agricultural production.

Separately, we should dwell on the notorious "Pyrrhic victory". Vyltsan uses this term in relation to Soviet agriculture during the war years, not only on the pages of his book, but he even put it on its cover and title page as a subtitle. At the same time, many readers are at a loss to guess what the “Pyrrhic victory” has to do with the problem studied by Vyltsan. Let's make a small digression into ancient history. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, in his war with Rome (280-275 BC), won one battle at the cost of heavy losses, but ultimately lost the war. And in the war of 1941-1945, at the cost of heavy losses, a diametrically opposite result was achieved - the Soviet Union won the war. Therefore, the identification of the results of the Roman-Epirian war of 280-275 BC. e. and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 in any area (including agricultural production) is not just incorrect - it is fundamentally incorrect.

The main result of the production activity of all agricultural workers of the war years was the provision of the country's basic needs for food and raw materials. The highest patriotic upsurge of the Soviet peasantry, the great mobilization potential of the collective farm and state farm system as a whole made it possible, despite all the difficulties and losses, to concentrate in the hands of the state such a quantity of marketable products, which was quite enough for an uninterrupted supply of the front and a rationed distribution among the home front workers. During 1941-1944, the state procured 4,264 million poods of grain, of which 3,536 million were provided by the peasantry (see: Soviet Peasantry: A Brief Outline of History. - M., 1973, p. 384).

Here important final comparisons are appropriate. Procurement and purchases of grain in pre-revolutionary Russia (1914-1917) reached only 1,399 million poods, in a devastated Soviet Russia(1918-1921) - 920 million poods, or 3 and 4.6 times less, respectively, than during the Great Patriotic War (see: Voznesensky N.A. Decree. Op. C 90). Food deliveries from the USA, Canada and Australia accounted for an incomparably smaller share of their own procurements. By the middle of 1943 (according to the head of the lend-lease program E. Stettinius), the USSR received 1.5 million tons, or 93.7 million poods of food from the USA. In total, during the war, the average annual export from the USA and Canada to the USSR of cereals, flour and grain (in terms of grain) was equal to 0.5 million tons, that is, a total of 125 million poods, or 2.9% of our domestic blanks (see: Stettinis E.R. Lend-Leus. - N.Y., 1944. P. 192; Chernyavsky U.G. War and food: Supplying the urban population in the Great Patriotic War. - M., 1964. S. 20). In addition to bread, the Soviet Union procured 184 million centners of potatoes, 50.5 million centners of meat, 132 million centners of dairy products, as well as 57 million centners of raw cotton, 3.6 million centners of flax fiber, and 3.3 million centners of raw cotton. wool (see: World-historical victory of the Soviet people. 1941-1945. - M., 1971. S. 306-307) and many other agricultural products.

But even this did not exhaust the contribution of rural workers, primarily collective farmers, to the military and economic support of the Victory. Following the example of the working class, the peasantry actively participated in the voluntary collection of material values, money, warm clothes, gifts for the front fighters, for their equipment and weapons. Numerous voluntary contributions of food were also used to help the families of veterans, war invalids, children's institutions, the population evacuated and liberated from the occupation, workers and employees of defense enterprises.

To the above, we add that this is not all. The collective farm village was the main source of replenishment labor force industry. Its envoys worked tirelessly together with the working class in factories, plants, transport, and as seasonal workers - in logging and peat extraction, in the construction of defensive lines, in the restoration of bridges and roads in the front line. The peasantry fully, always paid off ahead of schedule with the state for all types of tax collections, overfulfilled plans for subscriptions to war loans.

But the main task of the peasants in the rear and on the liberated land was to work in the fields and farms. This required maximum exertion of physical strength and will. The war has caused incalculable damage. Several million front-line peasants fell in battles with the enemy. The number of the peasant population has decreased. Harvests fell, livestock productivity decreased. The life of the rural population also became poor.

Agriculture came out of the war greatly weakened. However, all the decisive battles for bread and food were won. "In a wreath great victory, - as M.A. Sholokhov said succinctly and figuratively, - the golden ear is forever woven with callused peasant hands ”(True, January 20, 1984). During the war years, such qualities of the Soviet peasantry as patriotism and internationalism, collectivism in social work, fidelity to civic duty, manifested themselves with unprecedented force.

The first chairman of the collective farm "Free Life" was Rushin Vasily Grigorievich, who lived in the village of Isupovo. Until that moment, he served as chairman of the Novousadsky village council. Under him, the collective farm began to develop. In the mid-30s, on a false denunciation of participation in the counter-revolutionary rebellion of 1918, Vasily Grigorievich was arrested and tried. Rushin served his sentence (10 years in camps), was later rehabilitated and worked at a sawmill. He died in the late 60s of the last century. Following him, for some time, the collective farm was headed by Ivan Alekseevich Chernyaev. He became chairman at 18. The RK VLKSM sent him to the collective farm. He arrived by profession - meliorator. From the collective farm, Ivan Alekseevich went to the regular army, was a participant in the Second World War, was wounded three times on it, but survived. He returned from the war as an invalid of the second group. After the war, he lived in the city of Tula.23 Then the collective farm was headed by Ivan Grigoryevich Kolosunin; under him, the collective farm became one of the most economically advanced in the region. He was born in 1902 in the village. New Usad. He joined the collective farm from the moment of formation. According to his recollections, he was a very honest man, firmly believed in the ideas of communism. In 1941, he voluntarily went to the front. As his daughter, Tamara Ivanovna Tikhova, recalls, having gone to the front, Ivan Grigorievich could not leave his family a single bag of bread. The family, and there were 7 children in it, was starving, the mother was forced to ask for flour from friends and neighbors. Ivan Grigoryevich died tragically in 1941 near Smolensk. Tamara Ivanovna recalls with horror the years in the rear. With tears in her eyes, she reads a poem she composed about that life:

forty one, forty one

Remained in memory:

Dad went to war

The mother was left alone.

It was hard, it was hard

It was difficult to live.

And my mother did not know

How to feed us

And so the war ended

Dad didn't come

The doors are all open

But he didn't come.

Before the war, the collective farm was divided into two: "Free Life" and "Named of the XVIII Party Congress". The division between households took place according to the church. Churches living to the east and north belonged to the collective farm “im. XVIII Party Congress", and to the south and west to the collective farm "Privolnaya Zhizn". The division occurred due to the fact that the village was sprawling and the fields of the collective farm were very far from each other.

New Usad during the war years 1941-1945.

The Great Patriotic War began unexpectedly for the villagers. As Tamara Ivanovna Tikhova recalled, most of the residents only learned about what had come on the evening of June 22, when they were returning from haymaking. The news was unexpected. Soon a rally was organized, representatives of the party organization and Komsomol members spoke at it. Everyone was sure of a quick victory over the enemy. In the summer of 1941, the villagers began to leave for the front. Maria Ivanovna Runova became the chairman of the collective farm “named after the XVIII Party Congress”, instead of Ivan Grigoryevich Kolosunin, who went to the front, and Vasily Ivanovich Vaganov, specially sent from the village of Verigino, headed the collective farm “Free Life”. Life in the rear was very difficult. Here is what A. M. Shigarina recalls: “... Everyone was taken to the war, leaving only the young and old, as well as those who were booked, that is, tractor drivers. We had two collective farms, each with 7 or more brigades. And the brigades were 130 people each. The boys worked on the horses, and the women looked after the cows. The work on the farm was very hard. In winter, horses were used to carry food to animals, if it was not enough, then they tore straw from the roofs. Sowing began in the spring. The old people took a basket and went to sow by hand, as there were not enough tractors. The girls were sent to scatter straw around the edges of what was sown. At the end of the war, not a single tractor remained on the collective farm. The collective farm had more than 1,000 hectares of land, and all of it was cultivated by hand and on horseback. During harvesting, bread was reaped with sickles and mowed with scythes. Bread was knitted into sheaves, and after knitting, stacks were made from sheaves, then they were threshed. We had one MK threshing machine in our village. The machinist Glushenkov Vasily Pavlovich worked on it. The thresher was placed in the field. During the day, the inhabitants worked in the fields, and at night they dragged sheaves to the threshing machine from all over the field. The grain was taken away on horseback to the Arzamas II sales base. Hay for animals was harvested by hand - with scythes and pitchforks. They didn't get paid for the work. During the harvest, they gave 200 grams of baked bread per person. And at the end of the year, 100-200 gr. bread for the day. The inhabitants grew tobacco, exchanged it for sugar, bread, and fish. There was no money on hand, each family kept cows and fed on it. In 1944, there was a shortage, everything that was collected was handed over to the state.

It is difficult to write about the history of one's own country, because my country, Holy Rus', has experienced many trials. These are the Tatars, and the Germans, and the Poles, and, finally, the fascist horde.

1941-1945 will forever remain in the memory of all mankind, and especially my Russian people. These terrible years for the whole country claimed millions of lives.

What is the cost of life.

This is not necessary for the dead,

It needs to be alive.

(R. Rozhdestvensky)

Early Sunday morning, June 24, the people who woke up did not know about the impending disaster. And suddenly the morning silence broke; everyone was amazed that the country was attacked without warning, attacked treacherously. The Nazis were looking forward to a quick victory, but they soon realized that there would be no lightning war.

Get up great country

Get up for the death fight

With dark fascist power,

With the damned horde.

(Words from a song).

All the people stood up to defend the Motherland. Young and old volunteered for the front, went to the people's militia, partisan detachments. A great contribution to the defeat of the enemy was made by my countrymen - the inhabitants of the village of Novy Usad. They went through years of severe trials, through hardships and hardships, through the bitterness of defeats and the joy of victories, they went through with all the people and courageously fulfilled their duty.

650 people went to the front, but unfortunately, not everyone returned home. Many of them fell in the battles for the freedom, honor and independence of the Fatherland. The memory of the dead will never die. It is kept in an obelisk erected in our village. Our wonderful poetess, countrywoman, L.M. Kolosunina has a poem on this subject.

"Obelisks".

They are not where the fights were,

But to us, alive, as a memory of the past,

Nightingales sing over them in the spring.

So it will be today, and then, in the future.

Dozens, hundreds, thousands of names,

The wind sways the edges of the banners.

They take oaths at the obelisks,

Here poppies are burning at the foot,

Like drops of blood on a hot wound.

Here, like a soldier, they stand young

On holidays, gray-haired veterans.

According to the data, 290 of our fellow villagers died on the battlefield.

The peaceful life of the village of Novy Usad was disturbed by the announcement of the beginning of the war. Men and young men were taken to the front according to summons. Conscripts were taken on horseback to Arzamas to the recruiting stations. Among the conscripts was the chairman of the collective farm "Free Life" Kolosunin Ivan Grigorievich. The whole village, with tears in their eyes, saw off their leader, since under him our collective farm became one of the advanced collective farms of the Arzamas region. He was born in 1902. According to the recollections of his fellow villagers, he was a very honest man. The war began, and Ivan Grigoryevich volunteered to go to the front. His daughter, Tikhova Tamara Ivanovna, recalls that when her father left, there was not a single grain in the family, and there were 7 people in it. To feed the children, the mother had to beg. They were waiting for their father, but a funeral came instead: "Kolosunin Ivan Grigorievich died heroically in 1941 near Smolensk." With tears in her eyes, Tamara Ivanovna recalls the years in the rear.

Old people, women and children remained in the village. The secondary school (red) was closed and turned into a hospital. The wounded were brought here. Studied in a small school. After classes, the children helped adults, collected ashes, cut the tops of potatoes for planting. Children often skipped classes because there was nothing to wear. In the evenings (in winter), women knitted socks, mittens, sewed pouches and sent them to the front. Teachers especially carried out propaganda work, organized the collection of parcels for the front. It was very difficult, because in every family people were starving. But the villagers steadfastly endured all the hardships. They gave their last for the sake of victory over the enemy. From early morning until late at night, women worked in the field, on the farm. Instead of a salary, collective farmers received sticks (workdays), and if the harvest failed, then these sticks were not given. Grain was given for workdays. Many residents kept cows, whose milk they carried to the market in Arzamas, where they sold their goods.

At that time there were no cars on the collective farm, everything was done by hand and on horses, but there were few horses. They were taken to the front. It was especially hard in the summer when the crops had to be harvested. They harvested rye with sickles, tied sheaves and stacked them in stacks. They left them until winter, then they took them to the granary and threshed them with flails by hand. Hay was cut with scythes. The proceeds from the sale of milk and eggs were given as tax. In addition to the tax, they were forced to subscribe to bonds - a state loan. Whoever could not pay the tax had his property forfeited. In autumn, rotten potatoes were collected in the fields, grated and baked cakes - diruny. Tea was drunk with dried carrots and red beets, potatoes were smeared with industrial oil. During the war years, people from Novy Usad were taken to Kulebaki to develop peat. Who shied away from it. He was sent to court. Some unmarried women from our village were sent to Leningrad to dig trenches. Even a reconnaissance plane flew over our village, the direction of which was from Moscow to Kazan. There was no electricity in the village, they used kerosene lamps. In summer and winter they wore bast shoes.

Despite the difficult years, this generation was happy in its own way. In the evenings, they gathered in houses, sang songs, played balalaikas and accordions.

My fellow villagers participated on all fronts of the war. Five Lilenkov brothers went to war, and not one of them came home.

Severe trials fell on the lot of Nikolai Mukhin. In 1943, after a severe shell shock in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, he was captured. He ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Buchenwald. How much grief, humiliation, beatings the young man had to experience. From hunger, this guy had only 43 kilograms left in weight. He was saved by the fact that they began to be used at a military factory, a regiment was added. They harmed as best they could: they slowed down the pace of work, packed bombs without explosives, disabled machines. Any mistake could cost him his life. But they fought to the end. When they were liberated by the Red Army, he could not move.

We warmly remember in our village about former teacher Novousad school Likhachev Ivan Andreevich. He was born in 1919 in the village of Sukhodol, Nikolo-Cheremshansky district, Ulyanovsk region. After graduating from a seven-year school, he entered the Samara River College, where he studied 2 courses. Then he passed the exams at the Tashkent Military School. After his graduation, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant. And he received a referral to the Smolensk Machine Gun and Mortar School as a cadet platoon commander, later a company commander. At the beginning of the 1941 war, as part of the school, he performed a special task of the command of the Western Front. Participated in battles near Minsk, Orsha, Smolensk.

At the beginning of 1942, I.A. Likhachev was transferred to the Arzamas Machine Gun and Mortar School as a commander of a company of cadets. At the end of 1942, in the battles near the city of Rzhev, he was seriously wounded and shell-shocked. Was on treatment in Volokalamsk, Moscow, Leninskiye Gorki, Tashkent. Then he was transferred to the 15th reserve officer regiment as a platoon commander. At this time, a wound opened, Ivan Andreevich received a 2nd degree restriction and was sent to the reserve. In November 1943, he was assigned to the Arzamas district military commissariat, where they offered to go to work in Novousadskaya high school, in which from November 1943 he worked as a military instructor, teacher of physical education, teacher of labor training until his retirement in 1986.

He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, many medals, including "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."

Saturated was military life and Vasily Mikhailovich Grinin. He was born in 1923 in large family. Since childhood, he joined the work, helped his parents in the field. In 1937 he became a member of the Komsomol, and in 1940 he was elected secretary of the school Komsomol organization. He took part in the eradication of illiteracy among rural residents. He, like all his peers, had big plans for the future, but the war disrupted everything. In early January 1942, Vasily Grinin, along with his schoolmates and fellow villager Ivan Chizhov, were enrolled as cadets in the 3rd Leningrad Artillery School, which was relocated at that time from Leningrad to Kostroma.

On November 1, after graduating from college, Lieutenant V.M. Grinin was sent to the Gorohovets camps and was appointed commander of a platoon of the 512th artillery regiment, and on November 12 he arrived at the Voronezh front and entered into battle with the enemy near Ostrogozhsk.

Thus began the fighting life. He fought his way to the Potnya station, then took part in the battle on the Kursk Bulge, 30 km northwest of Belgorod. During the fighting, the 512th artillery regiment, in which V.M. Grinin served, suffered heavy losses and was disbanded, and Vasily Mikhailovich was transferred to the 839th artillery regiment, but was soon wounded and was being treated in one of the Arzamas hospitals. After recovery, he returned to his regiment, as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front, he took part in the liberation of Ukraine, in the crossing of the Dnieper, the capture of Kiev, Zhitomir, Kolomyia, Ternopil. He was wounded a second time and after treatment he returned to the front in his native 839th regiment. Participated in the Sandomierz operation, in the liberation of Poland and Czechoslovakia, fought through the territory of Germany, but, not reaching the city of Potsdam, as part of the 839th artillery regiment and the 1st tank army and other military units was sent to Czechoslovakia, where he participated in the liberation of its capital - Prague. There he also met the long-awaited Victory Day. In a word, Vasily Mikhailovich spent the entire war at the forefront, being the commander of a battery control platoon and the commander of an artillery company. His military merits were highly appreciated by the Motherland: he awarded the order Patriotic War of the 1st degree, two Orders of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the Order of the Red Star and 28 medals.

In August 1945 the regiment was quartered. Vasily Mikhailovich participated in the elimination of Bandera gangs. This went on from August 1945 until September 1948. His army service was successful, Grinin's battery was the best in the regiment. However, Vasily Mikhailovich wanted to retire from the army. And when this was categorically denied to him, he began to prepare for admission to military academy. To do this, he again trained in the 10th grade of an evening school, which he graduated in June 1949 with a gold medal, and a month later he was enrolled as a cadet of the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. In 1952, M.V. Grinin graduated from this academy with a gold medal in the rank of major. His last name is among best graduates engraved on a marble plaque in the assembly hall of the academy.

Vasily Mikhailovich served in the army for more than 40 years. During this time, he served as a platoon, battery, division commander, head of army artillery reconnaissance, deputy commander of an artillery brigade, commander of an army artillery regiment, commander of a division artillery, deputy head of the Tula Higher Artillery Command School. He was the head of the Khmelnitsky Higher Artillery Command School, and graduated military service as head of the faculty of the Artillery Academy in Leningrad.

When the main combat battles took place far from the borders of our country, gangs of Bandera were operating in Western Ukraine.

Many were sent to fight the new enemy. Among those who fought with the gang was Evgeny Mikhailovich Uskov. He was born in 1927. He graduated from 1st grade, and then began to help in the household. In the spring of 1945 he was sent to Western Ukraine. Evgeny Mikhailovich told a lot interesting stories. Among all, he especially singles out three episodes. “Once we were walking along one village and looking for opponents. I, along with the expatriate Nikolai Barinov, was on the lead patrol, that is, 15 meters ahead of all. Behind the main forces, at the very end, several people also walked 15 meters. There were edges too. And so we went a fair distance, suddenly a shot from one house, but from which one is unknown. The shooters were not found, and Nikolai Barinov, who was walking next to me, was badly wounded. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the point, he died. They shot through my cape.” According to the narrator himself, there were many such cases. The most dangerous and exciting is the next one. Evgeny Mikhailovich examined with Sergeant Barbaridze alone locality. Suddenly, approaching the outskirts, they heard a loud conversation. Harmonica melodies were heard. Creeping up to the window, they found their opponents. It was difficult to do something together, but just at that time a small force of their comrades pulled up. The whole house was surrounded, the entrance firmly closed. Bandera felt the danger, one even jumped out of the window and tried to escape. An automatic burst from E.M. Uskov’s weapon stood in his way. and Sergeant Barbaridze. Everyone gathered at the scene, and at that moment another Bandera man slipped right out of the door and also wanted to hide. A bullet caught up with him, but the enemy was still moving and no one knew where he had hidden. Subsequently, he was found dead on the outskirts. There was also an old man in the house, a local resident. In general, speaking about the population of the villages, Yevgeny Mikhailovich noted their help, since they also suffered attacks from Bandera. Remembered Uskov E.M. and forest battles. “Walking through the forest clearing, we met a machine-gun burst. The enemy quickly calmed down and disappeared, and one person died in our country.”

Yevgeny Mikhailovich arrived home in 1945 and worked on his native collective farm until retirement.

In Sloboda, we have a participant in the hostilities that took place on the Far Eastern Front, Grinin Vasily Mikhailovich. He was born in his native village in 1922. He graduated from the 4th grade and from 1935 worked on a collective farm. There were four children in the family. They lived without lamentations for life, they did not go around the world, as Vasily Mikhailovich himself says. We learned about the war on Sunday. Grinina V.M. called to the front on December 5, 1941. The participant himself recalls: “I spent the entire war in the Far East. In 1945, they stood on the Ussuri River, fought against militaristic Japan. Then he worked on his native collective farm, and in 1982 he retired. Together with Vasily Mikhailovich, his brother Leo went to the front, who, unfortunately, died in 1941 in the very first battles.

Many New Town residents experienced the severity and inhuman conditions German captivity. In addition to Mukhin N., which was discussed above, Kurenkov Vasily Ivanovich was also captured. At the age of 37 he was taken to the front. At this point he had three children. Vasily Mikhailovich fought at the forefront and, some time later, was captured. From Russia, all of them together, in trains, were taken to Germany. There Kurenkov V.I. worked for a wealthy German who was engaged in agriculture. Throughout the war, he worked for this man until he was released in 1945 by American troops.

It is very interesting to trace the military path of Grinin Vladimir Ivanovich. He was born in 1921 in the village of Novy Usad. He was drafted into the army at the very beginning of the war. Served in the Far East As part of the PTR anti-tank battalion. In 1943, the unit in which Vladimir Ivanovich was located was sent to the front. In Kostroma, he completed courses for junior sergeants. Fought in the 3rd Belorussian Front. Participated in the battles for the liberation of Vitebsk, Orsha, Kaunas. The battle path began from Smolensk. Many times I had to fight off attacks with my anti-tank rifle, helping the infantry. fascist tanks. He especially remembered the hard and long battle near Vilnius, where our troops surrounded the German group. The Germans not only resisted desperately, but also made counterattacks several times, trying to break through the encirclement. The battle raged all night, in which about 300 German tanks took part. But our soldiers stood to the death, did not miss a single tank. A weighty word in repelling tank attacks was said by armor-piercers, who set fire to armored vehicles with well-aimed blows. Realizing the futility of trying to break out of the encirclement, the Germans surrendered. In this battle, 17,000 people were taken prisoner. For his courage and bravery, Vladimir Ivanovich was awarded the Order of the Red Star. At the end of 1944, he was sent to junior lieutenant courses, graduating in April 1945. He was transferred to Poland, to the Augustow forests, where there were scattered small enemy groups that continued to resist. After their liquidation, Grinin V.I. was the commandant of the transit point through which people freed from fascist captivity passed. He returned home in 1946.

Novosadtsy, like all Soviet soldiers, were distinguished by heroism and unquestioning fulfillment of their military duty. This can be seen in the example of Zinaida Mikhailovna Kopytina. A summons came from the Arzamas district military commissariat in 1943. They sent Zinaida Mikhailovna to Dzerzhinsk, where she was until 1944, and then transferred to the Latvian SSR. Settled near the city of Riga. There she served in the sanitary unit until 1945. When Riga was liberated, they were sent as a group to the city. They were on duty there. Zinaida Mikhailovna says that she remembers a special day. When she stood at her post, a junior lieutenant walked beside her. As befits a guard, Kopytina Z.M. she shouted: “Stop, who is coming?”, but the lieutenant did not stop even after two warnings. At that moment, she shot him in the leg and wounded him. When the lieutenant left the hospital, he thanked her for serving correctly. Zinaida Mikhailovna was awarded.

As you know, the Germans carried out a plan of lightning war. Their operation "Barbarossa" was as follows: strikes were carried out in three directions - northern (Leningrad), central (Moscow) and southern (Kyiv). The road to Moscow was also defended by Mukhin Vasily Ivanovich. In April 1940, he was taken to active service in the ranks of the Soviet armed forces. I ended up in the city of Kyatokurgan. June 21, 1941 learned about the beginning of the war. The regiment, in which Vasily Ivanovich served, retreated with battles to the Bryansk forests. He was wounded in the leg and sent to the Ryazan hospital. He celebrated Victory Day near Moscow. He returned home in 1946 with many medals. In addition, he remembers with sorrow the two dead brothers.

It is very difficult to tell about all the participants in the war. But each of them made a significant contribution to the defeat of the enemy. Their feat is that they did not bow their heads before the severe trials that fell on their shoulders. I dedicate my work to all the veterans living in Novy Usad, who in 2005 celebrate the 60th anniversary of the great victory.

Over the years, our memory of the Great Patriotic War allows us to penetrate deeper into the essence of the feat of the Soviet people in the battle with Nazi Germany. Yes, the army won. This is true. But our glorious rear also won the victory - those who, not sparing themselves, not knowing what rest is, mined coal, cooked steel, created that powerful technique with which fascism was crushed. In difficult conditions, experiencing incredible hardships and hardships, denying themselves everything, collective farmers and state farm workers fulfilled their civic duty.
The generation of the post-war years seems almost unbelievable, lying almost beyond the limits of human strength and capabilities, the exploits of home front workers. The hardships and suffering that people endured behind enemy lines are unthinkable, unbearable.
During the war years, the village starved immensely. According to the recollections of our fellow villagers, quinoa, clover, edible sprouts of field horsetail were used as food. There was no soap - in the bath they washed with infusion of ash in boiling water. And at the same time, they found not only strength for everyday hard work, but also sewed pouches, knitted socks, mittens for soldiers. How many such parcels have been sent to the front! But many women tore the last from themselves and their children!
After the war, it was necessary to help restore the destroyed economy. Residents of villages and villages signed up for loans, collected warm clothes. That is why, when the Victory came, these people also felt like winners. They were them, the workers of that great war.

The work of our fellow villagers
on a farm during the war

Unfortunately, the archives of Konstantinovsky, Aksenovsky, Ivanchinsky, Danilovsky collective farms have not been preserved. There are only data on the Lenin Kuzma collective farm in 1941–45.
Using books of accounts with members of the collective farm, it was possible to find out that during the war years in the village of Kuzminskoye, 7 field-breeding brigades, 49–70 people each, worked. Of course, not everyone worked the same way, but there were those who fulfilled two or three norms. Combat leaflets were issued, which indicated the best scythes and taps that exceeded the norm. So, for example, in the combat sheet of the post-war 45th year (dated July 11, 1945) it was reported that the best mowers before lunch were: Alipova Natalya Egorovna– 0.25 ha; Merkushkina Pelageya Egorovna– 0.25 ha; Kotova Maria Ivanovna- 0.25 ha.
According to the recollections of local residents, in spring and summer they sowed spring crops, millet, planted potatoes, worked on haymaking (manually, on horses and bulls), and reaped. In the autumn - harvesting potatoes. In winter - the export of hay from the meadows and manure to the fields on horses and bulls.
The foreman's report for 1944 has been preserved, which provides data on the work done: manure removal - a total of 4200 tons (including in winter - 2500 tons), ash collection - 315 centners, litter collection - 315 centners.
It can be seen from the report that there are 54 working horses on the collective farm, of which 14 are of good fatness, 32 are of medium fatness, 6 are below average fatness, and 1 is emaciated. Bychkov works 45 goals. For sowing, 80 plows out of 80, 40 harrows out of 50, 50 wagons out of 56 were repaired, harnesses were prepared - 56.
And what was done to fertilize the soil, we can judge from the following data: manure exported - 2964 tons, ash - 287 centners, bird droppings - 120 centners.
Plowing and sowing, mowing and harvesting, caring for livestock and other work was done by women, teenagers and the elderly. On knitting rye, knitters knitted 12 kopecks a day, exceeding the norm by more than 2 times. Women carried several tons of bread in sacks on their shoulders to deliver it from the threshing machines to the collective farm warehouse.
The Lenin Collective Farm (village Kuzminskoye, Kuzminskoye Village Council, Rybnovsky District, Ryazan Region) provided reports on work during the war years. Thus, the document “Additional indicators to the tables of the annual report of the collective farm for 1944” has been preserved, which was provided simultaneously with annual report. From this report we find out what the output of workdays was in 1944 - from 1.01 to 31.12, how many workdays were accrued for work not related to collective farm production (irrigation, defense and other work outside the collective farm), how many production teams and units on the collective farm, the number links to which millet crops are assigned (12) and what is the area of ​​millet crops assigned to them (60 ha), as well as the number of links that received additional payment for increasing the yield of millet. The fulfillment of the plan and the income of the collective farm from field cultivation in 1944 are indicated. Column "9" takes into account how much is included in the distribution of income in kind in excess of the gross harvest of 1944.
In the books of accounting for the workdays of collective farmers, you can see how much the members of the collective farm earned during the war. Earnings for the year ranged from a few rubles to 1200 rubles, depending on how many exits the workers had. Women who had small children often sent their older children to work on the collective farm, and the workdays were recorded on the mother.
At that time, the collective farm had 7 gardening and field-growing teams of 49-65 people.
It was instructed to present New Year's gifts to the soldiers of the Red Army from the workers of our region Vasily Stepanovich Govorushkin. "Chairman of the Kuzminskaya Agricultural Artel named after Lenin (Rybnovsky district), comrade Govorushkin, for active assistance to the artel to the front, was sent as a delegate from the Ryazan region to
N-th part for presenting New Year's gifts to the fighters. The other day Comrade Govorushkin returned from the front. He is now reporting on his trip to the collective farmers, workers and employees of the district... On January 18, Comrade Govorushkin spoke at a district meeting of teachers. His speech was listened to with great attention. "IN military units, - he said, - our delegation was greeted as dear guests. The fighters, commanders and political workers asked to convey great gratitude for the New Year's gifts to all the working people of our region ... "- wrote the newspaper "Stalin's banner" dated 01.22.42.
Our fellow villagers not only prepared gifts, but also donated money to the National Defense Fund. So, the collective farmers of the collective farm. Lenin was expelled to the Defense Fund: some - 1 ruble, some - 2, and some 3 and 4 rubles, as there are entries in the books of accounting for the workdays of collective farmers.
The memoirs of our fellow villagers tell about the life of the village and work on the collective farm during the war. Bazulnikova Anna Egorovna recalls: “I worked in the field-growing brigade. They sowed oats, wheat, millet, rye. Worked with me Dunya Chuchelkina, Katya Shatova, Shura Konovalova. Potatoes were planted by hand in the spring. Cleaned up in the fall. The beds were plowed on horseback. The women were picking potatoes with their hands. Women mowed hay: Shura Kononova, Polyunya Kolesnikova, Nyura Selezneva, Maria Karaseva, Nyusha Borisova... In autumn they harvested rye, knitted sheaves, threshed grain by hand with flails ... ".
The war years are still remembered by a resident of the village of Kuzminskoe Maria Egorovna Valukina: “... It was very difficult work on the collective farm. Everything was done by hand: they mowed and plowed. There were few peasants in the village: old and disabled. But everyone worked as best they could: those who fought off the braids did everything they had the strength to do. And the elderly women worked in the hayfield, served on haystacks, although this is hard, man's work ... We went for firewood with Shura Konovalova on bulls. You will go in the morning again, in the dark, return at ten o'clock in the evening, and in the morning - back to work. They sawed their own wood. Firewood was used to heat a calf and a pigsty. They brought firewood for themselves and other collective farmers ... "

Work of teenagers and schoolchildren
on a farm during the war

The fact that both schoolchildren and teachers, after graduation from schools, were involved in agricultural work, is evidenced by the memories of our fellow villagers, who during the war years were teenagers of 11-15 years old. Detachments were organized, or students went to work in collective farm brigades with their parents. They performed various types of work on the collective farm. The guys drove horses and bulls, plowed and plowed, planted potatoes, worked on seeders, and manually mowed grass in the meadows. It was very hard work for teenagers who ate somehow, mostly only potatoes, there was almost no bread. The front needed bread. IN winter time teenagers who did not attend school, without clothes and shoes, brought food to farms, carried hay from meadows, took manure to the fields. Girls, along with women, did all the field work. They also planted vegetables, weeded, worked on weeding grain crops, on currents, reaped with sickles, harvested potatoes. Schoolchildren worked on weeding, plowed, mowed, threshed and stacked bread by hand. junior schoolchildren gathered ears in the field.
Lidia Semyonovna Volkova talks about this time: “As soon as school is over, we go to work in the field. At first we were taken to weed millet. At that time, we, 14-year-olds, were short, so older women took us with them. And all the grass that we pull in the field was piled up, and at lunchtime they carried the cattle home, dried it and put it away for the winter. Then came the berry season. In the place where the Bazulnikovs used to live, i.e. along Sergeevka and to the very road (now the highway) there were raspberry plantations. And we went to this plantation every other day. A day the raspberries were all picked, a day later they ripened again. They took everything to the warehouse, weighed it and handed it over somewhere. Then the crops grew. We went to pull rye out of wheat, combed it. And during the war they sowed winter wheat, spring wheat, sowed millet and rye. Then came the grains. I had to reap. The norm was the same as for adults. But it was believed that "half a woman", 21 or 25 acres, I don't remember exactly. And we reaped it with a sickle. All this had to be raked, tied, piled up ... This time is ending. The potatoes are starting. You dig potatoes, you drag a basket behind you. The horse rides, plows, we pour the potatoes from the baskets onto the cart. And so we work until October ... "

Our fellow villagers
on the labor front

Since the beginning of the war, part of the population has been mobilized for peat enterprises. Many residents are attracted to the construction of defensive structures. The barriers were built in difficult conditions at the beginning of the winter of 41–45. First of all, they were erected along the Moscow-Ryazan highway, and then in the southern villages - Zhelchino, Aleshnya, Moschenoe, Zelenino, Manturovo, Vysokoye, etc. Many firing points and other obstacles were erected. They worked 10-12 or more hours.
Fortified bands were erected in Seltsy, Shekhmin, Ul'eva and Kriush. Trees were sawn here, forming anti-tank obstacles, blockages, creating impassable places. Many young women 20–25 years old from the villages of the Kuzminsky Village Council, mobilized for the labor front, worked in peat extraction. About this time their memories.
Vyazovkina Anna Alekseevna(v. Ivanchino) says: “During the war, I was sent to the labor front. In Shekhmin they sawed trees, made anti-tank barriers. Trenches were dug in Aleshna, Goryainovo: in winter they dug frozen ground with “grandmothers”, then dug it out with a shovel ... In 1942-43 she was in Mordovia at a logging site, in Solotch, Polyany: she carried peat on a horse ... "
Gorbacheva Anna Mikhailovna(v. Konstantinovo): “... We were driven far away: Masha Isaeva, Nina Vasilkina, Shura Morozova, two Fedyakino women - in Vologda region. Four dresses were brought from there for work. And the work was hellish ... "
Much later the writer Fedor Abramov will say about such women: “It was she, a Russian woman, who, with her superhuman work, opened a second front back in the forty-first year ... she in the post-war period, often undressed and undressed, fed and clothed the country, with true patience and resignation of a Russian peasant woman carried her the heavy cross of a widow-peasant, mother of sons who died in the war ... Illiterate and too trusting, sometimes civilly ill-mannered, but what spiritual placers, what spiritual light! Endless selflessness, a sharpened Russian conscience, love for work, for the earth and for all life on earth - and you can’t list everything. ”

IA Red Spring

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In the pre-war years, rural residents made up the majority of the population of the Soviet Union. Families, as a rule, were numerous, parents and children lived and worked on the same collective farm or state farm. Occupation during the war of a number of large agricultural areas, withdrawal from agriculture a large number technicians, the departure to the front of almost all able-bodied men and, above all, machine operators, of course, caused serious damage to agriculture. The year 1941 turned out to be especially difficult for the Russian countryside. In the USSR, the system of reservations from drafting into the Red Army almost did not apply to agricultural workers, therefore, after mobilization, millions of families were left without their breadwinners in an instant.

Many women and girls - workers of collective farms, state farms and MTS were also mobilized into the army. In addition, rural residents were mobilized to work in industry, transport, as well as fuel procurement. After all the mobilizations, the hard peasant labor fell entirely on the shoulders of women, the elderly, adolescents, children and the disabled. During the war years, women accounted for 75% of agricultural workers, 55% of MTS machine operators, 62% of combine operators, and 81% of tractor operators. Everything that could drive and walk was confiscated from the collective farms and sent to the front, that is, all serviceable tractors and healthy horses, leaving the peasants with rusty chariots and blind nags. At the same time, without any allowance for difficulties, the authorities obliged the peasantry, weakened by them, to uninterruptedly supply the city and the army with agricultural products, and industry with raw materials.

The working day during the sowing season began at four o'clock in the morning and ended late in the evening, while the hungry villagers had to have time to plant their own vegetable garden. “Due to the lack of equipment, all work had to be done manually. However, our people are resourceful. Collective farmers got smarter to plow, harnessing women to the plow, which is stronger. On May 31, 1944, V. E. Pedyev, the authorized CPC under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for the Gorky region, wrote to Secretary of the Central Committee G. M. Malenkov: “There are mass facts, when collective farmers harness five or six people to a plow and plow their household plots on themselves.Local Party and Soviet organizations put up with this politically harmful phenomenon, do not stop them and do not mobilize the masses of collective farmers to manually dig their household plots and use cattle for this purpose. livestock." (Zefirov M.V. Degtev D.M. “Everything for the front? How victory was actually forged”, “AST Moscow”, 2009, p. 343).

Of course, whenever possible, agricultural workers used their personal cows for plowing, harrowing and transporting heavy loads. For their hard work, the peasants received workdays. In the collective farms, as such, there was no salary. After fulfilling their obligations to the state for the supply of agricultural products, the collective farms distributed their income among the collective farmers in proportion to the workdays they worked out. Moreover, the monetary component of the income of collective farmers for workdays was insignificant. Usually, the peasant received agricultural products for workdays. For collective farmers engaged in the cultivation of industrial crops, such as cotton growing, cash payments were much higher. But in general, before the war, there was a rather large gap between the natural and monetary components of the workday in the country.

Before the war, a minimum of workdays was still quite humane. To strengthen labor discipline, the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated May 27, 1939 "On measures to protect public lands of collective farms from squandering" established a mandatory minimum of workdays for able-bodied collective farmers - 100, 80 and 60 workdays per year (depending on the regions and regions). That is, it turned out that 305 days a year a peasant could work on his plot, and the remaining 60 days he was obliged to work for the state for free. Moreover, they accounted, as a rule, for sowing and harvesting. But at the same time, the so-called average output per collective farm yard was established, and by the beginning of the war it amounted to more than 400 workdays per yard.

Collective farmers who failed to work out the required minimum of workdays during the year were to be expelled from the collective farm, deprived of household plots and the benefits established for collective farmers. But it seemed to the state that it was not enough to receive only agricultural products from the collective farms, and it did not hesitate to introduce both food and cash taxes from each farmstead! In addition, collective farmers were taught to "voluntarily" subscribe to all kinds of government loans and bonds.

During the war, there was a reduction in sown lands and resources for their cultivation, which led to the need to withdraw grain from the collective farms as much as possible, and to a greater extent the cessation of food payments for workdays, especially in 1941-1942. On April 13, 1942, the government issued a decree "On increasing the mandatory minimum of workdays for collective farmers." According to him, each collective farmer over 16 years of age had now to work for various territories and regions (in groups) 100, 120 and 150 workdays, and adolescents (from 12 to 16 years old) - 50.

According to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 15, 1942, collective farmers who did not comply with the norm were criminally liable and could be brought to justice, and were also punished with corrective labor for up to 6 months with deductions from pay up to 25 percent of workdays.

Even before the adoption of this resolution, the punishments for citizens were quite severe. "A typical example is the fate of the collective farmers of the Krasnaya Volna farm Krotova and Lisitsina. Without having worked out their workdays, in September 1941 they went to dig potatoes on their personal plots. Other "unstable" collective farmers in the amount of 22 followed their example. On the demand to go to work courageous peasant women refused to enter the collective farm. As a result, both women were repressed and sentenced to five years in prison each." (Ibid. p. 345).

The Decree of April 13, 1942, not only increased the annual minimum of workdays, but in the interests of ensuring the performance of various agricultural works, established a certain minimum of workdays for collective farmers for each period of agricultural work. So in the collective farms of the first group with a minimum of 150 workdays a year, it was necessary to work out at least 30 workdays before May 15, from May 15 to September 1 - 45, from September 1 to November 1 - 45. The remaining 30 - after November 1.

If in 1940 the average distribution of grain to collective farmers on workdays in the USSR was 1.6 kg, then in 1943 it was 0.7 kg, and in 1944 it was 0.8 kg. During the first years of recovery National economy, including due to drought and a general drop in productivity, the issuance of grain and legumes for workdays on collective farms decreased even more: in 1945. up to 100 grams per workday was given out by 8.8% of collective farms; from 100 to 300 - 28.4%; from 300 to 500 - 20.6%; from 500 to 700 - 12.2%; from 700 g to 1 kg - 10.6%; from 1 kg to 2 kg - 10.4%; more than 2 kg. - 3.6%. In some collective farms, agricultural products were not issued at all to the peasants for workdays.

The Soviet collective farm system strongly resembled serfdom, canceled in 1861, during which the peasants lived relatively "freely", but were obliged to work out corvée two or three days a week - to work for free on landowners' lands. Soviet peasants did not have passports, so they could not freely leave the village, and it was also practically impossible to leave the collective farm, which they had previously "voluntarily" joined. Workdays were in fact a modified corvée. At the same time, the Soviet government generally sought, if possible, to force people to work for free.

Formally, the post of chairman was elective, and he was elected at a meeting of collective farmers by open or secret ballot. In reality, however, there was no democracy. Party bodies were interested in a rigid vertical of power, so that the chairman would report for his work not to the people, but directly to higher authorities. Therefore, according to an informal rule, only a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks could take the post of chairman of the collective farm, as a rule, the district committees of the party were engaged in their appointment and dismissal. Among the people, this action was nicknamed "plant and disembark." Some unbridled farm managers even treated the collective farmers as slaves. “So, the chairman of the collective farm “For the Stalinist Way” of the Ardatovsky district, I. Kalaganov, for poor weeding of a beet field, forced two teenagers who worked on it to publicly eat a whole bunch of weeds. made them bow to him like a gentleman." (Ibid. p. 347).

When agricultural work was finally completed and winter set in, the “freed up” labor force was immediately thrown into procuring fuel for power plants, that is, in the cold, sawing firewood and digging up frozen peat, and then dragging all this on their own hump to the nearest railway station. In addition, villagers were often involved in various other "temporary" jobs: to build fortifications, to restore enterprises destroyed by the bombing, build roads, clear airfields of air defense aviation from snow, etc. For all this overwork the state rewarded them with additional workdays and certificates of honor.

“Meanwhile, many families that lost their breadwinners who went to the front found themselves in a completely deplorable state. So, at the end of 1942, on the collective farm “Im. 12th Anniversary of October” in the Bezymyansky district of the Saratov region, cases of swelling of collective farmers due to malnutrition became more frequent. For example , the family of the evacuated Selishcheva, whose four sons fought at the front, received only 36 kg of bread for the whole year as a "salary" for labor on the collective farm. As a result, the woman and other members of her family swelled ... five children and elderly parents lived in complete poverty. Swollen from hunger, the children of the defender of the Fatherland walked around the village in torn clothes and begged for alms. In the family of the deceased war veteran Osipov, three children and his wife were swollen from hunger, the children had no clothes at all and also asked for alms. And There were thousands of such examples. (Ibid. p. 349).

Bread, as the main product, was constantly in short supply. Due to the lack of flour, it was baked with impurities, adding acorns, potatoes and even potato peels. Citizens have learned to compensate for the lack of sugar by making homemade marmalade from pumpkin and beets. Porridge, for example, was boiled from quinoa seeds, cakes were baked from horse sorrel. Instead of tea, blackcurrant leaves, dried carrots and other herbs were used. Teeth were cleaned with ordinary charcoal. In general, they survived as best they could. Horses, like people, were not spared either. Exhausted, starving mares roamed the fields and roads in search of food, could not stand it and died in the "battle for the harvest." Due to the lack of electricity, the peasants had to light their homes with homemade kerosene lamps and torches. As a result of the conflagration, entire villages were mowed down, hundreds of peasants were left without a roof over their heads.

However, the peasants responded to the harsh conditions of life in their own way. When working off workdays, hungry and tired workers worked half-heartedly or carelessly, every half an hour they arranged smoke breaks and respite. Often the weather and other conditions intervened. A wasted workday was popularly called a "wand". And the collective farm system itself was completely inefficient, often huge efforts were spent completely in vain, the available resources were spent irrationally. Anonymity flourished when it was not known who was responsible for what, to whom this or that field was assigned. Consequently, the authorities had no one to ask, the entire collective farm answered. Party bodies, in the spirit of the times, explained the low productivity of labor by the absence of party-mass work. Thus, the high cost of grain on the Pamyat Lenina collective farm was explained by the fact that "the report of the great Stalin was not brought to the consciousness of the collective farmers."

It was hard to live during the war not only for collective farmers, but also for state employees working in the countryside, in particular, teachers in rural schools. In addition, the salaries and the so-called "apartment allowances" due to rural teachers by law were constantly delayed by the state. Due to food shortages and low wages, they often had to be hired as shepherds on collective farms.

The most amazing thing is that despite all this, Soviet agriculture still coped with the task of supplying the army and cities, even if not enough. Despite such difficult living conditions, our peasants stubbornly forged the Victory over the enemy in the rear, establishing agricultural production so that the state would have at its disposal the necessary amount of food and raw materials; showed maternal care for the front-line soldiers, their families and children, helped the evacuees. Many significantly exceeded the norms for workdays. But this really labor feat was given at too high a price. Events Soviet power in relation to agriculture, with perseverance worthy of better use, carried out in 1930-1940, completely undermined the gene pool of the village, the traditions of Russian peasants and destroyed the once strong Russian villages, famous for high-quality agricultural products.