FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD ASPECTS OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE REAR AREAS: AS EXEMPLIFIED BY URAL DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Abstract

For the first time in regional historiography the author makes an attempt to study particular family and household aspects of everyday life of the population of Ural during the Great Patriotic War. Theoretical basis for the study was the hypothesis about the mobilization character of the Soviet society of the Great Patriotic War period. The study was based on the documents from the Ural archives, information published in scientific literature. On the basis of historical information about Big Ural (5 regions and 2 autonomous republics) the author shows that families were divided into two-parent families and single-parent families, including distant, local and evacuated families. The author considers the impact of gender misbalance among Ural’s population on the structure of families and interfamily roles and also mass involvement of women into the system of defense economics. Actions of social aid to child population are characterized. Forms of national assistance to service families are analyzed, self-sufficient family and household practices are described. Breaking of family-marital reform of 1944-1945 in Ural everyday life is shown. The undertaken study made it possible to conclude that despite the unfavorable conditions for family life during the war family as a social institution was not destroyed and continued performing its functions.