M. Voenizdat. 1975. 341 pp. Circulation of 30,000 copies. Price 78 kopecks.
National assistance to the front was one of the important factors that decided the victorious outcome of the Great Patriotic War. No researcher dealing with this period could ignore the facts of patriotic aid to the front, mass popular movements to provide material support to the Active Army. This is due not only to the purely practical significance of such assistance, but also to the fact that these facts can almost palpably show the most vivid manifestation of Soviet patriotism, the creative role of our people, and their concern for the fate of the Fatherland. So far, there has been no special study on national assistance to the front. This gap is filled to a certain extent by the book of Zav. Department of the Institute of History of the USSR of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Doctor of Historical Sciences A.M. Sinitsyn.
Unlike the authors who focus only on material and financial assistance, A. M. Sinitsyn considers national assistance to the front in the broadest aspect: various forms of military creativity of the masses (fighter battalions, workers ' and communist battalions and regiments, volunteer formations, partisan movement); financial and material assistance of Soviet patriots (the USSR Defense Fund collection of funds for military equipment, subscription to military loans and cash and clothing lotteries, sending gifts to the front, collecting warm clothes); care of home front workers for wounded soldiers and war invalids, families of front-line soldiers and children left without parents. The author traces the process of emergence and development of all these forms of national assistance to the front, finds out their significance in the course of the war. Based on the actual material, he shows that the patriotic movement to help the front covered all layers of Soviet society without exception, all age groups, all nations and nationalities inhabiting the USSR took part in it.
On the issues of military creativity of the masses during the Great Patriotic War, there are extensive studies: On the role of fighter battalions in the war years, on the history of the people's militia, volunteer formations, on the partisan movement .1 Despite this, the book under review contains many new facts, figures, and statements. Thus, the author provides interesting data on the composition and number of fighter battalions (p.37), their participation in the battles near Moscow and Leningrad. The significance of the people's militia is quite fully covered, and information about its total number is given (pp. 54-55). Convincing facts show the significance of the partisan movement, expose the fabrications of bourgeois falsifiers regarding its causes. A.M. Sinitsyn expanded and supplemented the information available in the literature on the formation of volunteer military units and formations. Of interest are the figures first introduced into scientific circulation on the training of combat reserves by Osoaviakhimov organizations (p. 114) , training of the population according to the air defense standards (p. 116), on the number of TRP and BGTO tankers, nurses (p. 123, 126), etc.
However, not all issues related to the military creativity of the masses have been investigated by the author with sufficient depth, and not all phenomena related to this topic have received a convincing explanation. On page 47, he mentions the Guards militia divisions of Leningrad. Why were they called Guards as opposed to Moscow ones? Why is this title not retained for them further? We will not find answers to these and a number of other questions
1 L. N. Bychkov. Partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War, Moscow, 1965; S. V. Bilenko. Fighter battalions in the Great Patriotic War, Moscow, 1969; N. M. Aleshchenko, K. I. Bukov, A.D. Kolesnik, A.M. Sinitsyn. Moskovskoe opolchenie [Moscow Militia], Moscow, 1969; A. F. Yudenkov. Political work of the Party among the population of the occupied Soviet territory (1941-1944). Moscow, 1971; A.D. Kolesnik. Narodnoe opolchenie gorod-geroev [People's Militia of Hero cities], Moscow, 1974; N. A. Kirsanov. At the call of the Motherland. Volunteer formations of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War, Moscow, 1974; "Special voluntary services", Moscow, 1975, et al.
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in the response book. The nature of the people's militia, its difference from fighter battalions, from workers ' and communist regiments, remains unclear. It was necessary to define the people's militia as a direct reserve of the Red Army, an important form of popular resistance; to note the peculiarities of the formation of the people's militia in the deep rear in order to create trained reserves for the Red Army. Almost nothing is said in the book about the strategic importance of the partisan movement.
One of the central problems of the monograph is the patriotic movement to help the front. The author examines the most diverse forms of material assistance to the front, each of which was characterized by an unprecedented scale of popular initiative, heroic and selfless actions of the Soviet people aimed at achieving victory. All patriotic movements are described in the book in development, by stages. For a long time, the literature did not cover the first, initial stage of raising funds for armament from June 1941 to November 1942.2 The works of Siberian historians3 not only draw attention to this period, but also provide a large amount of factual and digital material. After them, A. M. Sinitsyn speaks in detail about the remarkable actions of the Soviet people, who in August-September 1941 initiated the collection of people's money for tanks and planes, and about the important role of the Lenin Komsomol in this matter. Due place in the book is also given to the mass fundraising movement, which was conducted in the autumn of 1942, but, unfortunately, the initiators of the movement - Tambov collective farmers-are not named .4
The author does not give the final data on fundraising at the first stage, but only reports (p.168) how many tanks and aircraft were built with these funds, and tank columns and squadrons of aircraft are combined. The book does not reflect the features of the participation of the" peoples of the USSR in the creation of the defense fund (the contributions of hunters and fishermen in the form of furs and fish, and cattle breeders in the form of animal husbandry products are not noted); the contribution of workers, collective farmers, intellectuals, Komsomol members and youth to various patriotic initiatives is not determined.
When reading the book, the question arises about the sources of digital generalizations. In most cases, A. M. Sinitsyn uses the data of the periodical press. Only in the calculation of loan subscriptions ( p.197) does it attract archives. A few years ago, a number of articles showed the shortcomings of newspaper figures ( the periodical press often published preliminary data, unspecified information ) and introduced a new type of source into scientific circulation-bank documents and information from the offices of gostrudsberkass and goskredit of the USSR, 5 which reflect the real receipts of public funds to the front aid fund. Unfortunately, this source is still slowly being introduced into scientific circulation, despite the fact that many researchers have recognized the need for it. ,
The funds collected by the Soviet people for the defense fund, for military equipment and other types of financial and material assistance to the front need a strict scientific calculation. Got into the literature
2 For example, the authors of the 3rd volume " History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. 1941-1945 " (M. 1961) coverage of this movement begins only in the autumn of 1942 (p. 201).
3 I. I. Kuznetsov. Patriotic movement of Siberian workers to raise funds for the construction of military equipment for the Soviet Army. "Development of the national economy of Siberia during the construction of socialism and the transition to communism". Novosibirsk. 1964; same name. Eastern Siberia during the Great Patriotic War. Irkutsk. 1974; G. A. Dokuchaev. Siberian rear in the Great Patriotic War. Novosibirsk. 1968, et al.
4 "Patriotic initiative of Tambov collective farmers during the Great Patriotic War". Tambov, 1961, pp. 100-101.
5 I. I. Kuznetsov. Contribution of the workers of Siberia and the Far East to the creation and strengthening of the USSR Defense Fund. "Notes" of the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. 1965; same name. Contribution of the workers of Siberia and the Far East to strengthening the financial power of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. "Questions of the History of Siberia". Issue 4, part 2. Irkutsk, 1970.
6 G. A. Dokuchaev. Edict. op., pp. 264-265; his. The Working Class of Siberia and the Far East during the Great Patriotic War, Moscow, 1973, p. 261. Vasiliev. Communists of Siberia I period of the Great Patriotic War. "From the history of party organizations in Western Siberia". Sverdlovsk. 1969, p. 21; E. V. Zarutskaya. Lenin and providing the army with clothing allowances and equipment, "Proceedings" of the Department of History of the CPSU of Novosibirsk University. Issue 3, 1969, p. 93.
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there are a lot of unverified, hastily deduced figures that require a critical attitude to themselves. Meanwhile, A. M. Sinitsyn uses them without criticizing them. So, on page 243, with reference to the brochure of Yu. A. Vasiliev 7, information about the collection of warm clothes in Siberia is provided. But this figure is far from complete, because in the Omsk region Yu. A. Vasiliev used only information from the Komsomol regional committee (211 thousand items), in fact, in the region only by October 1942, 2.5 times more (584 thousand items)were collected8 . Data on the Kurgan region are also underestimated, because Yu. A. Vasiliev again used only Komsomol documents, etc.
Painstaking work with figures, the result of which should be generalized data reflecting national assistance to the front, is an important task of the researcher. On page 187 (without reference to the source), A. M. Sinitsyn calls the amount of voluntary contributions to the USSR Defense Fund and military equipment-24 billion rubles, but more often in the literature there is a figure of 16 billion rubles .9 In the multi-volume "History of the CPSU", the amount of funds received for the defense fund, military equipment, loans and lotteries is set at 118.2 billion rubles. 10 If you subtract the amount of funds received for loans of 76 billion rubles. 11 and lotteries-13 billion rubles. 12, then the share of funds received for the defense fund and military equipment remains almost 30 billion rubles. Hence, it is clear that many of the published figures need to be clarified.
The monograph is written on all-Union material, but it contains many generalizing figures for the RSFSR and very few for the USSR, and most of the figures are taken ready-made from the periodical press.: "Unfortunately, it is impossible to calculate even approximately the number of gifts given by Soviet patriots to soldiers" (p.226). Meanwhile, in many regions and territories of the USSR, this has already been done by researchers.
The value of the monograph is reduced by the inaccuracies made by the author in the text. On page 21, it is said that more than 200 students left the Kazakh Pedagogical Institute for the front, including M. Gabdulin, M. Mametova, A. Popov, who later became Heroes of the Soviet Union, but Gabdulin was not a student, but a graduate student (he graduated from the Institute in 1938). Mametova studied at the Medical Institute, and Popov at the University of St. Petersburg. university 13 . On page 54, A. M. Sinitsyn writes that the Voronezh militia was transferred in the fall of 1941 to the 45th Division, which at that time defended the city, but it is well known that the defense of Voronezh began only in the summer of 1942. The author calls the 67th Division (p.57) an army. Incorrect date of formation of the 9th Plastun division-summer (instead of autumn) of 194314 . The author admits inaccuracy when calling the 254th Guards Regiment the unit where A. Matrosov served - in fact, it was the 91st volunteer Siberian Brigade, which only after the death of A. Matrosov became known as the Guards regiment 15 .
Often, private figures contained in documents are given in the book as general figures. So, on page 15 it is said that during the first three days of the war, more than 22 thousand volunteer applications were submitted in the Kemerovo region, but this figure does not reflect the whole picture for the region, because the author cites only the report of the regional Komsomol committee. On page 17, A. M. Sinitsyn writes about the number of applications submitted by volunteers of the Buryat ASSR, but at the same time refers to a document containing information only on 6 of the 23 districts of the republic .16 Applications for volunteers in the Yaroslavl region (p. 15) were received not by the end of July, but by July 5, 17, etc.
7 Yu. A. Vasiliev. The Communist Party is the organizer of the patriotic movement of the workers of Siberia to provide material assistance to the front. Tyumen. 1963.
8 "Omsk Party Organization during the Great Patriotic War", vol. 2. Omsk, 1961, p. 10.
9 "Soviet economy during the Great Patriotic War", Moscow 1970, p. 435; "Big Soviet Encyclopedia", ed. 2-E. T. 45, p. 292; "Soviet Historical Encyclopedia", vol. 15. Moscow 1974, p. 242.
10 "Istoriya Kommunisticheskoi partii Sovetskogo Soyuza" (History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), vol. 5, book 1, Moscow, 1970, p. 327.
11 A. Zverev. New government loan. Pravda, 4. V. 1946.
12 K. N. Plotnikov. Essays on the history of the budget of the Soviet State, Moscow, 1954, p. 318.
13 "Heroes of the Soviet Union-Kazakhstanis". Alma-Ata, 1968. Part 1, p. 189; part 2, p. 21, 165.
14 I. Shevchenko, P. Kalinovsky. 9-ya Plastunskaya, Moscow, 1970, p. 133.
15 Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, f. 920, op. 480901, d. 1, l. 1.
10 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 17. op. 8, d. 38, l. 12.
17 "Yaroslavl residents during the Great Patriotic War". Yaroslavl. 1960, p. 6.
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A. M. Sinitsyn's book makes a certain contribution to the development of the problem of comprehensive assistance to the front, but at the same time, historians still have a lot of work to do in order to present the glorious patriotic deeds of the Soviet people in full, sufficiently deeply and objectively. Nevertheless, a peer-reviewed book can be considered as a useful generalizing monograph on a very important issue.
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