Labor mobilization in schools of the Federal Zoological Society of the Chkalovo region
Today I will start a new, and, if there is reader interest, a long series of articles about the everyday life of people in the Stalinist USSR. And not for the entire period, but only for the pre-war period. More precisely, this is 1939, 1940 and the beginning of 1941. I'll explain my choice. In the process of working on the book " Daily life Pervouraltsev during the years of the Great Patriotic War“I have accumulated a large amount of material about the country as a whole. And one day I had a thought: what would the Stalinist USSR be like if the Second World War had not happened?
I think it is impossible to answer this question in full. But the main features can be seen in the way he was Soviet Union in 1939 – 1940 and early 1941.
Why this period?
Because the beginning of 1939 was essentially the last period when the USSR had not yet carried out large-scale mobilization measures in preparation for war. In the summer of 1939, mobilization measures were widely felt by the population. Further, mobilization activities continued to increase.
Even many professional Soviet historians begin counting mobilization activities in the USSR with the creation of the State Defense Committee in the summer of 1941.
This is not correct.
The people felt the mobilization tension in the summer of 1939. Shortly before Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, although the most sensitive pre-war mobilization events for the population occurred in 1940.
This fully applies to factory apprenticeship schools (FZU).
In 1939, FZUs were very popular among young people.
Studying at the FZU was entirely voluntary, students lived an interesting social and cultural life.
FZU students were provided with food, a stipend and a hostel.
They didn’t take anyone who got into the FZU.
The right to study at a college had to be earned!
To make it clear to the reader what temptations lured teenagers to the FZU, I will cite several advertisements from the Pervouralsk newspapers of 1939:
“FZU Novotrubny Plant announces a set of students: turners - 30, mechanics - 60, wire drawers - 30, electricians - 60. Those accepted are provided with a hostel, a scholarship from 55 to 143 rubles. Persons from 15 to 18 years old with a 7th grade education are accepted. Those who apply must pass tests in the Russian language, mathematics, physics and chemistry.”
And here’s how they were admitted to the FZO Dinasovy Zavod school:
“Training of mechanics, pressers, crushers. Persons over 16 years of age with at least 6th grade education are accepted. And also (the school) trains accountants. Education – at least 7th grade. Persons over 17 years old are accepted. Duration of training is 6 months. Scholarships for accountants – 125 rubles.”
Note that it was more difficult to get into the Novotrubny Plant Federal Educational Institution then than into a modern university!!! There are already four exams!
In addition to the fact that FZU students were provided with a good scholarship, housing, clothing and food, enterprises also organized their leisure time.
Here are a few more excerpts from Pervouralsk newspapers:
“The guys from the FZU PNTZ visited the Kungur Cave on an excursion with the money of the factory committee.”
And one more thing:
“60 guys from the Dinas plant factory in the summer of 1939 went on vacation to various houses rest. Several of them visited the famous all-Union pioneer camp “Artek”, and several more people visited the sanatorium named after. October Revolution in Odessa".
Unfortunately, the international situation continued to deteriorate and on October 2, 1940, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree according to which the People's Commissariats and enterprises were able to mobilize young people into railway schools, general education institutions, and vocational schools through conscription.
Prinudilovka immediately changed the population’s attitude towards the FZU.
Cases of unauthorized departures from FZUs have become more frequent. The state responded with punitive measures. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 28, 1940, students of vocational, railway and FZO schools were ordered to be subject to a court verdict for unauthorized departure from school, as well as for systematic and gross violation of school discipline, resulting in expulsion from school. imprisonment in labor colonies for up to one year.
This is why factory apprenticeship schools still have such a controversial reputation in historical literature - until the fall of 1940 - it was a voluntary, prestigious matter, and then it was forced and undesirable.
The modern reader is presented with these negative circumstances out of context. And the propaganda technique works - the vast majority do not know the realities of the pre-war USSR.
By the way, that’s why I called this series of posts "Forgotten USSR".
It must be said that contemporaries perceived these steps of the state in an extremely ambiguous manner. Foreign policy The USSR at that moment was ambivalent. On the one hand, fascism was recognized as the main enemy of all Soviet people, on the other, the USSR tried in every possible way to appease Germany in order to avoid war.
Many at that time did not understand international realities and were extremely critical of the steps of the Stalinist government. Writer Yuri Slepukhin in his autobiographical novel “Crossroads” cites the following episode, allegedly recorded by a high school student, a Komsomol member, in her personal diary:
« Yesterday, Order No. 1 of the Main Directorate of Labor Reserves was issued: on the distribution of conscript contingents by region. In our region there are 15 thousand people - 7000 people in vocational schools, 700 in railway schools and 7300 in factory training schools. Everyone is wondering who will be among those “fifteen thousanders.” However, it seems that Ch. arr. sixth and seventh graders. Girls too!
In the evening, Sergei, Volodya, and I visited the Nikolaevs. Tanya began to say that it was cruel to call such children by force, regardless of their plans for the future, etc. Finally Alex. Sem. He yelled at her - I have never seen him so indignant. He said that you need to understand at least a little what caused this. We now live like on a volcano, the defense industry needs millions of specialists, and in general this cannot be compared with what young people are experiencing now in Western Europe. His words made me feel terrible. “I really still just didn’t think that this measure was caused by preparations for war, and in general I didn’t think at all that war could take over us too.”
If it weren’t for the war, then the students of the FZU in 1940 and 1941 and in all subsequent years would have gone to the beaches of the Black Sea, received hefty scholarships, and the guys would have rushed to the FZU, as they do now to the most prestigious faculties...
I think that even from these few examples one can understand what Stalin’s USSR would have been like if the Europeans, with the active assistance of the Americans and Japanese, had not ignited the Second World War.
To be continued…
Omsk vocational schools, FZO and FZU schools in the first post-war years (1945 -1953)
In the first post-war years, the Soviet leadership made significant efforts to restore public education in a short time. Without this restoration, many areas of scientific, technical and social development experienced serious difficulties.
During the Great Patriotic War, the buildings of educational and cultural institutions were often occupied by hospitals and evacuated enterprises. It was necessary to return to these buildings as soon as possible educational institutions. This primarily concerned schools, since worker training schools were actively involved in producing products for the front. However, here too the task was to modernize schools, improve the quality of teaching, increase the productivity of students at subordinate enterprises, and improve living conditions in dormitories.
The training of young workers became especially important in connection with the desire of evacuated workers to return to their hometowns. This also applied to Omsk, where escapes from enterprises were even recorded (although this was subject to criminal liability at that time).
Omsk city authorities paid great attention to the training of young workers. Their main training took place through vocational schools, factory training schools (FZO) and, to a lesser extent, factory apprenticeship school (FZU). It is worth recalling the specifics of these educational institutions.
Vocational school (RU) - vocational educational institutions in the USSR in the 1940-1950s. for training skilled workers for industry, transport, communications, agriculture etc. They were organized in 1940 from factory apprenticeship schools in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On State Labor Reserves” dated October 2, 1940 for the training of qualified workers. They educated young people aged 14-17, usually with a 7-year education. The training lasted mainly 2-3 years. The students were on state support. In 1959, the Republic of Uzbekistan was transformed into vocational schools.
Factory training school (FZO school) is the lowest type of vocational school. FZO schools were created on the basis of FZU schools. Existed in 1940;1963. The students were fully supported by the state. FZO schools operated on the basis of industrial enterprises and construction sites in the system of State Labor Reserves of the USSR. They trained workers in mass professions for construction, coal, mining, metallurgy, oil and other industries. The duration of training was 6 months.
These schools accepted young people aged 16-18 with any general education background. (Since 1955 - with primary education and above). For training in professions related to underground work, in hot shops, and in construction, only young men over 18 years of age were accepted.
In 1949, FZO schools for the coal and mining industries were reorganized into mining schools with 6 and 10-month training periods. In 1955, FZO schools for construction were reorganized into 10-month construction schools, and since 1957 - into 2-year construction schools. In 1959-1963. along with all vocational and technical educational institutions system of the State Labor Reserves of the USSR, all schools of the federal labor force, mining and construction schools were transformed into vocational schools with different terms training.
Factory apprenticeship schools (FZU) operated at large enterprises to train skilled workers. The duration of training was 3-4 years. The school accepted young people aged 14-18 with primary education. Along with vocational training The school provided general education training. In 1930-1939 training took place mainly on the basis of a 7-year school and, due to a reduction in hours for general education subjects, the duration of training was reduced to 1.5; 2 years. In 1940, most FZU schools were reformed into factory training schools and vocational schools, remaining mainly in the light and food industries.
In accordance with the five-year plan (1946-1950), the Main Labor Reserves for the Omsk Region planned to train young workers in mass professions through FZO schools for 5 years at the level of 20 thousand people. By bringing training to 7 thousand per year in the next five-year period. The training of skilled workers through vocational schools in 5 years was supposed to amount to 16 thousand people (up to 5.5 thousand workers per year). Total number It was planned to increase the number of trained workers by 3.5 times, and in schools - by 4 times. This means that it was necessary to significantly expand the network of schools, build new ones, and provide them with dormitories and equipment. This could only be achieved with the support of the largest Omsk enterprises.
Omsk plants and factories were interested in the development of vocational education, because vocational schools produced not only personnel for them, but also a variety of products: lathes and chucks (RU No. 1), pneumatic hammers, machine yews, files (RU No. 2), braiding machines, electric motors (RU No. 3), drilling machines (ZhDU No. 1), as well as a variety of tools, spare parts for tractors and agricultural machines.
Attention was also paid to improving living conditions and, especially, nutrition for students. One of the ways to do this was to run our own agricultural production. By this time, FZO schools had up to 200 heads of livestock, had their own tractors and seeds, but this was not enough and was used irrationally. The task was set to allocate land near the city or transfer one of the suburban state farms to schools.
Omsk periodicals and archival documents allow us to get an idea of vocational schools and FZO schools of that time. Students were accepted with at least a 4th or 5th grade education. The duration of training depended on the profession (from 4 months to 1.5 years). As a rule, students were provided free food, special clothing and dormitories, but there were schools that did not have dormitories.
For example, a vocational school for metalworkers trained mechanics household repairs. The training lasted 1.5 years. The flour milling school of the FZU at the Kirov flour mill "Glavmuka" accepted persons at least 16 years old with an education of at least 5 classes. She trained upholsterers, rollers and sievers. Duration of training - 4 months. The scholarship was 116 rubles. per month. The FZU school at shoe factory No. 1 (18 Podgornaya St.) accepted students no younger than 14 years old with at least a 4th grade education. The FZO school at the cord factory trained reed makers, twisters, bankers and water makers. Girls aged 16–18 with at least 4th grade education were accepted. According to the admission conditions, each applicant must have a passport, a certificate of education and health status. Dormitories were not provided, but food and clothing were provided.
Trade schools associated with complex technology were considered the most prestigious. Here the students worked actively, there was their own labor plan. Vocational school No. 1 mastered the serial production of screw-cutting lathes of the T-4 brand, lathe chucks, yews, cutting tool. Vocational school No. 2 produced PM-50 pneumatic hammers weighing up to 2.5 tons, machine yews, files, hacksaw blades, many tools. Vocational School No. 3 produced no less valuable products: braiding machines, electric motors low power. Colleges and schools of the FZO had their own plan, which was systematically exceeded. In 1946, it was exceeded in terms of production of electric motors - by 50%, according to drilling machines- by 40%, for machine-made yews - by 20%.
Social conditions in vocational schools in the first period after the war were difficult, but gradually improved. This was especially true for those colleges and FZO schools that directly collaborated with large factories. In 1949, the newspaper published a letter from a village resident I. Cheremnov, who visited his son, a student at the FZO school No. 4 at the machine-building plant. The father was very pleased with the conditions of study and living of his son, and thanked the school management for this. Despite the censorship, a lot of critical information of an everyday nature was published in the press, so this letter still inspires confidence. Moreover, many villagers lived financially worse than city dwellers.
Students of vocational schools and FZO schools were actively involved in sports and amateur art groups. As it strengthens material base The possibilities of schools grew. Many schools had their own choirs, brass bands, and drama clubs. The regional directorate of labor reserves (it was in charge of all such schools) held amateur art shows and the best students were awarded prizes.
Vocational schools and FZO schools at that time were the most widespread forms of vocational education. And they played a huge role in the recovery national economy countries. In addition, these schools gave a start in life to many war children. Today the question is about the revival of vocational education, which in post-Soviet times (like many other areas of society) suffered huge losses.
Bibliography
1.See more details: Sizov S.G. Omsk during the years of “post-war Stalinism” (1946 – March 1953): monograph. - Omsk: SibADI, 2012.- 252 p., ill.
2. Talankin V. Train young workers // Omskaya Pravda. – 1946. – No. 76. – April 13. – P. 3.
3. Announcements // Omskaya Pravda. – 1946. – No. 51. – March 10. – P. 4.
4. Announcements // Omskaya Pravda. – 1946. – No. 25 – February 3. – P. 4.
5. Announcements // Omskaya Pravda. – 1946. – No. 58. – March 20. – P. 4.
6. Announcements // Omskaya Pravda. – 1949. – No. 89. – May 8. – P. 4.
7.Products of vocational schools and FZO schools // Omskaya Pravda. – 1946. – No. 70. – April 6. – P. 4.
8. Cheremnov I. Visiting my son // Omskaya Pravda. – 1949. – No. 63 – April 1. – P. 3.
9. Korablev A. Amateur performance of pupils of the Labor reserves // Omskaya Pravda. – 1950. – No. 71. – April 9. – P. 3.
Project “The girls walked through the war”
dedicated to the students of factory training schools and vocational schools, who replaced the factory workers who went to the front.
Class: 7 "B"
Teacher:
Project objective- creation of exhibits for the school museum. The museum has an exhibition reflecting the life of families and children during the war. We decided to supplement it with a dress made in the fashion of the 40s and a selection of materials about the living and working conditions of teenagers aged 14-17.
Relevance: Since the last generation that survived the war passes away, reliable knowledge about the past disappears irrevocably. The information collected today will convey to us and future generations the truth about historical reality. In a few years we will no longer know what we could know today.
When starting the project, we had a very vague idea of the life of teenagers during the Great Patriotic War. Once in the class there was a class hour on the topic “The life of teenagers during the war,” during which we learned that teenagers from the age of 12 did not study, but worked in factories in hospitals, dressed in rags, and ate bread, which was not enough.
We conducted a study of the living and working conditions of girls aged 14-17 years.
The project uses quotes from the memoirs of labor front veteran Tatyana Pavlovna Agutina, which have not previously been published anywhere.
From the collected materials we learned that by the beginning of the war the following education system had developed in the Soviet Union:
Children who completed 7 grades could continue their education at school or enter vocational and railway schools, where they studied blue-collar jobs for 2 years. Children who have not completed 7th grade could enter FZO (factory training) schools with a training period of 6 months
But on September 1, 1941, the school year did not begin, since some of the teachers were drafted into the army, others were sent to work at defense enterprises.
On September 10, the GKO Resolution was issued ( state committee defense), according to which students in grades 1-6 should be evacuated, for students in grades 7-8 not particularly needed by production, studies should be organized, and all students 9-10 should be sent to production, with the exception of those unable to work. Evening classes should be organized for those wishing to study.
Thus, the assumption that all children worked and did not study was not confirmed.
During the war, vocational schools and FZO schools were staffed not only voluntarily, but also forcibly. This is confirmed in the memoirs of veterans T. P. Agutina and others. Mobilization to schools was carried out throughout the country.
From the 1st day, students were put at the machine, where they worked for 8-12 and even 17 hours.
Discipline at production was very strict. It was impossible to be late for work, let alone skipping work. But due to difficult conditions, there were cases of escapes. Those who escaped were returned to production. If they did not return, they were tried and imprisoned as deserters.
The number of girls studying at federal educational institutions and vocational schools grew throughout the war years.
The students received wages for their work and food in the factory canteen. Judging by the memories of many veterans, food was meager. Many students actually went hungry, although they received hot food. Here are the memories. former student of a vocational school in Penza: “For breakfast we received thin soup, in which instead of meat 3 oatmeal floats, for lunch the same soup and 2 spoons of oatmeal, for dinner again soup. We received corn bread, 700 g for the whole day. Cornbread is heavy, a 700g portion is slightly larger than a piece laundry soap. While you are going home, you slowly pinch it off and look - but there is nothing left to eat.”
The teenagers got up at five in the morning, ate gruel and bread, then walked five kilometers to the quarries. The guys are wearing torn shoe covers on their bare feet, with red toes sticking out of the shoe covers, like those of geese. And all day long in the quarries they load peat into wagons, and in the evening - the same bowl of gruel - and go to bed. But in some cases the food was not bad (memory of A.V. Uvarova) and for students who lost their parents, this was the only source of subsistence.
In many cities there was no heating in winter, and students had to live and work in unheated rooms. This is how he describes his home: “We were accommodated in a dugout, or rather in a former vegetable warehouse. It was huge, divided into compartments. Each compartment contained 10 bunk beds, several bedside tables and stools, there was no table. On the bed there is a mattress, a thin felt blanket, and a pillow. The room was damp and cold, heated with a Dutch oven. They drowned it with wet sawdust, which produced not so much heat as smoke. To dry and warm their underwear, the girls put it under them before going to bed. I slept on the top tier, and after the next rain, water dripped on me.”
The concept of fashion existed among young people. They sewed and altered clothes themselves or ordered them from dressmakers. He says: “Clothes were sewn and altered from what was available. My older sister worked in a tailor shop and sent me dresses and blouses, and even a coat, sewn from leftovers. According to the fashion of that time, dresses were “at the waist”, with belts. Collars were sewn round, turn-down. Puff sleeves with hangers. We also knitted the sweaters ourselves. My sister knitted a short jacket for me at the waist. The knitting was very even, and the girlfriends did not believe that it was knitted by hand.”
The hypothesis about rags was not confirmed by a former student of a vocational school in the Vladimir region. Uvarova remembers well her crepe de Chine dress with polka dots, which she ordered from an evacuated dressmaker.
To develop a dress model for the museum, we conducted a design analysis of 53 models from fashion magazines from 1942. Based on these data, under the guidance of a technology teacher, we developed a model and patterns of a dress for the museum. The fabric was chosen to have polka dots, which were popular at that time.
I hope that this dress and the collected collection of memories will help establish an invisible connection between my peers and the generation of courageous girls leaving us who passed the trials of the war years with dignity.
The project can be continued by any student interested in preserving the memory of the great feat of Soviet youth. After all, each new exhibit of the museum will open another page of life, telling about the difficult destinies of the people who gave us life.
So that again
On the terrestrial planet
That winter never happened again
We need
So that our children
One of the questions when studying family history is the question of how this or that person, living in one locality, suddenly finds himself in another. Many, of course, know this from family legends, from their closest relatives, and so on. But what about those who once lost sight of this, and then suddenly wanted to find out the circumstances that led his ancestor to a completely new place of residence?
There are, of course, a lot of reasons, both Soviet times, and at the present time.
Reasons for moving people around the country
Previously, this was the resettlement of peasants from Little Russia and the central provinces of the country in search of free land, the Stolypin agrarian reform, then the notorious distribution, dispossession, repression, the outflow of residents of small settlements to cities in search of work, grandiose construction projects in the country, the raising of virgin lands, the forced resettlement of people from the German nationalities from western regions our country, the introduction of special settlements, etc.
Enrollment in FZO schools
But few people know that in the forties, a process was carried out to recruit young men to FZO schools as part of compulsory labor mobilization. That's what we're talking about today we'll talk. I will tell you where and from where teenagers were mobilized.
On May 6, 1941, the executive committee of the Chkalovsk Regional Council of Workers' Deputies decided the following: in accordance with the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Executive Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) dated April 22, 1941, number 1108 “On the preparation of state labor reserves in FZO schools, vocational and railway schools in 1941 » to oblige the city and district executive committees of the Councils of Working People's Deputies to call (mobilize) from June 5 to June 20, urban, collective farm and other rural male youth aged 17 years to the schools of the Federal Educational Institution Nos. 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 ,9,11,12,13,15,18 and at the age of 16-17 years old to FZO schools No. 5,10,14.
A plan was approved for the distribution of conscripted urban, collective farm and other rural youth among the cities and districts of the Chkalov region.
According to this plan, the areas from which youth were recruited and the schools that needed these youth were determined. So, read carefully, perhaps your relative ended up in Orsk, Orenburg, Dombarovka and other settlements this way.
Orsk FZO
Boys from Aleksandrovsky, Ekaterinovsky, etc. were recruited to school No. 10 of the oil industry in Orsk. The school needed 170 people.
It was planned to recruit 155 students from the city itself and the Kurmanaevsky district to the school No. 14 of metal workers in Orsk.
With a plan of 325 people, school No. 18 of the FZO construction business of Orsk recruited young men from the Asekeevsky, Tashlinsky, and Mordovo-Boklinsky districts.
Residents of the Matveevsky district were also subject to mobilization at the FZO school No. 9 of the mining industry of the city of Orsk.
And school No. 1 of construction in Orsk required as many as 760 students, so the geography of the mobilized areas is vast - Buguruslan rural district, as well as Burtinsky, Gavrilovsky, Grachevsky, Derzhavinsky, Krasnopartizansky, Oktyabrsky, Mustaevsky, Novo-Orsky, Ponomarevsky districts.
Young people were also recruited into the FZO schools of the city of Chkalov (Orenburg)
Residents of the Chkalov districts - Kirovsky, Dzerdzhinsky, Kaganovichsky - went to work in the 11th railway transport department, and in the 3rd construction department - residents of the Chkalovsky rural district, as well as Novo-Sergievsky, Perevolotsky, Pokrovsky districts.
Sol-Iletsk school of factory training
Sol-Iletsk also had its own school No. 6 of the coal industry. Boys from Sol-Iletsk, Buranny, Ak-Bulak, Ilek and Krasnokholmsky districts were recruited into it.
FZO art. Koltubanka Buzuluk district
FZO school No. 15 of construction at the Koltubanka station opened its doors to the young men of the city of Buzuluk.
Mednogorsk
The city of Mednogorsk and its school FZO No. 4 of the mining industry has become a new home for boys from Mednogorsk, Buguruslan, Saraktashsky, Kuvandyksky, Totsky districts.
Kvarkeno and FZO
The youth of Kvarkensky and the districts joined the ranks of the FZO school No. 12 of the Kvarkeno mining industry.
Khalilovo
And the FZO school No. 7 of the Khalilovo mining industry found its students in the , Sakmarsky, and Sekretarsky districts.
Adamovka
School No. 8 of the Adamovka mining industry was replenished from residents of the Buzuluk rural district.
Dombarovka
Schools of the federal educational institution of the mining industry in the working village of Dombarovka recruited students: the 13th from the Dombarovsky and Sok-Karmalinsky districts, the 2nd from the Sorochinsky, Troitsky, Sharlyksky districts.
Considering the processes of resettlement of residents of other settlements in the Orenburg region to our city, I was initially perplexed, since these were mainly residents of the western regions of our region, the question arose, why did they not settle in Orenburg, for example? But the Soviet Union made its own adjustments to the plans of citizens, controlling their fate as if it were its own. Many of those mobilized then in June 1941 never returned to their native villages, hamlets, or even to Orsk, Chkalov, Dombarovka, Adamovka, Khalilovo and other settlements, where they were called up as part of labor mobilization - they died on the battlefields. But there were also those who, having gone through all the horrors of the war, still returned. And there certainly were such people in Orsk. They came back from the war, stood at the machine, having worked at the enterprise that had become their home, until their well-deserved retirement.
My husband’s great-grandfather comes from the Ivanovo district of the Chkalov region (now Krasnogvardeisky district) according to obd-memorial: obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=6521185 .
Whether his son and her husband’s grandfather were among those mobilized in 1941 remains to be seen, but at least it is clear how a resident of the Ivanovo district could end up with us in Orsk.
Note: not all areas now exist within the boundaries to which we are accustomed. Some MOs are generally at the moment does not exist in the region. I made links to many such areas in the article. But unfortunately, I haven’t written about some, for example, Ekaterinovsky, Sok-Karmalinsky, Sekretarsky. I plan to do this in the future.
