Home – Home – Jornals – Advanced Search

Before World War II the Novosibirsk region was the most industrialized region beyond the Urals. That is why the majority of evacuated defense enterprises producing various types of ammunition and weapons were concentrated in Novosibirsk along with Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Barnaul and other cities. Based on the equipment and personnel of evacuated plants more than 60 enterprises of various defense Narkomats were re-established in West Siberia. Their directors were appointed from among the evacuated managerial staff. The latter was also used to form the pool of candidates for director posts. The mechanism of directors selection, appointment and dismissal was developed at the central and local government levels. The majority of directors were specialists with higher technical education, experienced in organization of production and personnel management. They were expected to meet the highest requirements, especially during the first year and a half of the war, when the state reserves of ammunition and weapons were exhausted. Directors were removed from their positions if their enterprises failed to complete the State Defense Committee’s task of supplying the front with ammunition and weapons. By the second half of 1942 enterprises had completed the reconstruction of technological processes, their personnel had been formed, while directors had gained experience in organization of production and guiding the work of thousands of employees. Factories began to work steadily, achieving their plan targets and better supplying the front with ammunition and armament, so the directors turnover reduced. On the whole the war period was marked by a high mobility of managerial staff, especially at the enterprises subordinated to Commissariats of ammunition, aircraft and tank industries, as well as some enterprises of the People’s Commissariat of Weapons.

The article presents data on 1,114 fighter pilots of the Soviet Air Forces compiled and systematized in the reference book «Aces of the Great Patriotic War» by M.Yu. Bykov. The paper «The Most Successful Ace Pilots in 1941-1945” (2007) analyzes the elite group of ace pilots in terms of their age, military ranks, time of their participation in combat operations, a number of downed Nazi aircrafts, government awards. The author defines types of Soviet fighters as well as aircrafts supplied under Lend-Lease by the allies on the anti-Hitler coalition. All ace pilots mentioned in the reference book were born in the early XX century and during the war were younger than 40 years old. Their contribution to the air space conquest was 23,974 (individually) and 3,315 (collectively) shot down enemy planes, in total 27,289 combat vehicles (24.5 each), or 48% of the number of downed hostile aircrafts at the Soviet-German front. 579 of 1,114 aces were honored the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, while 58 of them (every tenth) were awarded posthumously. Irretrievable losses in the group under study totaled 243 men (29%) or about one third. At the beginning of the war the Soviet pilots flew I-15bis, I-16, I-153, MiG-3, LaGG-3 fighters. Since the summer of 1942 they had been replaced by Yak (Yak-1, -7, -9, -3) and La-5, 7 modifications. Domestic production provided the material basis for conquering air superiority by the Soviet Air Force. Only a small part (2%) of fighters used by the Soviet aces in the aircraft fleet was supplied under Lend-Lease.

The article is devoted to identifying the level of conveniences and costs of municipal housing that affected the availability of services provided for the production personnel of enterprises in the city of Novosibirsk - the largest industrial center in the Siberian home front. It characterizes the scope and practice of solving the housing problem, which determined the electric, water-supply, sewerage and heating networks coverage of urban housing stock, including the housing at disposal of the local and evacuated factories. In particular, the author marks unevenness and overall insufficient electricity, water, and heating supply, improper disposal of sewerage in houses and hutments based on statistical data of a diversified group of civil and defense enterprises in Novosibirsk. The article shows that all these conveniences were enjoyed mostly by the families of those employees and specialists who belonged to the middle and older generations. Besides, the ratio between the workers’ wages and the cost of beds in factory dormitories, which also included tariffs for public utilities, is estimated. The author considers the practice of benefit payments for these conveniences provided at some enterprises for the low-paid staff. In general, expenses for usage of water supply system, sewerage, central heating and electrical lighting accounted for a very small share of employee average wages. However, cheapness of public utilities was of great importance only for a negligible part of industrial personnel accommodated in the most comfortable, according to wartime standards, dwellings.

Each next anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War gives reason for presenting the new research findings that reveal previously unknown pages of the War and don’t let the memory of the past century’s greatest tragedy fade away. As fewer and fewer war veterans and eyewitnesses remain alive, the value of documentary sources increases, because they contain important information about the War. Among these «history keepers» the most accessible are the books published during the war, which, in turn, deserve special study. The purpose of this article is to summarize the materials reflecting regional aspects of the history of Siberian book publishing industry in 1941-1945. The research findings introduced into scientific circulation confirm that the book industry in the region worked together with the rest of the country in a joint effort to do «Everything for the front, everything for victory!». During the War specifics of publishing activities in the region were determined primarily by the changing subject matter of printed materials, as well as by evacuation of publishing agencies and houses from the country’s western regions, along with the influx of evacuated intellectuals. The paper analyzes specific features of Siberian book publishing during the war; traces the book production dynamics during that time; reviews sample editions reflecting main thematic focuses. The author identifies new statistical data on military editions issued by the Krasnoyarsk branch of the Military Publishing Office in 1941-1944. These data haven’t been previously taken into account and suggest upward revision of statistics on the regional book publishing.

The aim of the article is to examine mortality in the Novosibirsk region during the Great Patriotic War. The Novosibirsk region in the pre-war borders included Kemerovo and Tomsk regions, so the situation in there was determinative for the entire West Siberian population. This problem has been understudied by the historians, as the subject was tabooed by the Soviet regime. Publications haven’t been numerous covering the demographic issues only partially without presenting a coherent picture. These works were censored and could not present a detailed solution of this problem. In the post-Soviet period researchers focused mostly on studying population in Siberia as a whole or in its Western part. Works on the Novosibirsk region population and its development during the war were rare. As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Victory it is necessary to take a closer look at the region’s population. The article is based on the materials previously used “for official usage only”. It analyzes mortality trends in the Novosibirsk region during the Great Patriotic War. In the first war period there was a sharp deterioration in morbidity and mortality rates. It was a naturally determined phenomenon. The year of 1942 was marked by the first signs of the situation improvement. In 1943-1945 this positive trend stabilized. The biggest drop was seen in infant mortality rate. Mortality tendencies and evolution reasons were examined. The author notes the role played by the local and health authorities during the Great Patriotic War in reduction of mortality. Analysis of archival materials allowed reevaluating the time series of mortality including the infant mortality rates in 1941-1945. The author concludes that the new medicines greatly contributed to the reduction of mortality during the war.

After the end of World War II, the USSR, along with many other important objectives faced the task of providing social support to for the veterans returning from combat duty. Main guidelines of social policy in this sphere were defined in the Law “On Demobilization of the Older Military Personnel of the Acting Army”; Decrees of the USSR Supreme Soviet “On Demobilization of the Second Term Personnel of the Red Army” of September 25, 1945, “On Demobilization of the Third Term Personnel of the Army and Air Force” of March 20, 1946, “On Regular Demobilization of Army Personnel” of October 22, 1946 and “On Regular Demobilization of Armed Forces Personnel” of February 4, 1947; Resolution “On Measures to Be Undertaken to Provide Ex-Servicemen, Families of Fallen Soldiers, Disabled War Veterans and Families of Servicemen with Help and Assistance”. It was not an easy task to provide former frontline soldiers with necessary assistance in the regions of South Siberia - Altai, Tuva, Khakasia - due to a difficult social-economic situation in these regions. The responsibilities of republican, territorial, regional, municipal and district military commissariats and social security agencies were to help the discharged servicemen with registration, documents preparation so that they could obtain passports and ration cards, employment, housing, professional training, pecuniary aid, tax remissions, social benefits, pensions and many others. The government supported the families of war veterans, including families and children of the perished soldiers. Though the executive authorities and social security agencies tried to do their best, implementation of the state policy towards the ex-servicemen encountered certain difficulties, particularly with respect to their employment, which, unfortunately, were typical of the whole country.

The article reviews the existing historiographic approaches to definition and identification of archaeological cultures in the Stone Age. For a bout a century researchers have been using the concept of “archaeological culture” - a major concepts in archaeology. However, until now no unambiguous definition of this concept has been given The role of a particular archaeological culture in the archeological research practice has not been well defined either. Currently the relevant objective is systematization of the available concepts. The author of the present review applied the comparative-historical and historical-genetic methods, as well as the method of sources criticism. This approach makes it possible to compare various viewpoints on the development of archaeological ideas; to identify common and specific features in the lithic industries evolution, and to consider formation of theoretical ideas and approaches to the term “archaeological culture” in dynamics. The paper characterizes the most topical aspects of this problem. The definition of “archaeological culture” is examined based on the viewpoints of V.A. Gorodtsov, L.S. Klein, M.V. Anikovich and others. Considering the nature of archaeological culture the authors deal with two main approaches: odontological (V.M. Masson, V.P. Lubin, Y.F. Buryakov et al.) and epistemological (N.N. Kradin, A.L. Mongait et al.). The historiographic analysis shows a huge variety of scientists’ views on determining the place of an “archaeological culture” in practical archaeological studies and relationships between the archaeological cultures and ethnoses. An overview of the most debatable concepts defining a notion of “archaeological culture” and identifying archaeological cultures of the Stone Age shows that these problems should be addressed both from general scientific and specific archaeological perspectives.

The article’s objective is to review the existing cultural-chronological concepts explaining the diversity of lithic industries in Western Central Asia. Currently, there are several main contradictory hypotheses on the development of lithic industries in western Central Asia in the early Holocene. For instance, A.P. Okladnikov, V.A. Ranov and T.G. Filimonova argued that two technological complexes had existed in this region during the early Holocene. These two Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic complexes originated from different traditions with diverse features of stone tools. G.F. Korobkova, U.I. Islamov and F. Brunet suggested to attribute the whole early Holocene archaeological industries to the Mesolith. The situation requires a thorough analysis of proposed interpretations of the early Holocene industries development and chronological assessments in the region. The research is based on the following approaches: comparative-historical, historical-genetic and sources criticism. These approaches make it possible to compare various viewpoints on the archaeological developments and identify common and specific features in the evolution of the lithic industries; to examine the process of development of theoretical concepts and approaches concerning the Central Asian archaeology. The paper presents a detailed review of proposed hypotheses main points. The author highlights the problem topics in western Central Asian Mesolithic studies: 1. Elaborating a common and uniform terminology; 2. Detecting possible interrelations between the local synchronous lithic industries and different technical-typological features attributed to different development trends (Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic) of the early Holocene; 3. Clarifying the local early Holocene industries genesis and their subsequent development; 4. Developing a more representative base for absolute dating of the early Holocene complexes in the region.

The article is devoted to one of the most interesting and complicated problems in archaeology, which is reconstruction of dwellings and dwelling constructions. It is focused on the ancient cultures of the Pacific basin (tropical and subtropical zones) dated to the period from the late Pleistocene to Holocene optimum (12000-10000 BP to 6000-5000 BP). The work is based both on the author’s personal travels to Japan and South America and a wide range of scientific publications. The earliest postulated sedentary villages in Japan have been found in southern Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu Island. Such early pottery sites as Sojiyama, Kakoinohara, Shikazegashira, Higashi Kurotsuchida, Maebaru, Okunonita and Uenohara are dated from the incipient to the early Jomon period (12600-7400 BP). The sedentism development is associated with climatic warming, when coniferous forests were replaced by deciduous forests with dominant nut producing plants. Archaeologists also have postulated that at that time the ancient population experienced certain stress caused by transition from hunting for large Pleistocene animals to small mammals and gathering. The Uenohara site is one of the best known and recently discovered Jomon sites from Kagoshima Prefecture. Fifty-two pit dwellings, thirty-nine stone clusters (hearths), and 260 storage pits were discovered in Section 4. The reconstructed dwellings exposed at the Uenohara Museum are represented by light constructions with dome-shaped wooden carcasses and thatched covering. This model is very close to some dwellings known known from various ethnographical data, for example, Modoc Indians in Northern California. In order to find more archaeological analogies the authors put attention to materials of the ancient cultures of the Pacific coast of South America (7800-5300 BP). Such pre-pottery and early pottery settlements as Paloma (Central Peruvian coast), El Porvenir (Northern Peruvian coast), and Real Alto (Ecuadorian coast) demonstrate the remains of small-size (not more than 18 m ²) dwelling constructions with dome-shaped roofs, without central poles and inner hearths. This set of elements is recognized by the authors as the common pattern for the early Pacific cultures.

The Kofun period in Japan dates from the III to the VII centuries. Construction of the so called “keyhole-shaped” burial mounds is considered a characteristic feature of this historic period. The article’s objective is to trace the stages in history of archeological research of the Kofun mounds; to characterize the current state of research in this field; to identify main areas of investigations at different stages; and to demonstrate the peculiarities of archaeological studies in Japan. The article is based on the analysis of archaeological and historiographic research conducted by the Japanese and Russian scholars. Specifics of these studies varied depending on the historical period. At the initial stage the research was based mostly on the written sources. Of particular interest were the antiquities found in the castles. Later on archeological methods were used to study burial mounds. The first excavations were carried out by foreign researchers. However since the late XIX century the archaeological work had been conducted by Japanese archaeologists who paid special attention to classification, systematization, and comparative analysis of the burial items. Another topic of special interest to Japanese archaeology was determining the chronology of the first keyhole-shaped burial mounds. Along with studying the burial items, external and internal structure of mounds researchers paid special attention to the problem of Haniwa - the time and causes of its origin, shape and location on mounds. Thus far, studies of this historical period have resulted in accumulation of a great amount of factual materials; burial items have been classified. Recently active archaeological excavations have been supplemented by studies on the interpretation of the materials; methods of other scientific disciplines have been applied. As for Japanese studies in Russia, the Kofun period remains understudies, especially in the field of archaeology.