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SURVIVAL STRATEGIES DURING EVACUATION IN THE SOVIET UNION AT WAR 1941-1945
Abstract
In the current unstable international circumstances, the specific features of everyday life during extreme hardship have become an intensively debated issue in European and Russian historiography. In terms of human survival and coping with difficulties, the Second World War, involving the Soviet-German conflict 1941-1945, is among the primary topics for investigation. Furthermore, the emergence of new approaches and the release of declassified war archives have shed new light on the everyday history; the anthropological turn that took place in the 20th century has strengthened the focus on the problem of little man. In the light of that, the present article is dedicated to human survival strategies during the war 1941-1945, one of the hardest periods for Russia and other former republics of the Soviet Union. The subject matter of the article lies at the intersection of social and military history. The study is built on the published and archival materials. Among the principal primary sources, there are former Soviet residents interviews and memoirs. The database also includes letters, diaries of eyewitnesses and the relevant Soviet laws. Drawing on the methodology of oral and everyday history the authors identified three survival strategies: paternalistic, deviant and self-preserving. The strategy of self-preservation appeared to be the most efficient during wartime and widespread within the territory of the Soviet Union because, firstly, it had provided relative independence from the state and, secondly, it had enabled people to stay within the legal frameworks. This research can be rewarding and applied in the analysis of the living conditions under evacuation that, at times, occurs for different reasons and in different countries. The classification of survival strategies can become an effective methodology in the study of immigrants adaptation during social upheavals.
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