The Move Of Soviet Union’s Enterprises And Institutions To Central Asia During World War Ⅱ

During the first phase of the Patriotic War,the Soviet Union suffered huge losses and lost large territories.The areas occupied by the Germans included: Baltic States,Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic,Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the western part of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic.Then,the western part of the Soviet Union had most of the country’s ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy,coal mining,chemical industry and machine manufacturing industries.Even the main food industry,large number of local power plants and other light industrial enterprises of the whole Soviet Union were also situated there.But during the war,collective and state-owned farms that supply food,sugar beet,sunflower,and livestock products to the country suffered heavy losses,important aspects of agriculture related to the national economy were taken-over by the enemy forces,and lives of the people were terribly affected.According to statistics,80 million Soviets lived in the occupied territories before the war.Due to the concerns of The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet government on the fate of millions of people in the war zone,as well as industries,transportation and agriculture,measures were taken by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Russia and the Soviet People’s Committee to relocate the people,industrial and agricultural enterprises,and transportation vehicles to the safe areas.On June 24,1941,in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU(Brazzaville),the Politburo of the Soviet Union decided to establish an Evacuation Committee to guide the inward migration of industries,agricultural facilities,and urban and rural population.From July to November 1941,the total number of industrial enterprises rebuilt in the eastern region was not less than 1,523,of which 308 relocated to Central Asia.At the beginning of the war,one of the first tasks of the Central Asian republics was to resettle various industrial enterprises that had withdrawn from the western part of the Soviet Union as soon as possible.The relocation of industrial enterprises to the above-mentioned areas was considered from both military and economic perspectives.The military consideration is that the enemy’s Army and Air Force cannot reach these areas for a short time.On the economic side,the country’s considerations includes: accepting the economic potential of these enterprise areas,the degree of infrastructure development and key personnel before the war Reserve level.As a large number of lights,heavy industry and food industry enterprises moved to Central Asian republics,a number of new industrial sectors adapted to localeconomic development began to be established locally.During World War II,industrial enterprises relocated to Central Asia quickly resumed production and strengthened the Soviet military.In addition,due to the reconstruction of inward-migration enterprises,the industrial production capacity of the participating republics expanded.Compared with 1940,the local industrial output increased by 1.2% in 1941,and1.4 times in 1943.Due to the increase in the number of front-line workers and the need to relocate a large number of inward-moving production enterprises,the government of the rear republic and regional agencies encountered the problem which is the shortages of labor,and they need to add new workers to participate in industrial production.In order to ensure a sufficient number of industrial workers,the Central Asian republics not only employed urban residents but also rural residents.In fact,large-scale relocation of industrial enterprises and residents from enemyoccupied areas were also a large-scale organization and production measure.Although the inward migration process from 1941 to 1942 was inadequate,the basic purpose was still achieved,to protect the personal safety of Soviet civilians from fascist invasion,and industrial and agricultural enterprises smoothly moved inward to the eastern part of the Soviet Union and opened new production course.Although during wartime,inward migration was relatively short,but it was the most influential event in the Soviet Union in the1940 s,not only in terms of technology and economy,but also from a cultural and social perspective.