REVISITED THE ISSUE OF ORGANIZING EVACUATION FROM THE TERRITORY OF THE USSR IN 1941

Abstract

The article uses the literature, periodicals, and archival sources to study the peculiarities of the 1941 evacuation in Ukraine. It is proved that neither panic nor chaos could be avoided during the organization of the evacuation. Most of the party functionaries who should have been directly responsible for the evacuation measures shamefully fled to the rear, completely ignoring these measures. The defining feature of the Soviet evacuation should be highlighted separately: its most important priority was not to save people, but to export industrial equipment, machinery, raw materials, agricultural products, etc. The fate of the population that was abandoned to the invaders remained as uncertain and threatening as possible. The tragedies were exacerbated by the «scorched-earth» policy used: goods and products were destroyed, cattle were forced to evacuate through sown fields to destroy the crops. Some tried to save something or share it with people. Such “looters” were mercilessly dealt with by the punitive agencies. The study emphasizes that the fight against panic and enemy propaganda in Stalin’s totalitarian society, which was important and useful in times of war, inevitably took on distorted forms. It provided a reason to launch a new "witch hunt" campaign. The country was drowned in a wave of denunciations, secret messages, and anonymous letters. Military tribunals, without understanding the merits of the cases (lack of time, lack of desire), accepted ruthless judgments by the thousands. Quite often, the only reason for them was a verbal complaint from an offended neighbor or a vindictive envious colleague. The fight against panic under the Stalinist model of a totalitarian society only massively increased the number of innocent citizens repressed, and directly played into the hands of the enemy, radically increasing the number of anti-Soviet sentiments in society.