THE RURAL POPULATION OF ODESA REGION AND ITS ROLE IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHWESTERN UKRAINE IN 1944

Abstract

This article analyzes the state of agriculture in southwestern Ukraine after the liberation of this territory from German- Romanian occupiers in 1944. It highlights the well-known fact that as a result of World War II and the occupation of Ukrainian territories, the country's economic potential suffered enormous material losses. The war swept through Ukraine twice-first when the Wehrmacht advanced, pursuing the Soviet army, and a second time when German forces found themselves in the opposite situation, retreating under Soviet pressure. Upon de-occupying the southwestern regions of Ukraine, the Soviet leadership immediately reinstated the pre-war methods of exploiting agricultural workers, specifically the collective and state farm system of feudal exploitation of the rural population, along with the infamous “trudoden” (it is worth noting that the Romanian occupation administration also employed this form of labor exploitation). The restoration of agriculture, as the primary producer of food supplies, fell on the shoulders of ordinary rural residents, who, after the liberation of these territories, carried out the most arduous agricultural work. Women played a crucial role in rebuilding the agricultural sector. Notably, archival documents contain no mention of whether all the fields, where rural laborers performed their backbreaking work, had been checked for landmines-both anti-tank and anti-personnel. This raises the alarming question of whether military sappers conducted demining operations at all. If not, then it was not just collective farm managers but also the highest ranks of the Soviet party leadership that deliberately exposed ordinary citizens to mortal danger-once again confirming the cynicism of Stalin’s totalitarian system. Nevertheless, despite the inhumane policies of Stalin’s regime toward its own citizens, from the very first days after the liberation of Ukrainian lands from occupation, it was the rural population of Odesa region-and Ukraine as a wholethat became the key driving force in restoring the agricultural potential of the region.