DIFFICULTIES IN ORGANIZING THE ACTIVITIES OF CHILDREN’S INSTITUTIONS EVACUATED TO THE TERRITORY OF CHUVASHIA DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Under the difficult conditions of the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War, when thousands of issues related to the country’s defense had to be resolved as soon as possible, the Soviet leadership was able to find opportunities to organize the evacuation of children from front-line areas to the rear of the country. The Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the regions that accepted a large number of evacuated children. Although there are special studies on assistance to children evacuated to the territory of the republic, this problem is still poorly studied. On the basis of the archival documents from the funds of the State Archive of Modern History of the Chuvash Republic and the State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic, the article systematizes information on children’s institutions that were fully evacuated to the territory of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic during the Great Patriotic War. The paper describes the main difficulties encountered by evacuated children’s institutions during their stay in the republic. Using the concrete examples from history, the author shows the degree of severity of problems such as providing kindergartens, orphanages and boarding schools with suitable premises, furniture, food, clothes and shoes, household equipment, toys, educational materials, office supplies. The author of the article proves that in different parts of Chuvashia there were different living conditions for children, a lot depended on the leadership of children’s institutions. It is concluded that numerous shortcomings and difficulties in organizing the activities of children’s institutions were not a specific phenomenon which affected only the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. At the same time, the leadership of the republic, which had limited resources, did their best to keep the evacuated children’s institutions fully operational, their activities being under constant control by the authorities.