CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF ARCHIVES ON AWARDING HOME FRONT WORKERS IN THE FIRST POST-WAR YEARS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF SMOLENSK REGION (RUSSIA)

The article deals with collecting documents deposited in the State Archive of the Smolensk Region (Russia) on awarding homefront workers in the first post war years. The authors systemize these documents, evaluate the information given in them, and analyze the possibility of using the documents in further research into the valiant labor of home front workers in the Great Patriotic War. The study aims to develop an approach that allows one to systemize the array of documents in the archive and trace the mech anism of awarding distinguished labor decorations. The source framework primarily consists of documents from the State Archives of the Smolensk Region (fund of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee). As a result, the authors identify the names of 58,29 8 Soviet citizens who lived in the Smolensk region at the time of being awarded the medal. This approach is proposed to be applied in further studies and used in historical research and regional history work.