Ethno-demographic transformations of the early 1940s in the Akmola region (according to archival documents)

Abstract

The article discusses the features of the ethno-demographic development of the Akmola region in the early 1940s. Based on the study of archival material, an attempt was made to analyze the planned resettlement in the Akmola region of residents of land-poor areas of the former USSR (mainly from the European part of Russia and Ukraine) to land-rich regions of the country, including the north-eastern regions of Kazakhstan. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that for the first time it outlines the features and results of the policy of planned resettlement of peasants - volunteers from Ukraine and Russia to the Akmola region in 1940-1941; evacuation routes, their locations are shown; a specific analysis of the ethno-demographic indicators of the region and their changes were carried out. The authors note that due to the extremely difficult demographic situation in Kazakhstan over the previous decade of 1928-1938, there was a sharp and significant decrease in the number of the Kazakh population, caused by collectivization, famine, mass migration from Kazakhstan accompanying these processes. The government of the republic saw a way out of the situation in the resettlement of representatives of other peoples of the Soviet Union to Kazakhstan, they submitted this initiative for consideration to the top leadership of the USSR. The authorities of the USSR decided to satisfy this initiative. However, the settlers had numerous difficulties associated with the poor organization of resettlement, the unwillingness of local collective farms and party - Soviet bodies to accept labor migrants. Thus, the “first virgin lands” – the beginning of the 1940s, did not achieve their goals. Volunteer migrants who came to Kazakhstan from the European part of Russia and Ukraine of those years often found themselves in distress. Nevertheless, voluntary migrants influenced the change in the ethnodemographic appearance of the Akmola region.