Recently, they are spoken of exclusively as a social category. They enumerate the privileges set by him, periodically complain about the lack of benefits. However, to someone embittered, on the contrary, it seems that these ancient old men and women receive from the state too much, and indeed healed in this world. But in spite of the ill-wishers, these elderly people are still here with us, although their number is inexorably decreasing every year. Who are the rear workers?
Some terminology
In this category, Russian legislation classifies persons who, during the Second World War (WWII) , worked in the rear for at least six months, which was confirmed in their documents. The definition of “rear workers” also includes those who have been awarded orders and medals of the USSR for their labor activity in these years — this saves them from having to prove the fact of their work in any other way.
A bit of arithmetic
The war against fascism ended almost 70 years ago. The same figure determines the average life expectancy in Russia. In other words, most of those who were born at the end of the war are no longer alive. How many of them remain, those who not only were born earlier, but also could work, forge, sparing no energy, a great victory during the war?
Probably, for a long time those heroic women who, instead of men who had left to fight, went down to the mines or tried to plow the frozen Siberian soil in order to bake bread for a fighting soldier, have long been gone. Most of them left this world and those who raised military factories, who did not leave the machine tools for exhausted and half-starved days in order to provide the army with weapons. Most often, the definition of "workers of the rear of the Great Patriotic War" refers to children. More precisely, who was a child in those terrible years, but did not just live an ordinary childhood life (however, then it was impossible), but worked in factories, state farms, and hospitals, trying to contribute to the common victory over the enemy.
About the features of teaching
In the Soviet Union, considerable attention was paid to the patriotic education of youth on the examples of heroic peers. Each Soviet schoolchildren could, as they say, gather at least a dozen names of hero pioneers (Valya Kotik, Lenya Golikov, Zina Portnova, etc.) and tell in detail about their feat. After the collapse of the USSR, much has changed: both the views on individual events, the teaching methods, and the pioneer organization itself have not died. Probably, a certain restructuring of views was really needed.
For example, Pavlik Morozov - who is he, is he really a hero? Or a traitor to your own family? Or just a snotty, unreasonable boy entangled in complex adult games?
To say that childhood is not only carefree, students need. It is important to tell that there were such children - home front workers, whose contribution to the overall victory over the enemy is incomparable with their small age and is truly huge. If this history lesson is not well mastered, then embittered young thugs will continue to appear in considerable numbers, frightening and deceiving the elderly. And later, adults will grow out of them, reproaching old veterans with their penny privileges.
Speaking of benefits
In the USSR, civilians working shockly in wartime in the rear were called differently - war veterans (those who were directly involved in the fighting were called participants in the Second World War). By the end of the 80s, the total number of participants and veterans of the war had decreased so much that the difference in benefits provided by one or another category gradually faded away. In 1985, former partisans who fought in the occupied territories were also ranked as war veterans. Like the direct participants in the battles of the Great Patriotic War, the rear workers enjoyed certain and quite substantial privileges. The list of these benefits and the procedure for their receipt were the same for all republics of the USSR.
What happened next?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, each of the former republics itself formulated its attitude towards veterans, and itself made a decision on the privileges relying on these people. Worst of all was the war veteran who ended up on the territory of the Baltic countries. They not only lost all available benefits - the new authorities called the Soviet soldiers occupiers, and some of them even faced prosecution. In most other republics, no one disputed the heroism of veterans, but their standard of living was significantly reduced. Inflation, rising prices and rents, problems with medical care - all this seriously hit the well-being and real opportunities of older people.
How about in Russia?
In Russia, the greatest merits of Soviet soldiers (home front workers) are not only not in doubt, on the contrary, the significance of their feat is more and more emphasized from year to year, and the victory over fascism is celebrated more and more every time. But have you not forgotten behind this abundance of beautiful words and festive salutes of those to whom, in fact, we owe this victory?
The few still living members of the labor front are offended. Although formally the definition of war veterans in Russian law is reserved for all those who forged a victory, the concept of “rear workers” that appeared in 2000 significantly narrowed the benefits of the latter. In particular, a substantial pension supplement has disappeared, as well as advantages in the provision of medical care and the purchase of medicines.
It would be untrue to say that these people in Russia are not at all taken care of - they are entitled to certain payments and other privileges. But a significant part of the benefits is provided not from the federal, but from the municipal budget, and its possibilities in different regions can vary significantly. Yes, and payments to veterans are not too large. Heroic work could be appreciated more expensive - the country would hardly have become poorer!
From the memories
Historians and local historians rarely, but remember these people. They talk with them, ask about life at that difficult time, then publish memories of the war. What do veteran home front workers say?
Dozens of working battalions worked at the approaches to the defensive lines of Stalingrad. A participant in one of them, A.V. Osadchaya, recalled how she and her friends had to work in difficult conditions, digging frozen ground, constructing anti-tank ditches. From cold and poor nutrition, young bodies froze, covered with abscesses. I had to spend the night right there, in the dug-out dugouts, and in the morning again to work, because there were not enough working hands. Another participant, M.P. Uskova, told how rear workers in the conditions of the fierce Stalingrad winter washed their hands in the blood, digging trenches and clearing the railway track from snow drifts.
You can hear thousands of such memories. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of what these people were doing, how impossible it is to imagine the severity of the trials they experienced. In Samara, in 1996, a monument was erected to the “Minors of the Logistics of 1941-1945.” Grateful Samara. " In this city, which during the war years was one of the country's main forges, they are well aware of the contribution that ordinary children made to the common victory pot.
Conclusion
When only social workers remember the elderly, and even they are forced to, this is very disappointing. Old age is not a pause before death, but an inevitable life stage, and it should be lived fully and dignified. Older people have done a lot for the prosperity of society, younger generations owe a lot to them, and decent people still try to repay debts.
One of the important criteria by which the state is judged is whether the old people are good in it. Unfortunately, neither Russia nor its neighbors - the countries of the post-Soviet space - can boast of special care for the older generation. As we see, this category of pensioners is not too spoiled - the workers of the rear. And in relation to them, to be indifferent and indifferent is simply criminal.