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Internal Labor Migration in USSR after WWII: Social and Cultural Traumas of Migration in the Age of Late Stalinism
The purpose of this study is to analyze an internal labor migration in 1945-1953 (till the Stalin’s death) in USSR. The research is conducted based on Molotov Oblast (modern Perm Krai) archive data related to the period. The migration in the region was conditioned by evacuation of large metallurgic, mechanical engineering, timber production facilities away from front line over 1941-1945. In addition to State Archive of the Perm Krai records the relevant files of Perm State Archives of Social and Political History were analyzed.
The main migration patterns are described in the article in an attempt to identify key factors for return migration. As a result of analysis of an extensive data array (mostly presented by the letters, acts and statements of All-Union Communist Party Bolsheviks and Communist Party of the Soviet Union), it is shown that the unsuitable living conditions and social difficulties faced in host region served as a root cause of return movement. The research introduces new unpublished archive documents that clarify overall character of the internal labor migration in USSR after the end of WWII.