The Arrival of Evacuated Enterprises and Population in Frunze in October 1941
The temporary retreat of Soviet troops at the beginning of the war required urgent measures to relocate productive forces from the areas abandoned by the army and to create rear regions and additional military-economic bases in the east of the country. An endless stream of trains moved eastward, transporting equipment, evacuated enterprises, machinery, and inventory. Not only enterprises were evacuated, but also the population of the defense industry. The difficulty in addressing this task for the authorities of the capital lay primarily in the enormous, unprecedented scale of the evacuated enterprises and labor collectives, which found themselves in a very difficult situation. There were no ready factory and plant buildings to accommodate the equipment, and there was a shortage of housing for workers, engineering and technical personnel, electricity, and more.
The government of the republic, the executive committee of the city, and the executive committees of the district councils conducted urgent preparatory measures. By the decision of the State Defense Committee, in October 1941, evacuated enterprises and population began to arrive in Frunze. Along with the military plant No. 60, 1,150 workers and engineering and technical personnel arrived, some of whom temporarily lived in the premises of a theater, in the Oak Garden, and in the "Red Star" park. The city council's executive committee allowed the housing management to temporarily use premises, bathrooms, and kitchens as housing. These measures could not resolve the issue of housing for the evacuees.
By the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the republic in October and November 1941, a number of service premises in the city were transferred for the accommodation of evacuated industrial enterprises and institutions. The government of the republic granted the executive committee of the Frunze city council the right to carry out densification and expropriation of up to 30% of living space in private and departmental houses. A norm of living space of 5 square meters per resident was established for the wartime period, instead of the previously existing 6.25 square meters.
By the end of 1941, 300 evacuated families in Frunze were provided with separate apartments, and 900 families received housing through densification. In 1942, the accommodation of evacuees continued. From July 1941 to December 1942, 23,870 people arrived in Frunze.
By the decision of the executive committee of the city council, workers and employees of evacuated enterprises were granted a long-term loan for individual housing construction amounting to 50% of the cost of housing, while the remaining part of the housing cost was covered by the state budget. From October 15, 1941, the construction of four lightweight residential buildings began in the city of Frunze, and from October 16, the construction of ten six-apartment houses commenced. Along with the management of housing construction, local councils allocated land plots to the evacuated population for individual construction and took measures to provide them with building materials.
From July 1941 to January 1942, as a one-time assistance to the evacuees, 436,000 rubles were issued by the government of the republic and 36,600 rubles from the local budget of the Frunze city council. All evacuees were employed. The local population also provided significant assistance to the evacuees. Citizens collected more than 41,600 warm items. In the capital, 316 evacuated children and children who lost their parents in occupied areas found shelter in two orphanages, and 260 orphans were adopted by residents of Frunze.
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