NATURAL AND MECHANICAL POPULATION MOVEMENT IN COLLECTIVE FARMS OF KURSK OBLAST, 1943-1945

Abstract

During the Great Patriotic War, changes in natural and mechanical population movement were primarily driven by extreme wartime conditions and demands. While these issues have been repeatedly addressed in historiography, the regional aspect remains understudied. In this context, examining these processes in Kursk Region which found itself at the epicenter of the war, experiencing large-scale battles, enemy occupation, and other hardships is particularly significant. Moreover, the main burdens of the war fell on the collective farm population. An analysis of archival documents reveals the following: First, the birth rate dropped by more than threefold, falling significantly below mortality rates. Second, the number of working-age men drastically declined. Third, villages became predominantly "child and adolescent" communities, with over half of their population under eighteen years old. Additionally, the war accelerated the depeasantization of collective farm villages, as young people were pulled away from agricultural production and redirected to industrial work. Thus, the Great Patriotic War fundamentally altered the gender and age composition of Kursk's collective farm villages and hastened the transition of the regional and national economy from agrarian-industrial to industrial-agrarian