Novye Issledovaniâ Tuvy (Dec 2017)
Communist Party Organs and Non-governmental Organizations in People’s Republic of Tuva during Great Patriotic war
Abstract
The article examines the main directions, forms and methods of work used by Revolutionary Party organs and non-governmental organizations of the People’s Republic of Tuva (PRT) which helped ensure the participation of Tuvans in the Great Patriotic war of the USSR (WWII). To describe the forms and types of support the people of Tuva gave to the Soviet Union in its fight against the Nazi invaders, the author provides facts, statistics and quotations from Tuvan statesmen. These pieces of data come from both academically published sources and those found in the Central State Archives of the Republic of Tuva. The steps and measures initiated by the Revolutionary Party include the program of wartime rebuilding of the economy (adopted at the 2nd plenum of the Central Committee of Tuvan National Revolutionary Party (CC TNRP), June 26, 1941); plans of mass production of skis and warm clothes for the Red Army, of an increase in livestock and crop field areas, of enhancing competitive work and introducing ‘shock work’ practices (adopted at 3rd Plenum of CC TNRP, December 22, 1941); the resolution on the readiness to enlist Tuvan youth in the Red Army, adopted by the 3rd session of the PRT’s Small Khural, February 17, 1942; the joint order by the Cabinet of Ministers of PRT and the CC TNRP to set up a system of war training for the citizens of PRT and a national militia, adopted in July 1942; etc. The war years gave rise to a lot of grassroots initiatives of supporting the USSR, the most massive and fruitful among them being the movement to raise the money for the USSR’s Defense Fund. Donations included money transfers, providing spoils of the chase and livestock to the collective farms of Ukraine, and wheat and millet, to the Defense Fund. Among the donors were schools, Revolutionary Youth cells and private individuals. Mobilization in Tuva was accompanied by dedicated everyday organizational, explanatory and agitational work of the organs of the party and state, as well as non-governmental organizations. The leaders of the PRT supported the patriotic moves of both collectives and individuals, awarding orders, medals and diplomas of merit to those most active. Best workers were commended in papers and leaflets, mentioned at meetings and rallies, and generally treated as exemplary citizens.
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