Rehabilitation of Russian Germans: a priority condition for the consolidation of the ethnic community (the 1990's.)

The article is based on archival materials that were preserved, primarily those belonging to those who were not drafted into the Red Army, but at the same time remained an active participant in the country's combat labor front. They were those who were mobilized into working battalions and columns during the war years until 1948. They were identified as laborers who made up the labor army. The composition of these compounds was professionally different, as well as in the national one. The Ingush, ethnic communities of the Dagestan ASSR, Russians, Moldovans, and representatives of many ethnic minorities who were exempted from conscription for various reasons were members of the working colonies in the North Caucasus. They were engaged in the construction of transport communications in the rear, in the construction of economic facilities, as well as in the construction of fortifications directly on the front line, designed to defend the enemy, offensive battles, to assist in military enterprises, on collective farms. A significant part of the Soviet Germans. In spite of the fact that more than 60,000 citizens of German nationality were deported to the front, they were also involved through mobilization measures to work in such colonies. According to approximate data, more than 300 thousand Germans were involved, and accordingly their contribution to the national economy of the country was palpable. Despite the difficult economic situation in the country, conditioned by the war situation, Soviet Germans selflessly worked in various spheres of the national economy. Moreover, they were engaged in the education of their children, arrangement. Of course, it was a grueling labor, occupying the entire light part of the day in the North. All work proceeded in conditions of acute shortage: lack of training, clothing, uniforms, extremely meager food. The acute shortage of food created a catastrophic situation, as a consequence of increased mortality. There was a lack of well-being of medical services, and even a complete lack of it. Under these conditions, groups of Soviet Germans were self-sacrificing, fulfilling and overfulfilling labor standards. Work actively both men and women, participated in the Stakhanov movement aimed at increasing labor productivity. Undoubtedly, it was labor heroism and many of the Soviet Germans were awarded with the prizes of the Motherland. About this side of life is just evidenced by the memories collected and prepared by Nina S. Pandikova, the daughter of one of the participants of the workers' columns Elena G. Gorta. Almost all relatives and acquaintances from the mountains. Marxstadt (Autonomy of the Germans of the Volga region) came to these tests. In this regard, the second part of the proposed article follows logically from the first. Such work should be rewarded. In the 1990s, Soviet Germans, like other ethnic communities, were rehabilitated, but nevertheless a certain incompleteness of the process is felt and, in the opinion of the Russian Germans themselves, remained unresolved, as well as the most important issue - the restoration of the autonomy of the Germans in the Volga region. The fact that these tasks were considered among the priority ones is also evidenced by the work of the All-Russian Fund for the Rehabilitation and Assistance to the Victims of Stalinism and the Laborers' Men created in the 1990s. The initiator of the creation of the font and its permanent chairman for a long time remained writer Alexander Kh. Dietz. On the basis of the surviving documents of the fund, both the role of the individual and the fund itself are disclosed, whose work in many respects depended on its evaluation by state authorities, recognition. Nevertheless, it was one of the difficult organizational moments in the rehabilitation process, which A.Kh. Dietz built on the principles of understanding the scientific and practical knowledge of the problem, the principle of regulating these processes for the benefit of people, especially Russian Germans at this difficult time, revivals in the conditions of the new Russia in the 1990-2000s.