The “Soviet home front”: on the recent publication of a monograph on the Great Patriotic War by Wendy Goldman and Donald Filzer

This article presents a critical analysis of a monograph published in 2021 on the insufficiently studied topic of daily life on the Soviet home front during the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Written by two prominent foreign historians-Wendy Goldman and Donald Filtzer-the book places the events of 1941-1945 in the context of recent historiographical advances. In their research, the authors also employ a rich trove of previously unexamined sources from a number of Russian archives. Among the many excellent features of Goldman and Filtzer’s monograph, the authors’ efforts to meld a highly readable narrative with a problem-based, analytical approach to the events of the Great Patriotic War they examine must be singled out for particular notice. Due attention should also be given to their innovative presentation of the Soviet rear as one more battle front of the war. The two historians view it literally as a “home front.” The monograph encompasses each stage of the war, beginning with the outbreak of hostilities when the Soviet Union faced a task of unprecedented scale and difficulty-organizing the rapid evacuation of a thousand industrial enterprises and many millions of Soviet citizens eastward from zones of war to the relative safety of the rear. Any hope of future Soviet victory hinged on the timely completion of this colossal venture. Goldman and Filtzer examine both the prerequisites leading to success in these monumental efforts, as well as the reasons behind the miscalculations and mistakes committed by Party and state officials in organizing the evacuation, settling people in new territories, and providing them with food, shelter, and other necessities. Much space in the book is devoted to one of the least studied problems in the historiography on the war: the mobilization and employment of labor resources in the rear sectors of the country. The authors brilliantly and with painstaking attention to the sources demonstrate that this highly complex and vital task was resolved in a situation of permanent and ever worsening crisis, arising from a severe shortage of workers. Throughout the war years, the rear portions of the country faced the threat of mass epidemics. One of the largest and noteworthy successes of the Soviet state system consisted in developing the means to prevent major outbreaks. Effectively employed propaganda, which promoted and guaranteed the efficacy of the measures taken, played a large role in resolving this and other lifesaving undertakings. In evaluating the results of their research, Goldman and Filtzer credit the potent Party-state system in solving the multifarious difficulties that confronted the nation on an unprecedented scale and guaranteed the Soviet Union’s remarkable victory in the Great Patriotic War.