The settlement of Trans-Volga areas of the Saratov region in the late 1940s - the first half of the 1950s

The study reveals the arrangements for the interregional and intraregional resettlement in 1948-1955 in Trans-Volga areas that were annexed to the Saratov region in September 1941 and had an acute shortage of workers. The research describes the legal framework for the resettlement represented by the decrees of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR, the Executive Committee of the Council of Workers’ Deputies and the Bureau of the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the Saratov region. The author outlines the benefits envisaged by the government for settlers, including the food loan at a rate of 150-300 kg per family, agricultural tax exemption. The paper reviews the main reasons for obratnichestvo (movement back), i.e. the return of the resettlers to their place of origin (a multinational composition of collective farms, the lack of housing stocks for the relocated people, the misinformation about the benefits and living arrangements at the new location). The author estimated that 2/3 of the total number of the resettled families (about 5.000) entrenched in Trans-Volga areas of the Saratov region.