A True Victory is in Hearts, not Guns

Today we commemorate 75 years since the end of the most tragic event in our history – the World Word II. This short article emphasizes not the war terror, but the beauty of human deeds.

By Khurshid Kodirov and Sherzod Zufarov

Nazi military invasion of June 1941 caused the mass migration of western Soviet citizens and industrial capacity to eastern regions of the USSR. By the end of 1941, nearly 19 million civilians moved from Western USSR, Baltics, Eastern Poland to Central Asia, Caucasus, Siberia, Urals.

More than three million civilians with different ethnic backgrounds (Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovian, etc.) out of which about 1 million Jews and over 300 thousand orphan children found refuge in Uzbekistan.

Uzbek families accepted a hundred thousands of civilians in their houses, and the Uzbek people donated food and money voluntarily to the orphanages and adopted thousands of orphan children.

Shaakhmed Shamakhmudov and his wife Bahri during the WWII in 1941-45 adopted 15 children of different nationalities, who lost their parents and were evacuated to Tashkent.

At that time, Uzbekistan had 6.5 million population, including 1.5 million who went to participate in the war front alongside the soviet army.

Although Uzbekistan was far from the war front, the consequences of the war were severe. USSR’s economic potential disrupted by 50%. Uzbekistan and other neighbouring countries sent most of its food supplies to warzones. As a result, the authorities could not provide the food to the evacuees. Mass migration of refugees provoked the food shortages and other challenges in Uzbekistan.

"We will accept as many refugees as they arrive."

In 1941, during a meeting of the Central Asian countries, top government officials complained about how they would receive so many refugees“. Uzbekistan’s government was the only one who responded: "We will accept as many refugees as they arrive".

The refugees arrived in Uzbekistan on an arranged evacuation logistics or by their own means. Some refugees moved to Uzbekistan from Siberia and Urals (the regions that also received the evacuees) due to cold climate and strong antisemitism.

The influx of enormous refugees certainly caused hardships and intense pressure on the already increased working hours in Uzbekistan. There were inevitable difficulties. Some evacuees were homeless. Despite the hardship, people of Uzbekistan showed determination to accommodate as many evacuees as they could.

Further reading:

• Rebecca Manley, To the Tashkent Station: Evacuation and Survival in the Soviet Union at War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009).
• Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Uzbekistan Soviet Republic Becomes New Home for Hundreds of Thousands of Evacuated Jews (Ferbuary 19, 1942)
• Zukhra Kasimova, Adoption & Integration of Displaced Soviet Children During the Great Patriotic War in the Uzbek SSR (Peripheral Histories)