Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2014 number

When Russia entered an extremely large-scale war, it faced the necessity not only to mobilize the economy and people to withstand the military adversary but also to work out a set of measures aimed at addressing the consequences of suddenly increased social mobility. During the second half of 1914-1915 special institutions for solving this task were created. In 1916 when the living standards of working population essentially fell, none of the counter-measures could stop the process of marginalization of the large groups of people and consequent radicalization of political consciousness. The aim of the article is to analyze the processes of social mobility in the eastern regions of Russia, to reveal all-Russian tendencies and macroregional specifics of this phenomenon. The efficiency of the state social policy in Siberia and Far East was negatively affected by the absence of territorial authorities, underestimation of Siberian and Far-Eastern specificity by the government, allocation of funds for social transfers covering expenses less than the Russia average. Citizens - members of the families called up for military service faced extreme difficulties since the first days of the year, and refugees - since summer 1915. Unbalanced measures in the field of social policy led to inclusion of these groups into a kind of underclass suffering from the severe psychological disadaptation. During 1915 even broader layers of population suffered from the gradual deterioration of social situation. In 1916 marked aggravation of commodity shortage and the rouble’s decline led to qualitative impoverishment of a considerable part of Siberian and Far-Eastern population. Decrease of social status of public servants was clearly indicated. However, the employment growth in the industrial sector of economy under the war conditions was a deterrent factor of descending social mobility.