“Everything for the Front, Everything for Victory”:
the Contribution of Social Groups to Victory in the Great Patriotic War (Round Table)
Аnisimov R.I.
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associate Prof., Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia ranisimov@list.ru
Vorobieva I.V.
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associate Prof., Department of Theory and History of Sociology, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia. vorobyova.irina@list.ru
Korotkova M.S.
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associate Prof., Department of Theory and History of Sociology, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia korotkova.ms@rggu.ru
Milovanova M.Yu.
Сand. Sci. (Hist.), Assistant Prof., Department of Political Sociology and Social Technologies, Faculty of Sociology, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia m_milovanova@mail.ru
Toshchenko Zh.T.
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific Director of the Sociology Department, Russian State University for the Humanities; Chief Researcher of the Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS zhantosch@mail.ru
The article was carried out within the framework of the grant “The fate of the social contract in Russia: the evolution of ideas and the lessons of implementation” of the Russian Science Foundation, grant No. 23‑18‑00093.
Аnisimov R.I., Vorobieva I.V., Korotkova M.S., Milovanova M.Yu., Toshchenko Zh.T. “Everything for the Front, Everything for Victory”: the Contribution of Social Groups to Victory in the Great Patriotic War (Round Table). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2025. No 5. P. 41-66
The call “Everything for the front, everything for victory!” began to be implemented from the first day of the war. This slogan, reflecting a new version of the social contract, relationships and interactions of the main historical subjects of the Soviet country – the people and the state, was publicly voiced by I. V. Stalin on July 3, 1941 in a radio speech. It briefly and precisely formulated the goal and the main meaning of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the main means of achieving them. Hundreds of thousands of people came to the military registration and enlistment offices – workers, peasants, intellectuals, students and even schoolchildren, ready to immediately go to the front, including the labor front. The new social contract turned the entire country into a single military camp, subordinated to one goal – Victory. It is obvious that the Red Army played the primary role in the victory over the Nazi invaders, however, the supply and provision of the front with everything necessary, from weapons to food, largely depended on the rear, which implied the restructuring of the economy on a war footing and the mobilization of all forces of the population. The main method of achieving this goal was the centralization of management of the national economy and the establishment of strict labor discipline. The whole country began to work for a common goal. All efforts to defend the independence of the country, the uniqueness and autonomy of the Soviet people, and above all the Russian people, their historical and Soviet culture were subordinated to its implementation. The round table discusses the contribution to the Victory of such social groups as Red Army servicemen, home front workers, scientists, youth, women. It is shown that the common interests of the secular state and the people, despite the costs and defeats in the first stage of the war, became the basis for mobilizing all forces to defeat German fascism, which led not only to the liberation of the Soviet country, but also the entire world from the threat of enslavement.
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