Evacuation of the Population and the Housing Stock of Leningrad in 1942

Abstract. Based on various sources, the article shows that several waves of evacuation of the population from besieged Leningrad required a special housing policy, since the evacuation faced extremely high death rate of residents in the winter of 1941–1942 and the destruction of buildings as a result of shellings and bombings. The executive committee of the Leningrad City Council was actively engaged in the implementation of a new policy. Describing the next evacuation of the population that followed in the summer-autumn of 1942, the author, uses archival materials and examines the problem regarding the condition of the housing stock and the right to housing for those who were forced to leave the city. The article shows the authorities took certain actions aimed at limiting the destruction of residential buildings during the emergency conditions of the war. These efforts were focused on preserving residential space for those who served in the Red Army and for prominent figures in science, culture, and art. The implementation of housing policy under the blockade was seriously complicated by the fact that, in addition to the municipal fund, there were buildings and structures in the city that were under the jurisdiction of various people’s commissariats and departments, as well as owned by private owners. Even before the end of war, the general decrease in the housing stock, as well as the need to re-evacuate Leningrad residents, forced the city leadership to take a number of restrictive measures aimed at preventing the influx of evacuees into the city.

Keywords: siege of Leningrad, housing policy, evacuation of the population, housing stock, urban economy.