Women tractor drivers of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, when a significant part of the men were called up to the active army, they were replaced by women, the elderly and teenagers. In the difficult conditions of the war, they mastered working professions in courses, methods of brigade apprenticeship, next to experienced workers. They believed that for them the front line passed through the workplace and that the fighter at the front and the fighter in the rear together forged victory over the enemy. Having united in tractor brigades, they acted as the initiators of highly productive labor, achieving high results in labor, providing the front and rear with agricultural products. However, this has not been adequately reflected in the historical literature.

At the beginning of 1942, female tractor drivers of Stavropol, among whom there were many followers of the famous Ukrainian tractor driver Pasha Angelina, took the initiative to launch the All-Union Socialist Competition of Women Tractor Drivers and Women’s Tractor Brigades in the country and called on the country’s female tractor drivers to actively join this nationwide movement. At the same time, they decided to work in a front-line manner and assumed high obligations to fulfill production tasks. Tractor drivers of the country with ardent enthusiasm supported the initiative of the Stavropol women. Tractor drivers had to work in very difficult conditions, in slush, cold, without eating, not sleeping, experiencing a huge need for spare parts. Among them there were many who had not even reached the age of majority, but who were eager to contribute to the victory over the enemy. It was especially difficult to work in the territories liberated from occupation, which were looted and destroyed by the Nazis, and agricultural equipment was rendered unusable. With great difficulty it was put in order and worked. But the women – tractor drivers bore this burden on themselves. In the process of work, many of them became masters of their craft and were not inferior to men in work. Women tractor drivers of the country made a worthy contribution to the victory over the enemy.

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