108   Journal of Engineering, Mechanics and Architecture                      www. grnjournal.us  

 
 

AMERICAN Journal of Engineering,  
Mechanics and Architecture 

Volume 3, Issue 9, 2025 ISSN (E): 2993-2637 

 
  

Mercy as a Factor of Social Cohesion: Evacuation to Uzbekistan 

During the Great Patriotic War 
 

Safarova Zilola Safarovna 

Karshi State Technical University, Uzbekistan, PhD in Historical Sciences, dotsent 

 

Abstract: This article is devoted to the spiritual feat of the Uzbek people during the Great 

Patriotic War. The processes of receiving the evacuated population from the western territories 

of the Soviet Union occupied by the Nazis, providing them with housing, clothing, food, work 

and education, individual and collective reception of children, as well as difficulties that arose in 

the activities of the republic's orphanages, were analyzed.  

Keywords: World War II, spiritual feat, evacuation of the population, occupation of territories 

by fascists, orphanages, education, admission of children to families. 

 

 

1. Introduction:  

The Great Patriotic War became one of the largest trials in the history of the USSR, which had a 

significant impact on the fate of millions of citizens of the country. One of the most important 

strategies for ensuring the safety of the population and maintaining the combat effectiveness of 

the state was the large-scale evacuation of industrial enterprises, the population, including 

children and able-bodied adults, as well as cultural property and material resources to safe areas 

of the country. The experience of evacuation to Uzbekistan, which during the war became one of 

the largest front-line evacuation centers, turned out to be especially significant. 

Unparalleled in world history, a truly heroic and dramatic epic was the massive movement in the 

first period of World War II from the population threatened by the Nazis of the USSR to the 

East, industrial enterprises, MTS property, collective farms and state farms, cultural and 

scientific institutions, food supplies, raw materials and other material values. [3] 

Uzbekistan, being a region remote from hostilities, played a key role in ensuring the safety of the 

population and infrastructure. A huge number of evacuees were accommodated on its territory, 

mainly from the western and central regions of the Soviet Union, faced with numerous 

challenges - lack of housing, food, medical care, as well as the need to organize conditions for 

the reception and adaptation of evacuees. An important task of this article is to study the scale, 

features and consequences of evacuation measures in Uzbekistan during the Great Patriotic War, 

as well as to identify the role of this experience in the formation of the humanitarian, social and 

economic aspects of the region in wartime. 

The modern study of evacuation processes in Uzbekistan makes it possible to understand not 

only the historical scale and complexity, but also the significance of this period for the formation 

of regional institutions of social support and interaction in emergency situations. As part of the 

study, sources, documents and evidence reflecting the experience of evacuation in Uzbekistan 

will be analyzed, which allows us to conclude that this historical stage is important and 

multidimensional. 



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1. Methods:  

The article uses such research methods as veracity, consistency, comparability, analysis-

synthesis, statistics. 

2. Main part: 

With the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of people from the territories of the former Soviet 

Union occupied by Nazi Germany began arriving randomly in Uzbekistan. More than a million 

people were admitted to Uzbekistan from Ukraine and Belarus alone [1; p.48]. From October 1, 

1941 to October 1, 1942, 43 thousand children were evacuated to Uzbekistan from 78 

orphanages located in front-line cities. 50 orphanages were preserved as independent. They were 

placed in various cities of Uzbekistan. For example, at the beginning of the war, 26 orphanages, 

ten thousand children of various nationalities, as well as one hundred thousand people of the 

population arrived in the Andijan region. Four orphanages that arrived from Donbass were 

placed in orphanages located in the Oyim district, as well as in the village of Butakorin under the 

village Council in the Andijan district. [7; p.40]. 

In the newly organized 8 orphanages in the Samarkand region, 4270 children of various 

nationalities were placed. In addition, orphanages with Polish and Spanish children were 

resettled in the cities of Uzbekistan. In particular, an orphanage for Polish children was opened 

in Samarkand. A boarding school was organized for 120 Spanish children resettled from 

Moscow. 

Only from besieged Leningrad shelter in Uzbekistan found about 5 thousand children. From the 

memoirs of Margarita Merkulova: "I myself am from Leningrad, we were taken out of the 

besieged city back in August 41 together with the Vulkan plant, where my father was the 

director. A month later, in Tashkent, he began to produce products for the army, although he did 

not even have walls and a roof. I went to the ninth grade, we had Combat Watches at the station. 

Trains came at night, announced that children from Leningrad were in such and such cars. We 

raced there with stretchers and first aid kits. Children aged 4 to 14 years were taken out of the 

"heaters," barely standing on their feet. Many did not know their names and surnames, who died 

of starvation of their parents. [3] 

The population resettled from the front-line territories had to be resettled in cities and villages. It 

was a very difficult and hard, but honorable job. Along with other regions of Uzbekistan, rallies 

and meetings were also held in Kashkadarya region regarding the reception and accommodation 

of the population and children evacuated from the front line. The main purpose of these 

assemblies was to provide them with housing, food and other necessities. The reception of the 

evacuated population from areas at high risk of occupation by the enemy and their resettlement 

turned into a wide social movement and acquired a bright patriotic and interethnic character. 

By the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of July 5, 1941 “On measures for 

relocating the population during the war period,” a warm welcome and provision of evacuees 

with housing, food and other necessities was entrusted to the Councils of People's Commissars 

of the Union Republics, as well as to regional, city and district executive committees. From the 

first days of the war, the Council of People's Commissars determined the procedure for the 

evacuation of the population and children and methods of its organization. In connection with the 

evacuation, a special evacuation commission was created to receive and distribute the population 

and children. The random arrival of children from the front-line areas created big problems. First 

of all, they had to be found and registered. A reception center for minors was opened in 

Tashkent, which dealt with the distribution of children under 18 years of age in orphanages and 

the employment of older ones [1; p.50.]. Immediately, branches of the admissions committee 

were opened in the regions and districts of the republic, the main task of which was to receive 

and place children and prevent neglect. 



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Such commissions and departments were created on November 3, 1941 under the leadership of 

Sh. Murodkhodzhaev in the Kashkadarya region. The departments and commissions included 

experienced teachers, qualified medical workers, representatives of public organizations and 

representatives of the military commissariat. At all stations, including at the station in the city of 

Karshi, round-the-clock duty with the necessary supplies was organized. They were provided 

with money, clothing, food, transportation and other necessities by the state and the public. In the 

city of Karshi, the reception, accommodation and provision of people who left their native 

villages and cities, orphans who lost their parents and relatives, children lost during the 

evacuation were led by Choli Begimkulov [4; p.102.]. 

In the first months of the war, the acceptance and placement of industrial evacuated enterprises 

and their 19,665 workers and employees, 40,155 members of their families was successfully 

resolved in a short time. The evacuees were placed in city and regional centers, on collective and 

state farms, private houses, children were sent to school, to work, to kindergartens and nurseries, 

orphanages and families. By the second half of 1942, the state allocated 3 billion rubles to the 

evacuees [6; p.109.]. By November 1941, 29,938 were accepted in the Kashkadarya region. 

Initially, 3,469 people were placed in the Guzar region, 2,460 people in the Karshi region, the 

rest were sent to the Kamashi, Shakhrisabz and other regions, also to the peasant farms of Nishan 

and Kokdali. Large houses, mosques and madrassas were vacated and prepared for the evacuees 

in the regions. Almost all the administrative buildings of the Katsky village council, mosques 

and a number of houses of the local population were transferred to their discretion. In 1941-

1942, 716,543 evacuees were settled in the cities and villages of the republic, including 126,514 

people instead of the planned 84 thousand people in Bukhara and Kashkadarya. [7; p.43.] 

About 30 thousand people from Kharkov, Poltava, Voroshilovgrad, Odessa and other territories 

were resettled to the Kashkadarya region. More than 2,000 of those evacuated to Kashkadarya 

were Poles with their children. They were stationed in Shakhrisabz, Kitab, Guzar, Yakkabag and 

Karshi regions. Not far from the center of the Guzar district, on the eastern side, a special plot of 

land was allocated for a cemetery, specifically for the Poles who died of hunger and disease. 

Major General of the Polish Infantry Krushinsky and other deceased who lived in the Yakkabag 

district of the Kashkadarya region were buried here. 

During the most difficult period of the war, it was difficult to resolve the issue of housing for 

evacuees. Local executive committees were required to immediately begin work to 

accommodate displaced persons in Uzbekistan. Palaces, garages, semi-basements, mosques and 

madrassas, warehouses, some government and administrative buildings were transferred for the 

use of the evacuees, and unfinished houses of local residents were ordered to be completed from 

the state budget and transferred for use to the displaced. As a result of measures taken by local 

organizations, housing issues were partially satisfied. Most of the evacuees were accommodated 

among the local population. 

In connection with the massive resettlement of the population and children to our republic in 

November 1941, the Council of People's Commissars of Uzbekistan decided to accommodate the 

evacuated children. According to this decision, a central reception point for children was created 

at the Tashkent Central Station. Branches of the collection point were organized at the Kagan, 

Samarkand and Kokand railways. These central points and their departments controlled the 

organization of reception, accommodation, provision of necessary supplies, medical care and 

other necessary services to evacuees. Evacuation points played a significant role in the reception 

of children, their placement in orphanages, groups, for upbringing in families, as well as in the 

search and registration of missing, lost, homeless, street minors. The evacuation point included 

employees of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Republic N.P. Kraft, S.S. 

Sibgatulina, wife of U. Yusupov Stepanenko, from the public, wife of A. Gorky B. Peshkova and 

her daughter-in-law N. Peshkova, from the families of famous writers, spouse A.N. Tolstoy L.I. 

Tolstaya, wife of Pogodin A. Stukalova, Sora Eshonturaeva, E.V. Rachinskaya, Lutfi aya 

Sarimsakova, Bakhri aya Akramova, Bakhri aya Ashurkhodzhaeva and others. 



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At the suggestion of B.P. Peshkova, to search, register and place children in orphanages, an 

address desk was created, which acquired an organizational character and was legalized [4; l. 

106.]. The activities of the address desk service began with schools, reception centers, 

orphanages, foster families and hospitals. The address desk service was tasked with determining 

what kind of care the children were sent to - individual or collective, to which organization, to 

whom and when they were transferred, under whose name they are, address and other data. First 

of all, the evacuated children underwent a medical examination, then after bathing them, 

changing them into clean clothes and feeding them, they were distributed to their places. 

Children were also sent to individual education. This work was carried out with honor by kind, 

hospitable and affectionate women. 

Under the extreme conditions of war, Uzbekistan was not prepared to accept the huge number of 

evacuated children. There were not enough sanitary and hygienically appropriate buildings to 

accommodate them. Despite this, activities were carried out to accommodate, provide food and 

clothing, and restore the health of evacuated children. Thanks to the climatic conditions of 

Uzbekistan, and, most importantly, the diligent help of people, the lives of a huge number of 

children were saved. Many of the rescued children even became big celebrities. 

Our people accepted children who lost their breadwinners, orphans or temporarily orphaned 

children with incredible parental love. They took on a responsible but honorable task such as 

raising and educating children in difficult conditions. Before taking children into their care, 

parents wrote statements with the following meaning: “I undertake to raise, educate, love and 

cherish the child as my own and am responsible for his health.” This clearly defined the 

responsibilities of citizens adopting children. In Uzbekistan, already large families adopted 

Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Moldavian, Polish, Greek and other orphans, gave shelter to 

refugees, shared with them the last piece of bread, sugar, the last bowl of pilaf or milk. How 

many orphans from the republics captured by the Germans found their new parents in Central 

Asia. 

The story of front-line soldier Margarita Merkulova about how Tashkent welcomed evacuees 

from Leningrad: “I am from Leningrad myself, we were taken out of the besieged city back in 

August 1941, along with the Vulcan plant, where my father was the director. Within a month in 

Tashkent, he began producing products for the army, although he did not even have walls or a 

roof. I went to ninth grade, we had “Combat duty” at the station. The trains arrived at night, at 2-

3 o'clock, the announcer announced that children from Leningrad were in such and such 

carriages. We rushed there with stretchers and first aid kits. Children aged from 4 to 14 years old 

who could barely stand on their feet were taken out of the "teaboxes". Many did not know their 

names and surnames of their parents who died of hunger. First of all, right at the station, the 

orphans were fed semolina porridge and given half a mug of warm water. It was no longer 

possible, the doctors forbade it. Then clothes were disinfected, a haircut was taken, and we were 

taken to the bathhouse on Poltoratskogo Street (now Nukus Street). Again, they settled for the 

night at the station. And the next morning, the children were sent to the orphanages of the 

republic. And small Uzbekistan, in which only 6.5 million people lived before the war (1.5 

million went to the front and 420,000 died), accepted about a million refugees - 200,000 of 

whom were children. In January 1942, the women of Tashkent issued an appeal to all women of 

Uzbekistan to show maternal care for the evacuated children. Thousands responded. Uzbek 

women often came to the station and took the children to their families” [5]. There were queues 

at orphanages for the adoption of affected children - this is a unique fact. Families of several 

children at once accepted them as their own and surrounded them with care and attention, not 

only to feed and raise them, but also to heal their emotional wounds. In total, during the war 

years, more than 5,500 orphans were adopted into Uzbek families. 

The initiators of accepting evacuated children into the family were Shoakhmad Shomakhmudov 

and his wife Bakhri aya Akramova. Blacksmith of the Telman artel of the Oktyabrsky district of 

the city of Tashkent Shoakhmad Shomakhmudova and his wife Bakhri aya Akramova adopted 



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15 children and children of different nationalities resettled from the front line. In 1943 alone, the 

blacksmith Shamakhmudov became the father of four children. The children were of different 

nationalities and different surnames: Raya Maltseva was Belarusian, Malika Islamova was Tatar, 

Volodya Urusov was Russian, and the fourth son of the blacksmith was an unnamed two-year-

old boy of unknown origin. Shamakhmudov himself gave him the name - Nemat, which means 

“gift”. In total, among the adopted children there were Russians, Belarusians, Moldovans, Jews, 

Latvians, Kazakhs, Germans and Tatars. The Shamakhmudov family was awarded the Order of 

the Badge of Honor. Bakhri Akramova was also awarded the title “Mother Heroine”. The 

Shamakhmudovs became the prototypes for Rakhmat Faizi’s novel “His Majesty the Man” and 

the films “You Are Not an Orphan” and “My Children of Leningrad.” [7; l.47.] 

One of the streets in Tashkent is named after Shamakhmudov. On May 26, 1982, in Tashkent, on 

the square called “Friendship of Peoples,” a monument to the Shamakhmudov family was 

erected - the Monument to Friendship of Peoples. 

In total, during the war years, more than 4.5 thousand orphans were adopted into Uzbek families. 

The family of Kh. Samadov adopted 13 children, F. Kasymova - 10. 50-year-old Bakhrikhon aya 

Ashirkhodjaeva took in 22 children of various nationalities before the war and during the war 

years, Kurban ota Bekmukhammedov 28 children, Usman Yusupov 4 children. The chairman of 

the Engels peasant farming of the Samarkand region, Fatima Karimova, in addition to her 

children, took in 10 evacuated orphans. Having sent her husband to the front and being left with 

her only child, Ikbola Khaliyorova from the city of Karshi, took in 14 children [5; l.57.]. A war 

veteran from the Kattakurgan district of the Samarkand region, in addition to her six children, 

she raised and raised 17 children of 9 nationalities. 

4. Conclusion: 

During the Second World War, the main spiritual and moral features and humanism of the 

Uzbek people were clearly manifested. Following the best traditions of Eastern spirituality, the 

Uzbek people in the tragic years of the war opened their friendly hearts to the peoples of the 

occupied territories of the Union. Our people warmed the mourners, victims of war with the 

warmth of their hearts, supported them with care and hospitality, helped fraternal peoples restore 

their economies and establish cultural construction. Despite the fact that during the war years the 

inhabitants of the republic themselves were extremely promised, they extended a helping hand to 

the fraternal peoples. This is a vivid example of the Uzbek people's desire for unity and fraternal 

friendship, an excellent proof of their great spiritual strength and sincere nobility. This was 

reflected in the care of those who were forced to leave their homes and homes, of the wounded 

and disabled of the war, of the wives and children of those who went to the front. 

The people of Uzbekistan warmly received the children separated from their parents and home. 

Uzbeks did everything possible to warm the souls of unfortunate children, raise their spirits, 

create favorable conditions for them to live, study and work. Republican, regional and district 

evacuation centers worked around the clock. Hundreds of Uzbek families adopted children who 

were evacuated to our republic and separated from their parents due to the war. The network of 

orphanages, boarding schools, kindergartens and nurseries has expanded in the republic, where 

evacuated children and children of front-line soldiers were mainly admitted. 

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3. Sabirov A. «Strana spaseniya» v Velikoy Otechestvennoy (iz istorii evakuatsii detey v 

Uzbekistan). IA-CENTR.RU. 6 maya, 2019. 



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