American Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Development ISSN Online: 2771-8948 Website: www.ajird.journalspark.org Volume 11, Dec., 2022 14 | P a g e THE HISTORY OF STUDYING THE FRONT LETTERS OF UZBEK PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR Rufina Ravilevna Kayumova Basic Doctoral Student at Andizhan State University, Andizhan Region, Republic of Uzbekistan tsezar2204@mail.ru АBSTRACT The article analyzes the letters of soldiers and officers participating in the Second World War. It also explores the cultural and communicative functions of epistolary messages based on archival materials. Кeywords: World War II, Motherland, epistolary text, letters, ideology, historical source, regulations, newspaper, envelope, source complex. INTRODUCTION In the Republic of Uzbekistan, scientists are faced with the acute question of a deeper study of the past of the country by domestic historical science. World War II brought incalculable misfortune and suffering to mankind. The history of our country provides many examples when the mobilization of potential opportunities made it possible to overcome crises. In those fiery years, all the people of Uzbekistan, young and old, lived and worked tirelessly with a single goal: “Everything is for the front, everything is for victory!” Thousands of Uzbeks worked in the rear, the republic accepted refugees, evacuated enterprises, provided the front. RESEARCH METHODS The further the era of the Second World War goes from us, the more important are the documents of that heroic time - letters, newspapers, leaflets, posters, photographs. They are the most important subject for the study of military history and are of great interest to the widest circle of readers. The personal letters of the front-line soldiers are of particular interest, being a valuable historical source, including for studying the historical appearance of the participants in the Second World War. American Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Development ISSN Online: 2771-8948 Website: www.ajird.journalspark.org Volume 11, Dec., 2022 15 | P a g e RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS As the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoev noted at the celebration dedicated to the Day of Remembrance and Honor: “I urge all of you to study history even deeper, even more actively. Only those who draw conclusions from the lessons of history can effectively counter the various challenges and threats of the modern world. He is able to objectively and fairly assess both the current situation and future processes. In our difficult, rapidly changing times, this is the most important condition for ensuring peace, stability and progress”[1.1]. To study the difficult life path of our compatriots who made a worthy contribution to the Great Victory, the analysis of written sources is of great importance. Letters from the front are still carefully kept in many families. Each triangle has its own story: happy or sad. It also happened that sometimes news from the front that a loved one was alive and well came after a terrible official envelope. But mothers and wives believed: the funeral came by mistake. And they waited - for years, decades. Letters from the fronts of World War II are documents of great power. In the lines smelling of gunpowder - the breath of war, the rudeness of harsh trench everyday life, the tenderness of a soldier’s heart. During the war years, great importance was attached to the decoration of postal correspondence connecting the front and rear - envelopes, postcards, paper. This is a kind of artistic chronicle of the war hard times, an appeal to the heroic past of our ancestors, a call for a merciless struggle against the invaders. With the outbreak of hostilities, millions of people ended up in the army. There was a mass evacuation from the front line. Many people have changed addresses, places of residence. The war separated thousands of families. All hope was in the mail, which helped to find loved ones - in the rear and at the front. Thousands of letters, postcards, newspapers and magazines went to the front every day. There were no less letters from the front - to different cities, towns and villages, to where relatives were left. Today it is almost impossible to find a museum or an archive where letters from front-line soldiers are kept, which sometimes the researchers “do not reach their hands”. But the history of the Second World War through the eyes of its participants is an important historical source. And experts believe that the work of collecting letters from the front should be continued, because the keepers of soldiers’ letters are dying. This will significantly expand the source study field of the study of the history of Uzbekistan in the study of the Second World War. According to the data, out of the 6.5 million inhabitants of the country, almost 1.5 million people went to the front. In the struggle for the Fatherland, about 500 thousand soldiers died, 130 thousand went missing. For example, the population of the Andizhan region by the beginning of the war was 614.5 thousand, of which 97.5 thousand were called up for military service. Only 54 thousand returned, of which 40.9 thousand became disabled [3.15-18]. Old men, fathers and mothers, seeing off their American Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Development ISSN Online: 2771-8948 Website: www.ajird.journalspark.org Volume 11, Dec., 2022 16 | P a g e sons to the front, gave them parting words to be brave and courageous fighters, always be in the forefront, fight like heroes and return only with victory. Today, when the issue of patriotic education of youth is very acute, it is very important to study the entire arsenal of tools developed during the Second World War, since the experience of the military press is invaluable. There are still material evidence of that time - these are newspapers. The experience of all wars proves that Victory is achieved not only with weapons, but, first of all, with high morale. And if today the military press is a true source of information, then at that time it was that inexhaustible source that helped win the Victory. Today, much attention is paid to the study of the features of the press during the war years. However, as historians note, this issue has not been fully studied, ideas about the wartime press “are fragmentary”. There are a number of works on the Uzbek press during the war years. For example, the work of T. Ernazarov, A. Akbarov “History of the press of Uzbekistan (1925-1952)” covered the creation and strengthening of the front-line press in the Uzbek language. The authors note that only in 1943, on the fronts of the Second World War, 13 front- line and 3 divisional newspapers were published in the Uzbek language [4.436-437]. It should be noted that such writers and journalists as M. Ismoiliy, Iles Muslim, Nazarmat, Adkham Rahmat, N. Safarov, Ibrohim Rakhim, Z. Fatkhullin, Adkham Hamdam were directly participants and eyewitnesses of the period when they prepared their publications for such front-line newspapers as “Red Army”, “Pravda Fronta”, “Suvorovets”, “For the Motherland”, “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda” published in Uzbek [5.493]. For example, in the newspaper "For the Motherland" in the Uzbek language it was published from October 29, 1942, first edited by A. Kruzhkov, later by D. Chekulaev, Sh. Bulatov and H. Riskulov. Warriors from Uzbekistan wrote to the newspaper, where they reflected front-line everyday life in their front-line letters. The facts of front-line everyday life reported by servicemen in the text of personal letters were grouped into descriptions of the space of front-line everyday life and descriptions of the activities and activities of a front-line soldier in this space. Among the descriptions of the space of front-line everyday life, a number of messages can be distinguished: on combat supplies and technical support for troops (weapons, ammunition, means of protection, movement, communications, etc.), on housing, food and uniforms, on sanitary and hygienic conditions and medical care, monetary allowance [6.15]. In addition, among the messages about the daily activities and occupations of a serviceman, one can single out messages about the performance of official duties: guard duty, maintenance of military equipment, care of personal weapons, performance of other work characteristic of military branches and military professions, everything that makes up the daily routine. From a letter from Guard Captain K. Zhongaliyev: “Red Army soldier Muradullo Pozilov is an experienced sniper in our unit. On October 23, 1942, he killed 50 Germans. His merits were recorded on the honor roll.”[7.1] In addition, among this American Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Development ISSN Online: 2771-8948 Website: www.ajird.journalspark.org Volume 11, Dec., 2022 17 | P a g e group of facts about the everyday life of front-line soldiers, reflected in their letters, one can mention reports about leisure practices, including organized ones, and, of course, about connections with the home front ( correspondence with relatives, parcels, patronage, holidays). The front-line letters are well preserved, which made it possible to collect and group them in funds and museums. Archival and museum collections of letters from war veterans are scattered collections of epistolary documents. They were grouped together in the process of collecting practice for the purpose of their storage and exposure. Unlike separate collections, the source complex is a larger, conventionally united set of letters on the territory of Uzbekistan [8.1]. We should study in more depth the difficult life path of our compatriots who made a worthy contribution to the Great Victory, their courage and heroism Research interest in analysis front-line epistolary heritage is very obvious and fully justified. The analysis of letters makes it possible to compare and verify the actual information about the front-line environment, to concretize the ways and means of forming the memory of the war. Of the huge number of epistolary texts, personal letters of front-line soldiers, natives of Uzbekistan, are of particular interest. On a par with letters written by representatives of other regions of the country, they are a valuable historical source for studying the psychology of participants in the Second World War, as well as for determining the factors in the development of epistolary culture in general. The choice of epistolary texts of front- line Uzbek soldiers is explained by the desire, through the analysis of one of its components, to show the general and special in the system of front-line epistolary culture, as well as to identify the specifics of the epistolary complex deposited in the archives and museums of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Front-line writing is considered as a specific phenomenon of the domestic written culture of the 40s of the XX century. Given that the epistolary text as a special form of literature has been studied very fragmentarily, the analysis of front-line letters is very relevant, taking into account their linguistic, extralinguistic and psychosomatic features. With this approach, private correspondence allows us to draw conclusions about the specific ideas of soldiers and officers, about vital and existential values. The elements of the personal psychology of military personnel, reflected in the texts of their letters, testify to the peculiarities of the worldview, behavior, lifestyle and social circle, as well as the interests of front-line soldiers, allow us to reconstruct the stages of personal development, identify front-line epistolary communication strategies and determine the gender characteristics of human behavioral practices on war. For example, in the articles by I. Yu. Moiseeva, the socio-psychological aspects of the history of the Second World War are touched upon, the features of the tender analysis of front-line letters are revealed [8.36-39]. Working with front-line letters is not easy. Almost all of them are written by hand, only a small number are typed on a typewriter. Letters were written on poor quality paper, American Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Development ISSN Online: 2771-8948 Website: www.ajird.journalspark.org Volume 11, Dec., 2022 18 | P a g e often on wrapping and newspaper sheets, there are letters based on illustrations torn from books, and even fragments of field maps. Many are written in simple pencil or completely faded ink diluted for reasons of economy, eventually coming to a state of absolute unreadability. It is worth noting the fact that the letters often arrived already damaged: many of them are deformed, retain traces of water and dirt, which indicates the conditions in which these lines were written. Letter writers themselves often mention how difficult it was for them to write the letter. After all, many dared to convey the news to their relatives before the start of the battle, or even lying in a trench in the rain. A letter often became their last chance, the hope to say the warmest words to their loved ones and relatives. It is also known how difficult it was to deliver letters from the front line. The texts of the letters, unfortunately, are fading away. Inevitably, there is an urgent need to digitize the array of letters and create an appropriate database, followed by the presentation of the resulting electronic resource on the Internet. This is not an easy task, but if it is successfully completed, an opportunity will be created for using the information received in a wide variety of directions and aspects, including for a more complete understanding that the Great Victory in World War II was achieved by the people in stubborn battles for the Motherland . Every family has its own story. Each family has its own box, where the front-line letters, photographs and military awards are stored. But they all have one thing in common - a common involvement in the history of the Second World War. Until now, letters from the front, burned, torn, half-decayed, touch us to the core. Over the years, the lessons of that war are not forgotten - bitter and victorious. And every time on the Day of Remembrance and Honor, the words somehow solemnly sound in a special way: “The feat of the people is immortal” CONCLUSION Thus, the front-line letters testify that the rhythm of everyday life determined by the war, which was distinguished by the daily confrontation of the human body with a variety of stressful situations, was endured only by people with a stable nervous system. Sometimes, in their letters, front-line soldiers described inadequate mental reactions of fellow soldiers, manifested both in an increased level of aggressiveness and in extreme vulnerability, which was not least due to difficult living conditions. Letters from the front confirm that the vast majority of servicemen managed to adapt to the extreme conditions of the war. In this regard, the letters documented the process of formation of a specific individual-personal psychology among front-line soldiers, shaped by everyday practices of the war. American Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Development ISSN Online: 2771-8948 Website: www.ajird.journalspark.org Volume 11, Dec., 2022 19 | P a g e REFERENCES 1. Speech by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev at the solemn ceremony dedicated to the Day of Memory and Honor // Narodnoe slovo.- 2019.-May 9. No. 95. P.1 2. Memory. Andizhan region. Dead and missing soldiers in 1941-1945. -T. “Uzbekistan”, 1994. P.15-18 3. Shamsutdinov R., Karimov Sh. History of the Motherland. The second book.- Andizhan., “Meros”, 1998.-p.436-437. 4. New history of Uzbekistan. 2-book.-T.: Shark, 2000.-p.493 5. Shamsutdinov R., World War II and front-line newspapers. The first book.-T: “Akademnashr”, 2017.-P.15 6. Zhongaliev K. Sniper // For the Motherland, 1942. - October 29. No. 1 p.1 7. National archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Fund-1735, Inventory-4, File-6, Sheet 1. 8. Moiseeva I. Yu. “A man at war” in soldiers’ letters (based on front-line letters of 1941-45) // Man and war. XX century: problems of studying and teaching in the courses of national history. All-Russian scientific and practical conference, May 14-15, 2002: materials. - Omsk, 2002. - p. 36 - 39.