With the outbreak of war, the life of the population deteriorated. The overwhelming majority of people experienced an acute need for food, medicine, clothing, footwear, and fuel. Many suffered from tuberculosis, scurvy, gastrointestinal and colds.
According to the archive, as of January 1, 1942, 91,226 people lived in the district; by the end of the war, this figure had increased to 101,000. The population was replenished due to a new wave of "special contingent" and evacuated citizens. This created additional pressure on the available food resources.
The increased demand for food products, large-scale government procurement in many localities of the country led to a shortage of food products.
The provision of food to the population was carried out according to the cards. Supply rates changed periodically. A worker in the fishing industry received an average of 500-600 grams of bread, a dependent - 300-400 grams. The bread was sold by weight.
Fishermen received coupons for sugar, vodka, flour, cereals, tobacco, fats, and manufactured goods. This targeted supply was introduced in April 1942 by order of the People's Commissariat of Trade. There was also special supplies. It extended to workers of Soviet, party, and economic organizations.
Children in the region continued to attend kindergartens and nurseries. First of all, children of front-line soldiers were attached. In the district, in 1943 and 1944, 7,566 children were placed in kindergartens and nurseries.
Residents of Ugra, who were not called up to the front, went to national collective farms, fish factories and hunting.
After the end of the war, 5 thousand workers, employees and collective farmers of the Khanty-Mansiysk District were awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
About Special Settlers:
To make up for the losses of the Red Army incurred during the winter counteroffensive near Moscow, strategic manpower reserves were continuously formed in the deep rear. Including at the expense of special settlers - fishermen.
Before the war, they were not drafted into the Red Army because of their "political unreliability." Labor settlers were not allowed to pass the norms for the then
popular badges "Voroshilovsky shooter" and "Ready for work and defense", they were forbidden to be in defense societies.
However, the need for new reinforcements for the 1942 offensive operations forced Stalin to reconsider the discriminatory policy towards the repressed part of the peasantry.
On March 16, 1942, the head of the NKVD GULAG, Nasedkin, reported to the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Kruglov: “In the labor settlements of the NKVD, out of the total number of labor settlers, there are 272,473 men; 175,596 of them are between the ages of 16 and 50. According to article 30 of the law on universal military service, they are not assigned to the recruiting stations, they are not called up to the Red Army and the navy ... "On April 11, 1942, the State Defense Committee adopted Resolution No. 1575 ss, which permits the mobilization of labor settlers for military service. Party committees were ordered to carry out this mobilization under the guise of a patriotic volunteer movement.
On July 11, 1942, the Omsk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) announced: "On the formation of the Stalin volunteer separate rifle brigade of Omsk-Siberians."
In the Khanty-Mansiysk National Okrug, which was the main territory of special settlements, the "voluntary conscription" was held the day after the adoption of the party resolution. After appearing in the special commandant's office of the NKVD, 1,200 labor settlers were taken by steamers to Omsk to the collection point "Cheryomushki". According to the statistics of the district military registration and enlistment office, created on August 30, 1938, until July 12, 1942, only 320 people were drafted from Ugra to the Red Army, and by the end of 1945, 17,000 people were sent to the front for "special mobilizations" and 5,174 were sent to the "labor army".