ABSTRACT
The first chapter focuses on the difficulties and challenges associated with evacuees’ journeys and arrival at their wartime destinations. Central state authorities placed much of the burden for receiving evacuees and transporting them to their destinations on local authorities. Importantly, as cities and towns became quickly overcrowded, evacuees were directed to rural areas, located far from railway stations. Inevitably, local communities were unable and/or unwilling to manage the influx of newcomers in a timely manner, especially given the lack of accurate information about evacuee contingents. Evacuees, in turn, often circumvented official placements and traveled to different locations to reunite with relatives and search for better living conditions. Some demanded outright to be sent to cities and regional centers. The resulting confusion, lack of information and data about the whereabouts of evacuee contingents, and increased burden on local resources for the transport of evacuees laid the foundation for fraught relationships between evacuees, local authorities, and local residents.
