For heroism and patriotism shown during the Great Patriotic War, veterans are honored and honored annually. They receive pensions, subsidies, allowances, material assistance, apartments, cars, trips to a sanatorium, help repair and much more. All this is undoubtedly correct. However, there is another category that also deserves increased attention - these are the rear workers of the Great Patriotic War. These people provided the needs not only of the front, but of the entire Soviet people. Their contribution to the victory over the Nazis was really huge.
The situation in 1941
During the first weeks of the war, large industrial enterprises were urgently relocated from the European part of the country to the eastern. Between July and November 1941, more than 1,500 factories and 10 million workers were sent to the Urals, the Volga region, Siberia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Since in the places where the enterprises were relocated, there was an acute shortage of specialists, local residents were involved in the production of military and other products necessary for the front. These were mainly old people, children and women. For the front, a lot of production was needed.
In this regard, people had to work 12-18 hours without rest and sleep. Front workers, photos of which are presented in the article, endured many difficulties and hardships. Thanks to their work, by the end of 1941, tank production was restarted, and a metallurgical base was created in Siberia and the Urals. Due to this, already in the 4th quarter of the first year of the war, only the Urals industry provided 82% of cast iron, 52% of copper, steel and rolled metal, 100% of aluminum, cobalt, nickel, magnesium, 30% of zinc and most of the chemicals. This allowed during 1941 to completely put the industry on a military footing.
By the second half of the year, mass production of easel and light machine guns, more advanced guns, tanks, and aircraft was launched on a scale that exceeded 1.5-3 times the output of the first half of the year. By mid-1942, 1,200 large relocated enterprises were operating at full capacity in the east of the country. The workers of the rear of the Great Patriotic War provided at that moment 5,900,000 units of small arms, 287 thousand mortars and guns, 245,000 tanks, 21,7 thousand aircraft. All this fully met the needs of the army. 
Agriculture
He faced grandiose tasks. Agriculture was to provide the army and civilians with a sufficient amount of food, and industry - raw materials. But in the first months of 1941, agriculture suffered significant losses. In 1940, more than 230 thousand collective farms operated in the country. By the end of the first year of the war, their number decreased by 86.5 thousand. In general, the material and technical base was significantly reduced.
The army was taken most of the diesel tractors, cars, horses. The volume of blanks of agricultural products sharply decreased, and the livestock population decreased. Villages suffered from labor shortages. The situation of the agricultural sector was complicated by the fact that it was not on state security. The collective farms at that time had a system of residual pay for workdays. Almost all products that were produced were surrendered to the state.
On workdays, a small amount of potato and grain was given out. In 1941, raw materials and food were supplied mainly by state farms and collective farms of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Volga region and Siberia. With incredible efforts, people managed to increase the area of winter crops by 2 million hectares, hayfields - by 67%.Thanks to this, the harvest of succulent and roughage has grown. This, in turn, made it possible to preserve livestock and provide the population and army with food, and industry - with raw materials. 
Rural work
The rear workers — women, children, the elderly — replaced the men who had gone to the front. They had to develop tractors, combines, carry out repair work. They headed brigades, links, livestock farms and collective farms. Despite malnutrition, various hardships, the disorder of life, thanks to their heroic stamina, home workers achieved an increase in their material base. They did everything for the front and for the sake of victory.
The value of activities
In 1944, the volume of output exceeded pre-war indicators. At the same time, production of products for the front increased to 312%. It was this active transfer of the country to the military economy regime that made it possible to ensure the deployment of Soviet offensives at the final stage of the confrontation. For all the heroic efforts that were made, a huge contribution to the cause of the fight against the enemy, the people who worked to support the front, began to be called rear workers.
Stalin said that the army gained a military victory in a difficult and prolonged struggle. The rear workers denied themselves everything, deliberately going to privations in order to give the front more. They won an economic victory over the enemy. Many of these people received the Medal of the Home Front. 
Situation today
Every year on Victory Day, home front workers, veterans, representatives of public organizations write about an unfair attitude to the merits of people who worked to support the front. In 2009, the Coordinating Council of the Association of CIS Veteran Organizations in conjunction with the International Conference at the next meeting resolutely and reasonably raised the issue of the plight of these heroes. A proposal was put forward that the status of a WWII participant, along with guarantees and benefits, should also be given to homeworkers who made an invaluable contribution to the victory and revival of the country's economy after the end of the war.
The housing conditions of these people in most cases are extremely unsatisfactory. Their pensions are quite low, their food is very scarce. Many of them continue to live in the conditions of the strictest economy, buy cheap, and therefore low-quality products. But the most important thing is the poor state of health of the home front workers, since the “youngest” people are already far beyond 70. As a result of this, they often pass away without waiting for the well-deserved gratitude of the Motherland. First of all, these people have the right to count on a decent pension, such as is provided for by the state to veterans of the Great Patriotic War. 
Who can get a certificate?
The document is issued:
- People who worked in the rear during the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, at least six months, excluding periods of activity in the temporarily occupied areas of the USSR.
- Persons who are awarded with medals or orders for selfless work during the specified period.
Required documents
To obtain a certificate, you must provide:
- A work book (archival certificate) confirming the fact of labor activity in the rear from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, or a certificate of receipt of a medal or order.
- Passport.
- Photo 3 x 4 according to age.
- Statement.
Benefits to rear workers
The state today provides for a series of social support measures for people who worked to support the front. In particular, there are the following benefits to rear workers:
- The right to receive a single social card for travel by all types of urban passenger and automobile (except taxi) public transport, including suburban, and in their absence - intra-district (inter-city) routes.
- Free medical care in polyclinics, to which persons were attached during work, receiving assistance according to the state guarantee program.
- Providing prescription drugs at a 50% discount.
- Free manufacture and repair of dentures (except those made of precious metals and cermets) in municipal and state medical institutions, and in their absence, in other healthcare organizations in the community.
- Getting a monthly subsidy.
- Right 50% discount on train travel.
- Reception of people with disabilities and nursing homes, social services centers in the first place, as well as an extraordinary reception for the provision of social welfare services at home.
- Subsidies for utility bills and rents.
Monuments to heroes
The monument to the workers of the rear is intended to consolidate and perpetuate the heroism of the Soviet people who worked during the confrontation with the Nazis for the good of the Motherland. Monuments were erected in the regions of Russia and the former USSR. Their mass installation has been organized since 2010. The main part of the monuments was erected from 2012 to 2015. So, the monuments are installed in:
- Altai Territory.
- Bashkortostan.
- Vologda region.
- Krasnodar Territory.
- Kaluga region.
- Mordovia.
- Kemerovo region.
- Kostroma.
- Moscow region.
- Novosibirsk.
- Nizhny Novgorod region.
- Omsk
- Orenburg region, etc.
