| Evpatoria from 1921 to 1941 |
|---|
| After the Civil War, Crimea found itself in a very tough situation. The peninsula’s facilities had been destroyed. In comparison with 1913, industrial production fell by three times. Areas under cultivation were reduced by one third and productivity fell by half. Orchards and vineyards were in terrible conditions. There was a sharp decrease in live-stock. The population desperately needed bread, cloth, fuel, kerosene, matches etc. Currency depreciated. All of these factors had major social and political consequences. The number of workers declined in half. A huge army of unemployed emerged, a significant portion of which came from the demobilized Red Army. Relations between nations were complicated. |
| Various links |
|---|
|
|
|
|
In the summer of 1921, signs were showing of the approaching famine. This disaster grew a disastrous size. On December 1, 1921 the Central Republic Commission to Aid the Starving was formed: Pomgol and subsequently, Posledgol, under the direction of Y.P. Gaven. Pomgol instituted a series of taxes, created children’s homes and organized soup kitchens and feeding points. Help was sent by American charitable organizations, distributing food to the needy.
Those lucky enough to be working got rations: three-quarters a pound of bread, half a pound of sugar, one pound of salt and ten pounds of vegetables.
In 1922 the price of products like kerosene or matches compared to a few years earlier was just incredible. In the spring of 1922, 500,000 people starved, almost 70% of Crimea’s population. Famine deaths from 1921 to 1922 totaled more than 75,000 Crimeans. The total number lost in the spring of 1923 may have exceeded 100,000 people. It wasn’t until the mid 1920’s that the famine was under control.
During the famine in Crimea in 1921, the Gelelovich couple, Lisa (a daughter of Duvan, the former town mayor) and her husband Sulyeman used personal savings and collected provisions for Evpatoria’s inhabitants and sent their own ship ‘Lebed’, saving many lives of their fellow citizens. The ship, the Gelelovish’s source of income, was impounded. The family was devastated...
From November 1920 to September 1921 a drama troop performed at the city theater, delivering 130 shows. In 1937 a newly created theatrical troupe appeared at the theatre with show notices that could be found in the local newspaper ‘Collectivist’.
On July, 1921, the first of the city’s first museum opened: a museum of antiquity, created by the order of the 46th artillery division staff. The question about the creation of the museum was first put forth as far back as 1916 for decision of the city council: "The council asks the Duma to resolve: the declaration of a highly-desirable museum in Evpatoria for retaining antique discoveries, for the establishment of a museum to place the discoveries at the town public library." In 1936, the museum was re-conceived as an ethnography museum.
Less than a month after the end of the Civil War, in December of 1920, Crimea was visited by N.A. Semashko from the public health ministry, studying the situation in the resort field and authoring the decree of December, 21 of that same year signed by Lenin "regarding the use in Crimea of activities for treatment.” D.I. Ylyanov (a member of the Evpatorian Russian Community Party committee since 1919) was nominated to lead the central management of the Crimean resort. The mandate of November 1921 became a positive start for the Evpatoria-Saki resort. At that time, after the interlude, the sanatoriums Talassa and Premorshky were constructed.
The soviet authorities determined that Evpatoria’s private sanatoriums and dachas were to be socialized and to be used for treatment of the participant of the Civil War, workers, peasants and their children. When the question arose as to which resort (Odessa, Anapa, Evpatoria or the South Coast of Crimea) would be the most suitable for the mass treatment of children, the majority of scientist-pediatricians were in favor of Evpatoria. In 1936, the government came to a decision to create a state children’s resort in Evpatoria. From this time Evpatoria had been developed as a pan-Soviet Union children’s health resort.
After the Civil War and during the years of the first five-year plan, the resort had considerable growth, defining in 1936 its profile as children’s resort and in 1941 having 36 sanatoriums. To this, old industrial enterprises were added such as Crimea’s largest weaving factory and beer, wine, milk and bread factories and plants from the ‘Crimriba’ association and others. | |
