The article is devoted to one of the aspects of the food problem, which was very acute during the Great Patriotic War. Based on sources from two regional archives (Vladimir and Ivanovo regions), the author tried to find out the significance of individual gardening in the designated regions. In historiographic terms, the topic outlined in the work is poorly studied both at the all-Union and local levels. At the same time, the study revealed common problems in gardening characteristic of various regions and republics of the RSFSR. These included difficulties with obtaining seeds and seedlings, as well as difficulties with storing the harvest. The desire of a significant number of workers and employees to obtain a vegetable garden for use as early as in 1943 led to the depletion of land plots within the cities of Vladimir and Ivanovo regions. This problem existed in many regions of the country. Despite the contradiction of individual gardening with the socialist order, the Soviet government itself contributed to the expansion of this phenomenon, since in 1943—1945, workers' vegetable gardens, along with subsidiary farms of enterprises and institutions, made a decisive contribution to resolving the food issue. The surviving materials of the Ivanovo Regional Committee draw attention to the higher yields in individual vegetable gardens than in subsidiary farms. The spread of vegetable gardening among city dwellers during the war years left
a significant imprint on the consciousness and psychology of citizens who continued to farm in the cities in the post-war period of Russian history.
For citation: Tryakhov I.S. Individual gardening during the Great Patriotic War (using the example of the Vladimir and Ivanovo regions), Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2025, iss. 3, pp. 135—143.