HISTORY OF THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ VOLUNTARY LABOR BANDS AS A FORM OF VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY OF THE YOUTH ON THE TERRITORY OF THE KURSK GUBERNIA DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
The history of volunteer activity of students in the years of the First World War is presented on the basis of office documents of educational institutions of the Kursk province, concentrated in the State Archives of the Kursk region. The need to study them is caused not only by the scientific, but also by the practical need for a deeper consideration of the volunteer activity of young people in pre-revolutionary Russia. Documentary materials are valuable sources, greatly expanding and refining our understanding of the formation of a volunteer movement of young people in a difficult time for the country. The article reflects the issues related to the examination of the essence, content and types of volunteer activity of the youth in the war years. Presents the data on the history of the formation of the first labor squads of pupils - in 1915-1916 on the territory of the Kursk province to help families of peasants drafted into the army, analyzes the features of the volunteer movement of the youth at the initial stages of formation of voluntary student groups, reveals the difficulties encountered by the organizers of the squads. It was the labor squads that became one of the most widespread forms of organizing amateur volunteer initiative youth associations that cared for distressed citizens, solving the problem of labor shortage in villages throughout the country, which increased after the recruitment of older men. The need to study them is caused not only by scientific, but also by the practical necessity for a deeper consideration of the volunteer movement of the youth in pre-revolutionary Russia.