Abstract
The purpose of the article is the analysis of reconstruction processes in the social sphere of railway transport, based on the materials of the history of the Vinnytsia railway, the tracks of which served the territory, enterprises, subjects of agricultural production in Vinnytsia, Kamianets-Podilska (now Khmelnytska), Zhytomyr , Kyiv regions after their liberation by the Soviet army in 1943-44. The object of the study goes beyond the regional framework and allows to project the processes that took place within the boundaries of one business entity and on other railways in the regions of Ukraine. This article is an attempt to find effective methods of researching the social history of the region. The research methodology is based on source science methods, principles of objectivity, historicism, analysis and generalizations. Scientific novelty consists in the introduction into scientific circulation of new sources, facts from the social history of Vinnytsia and the Vinnytsia railway line as a separate, large business entity, which was a key element of Podillia's economy. Conclusions. The material losses of railway transport on the scale of Ukraine were significant - more than 10 billion rubles. Damages to the Vinnytsia highway amounted to more than 340 million rubles. For the restoration of the war-ravaged national economy, the state allocated only seven percent of the amount of losses that Ukraine suffered as a result of the war and occupation. It is logical that under such conditions, railway tracks, hub stations, and enterprises were the first to be rebuilt. Railway workers were faced with a great burden of problems and trials, the overcoming of which required not only the reconstruction of the industrial, but also the social sphere of transport. As archival documents testify, the restoration of the social sphere was started not after the end of the bloody German-Soviet war, but simultaneously with the rebuilding of the main assets of the railway industry.