Roman Evgenievich Romanov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Violators of the Decree of December 26, 1941 in the “Defense Industry” of Western Siberia in the Initial Period of the Great Patriotic War: People and Destinies
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-1-13
Fragments of the memorandum “On the issue of checking the Decree of the Government of 26/XII-1941”, the order of the People’s Commissariat of Ammunition of the USSR No. 0207/N dated September 10, 1942 and the information summary “On those convicted of desertion from military and coal industry enterprises by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 12/26/41 for September-November 1942 by the military tribunals of the Siberian Military District”, identified in the funds of the State Archive of the Novosibirsk region. The content of extracts from these documents is of key importance for understanding the typology of violators of the decree of December 26, 1941 for the reasons and consequences of official misconduct. The publications are preceded by an introductory article, which analyzes the process of formation of the system of enforcement of an indefinite employment contract, its evolution into the mobilization status of military personnel, as well as the reaction to these changes in the field of social and labor relations of defense workers in Western Siberia on the eve and in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War. It is established that after the adoption of the decree of June 26, 1940 in the USSR industry, there was a shift in emphasis from administrative to criminal penalties for employees who committed absenteeism and unauthorized departures from enterprises. At the beginning of the second half of the military year, in connection with the publication of a new labor law, judicial sanctions against deserters from the economic front acquired a draconian character. It is shown that the transition to criminally repressive practices of struggle for strengthening labor discipline in the second half of 1940 led to a decrease in the dynamics of protest-maladaptive behavior of workers in the West Siberian “defense industry”. In the second half of 1941–1942, against the background of the tightening of punitive measures against labor desertion, the number of official misconduct in the formation of dozens of new factory teams mainly of women and young people only increased. It is concluded that three types of violators of the decree of December 26, 1941 have become widespread in the regional military industry. The most widespread of them were workers who left enterprises due to abnormal production or living conditions and were sentenced by tribunals to imprisonment for a term of five to eight years. A relatively rare type of offenders were conscious disorganizers of production, shot for “sabotage” under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Defendants who were sentenced due to mitigating circumstances to forced labor or conditional punishment that went beyond the scope of the decree of December 26, 1941 were also a rare phenomenon.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 13.10.2022
How to cite: Romanov R.E. Violators of the Decree of December 26, 1941 in the “Defense Industry” of Western Siberia in the Initial Period of the Great Patriotic War: People and Destinies // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 1 (27), pp. 167–177. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-1-13.pdf]
Links: Issue 1 2023
Keywords: The Great Patriotic War; the West Siberian rear; defense industry; violators of the decree of December 26, 1941; labor desertion