Labor Mobilizations in the Frontline Region in 1941–1942 (Based on the Materials from Vologda Oblast)

The purpose of this article is to describe labor mobilization, a type of wartime labor relations. The authors believe that this system generally fitted into the legislation established in the 1930s, but its application was significantly expanded during the war period. In order to analyze labor mobilizations during the first period of the Great Patriotic War in Vologda Oblast, the authors used the materials from the labor legislation, documents from the regional Vologda Oblast State Archive (fonds of the Vologda Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Vologda Oblast Council of Peopleʼs Deputies (Executive Committee), Bureau for Labor Registration and Distribution under the Vologda Oblast Executive Committee, etc.). Some material was extracted from the collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (the fonds of the Committee for Labor Registration and Distribution under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR). The article covers the development of the concept of labor mobilization. The authors also compare the features of this type of labor relations with the relations that had existed previously as part of labor service and the relations formed during the war in the context of the labor army. In general, it was revealed that the establishment of the legislative system underlying labor mobilization had not occurred before 1942; until then, the regulations for labor mobilization had been based on management practices that existed at the oblast and district levels. Limited resources made it difficult to provide properly for the mobilized population. The authors studied the dynamics in the main areas of labor mobilization in 1941–42 and found out that the majority of workers were involved in the construction of defensive facilities in Vologda Oblast and Leningrad Oblast in 1941 and in agricultural and forestry works in 1942. In addition, the reports on labor mobilization allowed the authors to identify its scale: about 10% of the able-bodied population of the Vologda region was mobilized for this type of work. The materials considered by the authors of the article show that in terms of timing and types of work, the cycle of labor mobilization had been completely established by the second year of the war.

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