HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ATTRACTING AND REORIENTING NON-MILITARY ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS OF THE USSR TO PRODUCE MILITARY PRODUCTS DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

Anatoly V. Pokhilyuk, Denis V. Shuvalov, Maria A. Shuvalova

DOI: 10.47026/1810-1909-2020-4-100-107

Key words

the Great Patriotic war, enterprises and organizations, equipment, property, material resources.

Annotation

From the first days of military actions in the Great Patriotic war, all the activities of the Soviet troops required providing and further use of a large number of material resources: equipment, weapons, ammunition, food, etc. In conditions of an acute shortage of property for the defense purposes, many enterprises began to adjust to produce military products, thereby providing comprehensively the defensive measures in the initial period of the war, and later – successful advance of the Soviet troops. The article carries out the historical analysis of attracting and reorienting non-military enterprises and organizations of the USSR to produce military products during the Great Patriotic war. It gives numerous examples of civilian enterprises reorientation to produce weapons, ammunition, equipment, products, and medicines. Special emphasis is placed on restructuring the heavy industry as the main supplier of military equipment. The article reviews and analyzes the conditions under which efficient mass production was organized, which consists of a sequential performing operations that do not require a high qualification from the workers, but at this reduce the time for the production of an article due to fragmentation of processes. It is emphasized that reorientation of Soviet non-military enterprises and organizations of the USSR to produce military products took place in a very short time, which in principle did not affect the increase in the number of manufactured products. It is concluded that organization of large-scale weapons production at non-military enterprises of the country was achieved by upgrading the equipment, applying new production methods, improving technological schedules, close interaction of enterprises, and other measures. It is emphasized that historical experience convincingly proves that the military situation in a state, as a rule, affects not only military enterprises and organizations of the state, but civil ones as well. The authors put emphasis upon the heroic labor feat performed by the civilian population in the most difficult years for the country. The need for further study of the issue under consideration is actualized, including for the purpose of patriotic education of the younger generation.

References

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 Information about the authors

Anatoly V. Pokhilyuk – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the History Department, Pushkin Leningrad State University, Russia, St. Petersburg, Pushkin (viktorovich_1948@mail.ru).

Denis V. Shuvalov – Lieutenant Colonel, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Senior Lecturer, Department of Railway Troops, Military Academy of Logistics Named after General of the army A.V. Khrulev, Russia, St. Petersburg (deonis.aphinsky@yandex.ru).

Maria A. Shuvalova – Senior Lecturer, Department of Humanities and Socio-Economic Disciplines, Military Institute (Railway Troops and military Communications) Military Academy of Material and Technical Support named after General of the army A.V. Khrulev, Russia, St. Peters­burg, Peterhof (masgribanova@yandex.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8890-1070).

For citations

Pokhilyuk A.V., Shuvalov D.V., Shuvalova M.A. HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ATTRACTING AND REORIENTING NON-MILITARY ENTERPRISES AND ORGANIZATIONS OF THE USSR TO PRODUCE MILITARY PRODUCTS DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. Vestnik Chuvashskogo universiteta, 2020, no. 4, pp. 100–107. DOI: 10.47026/1810-1909-2020-4-100-107 (in Russian).

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