DOI: 10.7256/2409-868X.2016.4.20229

Abstract: The subject of this research is the policy of regulation of the composition of Komsomol during the prewar years as a way of strengthening of social and human resource base of Stalin’s dictatorship. The author examines the peculiarities of the enrollment into the union, as well as the institution of exclusion from Komsomol as the means of increasing of the quality of its composition. In the context of regulation of the composition of Komsomol, the author analyzes the purges of the “Great Terror” period of 1937-1938.  For the first time in the new historiography of the strengthening of the regime of Stalin’s dictatorship, the author analyzes the practice of regulation of the quantitative and qualitative composition of the union in the late 1930’s through the mechanism of inclusion/exclusion of its members. The practice of inclusion of the late 1930’s significantly differed from the preceding period: the majority of the enrolled was comprised not by the labor people, but the students, which contributed into the growth of educational potential of the union. The mass inclusion of the youth produced a well-known negative effect: in form of increase of the portion of passive members, which decreased the organizational-executive quality of the Komsomol as the assistant of the party. The sanction policy in the union primarily supported the government interests, which substantiated the high percentage of exclusion of the Komsomol members based on political grounds.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-868X.2015.6.15632

Abstract: Based on the example of functioning of Tambov Oblast processing branches of industry, the author gives evaluation to the efficiency of the planned-centralized economy in the conditions of the wartime. The object of this research is the combination of branches of light and food industries that belong to the industry group B, the strategic importance of which during the wartime consisted in the food and clothes supply of the army and fabric-factory population of the base. A special attention is given to the questions of local subordination as the only source of supply of the local population throughout the war. The authors examines the industrial base potential, difficulties of economic restructuring of the real sector and the ways to overcome them, as well as the results of carrying out the government projected tasks. This article is first to analyze on the example of the materials of Tambov Oblast the effect of the government industrial policy during the period of “socialistic reconstruction of economy” upon the work of the Soviet processing industry under the conditions of the Great Patriotic War. The author makes a conclusion on the complete retargeting of the processing branches towards the supply of the battle needs; their objective incapability to carry out government projected tasks and meet the needs of the local population with the living essentials due to human resources, material-technical, as well as mineral and fuel issues; negative influence upon the industrial indexes in the light and food sectors of the prewar industrial policy of the government aimed at stimulating the heavy industry branches.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2015.5.17000

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the sanction features of the human resource policy of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol) during the period of the Great Patriotic War. The author’s attention is focused on the extreme form of corporate sanctions – expulsion, which is examined as part of the regulating mechanisms of the group’s quality and quantity composition consisting of the civilian Komsomol under the conditions of membership shortages in 1941–1945. The author presents a comparative time-spatial analysis of the sanction mechanisms’ work of expelling members during the pre-War period and during the war, on the scale of the whole USSR and on the regional level, while identifying the differences in implementation practices and reasons of substantiation. The study of the sanction policy in the Komsomol is carried out considering the governmental nature of this organisation. The article’s methodology is primarily based on the use of the historical-comparative method, including synchronic and diachronic material analysis, as well as the method of statistical data processing. In presenting the material the author adheres to the principle of historism. The article’s scientific novelty lies in its comparative examination of the questions of the sanction policy of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League during the period of the Great Patriotic War on the basis of modern methodological approaches. The sanction policy of the Komsomol during the period of the Great Patriotic War was accompanied by an absolute and a relative reduction of the proportion of expelled members in the total body of the Komsomol compared to the pre-War period, which is explained by the aim of the Komsomol authorities to maintain to the highest degree the organisational and executive potential of the organisation under the conditions of a precipitous reduction of its number and the complication of its functional responsibilities. The nature of expulsion during the period of war demonstrates the organisation’s direct link with law enforcement standards and with the objectives of strengthening social stability among the civilian population.