THE ROLE OF MILITARY TRIBUNALS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST LABOUR DESERTION AT TEXTILE ENTERPRISES OF IVANOVO REGION IN 1942–1943

This article examines the punitive practice of military tribunals against textile workers who committed unauthorised departure from enterprises, as well as production disrupters influential among workers, from November 1942 to November 1943. It became possible after the adoption by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on October 11, 1942, of Decree ‟On the extension of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR” dated December 26, 1941, to workers and employees of enterprises of the People’s Commissariat of the Textile Industry of the USSR. ‟On the responsibility of workers and employees of enterprises of the military industry for unauthorised withdrawal from enterprises.” As a result, textile workers were equated with workers in the defence industry; they were considered mobilised for the period of the war and assigned to permanent work at the textile factories and factories where they worked. The unauthorised departure of workers and employees from work was considered as desertion, and those guilty of committing them (deserters) were sentenced by military tribunals to imprisonment for a term of 5 to 8 years. The article reflects the dynamics of this process, provides data on deserters by profession and sex; we call preventive measures on labour collectives, etc. Attention is paid to such positive practice of the tribunals as conditional conviction with the obligation to return to the enterprise. It was prepared on the materials of the State Archive of Ivanovo Region, which had first been introduced into scientific circulation. It is addressed to specialists in the field of the history of Soviet textile industry, to graduate students, undergraduates and students of higher educational institutions.