Autumn militia in defense of Moscow (October 1941 – January 1942): from workers’ and fighter battalions to regular units of the Red Army

The article examines the key moments in the history of the creation and formation of three Moscow volunteer divisions. They arose on the basis of the workers'/Communist and extermination battalions of Moscow in October 1941 as the last reserve on the near approaches to the capital. For a comprehensive study and analysis of the process of transformation of Moscow militia formations into regular units of the Red Army (November 1941- January 1942), not only new documents from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (CAMO), but also unique interviews with former militia members from the Mints Commission of the Scientific Archive of the IRI RAS were used for the first time. An attempt has been made to reconstruct and show not only the military-organizational aspect of this process, but also an equally important humanitarian one, which can be reflected in the course of studying the military everyday life of that time.