Departmental Resettlements of Special Settlers during the Great Patriotic War: Mechanism of Realization and Significance (Based on the Materials of North-Western Siberia)

Abstract

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet system of labor force mobilization functioned in extreme tension. At the same time, the existence of an extensive and multi-faceted system of forced labor in the country inevitably made the GULAG an obligatory element in the mobilization process and dramatically increased the role of various categories of special contingent in the general balance of labor resources. One of the users of forced labor during the war was the fishing industry, the development of which was included in the list of state priorities by a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of January 6, 1942. The article examines the mechanisms for the implementation of forced migration for the needs of a particular department (People’s Commissariat of the Fishing Industry) and determines their significance for recipient regions as exemplified by North-Western Siberia consisting of the Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets national districts of the Omsk (since August 1944 — Tyumen) region. The article demonstrates that the implementation of government decisions led to an increase in the significance of the department and to strengthening of the role of the People’s Commissariat of the Fishing Industry in the socio- economic development of North-Western Siberia. As a result of special resettlements, North-Western Siberia acquired the characteristics of a mono-specialized territory, which was “under the care” of one department. Nevertheless, the emergence of such a mono-region did not reduce the potential for interdepartmental conflicts and did not bring about the planned indicators, thus the goal of state policy, in this part, was not achieved.