Особенности работы ленинградских предприятий Народного комиссариата боеприпасов в 1941 году

Abstract

The organization and maintenance of the industrial production process is a complex management task. During the period of hostilities this task must be solved within the framework of many additional restrictions – mainly due to the conflict of interests rather than due to the forceful influence of the enemy. The organization of production in the frontline zone is a task that requires constant extraordinary efforts from the participants and, often, self-sacrifice. Leningrad, one of the largest industrial centers in the country, found itself in frontline conditions already in September 1941. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War colossal human and material resources were concentrated in the city – according to post-war estimates, "the industry of Leningrad in 1940 gave over 10 % of all industrial production of the USSR" [1, p. 147]. The increase in the volume of military production was carried out in accordance with changes in the international situation. The peak was reached in the summer of 1941, but during the second half of the year production dropped to virtually zero. Particularly important and technologically complex processes were withdrawn from the city until the end of October 1941, most of the plants and factories remaining inside the blockade ring stopped due to the lack of fuel and electricity in December 1941 - early January 1942. During the period of “time of death”, when there were not enough resources even for the full provision of food production, the production of only one type of industrial product continued, albeit in many respects nominally, – ammunition. And it is precisely on the production of ammunition that attention should be focused at analyzing the work of the Leningrad heavy industry in wartime. However, without understanding the peculiarities of the balance of forces in the pre-war period, it will be impossible to understand and evaluate the scale of the organizational and physical work which had been carried out by the leaders and workers of the city directly during the war. The article provides information about all factories and organizations of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition (NKB) of the USSR that operated in Leningrad and the surrounding suburbs in 1941, both before and after the start of the Great Patriotic War: location, number of personnel, setting data on directors, products characteristics, work features, evacuation sites. Information about the factories of civilian commissariats engaged in the production of ammunition in the pre-war and war periods is given in a limited extent.