Эволюция государственной политики в отношении трудового дезертирства в 1944–1945 годах

Abstract

The object of scientific research was the evolution of legislation and its law enforcement practice with respect to the deserters from military industrial enterprises at the final stage of World War II. This evolution formally suggested an obvious change of emphasis in the penal policy of labour mobility control: from toughening law enforcement practices to realization of large-scale amnesties of workers who arbitrarily left their places of work.On the basis of the local archival materials the author analyzes practical implementation of innovations reflected in the Decree of the Government of the USSR of June 29, 1944 (change in the procedure for searching and punishing deserters; bringing economic leaders to criminal and party responsibility for non-compliance with the norms of the Decree of December 26, 1941; preventive measures aimed at improvement of working and living conditions). However, attempts of systemic improvement of existing legislation and its enforcement practices faced with certain institutional constraints existed due to the nomenclature organization of power and the supply and demand correlation in the labour market. The author sees the reasons for the amnesties in 1944‒1945 in the low efficiency of toughening punitive measures, excessively high administrative expenses in the process of the Decree of December 26, 1941 realization. It is mentioned that holding the amnesty did not change the substance of the legislation on criminal prosecution for unauthorized abandonment of the workplace of workbut was only the reaction of the state which defended the departmentinterests of the military industry people's commissariats concerning the provision of enterprises with labor force, the reaction to the poorly effective search for labor deserters.