Citation

Martin Kragh, "Soviet Labour Law during the Second World War." PERSA Working Paper no. 63. Original version received April 14, 2011. University of Warwick, Department of Economics. Available free of charge from http://go.warwick.ac.uk/persa. The final, definitive version of this paper is forthcoming in War in History.

Corresponding author: Martin.Kragh@hhs.se.

Abstract

By studying Soviet legal practices, we learn about the enforcement of coercive legislation in the USSR. New archival data show how Soviet organs attempted to control labour in industry during the Second World War. State organs interacted in order to enforce legislation, but enforcement in practice was weak. Soviet leaders simplified administrative procedures for enforcement as long as the war threat persisted. So enforcement of coercive labour law was a priority during the war, but actual penalization was inefficient due to various constraints.