Preliminary Programme

The defence industry of Kazakh SSR began to develop during the war on the basis of evacuated enterprises. Before the war, the production of ammunition in the republic was not carried out. The republic’s defence enterprises produced mine-mined weapons, torpedoes, artillery shells, mines, aerial bombs, gunpowder, field radio stations, X-ray equipment, and insulating materials. Despite significant difficulties, the evacuated enterprises quickly recovered at the new destinations and began to manufacture products for the defence industry.
The current paper analyzes the changes in the quantitative and qualitative composition of employees of defence enterprises in the USSR during the war years on the example of the Kazakh SSR. The main quantitative and qualitative changes in the specifics of the formation of labor collectives taking into account the gender, national and migration factor are shown. Addressing the problem of manning defence enterprises allows us to reconstruct the features of the state’s mobilization policy, sources of replenishment of workers who, in incredibly difficult conditions, made their significant labor contribution to improving the defence capabilities of the USSR. (Show less)

The proposed paper is dedicated to the working conditions and labor organization in defence enterprises of Kazakhstan under the mobilization economy – a field of research that remains a blank spot in the history of the region until today. The labor conditions at defence enterprises were extremely difficult, as in most industrial factors of the USSR during the war the provisions on labor protection were not observed; workplaces were gassed due to a poorly functioning or absent ventilation system; and various medical cases such as lead poisoning were often registered. The paper discusses in detail the over-intensification of labor and excessive physical stress caused by high production standards of wartime. Special attention will be paid to the correlation between the number of occupational injuries and industrial accidents, the non-compliance with safety regulations, and the improper scheduling and management of the production process in extreme wartime conditions. (Show less)

During the Second World War Kazakhstan was in an especially significant position, being the main arsenal provider for the front. In the beginning of the war, the republic occupied the first place in USSR in the production of lead – around nine of ten Soviet bullets were made of Kazakh lead. Numerous Soviet enterprises were moved to this republic, laying the basis of its defence industry. Around ten thousand of workers, engineers, and technicians were involved in Kazakh enterprises during the war. The concentration of these plants and workers was in Alma-Ata, which was serious affected by issues such as insufficient living places for the evacuated population, lack of adjusted industrial sites for the new labor force, scarcity of material resources, deficits of supplies, and falling living standards. At the background of these living and work problems, there occurred systematic tensions on social and everyday level, which furthermore complicated the difficult war-time situation.
The current paper will present the life conditions of workers in defence factories in Kazakhstan, laying a special emphasis on material resources, medical supplies, and social security practices applied at the time. The paper will discuss the social responses to the living conditions and various cases of criticism voiced at factory and party meetings, as well as in overt or “anonymous” letters of authorities accessible in abundance in archival collections. This kind of sources not only shows a variety of approaches in coping with the challenging war-time circumstance, but also outlines certain modes of adjusting the everyday life of evacuated people to the changed environment and demanding work efforts. (Show less)