USSR State Defence Committee's Activities during 1942 and 1943 presented in archival documents on Presidential Library's portal

The portal of the Presidential Library has added more than 700 archival documents in collection World War II in Archival Documents. These documents include resolutions of the State Defence Committee of the USSR (GKO), which were issued between November 20, 1942 and April 22, 1943. These resolutions are permanently stored in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History.

In addition to regular resolutions regarding the construction of power plants and the production of military equipment, the GKO also adopted resolutions in November 1942 that focused on improving communication lines between Leningrad and the front lines in winter 1942-1943 (resolution No. 2531). Other resolutions included the establishment of the Southern and Lithuanian headquarters for the partisan movement (resolution No. 2541) and uranium mining operations (resolution No. 2542).

In December 1942, production of weapons continued to increase. Resolutions were adopted on the plans for the production of machine guns, mortars, ammunition, tanks, and shells. Plans were also made for the construction of ships and the release of aircraft.

In addition, in December 1942, the re-evacuation of individual workers and employees began. On December 4, an order was issued to return from the Kazakh SSR to Moscow the evacuated part of students, professors, and teachers of Moscow's Order of Lenin V. M. Molotov Energy Institute (No. 2563). On December 25, another order was issued for the return to Moscow of researchers, workers, and employees of the Dzerzhinsky All-Union Research Institute of Thermal Engineering (No. 2658).

In January 1943, the GKO of the USSR's main task was to solve material and technical problems in industry and the transport sector, including the construction of railway lines. By resolutions of the State Defence Committee, personal military ranks were introduced for military medical and veterinary staff in the Red Army (No. 2685). Guards mortar divisions (No. 2748) and ten tank armies (No. 2791) were formed.

On February 2nd, 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad came to an end with a complete victory for Soviet troops. The same day, the State Defence Committee (GKO) of the USSR issued a resolution on the reconstruction of the Stalingrad railway junction and the railway lines connecting Stalingrad with Tikhoretsk and Likhaya stations (Resolution No. 2815).

In the same month, new military ranks were introduced for engineering, legal, and administrative personnel in the Red Army (Resolution No. 2822) and for quartermasters, medical, veterinary, administrative, and legal personnel in the Navy (Resolution No. 2890).

In March of 1943, GKO approved plans for transportation and distribution of various national economic goods, including coal, chemicals, artillery, small arms, and petroleum products.

In connection with the liberation of the territories of the Soviet Union that were temporarily occupied by Nazi forces, resolutions were passed regarding the restoration of communication facilities and enterprises in these areas (Resolution No. 2990). Additionally, resolutions were made regarding the dissolution of the Central Headquarters for the Partisan Movement (Resolution No. 3000) and the restoration of power plants, networks, and substations in cities such as Grozny, Ordzhonikidze, Stalingrad, and Voronezh (Resolution No. 3014).

Among the resolutions passed by the State Defence Committee of the USSR in April 1943 related to plans for the production and enhancement of military equipment's combat capabilities, two stand out: the Resolution on the establishment of a trophy commission responsible for exporting captured property (Resolution No. 3123), and the On Prisoners of War resolution, which detailed food ration norms for captured enemy soldiers (Resolution No. 3124).

On April 13, 1943, a decision No. 3177 was made to establish the Museum of Captured Weapons and Equipment. On April 17, at the request of the regional headquarters of the partisan movement, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was reestablished at the headquarters of the Supreme High Command, with number 3195.

On April 22, the State Committee of the USSR approved a resolution on restoring the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, with document number 3230.

The addition of the World War II in Archival Documents collection on the Presidential Library portal will continue with documents from the Great Patriotic War up to November 7, 1944. These include resolutions from the State Budget Committee, other documents from RGASPI, including the resolutions of the State Budget Committee of the USSR, as well as other documents from RGASPI and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, among other sources.

In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020, the organizers of the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials "World War II in Archival Documents" are the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Library.

The Collection is carried out by Rosarkhiv and federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the state archives of Belarus and others.

To date, the volume of the Collection is over 13,5 thousand materials: maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to December 1944.

Archival documents of the Collection World War II in Archival Documents are available from anywhere in the world thanks to the Presidential Library’s portal. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations to the documents as well as the texts of the accompanying articles are also available in English.

In addition to digitized archival documents the Collection contains a list of the main Internet projects, databases, other thematic online documents, virtual tours of the history of World War II, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.