The training of production personnel at industrial enterprises of Ulyanovsk region during the Great Patriotic War

On the basis of previously unstudied archival documents this article reveals the multifaceted and multidimensional activities which the country’s top leadership as well as the leaders of the Middle Volga (Samara) region and Ulyanovsk district (from 1943 renamed Ulyanovsk region) unfolded for mobilizing work force for the military industry of Ulyanovsk region. In the shortest possible time, just within one year, under conditions of shortage in housing, production areas, raw materials, and skilled personnel, they managed not only to redirect practically all industrial enterprises in the city of Ulyanovsk and the Ulyanovsk district towards the war eff ort, but also to integrate several dozens of evacuated enterprises, to provide them with production areas, and to accommodate thousands of employees as well as their family members. By the summer of 1942, all these enterprises had started to work at full capacity; they considerably increased deliveries of all things needed at the front, thus making a considerable contribution to ensuring a radical change in the course of the war in 1943. The authors conclude that this success resulted from the eff ective work of central and local authorities, as well as of the directorates of the defense enterprises, in the fi eld of training of highly skilled specialists. New vocational schools were set up, in addition to technical schools and production classes at general schools. Moreover, successful measures were taken to motivate the youth for highly productive work. The authors emphasize that the heads of the enterprises organized eff ective training directly at the workplaces. The work with production staff was accompanied by well-organized ideological and educational work at the enterprises which in due time allowed to prevent provocations aimed at disrupting the military production in this critical period of the war. In particular, the article points to the successful management of the textile industry and cloth factories for increasing labor productivity and establishing labor discipline in teams.