LABOUR RESOURCES REPLENISHMENT IN KUZBASS UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF WAR COMMUNISM

Abstract

The paper presents the analysis of the labor mobilizations in Kuzbass region in 1920 – 1921. The author emphasizes the cause-and-effect relation between the labor mobilization and the food supplies from Siberia to the famishing provinces of European Russia and the Urals during the fuel crisis because of the labour resources shortage in coal mines. The paper focuses on the role of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee in the realization of the plans of largescale displacement of labour force in the Kuznetsk Basin. Basing on the synthesis of the archival documents of Kemerovo, Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions and the Russian State Military Archive, the research revealed the sources of labour resources recruited in accordance with the labour duty for the coal mines of the Kuznetsk Basin and the construction of the Kolchugino-Prokopevsk mines railway. The quantitative membership and periods of labour activity of different groups of mobilized people are disclosed. The work shows qualitative and quantitative changes of mobilized workers in the Kuzbass coal industry. The work also gives a general characteristic of the economic activity of the Siberian labour army. The author comes to the conclusion that in the long run the labour mobilization did not significantly affect the replenishment of the workforce in Kuzbass. The study results allow us to extend the understanding of the formation of Kuzbass as an industrial center of Siberia.

Keywords

• labour mobilization, coal mining, kuzbass, siberian labour army