Labour Battalions

Categories / Army. Navy/Blokade
LABOUR BATTALIONS, internal security units, formed in Leningrad and its suburbs in August 1941, according to an initiative by the City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks); the battalions were made up of people not subject to the draft (mainly workers). As a rule, a labour battalion was recruited from employees of a single enterprise. Personnel performed their duties in their free time, mostly after work. Labour battalions were active on the territory of their workplaces (subordinated to their directors), and within city limits (under the supervision of local party authorities). In total, there were 76 labour battalions of 500 - 600 people each. About one third of its members joined the People's Volunteer Militia; others were divided into five brigades in November 1941; in January 1942, they were again reorganised into labour battalions, which were disbanded at the end of 1942-43.

G. V. Kalashnikov. см. при ст. Народное ополчение. People's Volunteer Militia of 1941