Foreign prisoners of war in metallurgical production and construction on the territory of Udmurtia in 1945-1948

The article is devoted to the role of foreign prisoners of war (PoWs) in the metallurgical production and construction on the territory of Udmurtia in 1945-1948. The author describes the character of PoW labour on the basis of archival documents that were first introduced in the scientific use. The author states that the use of PoWs in the production and construction occurred because of the lack of workers at enterprises of Izhevsk and Udmurtia. The paper contains the analysis of the labour effect and the profit from PoW activities, represents the quantitative indexes of the special contingent and the level of PoW wages in the metallurgical production in Izhevsk. Enterprises that used PoW labour are listed. The author fixes some problems in the organization of PoW labour. The causes of low PoW productivity and labour results are identified. The kinds of PoW work are also presented, as well as the number of PoWs at the city enterprises and their wages. The data reveal forgotten and unknown facts about the activities of the special contingent in the reconstruction of the Votkinsk Dam. The data show the importance of PoW labour for certain enterprises in the solution of different problems. Sometimes enterprises lacked workers because the number of PoWs involved in production and construction decreased. Foreign prisoners of war were the main resource of workers at some enterprises of Izhevsk during the post-war time. The author states that PoW labour played a certain role in the reconstruction and improvement of the economic indexes of Izhevsk and Udmurtia after the Great Patriotic War. Foreign prisoners of war were mainly auxiliary workers at enterprises because they had no professional qualification. The author states that the labour of PoWs often did not pay their support costs. This tendency was a cause of the quick repatriation of PoWs from the Soviet Union. The paper describes the nationalities of foreign PoWs who worked in Izhevsk and Udmurtia after World War II. The contingent of PoWs in Izhevsk consist of Germans, Romanians, Hungarians and foreigners of others countries of Western and Central Europe. The author also analyzes the facts about the Izhevsk camp for the special contingent. The issue of foreign PoWs in the USSR during 1941-1956 is a blind spot of the Soviet history. The paper assists in the study of the little known episodes of the Soviet and regional history and helps to reconstruct the integral image of PoW life in the USSR.

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