Public Administration during the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

The article analyzes the main features of the Soviet system of public administration during the Great Patriotic War. The paper consistently examines the formation and functioning of the Headquarters of the High Command (since August 1941 — the Supreme High Command) and the State Defense Committee under the leadership of I.V. Stalin, the commission of the Bureau of the Council of People’s Commissars (BSNK) on current issues under the leadership of V.M. Molotov; the mobilization of party organs and the national economy, including the transition of the national economy to a military track; various aspects of the population mobilization, including for defense industry enterprises; the formation of the people’s militia, the conscription system, the development of the partisan movement under the leadership of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement; the activities of the Evacuation Council in 1941, as well as the evacuation of 1942. The study separately analyzes the economic components of the state’s position during the war: national income, revenues and expenditures of the state budget, and state military loans; the volume of production of various branches of heavy and light industry, including military production, as well as agriculture; the number and working conditions of Soviet workers and employees, including women and teenagers; the contribution of the GULAG population and the Defense Fund; the card system for the distribution of food and industrial goods; management of the restoration of the national economy. Attention is paid to the state management of orphanages and schools, the system of measures to increase the birth rate, information policy, as well as policy in the field of culture and art, state symbols, management of science, relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religions of the country. As a result, it is concluded that the feat in the name of a common just cause was also the feat of those people who ensured the governance of the country.