J.-P. Depretto The categories of forced labor in the Urals during WWII

Аннотация: During the years 1941–1945, Soviet laborers were subject to increased coercion. Two new categories of forced laborers appeared: the “labor soldiers” and the POWs. They added to the categories already present in the thirties: the concentration camp prisoners and the “special settlers”. The aim of this article is to describe as precisely as possible the situation of these unfree laborers. The four categories were not separated by clear boundaries, but overlapped, with almost imperceptible transitions.

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Abstract: During the years 1941-1945, Soviet laborers were subject to increased coercion. Two new categories of forced laborers appeared: the “labor soldiers” and the POWs. They added to the categories already present in the thirties: the concentration camp prisoners and the “special settlers”. The aim of this article is to describe as precisely as possible the situation of these unfree laborers. The four categories were not separated by clear boundaries, but overlapped, with almost imperceptible transitions. This article examines forced labor in the Urals during World War II. Forced labor was an important part of Soviet war economy. The Urals region was a great industrial region, which played a great role in the production of weapons during the war and contributed very much to the Soviet victory. It was also a zone of camps and “special settlements”, where people named “special settlers”, deported according to social or ethnic criteria, lived.

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