Labor mobilizations, forced attracting the population to work in the interests of the state. M. t. began to be widely used in the years Civil War both opposing sides. acc. with the resolution of May 6, 1919 Russian production could attract government service of persons of “intellectual professions” in the order of labor. duties. This measure was carried out in relation to doctors, lawyers, and production workers. After the restoration of the owls. authorities in Siberia, M. t. were widely used in various industries. Labor was created. armies, which were used to restore industry. objects and transport. communications, logging. Location the population was widely involved in clearing communication routes, building roads, performing horse-drawn duties, and Red Army soldiers were used to clean fields. M. t. became widespread due to the need to combat epidemics and the fuel crisis.
In Jan. 1920 due to completion of large scale. military campaigns to the east front and the need to restore people. households transformed the Third Army into the First Labor Army. Places were called into its composition. population of the Urals, the Urals and Siberia. The M. t. system was finally established after its adoption on January 29. 1920 Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on universal labor service. Unlike Europe. Russia, replenishment of industries by people. The economy was carried out by workers through the mobilization of not three, but five ages (born 1892–96). M. t. covered not only peasants and mountains. ordinary people, but also qualified ones. workers, scientific and technical intelligentsia. In key sectors of the economy, workers were treated like military personnel (mobilized) and held accountable for failure to meet production standards. Militarization covered workers and employees in 14 industrial sectors, including mining, chemicals, metallurgy, metalworking, fuel, as well as higher education workers. and Wed textbook establishments.
In the Urals from the autumn of 1919 to April. 1920 mobilized 714 thousand people. and attracted 460 thousand supplies, ch. arr. for logging. City enterprises of Siberia (without Novonikolaevsk And Irkutsk) in these years 454 thousand workers were required. Labor Department Sibrevkom was able to send 145.5 thousand people to work on mobilization, or 32% of the need. Total for permanent and temporary. work in industry, transport and logging in Sibirsk. region in 1920, 322 thousand people were mobilized. Overcome the labor shortage. power failed. For the 1st half of 1921 there was a shortage of qualified personnel. workers amounted to 99.4 thousand, employees - 73 thousand. In total, 262 thousand workers were required in the cities of Siberia during this period, the Sibtrud authorities were able to mobilize 47 thousand, or 17.8%. But ch. the problem was the quality of work execution; specialists were often involved in the execution of unqualified workers. labor. In relation to the intelligentsia, etc. mountains For the bourgeoisie, this policy was carried out consciously and bore the character of “class retribution.” The labor productivity of labor army soldiers and conscripts was extremely low, and the level of desertion from work was high.
Forcer. economic growth in the end 1920s caused an acute shortage of qualified personnel. personnel, especially specialists. In the beginning. 1930s people. The economy of Siberia required an additional 5.5 thousand engineers and approx. 10 thousand technicians. Under these conditions, forms and methods of mobilizing intellectual workers were recreated. labor to provide them with leading industries and “impact” construction projects. Objects of mobilization campaigns that took on a permanent character became qualified groups. specialists, and the goal was, first of all, the “voluntary-forced” return of the latter to their core field of activity. Work on accounting, mobilization, transfer of “specialists” and control over their use was concentrated in the union and republic. People's Commissariats of Labor and their region. organs In the Center and locally at the institutions of the People's Commissariat of Labor there were special workers. interdepartmental commission, which included representatives of various departments and bodies, including trade unions. Those who took part in the con. 1920s The 1st campaign was carried out by hidden mobilization. har-r and consisted of moving specialists from management. devices for production, first on a voluntary basis (through trade unions), then through “allocation”, and from November 9. 1929 (permanent Council of People's Commissars of the USSR) - already in a directive order. As a result of the campaign, by May 1930, out of the planned 10 thousand specialists, 6,150 people were transferred to production. In Siberia, out of the planned 150 technical personnel, 104 people were transferred. (69%). acc. from post Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated July 1, 1930 on the construction of new metallurgists in the East. factories (Magnitka and Kuznetskstroy) it was planned to transfer 110 construction specialists to these regions (the campaign provided about 90 people). The mobilization of specialists from beyond the Urals did not radically solve the personnel problem. Required within the region. redistribution of specialists and mobilization of personnel according to internal trade union regulations. lines. Announced in con. In 1930, under the leadership of the All-Union Intersectional Bureau of the Engineering and Technical Section, the mobilization of mining specialists for Kuzbass in Moscow and Leningrad actually failed.
To carry out orders, various types were used. methods of influencing specialists, up to and including holding “public show trials” (in Moscow in February 1931 - under the slogan “Thirty-three deserters of Kuzbass”) and transferring cases to the courts. institutions and bodies of the OGPU. Despite strict regulation and adoption in 1930–31 Siberian Regional Executive Committee (Zapsibkraiexecutive committee) more than 10 resolutions on the identification and mobilization of specialists to work in specialized sectors of the people. households (logging, transport, industry, finance, etc.), mobilization. movements were of low efficiency. To fully ensure timber rafting in the USSR in 1931, approx. 60 thousand qualified personnel, including workers. In reality, approximately 24 thousand people worked on the rafting. (40%). Forest industry mobilization gave approx. 9 thousand people, which was considered successful. Mobilization of specialists in 1931 water transport on a Western scale. Siberia made it possible to attract 75% of the number of transport specialists identified into the industry.
In connection with the creation of a system of compulsory labor, a network of special settlements was also formed, which required social cult. and production mobilization infrastructure dep. groups of intellectuals - doctors, teachers, cultural and educational workers. According to the post. Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated April 20. 1933 schools and medical. institutions were provided with personnel through mobilization from the regions of expulsion. To staff schools with teachers. personnel acc. from post Central Committee of the Komsomol dated October 5. 1931 the Komsomol was involved. org-tions. However, directives did not guarantee a full staffing of specialists. IN special settlements in the end 1931 ped. personnel was compiled even taking into account the emergency measures carried out. measures no more than 1/3 of the required quantity. By 1933 in the beginning. schools of the commandant's office of the Narym district. out of 447 civilian teachers, there were 247 people, the rest - special settlers, who have completed short-term ped. courses.
In 1930–33, work in special settlements was carried out annually. mobilization of doctors, etc. medical staff both from the center. parts of the country, and from Sib. region. However, according to data as of Nov. 1931, in the commandant's offices West Siberian region state med. institutions were only 60% staffed. Among honey Approximately 1/3 of the workers were civilian employees, the rest of the specialists were exiles, prisoners sent by SibLAG. The situation stabilized due to the mobilization of almost 70 medical workers in 1932–33 for 2 years. workers from Europe parts of the country. After their departure in 1935, a shortage of qualified personnel again arose in the commandant's offices. medical staff.
In 1941–45 mobilization. forms of redistribution of labor potential throughout the country received a new impetus. From the beginning Great Patriotic War due to large scale. military mobilizations The Siberian economy has entered a period of acute shortage of workers. strength, especially in the village. X. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, trying to solve the personnel problem through the utmost intensification of labor, on June 26, 1941, adopted a decree “On the working hours of workers and employees in wartime,” according to which obligations were established. overtime work, and regular and additional work. vacations were cancelled. 13 Apr 1942 post published. Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On increasing the mandatory minimum of workdays for collective farmers” from 100 to 150 per year. Teenagers aged 12 to 16 years were required to work at least 50 workdays. Failure to comply with established standards was considered corners. crime and was severely punished.
But to solve the problem of labor shortage. hands through extreme intensification of labor was impossible. Therefore, the emphasis was on mobilization. the principle of formation and use of labor. 26 Dec The 1941 decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On the responsibility of workers and employees of the military industry for unauthorized departure from enterprises” proclaimed the right of the state to assign workers to enterprises. From now on, all persons employed in the military industry or in industries serving the military industry were considered mobilized for the period of the war. Later military the provision was introduced on the railway, speech. and pestilence transport.
13 Feb In 1942, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council was issued “On the mobilization of the able-bodied urban population for work in production and construction during wartime.” After that, they were called up for production in the same way as for the army. Mobilization The principle also applied when recruiting students to schools of factory training (FZO) and crafts. and railway schools. M. t. were subject to men from 16 to 55 years old and women from 16 to 45 years old. Women who had children under 8 years of age and who were studying on Wed were exempt from M.T. and higher textbook establishments. Subsequently, the conscription age for women was increased to 50 years, and the age of children, which gives the mother the right to a deferment from labor, was reduced to 4 years.
In 1942 post. Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the procedure for attracting labor service in wartime" mobilization. principle of recruitment strength was expanded. M. t. as a form of labor recruitment and the relationship between the state and employees extended to the time. and seasonal work. Those mobilized worked in harvesting, in sugar beet warehouses, sugar factories and glass factories, and repaired roads and bridges. In 1942–43, on the basis of a number of decrees of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, into slavery. columns and detachments with strict centralization. The army structure mobilized the adult population of Germans, Finns, Romanians, and Hungarians. and Bulgarians. nationalities. Only owls. Germans (men and women) in the so-called. During the war years, the Labor Army was mobilized by St. 300 thousand people Most of those mobilized worked at NKVD facilities.
In total in Siberia for the period from February 13. From 1942 to July 1945, 264 thousand people were mobilized for permanent work in industry, construction and transport, in schools of federal educational institutions, crafts. and railway schools - 333 thousand, in agriculture. and temporary work – 506 thousand people.
Evasion from M. t. and escapes of mobilized persons were regarded as desertion and were punishable by Ch. arr. by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated December 26. 1941 “On the responsibility of workers and employees of the military industry for unauthorized departure from enterprises,” which provided for imprisonment for a period of 5 to 8 years. After the end of the Great Fatherland. war, the org system was restored. recruitment of workers forces were also practiced by societies. calls for youth to go to construction sites. households and development of virgin and fallow lands.
Lit.: Proshin V.A. On the issue of implementing universal labor conscription in Siberia during the period of military communism (late 1919–1921) // Questions of the history of Siberia. Tomsk, 1980; German A.A., Kurochkin A.N. Germans of the USSR in the labor army (1941–1945). M., 1998; Pystina L.I. Mobilization as a form of solution for specialist personnel for industry in the late 1920s - early 1930s. // Culture and intelligentsia of the Siberian province during the years of the “Great Turning Point”. Novosibirsk, 2000; Isupov V.A. Human resources of Western Siberia during the Great Patriotic War: problems of formation and use // Economic development of Siberia in the context of domestic and world history. Novosibirsk, 2005.
V.A. Isupov, S.A. Krasilnikov, V.A. Proshin, V.M. Markets
Before you is the Book of Memory of Labor Army Soldiers of the Chelyabmetallurgstroy Trust, created by Chelyabinsk archivists on the basis archival documents, stored in Government institution"United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region".
The term "labor army" or abbreviated "trudarmiya" is unofficial. Labor soldiers were those who were mobilized during the Great Patriotic War to perform forced labor service. First of all, the conscription extended to citizens of German nationality. On state level the involvement of Germans in forced labor was formalized in 1942 by resolutions of the State Defense Committee of the USSR dated January 10, 1942 No. 1123ss "On the procedure for the use of German migrants of conscription age from 17 to 50 years" and dated February 14, 1942 No. 1281ss "On the mobilization of Germans -men of conscription age from 17 to 50 years, permanently residing in regions, territories, autonomous and union republics."
In addition to the Germans, Finns, Czechs, Russian and Soviet citizens of other nationalities were “conscripted” into the labor army.
During the Great Patriotic War, 19 factories and 2 factories of Union significance were built in Chelyabinsk. The main construction force was the Labor Army. The labor army worked at an accelerated pace: factories were put into operation in a “short time”, sometimes even within a few months.
The Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant (now the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant) was built by the labor army workers of the Chelyabmetallurgstroy trust.
The Book of Memory includes information about 31,742 of our compatriots who worked during the Great Patriotic War in the labor army of the Chelyabmetallurgstroy trust.
It includes: last name, first name, patronymic, year and place of birth of the Labor Army member, his last place of residence, place and date of mobilization, date and reason for leaving the Labor Army.
The basis for compiling the Book of Memory was the surviving personal registration cards. Working with cards created in the 40-50s of the twentieth century was associated with a number of difficulties caused by their poor condition, carelessness in filling out, numerous errors and unreasonable abbreviations of the names of regions, districts, military registration and enlistment offices, and professions.
In order to prevent possible errors, the administrative-territorial division is entered in the Book of Memory as indicated on the card. The names of the Labor Army soldiers are placed in the Book of Memory in alphabetical order.
As a result of processing scattered material, the compilers tried to minimize inaccuracies and possible errors.
The presented Book is a tribute to the memory of our compatriots who, with their heroic labor in inhuman conditions, forged Victory over fascism.
Officially, these people were considered free, but in reality their life was practically no different from the life of prisoners. They lived, as a rule, in barracks. There was a shortage of warm clothes, linen, bedding, shoes, not to mention food.
The mortality rate among Labor Army soldiers was very high. Mostly they died from dystrophy, in other words, malnutrition, since the rations were very meager.
Thus, out of 120 thousand labor army workers who worked at the factories of the Southern Urals, by the end of the war, just over 34 thousand people survived. The dead were buried secretly at night in mass graves without documents. They didn’t even install signs, which subsequently greatly hampered the work of search teams.
Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of the Volga German Willy Gebel, born in 1925 in the village of Keppental and mobilized in November 1942 to the Gremyachinskoye coal field: “Every morning one or two dead people were carried out of the barracks. I especially remember January 1943. The frost reached minus 53 degrees. All construction workers were allowed to stay at home for two days. Later it got a little warmer to minus 49, and then some boss ordered everyone to be taken out of the barracks to clean the railway track near the mine. More than 300 came out
Human. Every third person who returned from snow removal had frostbite on their hands or feet. Medical workers did not have the right to relieve even severely frostbitten people from work. But they were unable to go to work, and they were immediately deprived of bread rations and hot meals. This was tantamount to death for weakened people. As a result of someone’s bungling, we lost more than forty comrades forever.”
Victory in the Great Patriotic War came at a very high price for all our people: sacrifices at the fronts, in the rear, and countless hardships. And - a lot of work. Including Soviet Germans evicted from their pre-war places of residence to remote areas of the country.
The leadership of the USSR, as is known, proceeded “from the interests of defense capability” and took “radical measures.” Among these measures was the decision to evict the Volga Germans to Akmola, North Kazakhstan, Kustanai, Pavlodar, Dzhambul and other regions.
The Germans living in Voronezh and neighboring regions were not “ignored.” In the fall of 1941, Lavrentiy Beria issued a direct order to deport five thousand Voronezh Germans. Among them were, for example, the entire family of the engineer of the Michurinsky locomotive repair plant Engelgart, a worker of the Voronezh plant named after Telman Guley... They were sent to the Urals after the Germans of the Volga region. But the Germans of Voronezh and the Volga region are citizens of our country.
A significant part of the Germans appeared in Ivdel, the northernmost taiga city of the Sverdlovsk region. Here they were busy with logging, timber removal, carried out warehouse and loading tasks, built timber export roads, engaged in sawmilling, rafting, exported aircraft boards, deck decks, aircraft bars, gun blanks, boat lumber...
In those years, the population of the Ivdel region was comparable to the number of the entire working contingent: on December 5, 1942 - 18,988 people.
The Germans were organized into construction battalions, and soon they became known as the "Labor Army". The regime was strict; those mobilized into this army were liable for military service and could not leave their columns voluntarily. Accommodation is barracks. Internal order was established by local leadership; wages and supplies through the trade network are the same as for civilian employees.
But it was not always so. The day came when the Germans were removed from the quartermaster's allowance, and then social and living conditions sharply deteriorated, which gave rise to the appearance of denunciations - one more terrible than the other.
For example, Ivan Andreevich Gessen was accused of being involved in anti-Soviet agitation. He was quoted as saying: “...We’ve had enough of drinking blood and mocking people... We all need to, as one, not go to work, then we would achieve an improvement in food and food supplies.” Should we expect something good after such a denunciation? On December 21, 1942, the judicial panel for criminal cases of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced I. Gessen to capital punishment. On March 26, 1943, the sentence was carried out.
The most massive mobilization of Russian Germans into the “labor army” took place in the first months of 1942. In total, until August 1944, about 400 thousand men and women were drafted, of whom about 180 thousand were placed under the “vigilant control of the internal affairs bodies.” Most of them were located in the Sverdlovsk region. Many were “demobilized” for health reasons.
The living conditions and moral situation of the German Labor Army soldiers were very difficult. Accused of aiding the enemy, deprived of all property and food supplies, settled mainly in rural areas where there was no card system, German population found himself in a terrible financial situation.
In the country, as a result of military operations and moral and psychological pressure, mortality and disability among those engaged in forced labor have increased significantly. For example, one of the leaders in Ivdel, Budenkov, officially reported: “...The situation with the uniform of the mobilized, who are forced to walk, for lack of shoes, at high temperatures in felt boots or completely barefoot,” officially reported. He also pointed out the presence of facts of “rudeness and insults on the part of some commanders of detachments and columns towards the mobilized... which negatively affects the political and moral state.”
Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Labor Army members were humble about their fate and worked conscientiously, an atmosphere of alienation and suspicion remained around them.
Some Germans saw their salvation in submitting a report asking to be sent to the front. Thus, the secretary of the party bureau, Valento, wrote in a letter to Comrade Stalin that, instead of being at the front, he actually found himself in a concentration camp behind barbed wire, behind towers with sentries, that the labor army is no different from imprisonment. He showed dissatisfaction with the food, but added that “you can’t go far on water alone.”
Those dissatisfied with their position were placed on special register. During the year 1942 alone, 1,313 people were sentenced to multi-year terms or executed in the Sverdlovsk region.
And in Ivdel in 1945, an “anti-Soviet rebel organization” of 20 people was discovered, which was allegedly active among mobilized Germans since 1942. Its main organizer was identified as Adolf Adolfovich Dening, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1938-1944, and until 1941 he was the chairman of the Mariental cantipulative committee (district executive committee) of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans. By the decision of the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR on November 17, 1945, he received a long term in forced labor camps, and on June 20, 1956 he was rehabilitated.
Based on the GKO Decree of October 7, 1942, German women were drafted through military registration and enlistment offices. By the end of the war, there were 53 thousand of them in work columns, while 6,436 women still had children in their places of mobilization. Left without parents, they became beggars, became homeless, and often died. From March 1944 to October 1945 alone, over 2,900 street children from the families of German labor army soldiers were identified and placed in orphanages.
During 1946-1947, the working columns of the labor army were disbanded, and the Germans employed there were transferred to permanent cadres with the right to call their families to join them. At the same time, all of them were registered by special commandant's offices. The process of reuniting broken families dragged on for many years - enterprises did not want to let go of qualified labor, they drew the attention of higher authorities to the fact that mobilized Germans should be detained for “systematic absenteeism, for refusing difficult tasks,” and so on.
The judicial authorities were right there: everyone who deserved punishment was “given” 4-5 months of forced labor. After everything we had experienced, such a “short term” of punishment was a mere trifle.
The final resolution of the problem of “family reunification” occurred after the liquidation of the special settlement regime in December 1955.
The term "labor army", or abbreviated as "trudarmiya", is unofficial. Labor armies were those who were mobilized during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 to perform forced labor service. At the state level, the involvement of Germans in forced labor was officially formalized in 1942 The mass conscription of Germans into the labor army was associated with resolutions of the State Defense Committee of the USSR dated January 10, 1942 No. 1123ss “On the procedure for the use of German settlers of military age from 17 to 50 years” and dated February 14, 1942 No. 1281ss “On mobilization of German men of military age from 17 to 50 years, permanently residing in regions, territories, autonomous and union republics." Thus, both Germans who were subject to deportation and the indigenous German population were drafted into the labor army. In accordance with the resolution of the Committee Defense of October 7, 1942 No. 2383 “On the additional mobilization of Germans for the national economy of the USSR” German women aged 16 to 45 were drafted into the labor army. Only pregnant women and women with children under 3 years of age were exempt from mobilization. The same decree increased the range of conscription age for German men - from 15 to 55 years.
Mostly mobilized Germans worked at NKVD facilities, as well as in the coal and oil industries, in the construction of railways, at construction sites, and in light industry. In total, during the war years, the labor of mobilized Germans was used at the enterprises of 24 people's commissariats in various regions of the USSR.
The regime for keeping Labor Army soldiers in work columns was determined by Order No. 0083 of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of January 12, 1942, “On the organization of detachments of mobilized Germans in the camps of the NKVD of the USSR.” According to this order, Labor Army members were to be housed in camps specially created for them, separately from prisoners. In reality this was not always observed. Thus, Maria Abramovna Val from the village of Nikolaevka, Blagoveshchensky district, born in 1914. said that from their village they were mobilized into the labor army mainly to the Chkalov region to work at the soda plant. Maria Abramovna herself was sent to Orsk, Orenburg region, for construction. The camp in which Maria Abramovna lived consisted of five barracks and was surrounded by barbed wire. The Labor Army soldiers lived together with the prisoners. In 1956, Maria Abramovna returned home to Nikolaevka. Difficult living conditions doomed the Germans to extinction. Thus, Maria Abramovna’s sister Val died in the labor army from hunger.
According to the orders of the NKVD, detachments of 1,500-2,000 people were formed from labor army workers on a production basis. The detachments were divided into columns of 300-500 people. In turn, the columns were divided into brigades of 35-100 people. The detachments were led by NKVD workers. Civil servants were appointed as foreman. A German from among the Labor Army could be appointed to the position of foreman.
In terms of social composition, the mobilized Germans belonged to different strata of society. Although the majority, of course, were peasants who did not have the necessary working skills. Therefore, they could not meet production standards as experienced workers.
Yakov Iosifovich Hoffman born in 1924, resident of the village. Telmano, Blagoveshchensk district, said that from 1943 to 1946 he worked at a soda plant, which was located in the village of Mikhailovka, Klyuchevsky district, Altai Territory. The Labor Army soldiers lived in a camp behind barbed wire. The working day lasted from six in the morning until half past eight in the evening. Each worker had to fulfill the quota. Only after completing the norm could one go to rest. Therefore, in practice we worked until nine or ten o’clock in the evening. If a person could not stand it and left without completing the plan, he was assigned a double norm the next day.
Elsa Petrovna Kloster (Derksen) from the village of Serebropol said that in 1927 their family was transported to the Amur region, from where in 1941 they were mobilized to Yakutia. They were transported for three days in cattle cars, and then for another three days in open cars. For the first three months we were fed only unsalted rye bread. Many of those mobilized died. Elsa Petrovna worked as a teacher at school. She was constantly subjected to humiliation from other teachers, who incited students against the German teacher. Everyone considered her an enemy of the people. For thirteen years, Elsa Petrovna lived in a special settlement, which was surrounded by a fence, beyond which it was forbidden to go. Labor soldiers, according to her stories, were taken to work under escort.
Emma Aleksandrovna Hahnemann born in 1925, living in the village of Udalnoye, Tabunsky district, from 1928 to 1957. lived in the village of Zheltenkoye. In 1942, all the men from Zheltenkoye were taken to the labor army in the Perm region to work in the mines. 
Maria Yakovlevna Schartner (Giesbrecht) born in 1918 from the village The good thing was not in the labor army, since her daughter was not three years old at the time of mobilization. Later, she was also not taken into the labor army, in her opinion, because she worked as an accountant. Maria Yakovlevna said that in 1942, all men and women of military age were mobilized from Khoroshie. She herself took the mobilized villagers to Slavgorod on horseback. The women were in the Perm region. Of the 33 women who were in the labor army, 22 returned to their native village. Of the men, only Peter Fast returned. So, two brothers of Maria Yakovlevna died in the labor army. One of the brothers was mobilized to Vorkuta. The food was very bad, and the brother decided to pick berries. While he was climbing over the fence, he was shot.
The inhuman conditions in which the Labor Army members were forced to live and work could not but cause protest on their part. Thus, the elder brother of the aforementioned Maria Yakovlevna Shartner was mobilized into the labor army in the Novosibirsk region. The working and living conditions were so unbearable that he decided to flee. While trying to escape, he was shot. It was escapes and desertion that were the most common form of protest.
Akulina Egorovna Dil, born in 1919, from the village. Telmano of the Blagoveshchensk region was mobilized into the labor army on February 13, 1943, as soon as his daughter turned 3 years old. 
In 1942, from the village of Boronsk, Suetsky district, all men and women of military age were taken into the labor army. According to informants, only two returned to the village from the labor army. From the neighboring village of Mikhailovka, Germans were mobilized to the Novosibirsk region. Yakov Ivanovich Meitsikh was mobilized on November 7, 1942 to the Tula region to work in the mines. We lived in a camp behind barbed wire. In 1948, the wire was removed, but it was necessary to report to the special commandant’s office in Tula twice a month. In 1950, together with other Labor Army members Ya.I. Meitsikh was transferred to the Amur settlement of Severny, where a receipt was taken from the Labor Army soldiers stating that they would not return to their permanent place of residence. At the new location there were no premises suitable for housing. The Labor Army members lived in tents, which were heated by small iron stoves. They worked in logging and construction. Yakov Ivanovich worked at logging until February 1954. In February he was transferred to work in the mines, where he worked as an accountant. The state of health began to deteriorate rapidly, and the doctor Efim Pavlovich Kablam signed a certificate stating that due to health reasons Ya.I. Meitsikh cannot work. This certificate helped Ya.I. Meiqihu returned home at the end of 1954. 
All men born in 1926 were taken from Markovka, Kulundinsky district. There were only two men left in the entire village, one of them was very sick, and the other was very old. Labor soldiers were sent to various construction sites. Some were building a railway to Kulunda. From Ekaterinovka and Ananyevka, Kulundinsky district, labor army soldiers were sent to the soda plant of the Klyuchevsky district of the Altai Territory and to the coal mines in Chelyabinsk.
David Abramovich Vince, born in 1915, resident of the village. Ananyevka was mobilized into the army in 1937. In 1940, he participated in the Finnish War with the rank of senior sergeant. After graduating from the Vitebsk School, he received the rank of senior lieutenant. In 1941, he was told that he would be sent to the front, but instead he ended up in the labor army, in the region of Ulyanovsk, where the railway was being built. The conditions were terrible: heavy physical work combined with poor nutrition. Many fled to surrounding villages just to find food. The fugitives were caught and shot. In 1942, a train crash occurred during construction, and all the blame was placed on David Vince. He was convicted under Article 48.12, declared an enemy of the people and put in a punishment cell. Since Vince was innocent, he wrote a letter to M.I. Kalinin, and a special commission acquitted him. Until the end of the war, Vince worked as an assistant foreman at the Ulyanovsk state farm. From 1946 to 1951 he worked as chairman of the state farm.
About 40 people were drafted from the village of Protasovo into the labor army. The men were sent to Kuzbass, to the Tula coal mines, the women to the Mikhailovsky Soda Plant and logging. 
Andrey Ivanovich Gottfried, born in 1921, from the village. Podsosnovo, German district, said that he was mobilized into the labor army in 1942 in the Kemerovo region. After 6 months he was transferred to the Tomsk region, and a year later to the Novosibirsk region. He said that living conditions were very difficult. A resident of the same village, N. Ivan Vasilyevich, was mobilized to Norilsk, where he worked for 9 years. He also reported that some of the men born in 1922. left in the Altai Territory, where they worked in construction railway. Most of the men from Podsosnovo were mobilized to the Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions, the women were sent to the Perm region.
According to the recollections of residents of the village of Grishkovka, German region, during the war, about 40 people of working age remained on the collective farm.
From the village of Nikolaevka, German region, they were taken to Bashkiria, to the city of Sterlitamak.
From the village of Kusak in the German region, first in 1942, men were taken to the Novosibirsk region, and later women were mobilized to Bashkiria and the Molotov region. The return of fellow villagers from the labor army ended in 1958. 
In 1948, Trudameytsy were assigned to places of exile as special settlers. In 1955, these restrictions were lifted, but those Germans who were evicted from regime areas and front-line areas were prohibited from returning to their homes Soviet Union. Therefore, Germans deported from the European part of Russia were forced to return to the places where they were placed after deportation.
Anita Aukeeva: “Mom always said that it was God who protected us...”
Anita Ivanovna Aukeeva (nee Zepp) from the city of Karaganda often recalls the difficult times that followed the decree on the deportation of the German people: “I was born on April 8, 1939 in the village of Elenental (now Chernogorka) in the Berezovsky district of the Odessa region. After my father died in the war, my mother was left alone with seven children. Since she was blind, our family was hardly touched, only my older brother was taken to a work camp in Germany.
“There was a war, it was hard for everyone...”
Over the years of working for a German newspaper, I heard many family stories related to deportation. Almost all the stories are similar, only the surnames and geographical names have changed, because tragic fate befell the entire German people. Listening to eyewitnesses, one felt that the pain of loss had not faded over the years, and the eternal question: “Why did you have to endure such hardships?” – it seemed there was no answer.
Bitter memories
In August 2016, the German people will celebrate a tragic date - the 75th anniversary of the deportation. An event that left a deep mark on the fate of every family of the German people living on the territory of the USSR at the beginning of the last century.
