Unique materials entered the Collection "World War II in Archival Documents"

Decrees of the State Defence Committee of the USSR (1941-1945) entered the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials World War II in Archival Documents available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020 the formation of the Collection is organized by the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Library.

The Collection is carried out by federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Services of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the state archives of Belarus. In 2020-2021 the Collection involved over 5.5 thousand archival documents, including maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels from January 1933 to June 22, 1941.

From June 1, 2022 the first 500 resolutions of the USSR State Defence Committee (for the period from July 1 to August 16, 1941) stored in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) are available for study to a wide range of users.

The USSR State Defence Committee (GKO USSR) was the highest emergency authority in the country during the Great Patriotic War. It was formed on June 30, 1941 and operated until September 4, 1945. Throughout its history, the State Defence Committee of the USSR adopted over 10,000 resolutions and orders (from № 1 to № 9971, including those marked "secret" and "top secret").

Each resolution or order is presented in the Collection in two versions: a mailing copy (the final version on a letterhead and with the seal of the State Defence Committee of the USSR) and an original copy with signatures, resolutions and amendments of the Chairman of the State Defense Committee of the USSR I. V. Stalin, his deputy V. M. Molotov, other state, party and military leaders of the country. Also, the project contains additional materials to the resolutions: memorandums of members of the State Defence Committee, people's commissars and military leaders and other documents related to the adoption of a particular decision.

Among the resolutions of the State Defence Committee of the USSR in the first months of the Great Patriotic War are the most important documents on the production of weapons and military equipment (tanks, aircraft, warships, artillery, small arms, ammunition, communications), on the adoption of new models. Among them are the decisions of the State Defence Committee of the USSR №  337TS and 338TS of July 31, 1941 on the production of rocket artillery installations M-8 and M-13, known under the name "Katyusha".  

Much attention in the documents of July-August 1941 is paid to the evacuation of large industrial enterprises and the creation of new production bases in the east of the country, the construction of new factories and other industrial facilities, the evacuation of the population and material property from the front line, the construction of new railway lines and the organization of rail transportation.

Many decisions of the State Defence Committee of the USSR are devoted to issues of defensive construction, including the construction of defensive lines and structures around Moscow and Leningrad and the organization of the defence of these lines - for example, Decree  № 172TS of July 16, 1941 "On the Mozhaisk Defence Line" written by G. Malenkov.

During the first months of the war, several resolutions on the mobilization of conscripts and those liable for military service, on the creation of divisions of the people's militia and the financial support of members of the people's militia and personnel of partisan detachments were adopted. Among them is Decree № 10 of July 4, 1941 “On the Voluntary Mobilization of the Workers of Moscow and Moscow Region in the People’s Militia Division”, included in the State Register of Unique Documents of the Archival Foundation of the Russian Federation.

The documents feature important decisions on the leadership of the country's armed forces. These are the decisions of the State Defence Committee of the USSR on the appointment of commanders-in-chief of directions, commanders of fronts and armies, members of military councils, etc.; on the creation of new military formations and their armament. The most famous are the resolutions on the transformation of the Headquarters of the High Command into the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and its composition (№ 83TS of July 10, 1941), the creation of the Reserve Front headed by G. K. Zhukov and the appointment of B. M. Shaposhnikov as Chief of the General Staff with numerous amendments by I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov (№ 325TS of July 29, 1941).

Many documents are associated with the appointments of authorized GKOs of the USSR for individual military plants or entire areas of building up armaments and manning the army. Such resolutions shall be accompanied by mandates of the Commissioners and brief curricula vitae.

Viewing archival documents of World War II in Archival Documents Collection is available from anywhere in the world. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations to the documents and the texts of the accompanying articles are also available in English.

In addition to digitized archival documents, the Collection contains a list of the main Internet projects, databases, other thematic Internet publications of documents, virtual tours of the history of the Second World War, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.