Workers Battalions and the Politics of Return after the Second World War

Student: Fishman Sergey

Supervisor: Seth Bernstein

Educational Programme: History (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2018

This paper is dedicated to the workers battalions which were filled with repatriated Soviet civilians and former POWs. This research also includes the historical context of those battalions. The object of the study is the USSR labour policy after the Second World War. The subject of the study are the workers battalions within the context of postwar economic recovery. The paper includes the introductions, three chapters, the conclusion and the list of references. In chapter one we explore Soviet labour policy and repatriation policy. In second chapter we analyze the exploitation of repatriates before the formation of the workers battalions. Chapter three examines repatriates in workers battalions in 1945 and 1947.Keywords: workers battalions, repatriation, labour policy, Stalinism, postwar recovery, filtration, forced labour, repressions.

Student Theses at HSE must be completed in accordance with the University Rules and regulations specified by each educational programme.

Summaries of all theses must be published and made freely available on the HSE website.

The full text of a thesis can be published in open access on the HSE website only if the authoring student (copyright holder) agrees, or, if the thesis was written by a team of students, if all the co-authors (copyright holders) agree. After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status of an online publication.

Student theses are objects of copyright and their use is subject to limitations in accordance with the Russian Federation’s law on intellectual property.

In the event that a thesis is quoted or otherwise used, reference to the author’s name and the source of quotation is required.

Search all student theses