The Formation and Activities of NKVD "Destruction Battalions" in the Moscow and Leningrad Regions (June 1941 - March 1942)

In this work, which based on a wide range of published and unpublished sources, was studied the processes of formation and detail of the NKVD fighter battalions of the USSR - in many ways unique irregular military formations, which created at the beginning of the Great Patriotic war to fight against enemy landings and protect the rear of the red army. The paper focuses mainly on the units, which operating in the period of 1941 - early 1942 on the territory of two key regions of the Soviet Union - Moscow and Leningrad areas. The problem of research lies in the study of the functioning of the soviet mobilization model of the war period. It is concluded that there are systemic problems inherent in the very idea of creating such irregular units that seriously affect the functioning of fighter battalions throughout the study period, as well as the weak applicability of these formations in the conditions of the Great Patriotic war. It is important to note that the fighter battalions, which operating on the territory of the Moscow and Leningrad regions solved generally similar tasks, changing mainly depending on the development of the situation at the front, and also experienced similar problems, which related to the material provision of soldiers and commanders, their generally unsatisfactory training. It is symptomatic that at the end of the march 1942 some of the fighter battalions in the territory of the regions under study were disbanded, and the number of the remaining ones was seriously reduced.