Organizing repair and reconstruction works on the Kirov railway during the Great Patriotic War

The article analyzes and generalizes information contained in the documents from central, departmental and regional archives, as well as the recollections of the eyewitnesses of the studied events in order to investigate the process of creating an effective model of reconstruction works for the USSR railways during the Great Patriotic War, using the case of the frontline Kirov railway. The Kirov railway, as a strategic object of the European North of the USSR, was attacked by saboteurs and raided by enemy aircrafts during the Great Patriotic War. The lack of unity of command in the system of reconstruction works, as well as the lack of necessary repair materials at the initial stage of the war had negative effect on the railway functioning. The search for the most effective model of reconstruction works went on for several years, from 1941 to 1943. As a result of several reorganizations, reconstruction works on the Kirov railway were carried out by the Department of Military Reconstruction and Barrage Works - 11 and the Department of Construction and Reconstruction Works. The distribution of functions between the departments, the creation of three military reconstruction sites, and the mobilization of internal resources made it possible to quickly restore the Kirov railway infrastructure damaged as a result of enemy activity, as well as to put into operation railway communications in the liberated territories of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic.