Industrical labour relations policy of the Soviet state during the first decade after World War II

The article analyses Karelian practices of applying the decrees of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of June 26, 1940 and July 14, 1951, which imposed criminal liability for violating workplace discipline. These matters have so far been little covered by either legal or historical literature. On the other hand, the penal enforcement policy of the Russian state cannot be improved unless both positive and negative experiences in this sphere are taken into account. The main sources for the analysis were previously unpublished documents kept at the National Archives of the Republic of Karelia. The paper mentions numerous cases of unwarranted judicial responsibility for employees. It is emphasized that the workplace discipline issue was the most acute in the republic's forest industry, which was short of labour power and had to extensively use workforce from other regions. Approximately two thirds of those sentenced for unauthorised absence and abandonment of forest industry enterprises were people who had come to the Republic to work under contract or under organised recruitment arrangements. On some occasions, the management resorted to illegal methods to retain the workforce. Analysis of the archived statistical data demonstrated that although judicial punishment for unauthorised absence was replaced with disciplinary actions and community-based correction measures, the number of such violations in the republic in the early 1950s increased. In view of this, the Republic's party leaders submitted a request to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to annul the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of July 14, 1951. The article explains the reasons for aning the laws and regulations in the labour relations sphere after World War II, and emphasizes that in practice their application was a failure. The actions that worked well for ordering and stabilizing labour relations were enhancement of the work environment and the living standard of employees, as well as the social sphere development.