Classified mobilization records management in the USSR during the prewar decade

The study of the history of mobilization training in the interwar period in the USSR remains highly relevant. One of the achievements of Soviet mobilization training was the formation of a system of secret mobilization records management in civilian institutions, organizations, and enterprises. The article is aimed at conducting a comparative analysis of previously unstudied instructions on classified mobilization records management in the Soviet city and district executive committees during the 1930s and early 1940s. The analyzed documents help to form a picture of the regulations for ensuring the secrecy of mobilization records management in the said period. The article substantiated the conclusions that classified mobilization records management was part of the Soviet nationwide mobilization training system and developed during the pre-war decade, reflecting the changes of this system. In 1930, the first-of-its-kind “framework” instruction on classified mobilization paper management in civil institutions and organizations was developed. The experience of the pre-war decade made it possible to develop a representative documentation management procedure that corresponded to the country’s system of mobilization training formed by the early 1940s. The article traces changes in the regulations and techniques of classified mobilization paper management, and the requirements for its organization, employees and their functions. It also identifies the main directions and trends in the development of the national mobilization training system in the dynamics of the pre-war decade.