Activities of the NKVD Military Tribunals during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945): A Case Study of the Kemerovo Region

Abstract

The Kemerovo Region during the wartime and early postwar years played a significant role in the national economy as the country’s primary coal-metallurgical base. It is therefore important to examine the activities of military justice bodies operating in the Kemerovo Region, since they contributed to strengthening discipline at defense and coal enterprises and to maintaining public order in the region. The author outlines the organizational features of this type of military tribunal, their legal regulation, and the administration of justice. Drawing on archival materials, the study analyzes the principal directions of the work of these military justice bodies in the Kemerovo Region during the period under review. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the introduction into scholarly use of a new source type, namely, the personal files of persons convicted of offences under the criminal legislation of the RSFSR in force at the time, together with other documents issued by state and departmental authorities.