The Presidential Library published a decree of the USSR State Defense Committee on the collection of property captured at the fronts and its storage.
Anatoly Garanin / RIA Novosti
Exhibition of samples of weapons captured from the Germans in 1941-1943, in the Central Park of Culture and Recreation that bears his name. Gorky.
The document was signed on February 1, 1943 by Joseph Stalin, its original is kept in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History.
The resolution concerned the Voronezh, Bryansk and North Caucasian fronts. The State Defense Committee ordered the formation of 14 battalions of the captured army, each consisting of 500 people, one battalion per army.
A decision was made to speed up the collection and transfer to the rear of captured and household weapons, property and scrap metal. Captured battalions were ordered to be formed from limited Red Army soldiers and female soldiers fit for service.
Each battalion included a tractor company and a horse company. At the same time, the battalions were supposed to be equipped with transport and horses at the expense of trophies.
These battalions were tasked with a wide range of different tasks, ranging from the collection and removal of captured goods to their protection and delivery to army depots and station collection points.
In March 1942, the captured companies were formed. By decree of 1 February 1943, they were transferred to the rear, where they continued to carry out their assigned tasks.
In addition, by decision of the State Defense Committee, three captured front-line brigades, each consisting of 2,500 people, were created. Their task was to collect, register and evacuate from the rear areas of the front excess and unused weapons, as well as weapons requiring factory repair.
The brigades were supposed to be staffed with personnel and technical means allocated by the head of the Red Army engineering troops from among the construction columns engaged in defensive construction.
Interestingly, the labor of these soldiers was supposed to be paid for from the proceeds of scrap metal sales. The same decree ordered the creation of an evacuation port for the evacuation of medium and heavy tanks requiring factory repairs.
The Voronezh, Bryansk and North Caucasus fronts were ordered to hold captured evacuation brigades, battalions and squadrons in formation until the collection of domestic and captured weapons was completed.
