SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE OF WORKERS AND EMPLOYEES OF DEFENSE INDUSTRY IN WESTERN SIBERIA DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

The article considers the socio-political life of the workers and employees of the military-industrial complex in Western Siberia, which is one of three such complexes  in  the  USSR  that  supplied  the  Red  Army  with  military  equipment and ammunition. It was established that the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (CPSU (b), giving great attention to the regions of their location, in the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee  added  some  new  structural  units,  whose  influence  embraced  all  aspects of socio-political life of the workers and employees in these regions. Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee promptly controlled and supervised the work of local Party and Soviet bodies, organizations and institutions in this direction. The major focus is on the study of the activities of the Soviet Information Bureau (Sovinformbureau), press, radio, cinema, lecturers, propagandists and agitators, who informed the workers and employees about the most important events at the front and in the rear, formed the social and political attitudes. It was found that the greatest role was played by outstanding artists, theatrical, musical and artistic intelligentsia who, through their presentations, shows and performances of the anti-fascist orientation raising the spiritual forces of workers, engineers and technicians, inspired people to labor feats. Through the combination of these events, organized by the central and local Party authorities, the government and local executive authorities shaped social and political consciousness, patriotism of workers, engineers and technicians, to forge the weapon of victory over fascism.