Mobpodgotovka: mobilisation planning in interwar industry

Abstract

In the 1930s economic planning for the contingency of war was a distinct activity within the Soviet military-industrial complex. It evolved a distinct terminology and set of acronyms. Its central concept was mobpodgotovka (mobilizatsionnaia podgotovka, the mobilisation preparation, or preparedness, of industry). Its chief instrument was the mobplan (mobilisation plan) for industry decided upon at higher levels, administered by the mobotdel (mobilisation department) within each chief production-branch administration of each supply ministry (commissariat), and distributed to each subordinate enterprise as its mobzadanie (mobilisation assignment). The implementation of the industry mobilisation plan in the event of war being realised was referred to as the mobilizatsionnoe razvertyvanie (mobilisation deployment) of military industry.