Scientific research at the intersection of history, theory and philosophy of law, as well as political science, social psychology and ethics. The legal and regulatory means of maintaining the combat capability of the military and penal units and subunits of the Red Army during the Second World War (1939–1945) were considered. Catastrophic failures of the first months of the so-called The Great Patriotic War forced the Soviet political and military leadership to seek extraordinary, unusual for peaceful life in the USSR methods of preserving the fighting qualities of the army subunits and units rapidly. Alongside the usual for the age of war «martial law», which means the legal terror of «traitors, deserters, and scaremongers», the Soviet political authorities have forcibly resorted to a «carrot» policy coupled with the usual for the pre-war reality «stick». First of all, it refers to the legal and regulatory clearance of the order of material stimulation of combatants (bonuses for destroyed equipment, etc.), issuance of alcohol for the military personnel in the front line, as well as the practice of serving the criminal liability by the military personnel for the actions punishable by the law in accelerated (up to three calendar months) order – through the service in penalty companies and battalions. The state, in particular, went so far as to force already convicted civilian offenders «wash with blood» outstanding sentences in the same accelerated order. After the end of World War II, when the need for «mass heroism of the Soviet people» decreased slightly, the means of legal (and extra-legal) encouragement of the military personnel, including the most needy categories – in particular the disabled due to the WWII, decreased accordingly. Thus, the penal subunits of the Red Army were abolished as early as June 1945, that is, even before the end of the WWII in the East with Japan. In September 1947, the payments for the orders and medals of the USSR were also abolished by law (from January 1, 1948). State financial assistance to disabled due to WWII (food rations, fuel for the winter, etc.) has been steadily declining. The actions of the top Soviet political leadership on the development and application of legal mechanisms for stimulating Soviet cannon fodder in the context of the defense needs of the state, on the one hand, and human morality, on the other, were evaluated. The scientific conception of a communist totalitarian state as an antihuman in its essence, where the interests of the ordinary member of society are subordinated to the national interests (as understood by the higher state leadership), while personal merits, including loss of health and ability to work at the frontlines of war, are somehow adequately evaluated by government agencies solely by virtue of utilitarian considerations is proposed.
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