Volunteers and Militiamen in the Military Organization of the Soviet State. 1917—1945.

The work of Doctor of Historical Sciences A.Yu. Bezugolny is dedicated to the history of the volunteer method of staffing the Red Army troops, as well as the paramilitary formations created outside the military agency's structure — the people's militia, destroyer battalions, and other units mainly staffed by civilians. The interests of the authorities recruiting volunteers and the motivations of the volunteers responding to the call of the authorities; normative regulation and the socio-legal status of volunteers; principles and forms of staffing volunteer units; the activities of central and local party-state apparatuses and military administration bodies on recruiting volunteers and organizing volunteer units — all of this is the subject of this research. The book is based on a large array of documentary material, a significant part of which is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.