the soviet military-civilian contracts

[danyboy27]

i have been reading a book about the soviet military, and there was something that was authorized by the laws back then that allowed the military to help civilian industries. so, lets say an officier could cut deal with a farmer who lacked manpower for the harvest, the officier would ask his platoon/combat unit to work there for the harvest, in exchange, the farmer would give to the platoon/combat unit fresh food for x time.
it was not only limited to farm but for factories has well. spare part, vehicule enhencement for the troops and rare good where traded for those kind of services.

what do you think of that? Personally i like the concept. on the other hand, this would make factory dependent of their alliences with the military.

still, i was amazed when i read that.

[NecroCommie]

This is a cool thing, but I doubt it was used very often. Cool thing anyway.

[ComradeOm]

Was this actually legal? If so, to what degree? I was aware that it common for Soviet formations to help out with harvest and whatnot but also that many soldiers were effectively hired out by their officers to perform menial or dangerous factory/construction tasks. The impression that I got was that the latter was illegal and very much frowned upon

Incidentally I recall a news story from a few years ago in which several privates died when their officer sent them to work in a factory. The soldiers were not paid, were poorly fed, and were housed in wooden sheds with no heating or comforts. After being weakened from weeks/months of malnourishment and hard labour, a number simply froze to death one especially cold night

[danyboy27]

well, this measure was active during ww2 and until the fall of the soviet union remained in place.