Construction Troops [stroi] - Administrative History
Soviet military service was often not military service at all, and often dis-enchanted the conscript with his service. This was most clearly exemplified by the military construction units. The battalions were manned by ordinary conscripts and their work assignments were under the direct charge of the Deputy Defense Minister for Construction and Quartering.
The Administration ["Control"] of the construction troops was formed in 1938 for the building of fortified areas on the Western border of the USSR administration of the defense building of the Red Army. Construction battalions were created in the immediate prewar years with the wartime tasks of constructing river crossings, bridges, trenches, etc. They were neither trained nor equipped for battlefield action. Their primary peacetime function was to build defense works, social facilities and assist with national economic needs. Essentially, they were non-disciplinary labor battalions with much less sophisticated training and equipment than engineer battalions.
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War the army's construction battalions were put to work rebuilding the USSR. They rebuilt the coal mines of the Donbas and the metallurgical industry in the Ukraine and helped rebuild such devastated cities as Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, and others. The civilian economy quickly became dependant on military labor and often relied on construction battalions for especially dirty or difficult work that it would have been difficult to get civilians to do. Eventually, construction battalion labor was incorporated into the five year planning process.
The history of the Main Administration [Glavnoy Upravlenii] for the Construction Troops [GUSS] of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation is commingled with that of the Main Administration of Special Construction (the two were separated most recently on May 1, 2005). On January 23, 1951 the Main Administration of Defense Building was formed in the Main Administration of Special Building with the subordination to the deputy Defense Minister for building and quartering of the troops. This date it is customary to assume as the birthday of GUSS.
In June 1957 GUSS of Defense Ministry, and the Central Administration of Capital Airfield Construction [TSUKAS MO - created in 1946] were united in the Main Administration of Airport and Special Building [GUASS], which controlled 47 individual airport- construction regiments [OASP], three airport-construction brigades, 26 battalions and military construction forces [VSO], 13 administrations of the chiefs of airport works [UNAR], and also part [USS] MO - 9 administrations of engineering works, three separate administrations of the building of ranges, 38 construction engineering and 9 assembly sections and other parts. At the beginning of the 1960s the forces of these organizations built more than 100 contemporary airfields with the complete infrastructure of the, including 43 airfields of civil or joint destination in the capitals of union republics, the provincial centers and in the large cities.
In 1963 GUASS again becomes the Main Administration of Special Bbuilding ([GUSS] of MO SSSR (Ministry of Defense of the USSR). Since 1958 on the building of special units begins to work central control of the special building [TSUSS] of MO SSSR. Into its composition entered more than 400 Military Construction Directorates. In 1967 TSUSS incorporated the 97th, 101st, 132nd, and 164th construction administrations of Ministry of Medium Machine Building (Minsredmash / MSM), which accomplished the construction of ICBM missile silos in the city districts of Zhangiztobe, Derzhavinsk, Kartaly, and Uzhura. Since 1971 TSUSS with the forces of 146th individual construction engineering brigade and 9 separate engineer construction battalions of the beginnings of work on the construction of boundary with China.
The stroi (military construction) battalions provided cheap labor. Since the end of World War II, stroi battalions constructed 27,000 kilometers of railroad track and 13,000 other facilities like the Moscow Olympic Stadium. Although exact figures were difficult to obtain, the construction units had totaled between 100,000 and 400,000 conscripts on active duty at any given time. A 1991 statement from the military acknowledged 330,000 soldiers working on construction projects.
One of the major long-term efforts of construction units was apartment building, but not exclusively for the military. Many special projects fell into the army. Military construction units did major work in preparing Moscow for the 1980 Olympics, building athletic venues and the hotel "Rossiia." They built the cosmodrome launch site at Baikonur and much of the Baikal-Amur Railway in Siberia. Military construction units rebuilt the city of Leninakan after the 1988 earthquake in Armenia.
The equal obligation of all citizens to military service was used as a means to mobilize labor under compulsion and subject to military law not only for the construction of fortifications and airfields but also for factory work in the armament industries, for the construction of canals, roads, and railroads, for the mining of coal for domestic consumption as well as for export, and even for farming.
In January 1973 TSUSS MO became part GUSS MO, forming the Administration of Special Building [USS]. On March 10, 1976 by the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "for the successful fulfillment of assignments with respect to the building of special units" GUSS MO SSSR was rewarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. Rewards obtained many participants in the military building. On July 19, 1976 in accordance with the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to the main administration of the special building of MO SSSR was entrusted the Order of the Red Banner.
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