EDN: https://elibrary.ru/ncxovr
DOI: 10.21064/WinRS.2026.3.9
Based on a collection of archival materials, this article examines the process of the mass replacement of male workers. It analyzes the scale and sector-specific characteristics
of this process, examines the mechanisms of accelerated vocational training, and discusses changes in the age and skill composition of the workforce. The article highlights the difficulties women faced in mastering traditionally “male” professions, as well as their participation in innovation and management activities. It analyzes the positive outcomes of this workforce replacement (maintaining military production) and the problematic aspects (distortion of the skill structure, low average skill level among female workers). The article concludes that the involvement of women in industry was systematic, that prewar notions of “male” and “female” professions were dismantled, and that the groundwork was laid for women to become firmly established in industrial production in the postwar decades.
Тhis work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under a grant from № 25-28-00518), «Labor Potential of Enterprises in Besieged Leningrad (1941—1944)», https://rscf.ru/project/25-28-00518.