Fighter battalions of Moscow and the Moscow region. June 1941-1942

The article analyzes the processes of formation, recruitment and activities of the fighter battalions of Moscow and the Moscow region in the period June 1941- 1942 on the basis of an array of NKVD records and sources of personal origin. These units, with created at the beginning of the war, were in many ways unique in terms of subordination, models of recruitment and use of units. The methods and institutions of managing fighter battalions, their social composition, the dynamics of numbers are studied, and the range of tasks they solve is indicated. Another important task of this article is to identify and analyze the mobilization mechanisms of the Soviet state on the example of the NKVD fighter battalions.