Hinterland Justice

Abstract

The chapter introduces the case study of the region of Molotov as a major industrial zone, representative for the Soviet hinterland and exemplifying how, under the conditions of war, the regional prosecutors’ office and its new appointed head Dmitrii Kuliapin struggled with ill-educated officials and a lack of resources, when dealing with both general aspects of prosecutors’ work (prosecution of juveniles, corruption, the supervision of police work, prisons and the camps) and particular epoch-related issues such as the campaign against ‘desertion from work’. The chapter shows how, in all these areas, prosecutors were only successful in implementing procedural norms and professional standards, in so far as their resources allowed them to. During these formative years, regional head prosecutor Kuliapin learned about the limits of his office but also managed to mobilize his peers to take a stance against arbitrariness on a small scale.