At the VIII Congress of Trade Unions (December 1928), the trade union leadership headed by MP Tomsky was criticized. The chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, V.V. Kuibyshev, accused the trade unions of bureaucracy, being cut off from the masses of the workers. The slogan was put forward: "Trade unions face production!" Replacing union leaders with egalitarian pay tendencies meant a shift towards finding other forms of pay. Immediately followed by statements that the policy of the Soviet trade unions should not be directed in favor of its equalization.
The transition to a planned economy was accompanied by the centralization of the collective bargaining process and the intervention of party and state bodies in it. The People's Commissariat of Labor was assigned the right to approve contracts and impose them on one of the parties. The right of workers to strike, which was formally enshrined in the charter of trade unions of 1923, was abolished.On August 29, 1928, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars approved the Rules on Conciliation, Arbitration and Judicial Consideration of Labor Conflicts, which were to be dealt with by Workers' Control Commissions (RCC) 20 .
The orientation of the trade unions to the fulfillment of production programs and planned targets assigned them the organization of new forms of labor and, above all, socialist competition.
The campaign to develop mass socialist competition in factories, plants, transport, and construction fell on the beginning of 1929. Lenin's work "How to organize competition" was published and intended for mass study. For several months, the entire press, headed by Pravda, party, trade union, and Komsomol bodies vigorously promoted various labor initiatives. Such forms of competition as the movement of shock workers, the movement for the adoption of counter-plans, “continuous”, the movement to “catch up and overtake” (RIP) capitalist countries in terms of production and labor productivity, etc. were widely spread. Socialist competition was proclaimed one of the main conditions for fulfilling the five-year plan , the formation of a new attitude to work and a new person in a socialist society. Participation in socialist competition was considered the most important instrument of the class struggle, and the shock workers were opposed to the rest of the workers, often attributed to the backward elements that hinder the construction of socialism, and the disorganizers of production.
On April 7, 1929, the first economic and political agreement was signed in Tver between the workers of Trekhgornaya Manufactory, Tver textile factories and a number of Ivanovo enterprises. Then the practice of such agreements spread throughout the country. The agreement, as a rule, provided for obligations to reduce the cost of production, eliminate absenteeism in production, combat slackness in work, with a negligent attitude towards raw materials, materials and equipment. To pull up the laggards, a public tug was envisaged, criticism of shortcomings through the wall press and special control commissions. Production conferences were to become the supreme body of control in socialist competition.
To stimulate the competition, it was envisaged to allocate a special bonus fund for the best achievements, however, at first, various forms of moral and social encouragement were used more (letters, certificates, certificates, honor boards, promotion of the achievements of shock workers through the press, etc.). On the drummer, awards were to be poured from all sides. Material remuneration in the form of bonuses was given only for exceeding the plan, while bonuses for the fulfillment of production tasks were allowed only in those cases when it was associated with exceptional stress in work. Funds for promoting socialist competition were to consist of deductions from enterprises in the amount of 40% of the savings received as a result of the development of competition. The fund itself was used not only to issue prizes, but also to promote the competition and the associated costs. The awards were combined with the provision of cultural and household goods, the preferential provision of vouchers to sanatoriums and rest homes, additional vacations, the right to enroll in universities and technical schools. Some executives did not create funds or misused them. The prizes themselves were sometimes negligible. So, at one plant, two packs of cigarettes were issued to each drummer. The system of benefits and guarantees for shock workers was enshrined in a decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of December 15, 1930.
The development of socialist competition was given a great place in collective agreements. The categories of workers and bonus rates were established. The number of bonus factors should be as limited as possible. The bonus should not have turned into a permanent addition to wages, paid no more than once every six months. The SNK decree of January 10, 1931 allowed the payment of bonuses no more than once a month.
In the direction of industrialization, the system of training managerial personnel and production specialists was restructured and unified. The country created an Industrial Academy under the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR, a system of higher technical educational institutions (technical colleges) and technical schools, numerous courses for “red” directors, engineers, etc. workers. It has become customary to travel abroad for heads of enterprises and engineers from among the nominated candidates for a detailed study of advanced foreign experience in organizing production and mastering new technology, inviting foreign specialists to factories and construction projects of the five-year plan.
At the same time, the leadership did not separate the solution of technical and ideological problems. A clear preference for admission to higher educational institutions was given to the communists and workers. The same goal was served by the wide distribution of the system of workers' faculties to technical colleges. The assignment of graduates of technical colleges to industry began to be carried out through the corresponding economic people's commissariats with the participation of the People's Commissariat for Education, the NKT and trade unions on the basis of a general plan developed by the NKT. Mandatory was a three-year period of work in the received specialty after graduating from a technical college or technical school. Based on the applications of the departments, the NKT drew up a plan for the allocation of specialists. Young professionals had a number of advantages to stimulate training. Higher scholarships for students and teacher salaries were established in technical schools.
The resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of July 3, 1929 provided for further measures to provide the national economy with cadres of engineers. It was planned to provide training to at least 25% of practitioners in engineering positions and 10% of engineers in need of advanced training. Nevertheless, the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in November 1929 noted the unsatisfactory training of personnel, which, as indicated, "cannot be compared with the pace of industrialization." 21 .
The decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars dated January 13, 1930 paid special attention to the training of specialists for metallurgy, mechanical engineering, chemistry, transport and agriculture. Branches of the Industrial Academy with their specialization by industry were organized locally, a wide network of short-term courses and the possibility of distance learning for students were created. At the same time, the stake was placed on promotion: the creation of cadres from among the most outstanding workers who showed themselves at production meetings, at trade union work, their systematic advancement from the lowest to the middle and from the middle to the highest command positions with simultaneous training. It was pointed out that it was necessary to nominate young specialists more decisively.
The same task was met by the detailed resolutions of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in July-September 1930 on the reorganization of higher educational institutions, technical schools and workers' faculties, designed to train proletarian cadres with a broad political outlook, meeting the modern requirements of science and technology and the tasks of socialist reconstruction. 22 ... At the same time, it was envisaged to bring the education system in line with the new zoning of the country, to combine theoretical and practical training with the requirements of the economic development of national regions and the unity of program and methodological guidance based on a clear Marxist-Leninist worldview. The reform presupposed the transition from multi- to single-profile specialization of universities and technical schools and their transfer to the jurisdiction of the corresponding people's commissariats. So, on the basis of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute alone, the Planning and Financial and Economic Institutes in Leningrad, the Transport and Economic Institute in Moscow, and the engineering and economic faculties in the Machine-Building, Electrotechnical, Technological and other institutes were created. Departments and organizations entered into contracts for the training of specialists. The budgets of the departments included funds for the training of specialists. The amount of student scholarships directly depended on the importance of the university for the industrialization of the country.
At each university, a special decree provided for a workers' school. All preparatory courses were included in the system of workers' faculties. They were supposed to give at least 75% of the places for admission, and at least 90% of places for workers in industrial departments, at least 70% of places for workers, collective farmers and poor peasants in other universities.
Nevertheless, the lack of specialists meeting the requirements of industrialization was felt extremely acutely. The turnover of engineering and technical personnel was high. By the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of December 15, 1930, all transfers and transfers of specialists at enterprises were limited and could be made only by agreement between departments and only with the necessary guarantees and compensations.
The leadership attached no less importance to the training of qualified cadres of the working class. The number of factory workers at the beginning of 1928 was only 2.7 million people, whose qualifications left much to be desired. Numerous construction projects of industrialization required, first of all, construction workers, the main source of which was the countryside.
The state sought to subdue the spontaneous ebb of peasants from the countryside, to give it an organized character and direct it to the needs of industrialization. On March 4, 1927, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on organizational recruitment - to recruit workers in mass and in groups for labor-intensive capital work on the basis of special agreements. At the same time, it was forbidden to attract workers from other localities through private intermediaries or special persons who did not receive the authority of the CNT, as well as to summon work letters and publications. However, the mass exodus from the countryside, which began with the implementation of complete collectivization in the fall of 1929, broke the organized retreat. The peasantry for the most part was opposed to collectivization, actively opposing it in the form of uprisings and riots, but more passive, which was expressed in the form of "flight from the countryside" and other uncontrollable processes that began to take place in the country. There were many peasants who abandoned their farms and went to construction sites and cities, not wanting to join collective farms. The "great exodus" began from the village. Many construction sites at that time resembled the camps of the Gypsy nomads.
During the first two five-year plans, about 12 million people moved from the countryside to the city. History has not yet known migrations of this magnitude. The number of workers employed at construction sites and enterprises alone increased by 8 million. The main flow of migrants fell on the early years of the first five-year plan. The scale of new buildings allowed to absorb this flow and provided them with unskilled cheap, and sometimes almost free labor force, armed only with wheelbarrows and shovels. On this basis, unemployment in the country was ended.
As a result of the influx of new cadres, the social makeup of the working class was rapidly changing. Factory workshops were filled for the most part by former villagers who did not know industrial production and did not have working skills. To get a better job, they roamed the country endlessly, generating a huge turnover in factories. The most attractive for migrants were Moscow and Leningrad, where many villagers flocked. This led to the uncontrollable growth of these cities, aggravation of housing, transport and other problems in them, conflicts between townspeople and people from the countryside.
Fluidity became a real scourge of new buildings in the first five-year plan and acquired fantastic proportions due to dissatisfaction with working conditions, disorder, low wages and other factors that could not be eliminated in a short time. Equalizing tendencies in wages have not been overcome either. There was, for example, a strong opposition to piecework, which, on average, across all branches of production remained at the level of 50%. Stalin called the average figure of the turnover of labor by enterprises 30-40% during a quarter or six months 23 ... According to statistical data, the greatest turnover was in the coal industry: in 1930, there were 3 times more workers who entered the mines and almost 3 times more who quit than the average for the year during the first five-year plan. Similar figures were observed for all branches of heavy industry.
On October 15, 1927, industry began the transition to a 7-hour working day. The transition was to be carried out before October 1, 1933. The state expected to compensate for the reduction in working hours by increasing the intensity of labor. But little was envisaged to encourage workers to raise their wages by working harder, and almost nothing at the expense of skill growth. Deficiencies in wages hindered compensation for the growth in labor intensity through technical reconstruction. In turn, the low level of qualifications negatively affected the growth of labor productivity.
Labor productivity, according to the plan, was to increase by 110%. The main role in this should have been played by the increase in the power supply both at a separate workplace and through the expansion and reconstruction of factories where workers were employed. In fact, there was a sharp drop in labor productivity compared to 1928. Plant managers were eager to complete tasks by hiring more workers. Even according to official data, due to this, 94% of the growth of the gross product was achieved instead of the planned 37%. Each plant or factory sought to create some kind of advantages or benefits in order to ensure a greater influx of personnel, and this also reduced incentives to intensify labor within the enterprises themselves.
Thus, despite the tremendous growth in the size of the working class, the problem of its compliance with the requirements of "socialist industrialization" remained very acute. In the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of January 11, 1930 on the provision of qualified personnel for new enterprises, it was indicated that the new factories should become a model of socialist organization and socialist labor discipline. The decree aimed to create a strong core of class-conscious workers with long-term production experience through transfer from other enterprises, as well as culturally and technically advanced working youth who went through the school of FZU and mass professions. The SNK instructed the NKT, the Supreme Council of the National Economy and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions to develop a whole system of measures, including contracting, the creation of housing conditions for workers. The decree obliged to strictly plan labor indicators, to create educational complexes for personnel training at enterprises. According to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of February 14, 1930, it was envisaged to expand all existing forms of training and retraining of skilled workers. Particular attention was paid to the schools of FZU and the need for qualified construction workers for the construction projects of the five-year plan was emphasized.
The decree of the Central Committee of October 20, 1930 on the planned provision of production with labor included a set of measures to combat turnover, including the liquidation of labor exchanges and registration of labor only at the place of residence. Administrative responsibility was imposed for the delay in the enterprises of specialists for other purposes, for the misuse of workers in deficient professions, for poaching workers and technical personnel, for violation of wage standards in collective agreements and surplus labor force.
Much attention was paid to raising the qualifications of women and their involvement in production through the restructuring of living conditions: the organization of public canteens and hostels, kindergartens, nurseries, laundries, closed distributors, freeing women from unproductive stupefying labor in the household. In order to promote the growth of qualifications in the first years of the five-year plan as an illustrative example, the state resorted to a fairly wide practice of inviting foreign workers to factories, providing them with a number of benefits and advantages.
In the 1920s. differences in wages by industry were largely leveled out, which contradicted the objectives of "socialist industrialization". According to the five-year plan, it was planned to increase cash wages by 46.9%, and much faster in the branches of heavy industry. Since the reduction in the cost of living was planned at 14.1%, the real wages should have increased by an average of 70.5%. The unplanned increase in the workforce and the lag in technical re-equipment led, as already mentioned, to attempts to solve the problem of fulfilling planned targets by attracting additional workers. Naturally, salary costs have increased. At a time when the planned control over the growth of wages was not yet so strong, business leaders could use additional incentives to work. The wage system has become complicated by various additions to wages and interest rates, the creation of advantages in individual enterprises in order to attract additional labor. By the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars at the end of 1929, it was allowed, in parallel with the conclusion of general labor contracts, the introduction of special agreements between the administration and the workers, for example, on the payment of bonuses for success in work, in addition to the established wages.
The attack on the private sector by the state was carried out in the expectation that with the help of state levers it would be easier to control the observance of labor and consumption measures. At the same time, extremely limited resources created a dilemma: the postponement of consumer needs led to an acute shortage of consumer goods, so the possibilities of wages as an incentive to work were limited. While wages almost doubled in the five-year period, prices rose faster, reducing the sources of domestic accumulation. If during the NEP period the private trader played the main role in the trade in food and the supply of them to the population, the policy of completely displacing him through state and cooperative trade, influencing the market by regulating prices led to the closure of private stores and shops, and, as a result, to the flourishing of speculation on "Black market". Any receipts of scarce products inevitably migrated into the hands of speculators, who, in the face of constant shortages of goods, incredibly "inflated" prices. Rumors of an impending war were added, which increased the rush demand. In the food supply of cities, there was a sharp deterioration. Signs of general discontent and social tension began to appear. The deterioration of life was blamed on the Nepman and the kulak as the main culprits of the difficulties and persons hindering the construction of socialism in the country.
Since 1929, the country began to introduce the rationing system, which was thought by the leadership as the most practical way of producing and distributing consumer goods, providing planned calculations of investment in the production of basic goods and control over the purchasing power of the population. On February 14, 1929, the state introduced an all-Union rationing system for bakery products. The bread had to be sold according to special intake books. Gradually, cards began to spread to butter, meat, sugar, cereals, etc. Open sales of non-food items were also curtailed due to huge queues. Their normalized distribution by coupons and orders was introduced.
When introducing the rationing system, the experience of War Communism was taken into account. The rationing norms became more differentiated and were established based on the contribution to the labor process or labor activity. Distribution was carried out by category and goods were sold at fixed low prices, and all surplus was sold through "commercial trade".
Industrial pragmatism was supposed, according to Stalin, to determine the principles of the rationing system. In this regard, a number of requirements were formulated. “To concentrate the means of supplying workers in the main regions drawn up according to the list. To single out shock workers at each enterprise and supply them in full and, first of all, both with foodstuffs and manufactories, and with dwellings, ensuring their insurance rights in full. Divide non-strikers into two categories, into those who have been working at this enterprise for at least a year, and those who have been working for less than a year, and the first to supply food and dwellings in the second place and at the full rate, the second - in the third place and at a reduced rate. Sickness insurance, etc. lead with them, approximately, the following conversation: you have been working at the enterprise for less than a year, you deign to "fly", if you please, in case of illness, not a full salary, but, say, 2/3, and those who have been working for at least a year, let them get their full salary. Etc. like that. " On December 15, 1930, the Politburo adopted a resolution "On workers' supply", which took into account Stalin's wishes 24 .
Workers everywhere were supplied with ration cards in the first place. Moscow and Leningrad stood out in particular. The workers in the leading enterprises had advantages over those who worked in the secondary facilities. The final design of the all-Union rationing system took place at the beginning of 1931.
At the same time, the state clearly did not cope with the supply of the population. Large differences in wages meant little when buying goods on the black market at high prices; in terms of real wages. It was difficult to convince an employee to increase the intensity of work if it did little in practice. The negative consequences of this also affected the movement of workers. Rumors of better-endowed businesses contributed to the fluidity. Endless standing in lines negatively influenced the state of labor discipline at enterprises, contributed to absenteeism and delays.
The influx of new personnel, their turnover, the adaptation of new workers to modern production was an extremely painful process. Cases of drunkenness, shirking, damage to machines and equipment, industrial injuries, already typical for the working environment, have become more frequent. These phenomena were usually explained in those years by the intrigues of kulak elements, who deliberately impeded the construction of socialism with all the ensuing measures.
The fight against truancy in the line of legislation intensified. The amendment to the Labor Code gave the company the right to fire an employee in the event of 3 absenteeism (previously 6). On March 6, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR granted the administration of state enterprises the right to independently, without the approval of the RKK, impose on violators all penalties provided for by the table of penalties. On July 5, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars strengthened the administration's responsibility for the state of discipline and production regime. Liability for damage to materials was indicated.
On December 30, 1929, a decree was issued by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on the foundations of disciplinary legislation, as well as a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on comradely courts, which provided for a significant expansion of their competence. If earlier they dealt mainly with insults, now - cases of petty theft (up to 15 rubles). On February 20, 1931, a new resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars appeared on comradely courts and their struggle against violations of labor discipline and remnants of the old way of life (drunkenness, mischief, hooliganism, etc.). Measures of influence were envisaged: a warning, public censure with publication in the factory press, a fine of not more than 10 rubles, initiation of the question of dismissal, expulsion from the trade union. The comrade courts were to be created from the best shock workers.
This attention to the problem of discipline was not accidental. When analyzing legislative acts of that (as well as later) Soviet period, it is important to be able to read "between the lines." The adoption of this or that law is evidence of the emerging trouble and a signal to launch another campaign of struggle to overcome it.
There were clear signs that the first years of the active "socialist offensive" caused a number of crisis phenomena in the country. Their importance in further activities of the Stalinist leadership is often underestimated in literature. Meanwhile, they led to significant changes in the policy pursued, and it is no coincidence that many of them concerned the sphere of labor relations. Usually these changes are viewed in historiography in the context of greater pragmatism and realism, however, not everything here looks unambiguous, and the pragmatism of the steps taken was sometimes very peculiar. In the field of labor, they were a curious combination of incentive, moral and political commitment, coercion, and violence. All this took place against the background of increasing centralization, strengthening of departmental principles, and a repressive apparatus.
The first symptoms of a change in policy can be traced in Stalin's speech to economic leaders on June 23, 1931. 25 Stalin spoke of the need for a more organized recruitment of labor, the mechanization of labor, the elimination of turnover, equalization, depersonalization, improvement of living conditions, the correct placement of personnel, the introduction of cost accounting principles in production in order to ensure the efficiency of the current economy, and a change in wage policy. The main theses of this speech, known as “the six conditions of comrade. Stalin "for building socialism in the USSR, have now been hammered into the consciousness of the population of the whole country and are reflected in a variety of legislative and administrative acts.
The centralized regulation of labor relations was entrusted to the CNT. However, the real operational work under the influence of the developing departmental system was concentrated in the hands of either economic agencies or individual enterprises. On September 13, 1931, by a decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, they were allowed to receive workers without contacting the labor authorities. According to the labor plans submitted by the State Planning Committee of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, which determined the number of workers, wage funds and the growth of labor productivity, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions submitted its conclusions to the Council of People's Commissars. The resolution seemed to expand the rights of enterprises, although only in one direction - in the direction of increasing gross output, increasing labor productivity, reducing downtime, marriage, absenteeism. This did not apply to the rigidly established limits - on the payroll, supply of raw materials and supplies.
Working in the 1960s as a Pravda correspondent in Tokyo, I naturally tried to tell Soviet readers about the components of the postwar Japanese economic miracle. And above all, about how the country, which until the 19th century did not know wheels at all, came out on top in the world in the production of cars.
Compatriots often ask me: how does the Japanese car plant differ from ours, what is the secret of the Japanese's success? And in answering these questions, I start not with differences, but with similarities.
When I get to the headquarters of the Toyota concern in Nagoya, every time I seem to return to Soviet times. In the workshops, honor boards are striking. On each of them there are portraits of the foremost workers, the results of the innovators' rationalization proposals, the rolling pennants of workshops, brigades, and sections.
In all this, one can feel the desire to create not only material, but also moral incentives for workers. That is, to approve such concepts as the labor honor of the team, to make people feel like they are involved in the success of the enterprise.
All this initially gives rise to a desire to call Japan the most socialist of the capitalist states. However, there is a deep difference behind the external similarity. The Stakhanov movement, the records of the shock workers of the five-year plans, invariably focused on quantitative indicators. But in the USSR there was no tradition to exalt and reward professional skills at its true worth, to instill pride in people for the quality of their work.
In Japan, since feudal times, each skill has its idols. These are the so-called "living national treasures". Whether it's blacksmiths forging samurai swords or silk embroiderers.
The concept of labor glory also has a very specific meaning in Japan in the 21st century. Industry-specific professional skill competitions are held annually and are widely covered by the media. Everyone knows who is the most skilled cook in the country, who is the best carpenter, bricklayer, welder, who is the best nurse.
The demand for the winners of the All Japan Skills Competitions is steadily growing. For the prestige of a company, it is important to have a national champion in a specialized specialty on its staff. Competitors hunt for them, like sports clubs for titled players.
Specialized vocational schools have appeared, resembling in their tasks the schools of the Olympic reserve. Future champions undergo special training there. And then young workers improve their qualifications in the same classes, and the medalists become their teachers.
We can say that the Japanese car industry from birth is accustomed to focusing on quality indicators of labor. Once the American Henry Ford became the founder of mass production, putting it on the assembly line for the first time.
He divided the assembly of a car into a chain of simple operations that can be quickly taught to anyone. So qualifications have lost their value, and labor has lost a creative character. Charlie Chaplin sarcastically portrayed this in his acclaimed film New Times.
Another American, Edward Deming, proposed to control quality not on the final product, but at every stage of production. In the United States, this idea was ignored. But Toyota and other Japanese automakers have implemented it in the form of the so-called "KKK system" - quality control circles.
Their activity is based on the fact that production and quality control should not be separated, much less opposed to each other. It's not about punishing the bungler. The main thing is to timely identify the reasons causing a possible marriage.
Now the quality control circles have evolved into a "complete manufacturing service" (FSS) system. According to it, the care of the equipment is completely entrusted to those who work on it. Instead of the adjusters, the working and interceding teams are engaged in checking the equipment between shifts.
At enterprises that have implemented the PPO system, labor productivity almost doubles. The prime cost is reduced by one third. The number of rationalization proposals is tripled. The main thing is that the consciousness of people who are beginning to feel like the masters of their workplace and the technology entrusted to them is fundamentally changing.
The new "secret" weapon of Japanese automakers, which plays a big role during economic crises, is based on this. This is the so-called "kaizen" system, that is, cost reduction through the joint efforts of the entire team.
It is estimated that about a fifth of Toyota's profits are the result of a quarter of a million employees participating in cost savings.
Japanese managers believe that in the competitive struggle of the 21st century, the winner will be the one who fully unleashes the creative potential of the team. Therefore, the bet on the human factor seems far-sighted and instructive. I would like to hope that the St. Petersburg plant of the Toyota concern will become a beacon of quality for the Russian car industry.
What is being done in our country in order to create a "cult of mastery", that is, to exalt not quantitative, but qualitative indicators of labor?
Perhaps, apart from the title "Best Teacher of the Year" and the diploma "Best Doctor of the Country", there seems to be nothing to remember.
Why not set about improving the professional skills of our workers purposefully and systematically? Why not use foreign, primarily Japanese, experience in this? Specifically, why not establish annual professional excellence contests, as the Land of the Rising Sun does in a market economy?
Option 1.
A1. The desire to find new economic ways of building socialism, forced the Bolsheviks in the early 20s:
Go to NEP
A2. What characterizes the new economic policy of the Bolsheviks?
Introduction of a universal labor policy
Allowing the sale of surplus bread on the market
Introduction of surplus appropriation
Creation of kombeds
A3. The plan of autonomization as the basis for the unification of the Soviet republics put forward:
Dzerzhinsky
A4. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was concluded:
A5. Which of the above is the reason for the internal party struggle in the 1920s?
Ideological differences among party leaders on the ways of building socialism in the USSR
An increase in the number of opponents of building socialism in a single country
The desire of a number of leaders to create a government coalition of several socialist parties
Disagreements among leaders on the need to prepare for a world revolution
A6. Victory during the internal party struggle in the 1920s. won:
Zinoviev
A7. What was the difference in the spiritual life of the 1920s? from the culture of the Silver Age?
The existence of various creative associations and alliances?
Separation from the masses
Control by the party and government apparatus
Lack of connection with Western culture
A8. The drummer movement, seeking to increase labor productivity, got its name from the name:
Stakhanov
Angelina
Busygina
A10 *. The event of the foreign policy of the USSR in the 30s:
The signing of the Brest Peace Treaty
The entry of the USSR into the League of Nations
Soviet-Polish war
Military conflict with Japan at Lake Hassan
Signing of the secret Soviet-German protocol on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe
IN 1. The politics referred to in the passage:
The 15th Party Congress set the gradual transition of scattered peasant farms to large-scale production as the main task of the party in the countryside.
IN 2. What is the name established by the state in the 20s. mandatory payment levied on peasant farms?
Answer:____________________________________
AT 3. In what year was the "Stalinist" Constitution or the Constitution of the "victorious socialism" adopted?
Answer:____________________________________
Q4: Identify who the passage is referring to:
He was born into the family of a well-to-do agricultural tenant. In London he met Lenin, who praised him as "a very energetic and capable comrade." In 1917 he was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. In his Letter to the Congress, Lenin called him "the most capable man in the present Central Committee." In 1927 he was expelled from the party, exiled to Alma-Ata, in 1929 he was expelled from the USSR, in 1932 he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship. Later he was killed by order of Stalin.
Zinoviev
Sverdlov
C1. Historians call the political system that took shape in the USSR in the 1930s totalitarian. Totalitarianism is characterized by complete control of the life of the state over all spheres of society's life, using the existing knowledge of history, give examples that confirm this assessment.
C2. What are the main reasons (at least 3) of the start of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in Russia inXxcentury.
Final verification work on the topic "USSR on the path of building a new society"
Option 2.
A1. The desire to eliminate the technical and economic backwardness of the country forced the Bolsheviks in the mid-1920s:
Go to NEP
Go to the politics of war communism
Allow freedom of foreign trade
Set a course for industrialization and collectivization of the national economy
A2. The essence of the new economic policy was:
Creation of elements of a market economy
Nationalization of light industry enterprises
Liberalizing political life
Gradual transition from the dictatorship of the proletariat to a democratic republic
A3. The obligatory payment imposed by the state, levied from peasant farms during the NEP years, is called:
Food appropriation
Tax in kind
Expropriation
A4. In what year was the USSR created:
A5. During the first five-year plans, much attention was paid to raising:
Agriculture
Light industry
Heavy industry
Service areas
A6. In the course of collectivization, in contrast to NEP, the following occurs:
Socialization of the means of production
Using market methods
Accelerating the pace of agricultural development
Replacement of surplus appropriation by tax in kind
A7. As a result of the internal party struggle in the 20s. positions were strengthened:
Kalinin
Trotsky
A8. The process of liquidating prosperous peasant farms during the years of agricultural collectivization is called:
Monopolization
Dispossession
Secularization
Averaging
A9. The Munich Agreement (Munich Agreement) of 1938, which contributed to the outbreak of the Third World War, was signed:
Czechoslovakia
Spain
Great Britain
A10 *. Foreign policy event of the 30s:
Signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty
Signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact
Participation in the Genoa Conference
Military conflict with Japan in the area of the Khalkin-Gol river
Assisting Republican Spain
IN 1. What was the name of the policy referred to in the CEC Resolution?
Provide the regional (regional) executive committees and the governments of the republics with the right to apply in these areas all the necessary measures to combat the kulaks, up to the complete confiscation of the property of the kulaks and their eviction from certain areas and territories.
B2 Insert the missing position in the text:
In the 1930s. one of the ways to raise labor productivity in industry was called the ________________________ movement.
AT 3. What is the name of the exaltation of the role of one person, attributing to him during his lifetime a decisive influence on the course of the historical process?
Answer:__________________________________________
AT 4. Mark the person in question.
He was born in 1870 in the city of Gori. Participated in the creation of the newspaper "Pravda". In 1913 he wrote an article "Marxism and the National Question", which earned him the authority of an expert on the national question .. Became the People's Commissar for National Affairs. During the Civil War, he was in military and political work. In 1922 he was elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Having strengthened his position, he dealt with the internal party opposition.
Ordzhonikidze
C1. Some historians believe that the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR, concluded in 1939, had a positive significance in the history of the USSR. What other ratings of this document are you aware of. Which one seems to you the most convincing? Provide statements and facts that will help clarify your point of view
C2. What are the main reasons (at least 3) of the transition to industrialization policy in the late 1920s?Xxcentury.
The item marked with * has several answer options
Tasks of group C are performed for a separate assessment at the request of the student.
On March 15, 1929, in the newspaper Pravda, the highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a short article appeared with the following content: “Agreement on socialist competition between aluminum cutters of the pipe shop of the Krasny Vyborzhets plant. We, the aluminum cutters, challenge the following developments to the socialist competition to raise labor productivity and reduce costs: puremakers, cutting red copper, scraping and developing tram arcs. For our part, we are voluntarily reducing the cutting prices by 10 percent and will take all measures to increase labor productivity by 10 percent. We invite you to accept our challenge and conclude a contract with us. Aluminum choppers: Putin, Mokin, Ogloblin, Kruglov.
It was with this “glove” thrown by the foreman of aluminum cutters Mikhail Eliseevich Putin (1894-1969) to the cleaners, copper cutters and scrapers that the total socialist competition began in the Soviet Union, which soon covered all spheres of production activity of Soviet citizens. Naturally, the initiative of Putin and his comrades did not come from below, not from the midst of the people, where the idea of more intensive work for the same salary could not have arisen in any way. The call of worker Putin was preceded by the appearance in January in Pravda of Lenin's article "How to Organize Competition?" Written twelve years earlier, but published for the first time.
According to the theatrical tradition, this “gun”, which had been hanging on the stage for a long time, fired at the right moment. First, after the devastating civil war, the Soviet people restored the national economy, and the prerequisites for moving forward appeared. Secondly, this movement was already planned and received the name "industrialization of the country." Therefore, the country's leadership sought to increase labor productivity without increasing the wage bill. This method is called "moral incentives for workers."
It was these criteria that socialist competition met. And in the mid-1930s, it grew into the Stakhanov movement, which was no longer focused on a gradual, step-by-step increase in productivity, but on setting fantastic production records. The Stakhanovite was likened to an ancient hero, he, like Hercules, performed great feats. In 1938, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor was established to emphasize the "antique" roots of the movement. A powerful ideological machine worked for the Stakhanov movement. It was during this period that socialist realism appeared, the main task of which was to exalt the heroes of labor - absolutely sexless creatures, aimed at overfulfilling the plan at any cost. The main genre is the production novel: "Cement", "Energy", "Blast Furnace", "Sawmill", "The Rails Are Buzzing", "Battle on the Road", "Hydrocentral" ... Labor for the good of society in literature, theater and cinema is portrayed as valuable in itself a category that has the highest priority even in comparison with a person's sexual needs. More precisely, they do not exist at all in works on an industrial theme. To some extent, this is true, since selfless work contributes to the sublimation of such needs.Depending on the results achieved in production, moral encouragement (or, as it is now customary to say, motivation) of workers was carried out. Good workers were simply awarded with certificates of honor. The next most important award was the badges: Winner of socialist competition, Drummer of the five-year plan, Drummer of communist labor. Brigades, workshops and enterprises received a group award - a rolling red banner, which was awarded for a limited period - for a quarter or for a year. The photographs of the most distinguished employees were placed on the “Board of Honor”. Well, the "Hercules" were awarded government awards, the highest of which was the gold star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. At the same time, moral incentives were often supported by insignificant material in the form of bonuses and free vouchers to rest homes and sanatoriums.
From 1929 to 1935, the socialist competition “initiated” by Putin was “anonymous”. The press discussed the achievements in this or that industry, at this or that enterprise, but the names of the "heroes" were practically not named. Actually, they did not exist. But by the mid-1930s, they became necessary - industrialization began. And then they began to create them by hand. The first to be "made" was Alexei Stakhanov, who on August 31, 1935, with the help of an ordinary jackhammer, chopped 102 tons of coal per shift, thereby exceeding the norm by 14 times! There is an interesting moment in this heroic story: two "slaves" (workers Borisenko and Shchigolev) worked at Stakhanov during the establishment of the record, who strengthened the vaults of the mine and whose names were not officially announced. Soon, at a nearby mine, Nikita Izotov chopped 240 tons, but five woodcutters were already walking behind him. These records were also planned at the very top, since they became the trump cards at the First All-Union Meeting of Workers and Workers-Stakhanovists held in November. It was there that Stalin declared that "life has become better, life has become more fun."
The overwhelming majority of Soviet workers treated such feats with great disapproval, as it led to a sharp increase in production rates. At the same time, privileged conditions, as for Stakhanov and Izotov, were not created for anyone. Each miner single-handedly chopped coal, and fastened the vaults, and rose to the surface to replace the extinct lamp with a burning one. Stalin, speaking at the congress, announced the opposition to the Stakhanovists of the inert administration. However, not only she tried in vain to slow down the heroes, as the leader told from a high rostrum: “Comrade Molotov has already told you about the torments Comrade Musinsky, a lumberjack in Arkhangelsk, had to endure, when he secretly from the economic organization, secretly from the controllers worked out new ones, higher technical standards. The fate of Stakhanov himself was not the best, for he had to defend himself as he moved forward, not only from some members of the administration, but also from some workers who ridiculed and hounded him for "innovations." As for Busygin (blacksmith - VT), it is known that he almost paid for his "innovations" by losing his job at the plant. "
It should be noted that the moral incentives for labor shock workers also had an implicit material component. Ordinary foremost workers were often appointed to higher positions - foremen, heads of shops, and even heads of enterprises, which was reflected both in the salary and in the benefits received. As for the "Hercules", miraculous metamorphoses took place with them. In this respect, the fate of Stakhanov is indicative, who from a village boy overnight turned into a “Soviet nobleman”. Immediately after he set the record, he was sent to Moscow to study at the Industrial Academy. Together with his young wife, he was accommodated in a beautiful apartment in the House on the Embankment, they were given two official cars, and funds were allocated for the construction of a summer cottage. So he settled in Moscow, holding leading positions in the Ministry of the Coal Industry, sitting in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and other representative bodies. Stakhanov was often invited to dinner by Stalin himself. And with the son of the leader, Vasily, the hero of labor regularly arranged fights in the National. True, after Stakhanov lost his party card in a drunken brawl, Stalin asked to convey to the drummer that he would have to change his last name to a more modest one, if he didn’t stop drinking.
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It follows from all this that Stakhanov (like all other superstars of labor) played an exclusively expositional and ideological role. With enormous growth and, according to the recollections of contemporaries, fists the size of a child's head, he was the physical embodiment of myth. Stakhanov, the personification of the "Soviet dream", kind of invited everyone to catch their luck, to become, like him, a "Soviet nobleman." Become like the Vinogradov weavers, like the tractor driver Pasha Angelina, like the machinist Krivonos! ..
However, everything goes away. This kind of highly effective moral incentive was inseparable from all other institutions of a totalitarian society. Beginning in the 1960s, the mechanisms of socialist competition began to slip, and in the 1970s, this phenomenon turned into a completely meaningless ritual. Drawing up quarterly socialist commitments became mandatory for every employee and represented the rewriting of job responsibilities in a special "competition" magazine. Diplomas, badges and banners were still issued, but they were already completely devalued.
It can be assumed that socialist competition, with its inherent method of moral encouragement of the foremost workers, has survived only in such exotic states as North Korea and Cuba. However, we are surprised to find that recently some elements of this discredited phenomenon in Russia are beginning to appear both in the West and in the economically developed countries of the East.
Naturally, such motivation is possible only against the background of normal wages. A man who can barely make ends meet would probably be offended when, instead of banknotes providing a decent life, he is handed a trinket with a gold feather, or even a statuette.
As far as Japan is concerned, "capitalist competition" has become very popular here, primarily in high-tech companies. Fragments of our Soviet past can often be seen at giants such as Sony, Sharp, and ambitious firms rushing to the heights of financial success. Photos of the best inventors and innovators are hung on the stands in workshops and laboratories. Posters with calls to increase labor productivity, save materials and energy are posted everywhere. There are rigorously adhered schedules for best practices exchange meetings.
And these are not ritual propaganda materials: all inventions and rationalization proposals that can save at least one yen are rigorously introduced into production. For example, Ricoh, the world's fourth-largest innovation company, is a copier-making company with over 7,000 patents registered annually. And not only engineers, but also workers take part in this total process. Moreover, inventors receive only moral rewards for their contribution.
Of course, Japan is a special country where people work for their “native” firm, as they say, for life. In this connection, they are interested in its financial prosperity, because it inevitably affects their well-being. But what is the point for Americans and Europeans to be so sensitive to the moral component of reward for selfless work?
The answer to this question can be found in the book by the American futurist Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, written fifteen years ago, which became the gospel of neoliberalism. Considering the most diverse motives that force a person to work, Fukuyama comes to a disappointing (and completely politically incorrect) conclusion for the third world countries: people work with greater efficiency in countries connected by a common liberal-oriented culture. And this community was formed thanks to a heightened sense of justice, the desire for self-sacrifice and the manifestation of valor, courage and nobility, that is, those qualities that are united by such a term as thymos.
Consequently, for a person with high thymos, one of the main motives is the thirst for self-assertion in any field (in politics, on the battlefield, in business, in science, and in general - in work) and instilling self-respect. Well, and since Fukuyama said that such people live mainly in the United States, Western Europe and Japan, it means that moral incentives are very important for them. This means that it is quite possible to provoke them into labor competition. And this new strategy of Western employers stems not so much from the desire to pay less, but to get more return, as from the desire to use additional leverage to increase labor productivity. And even if it is not as powerful as the theorist Fukuyama claims, why not try it, since it does not require serious financial costs? It's so easy to raise the mood of a front-runner by hanging a picture of him on the wall. After all, this arouses the respect of colleagues and can arouse the interest of some of the fair sex.
The Stakhanov movement was one of the manifestations of the so-called "socialist competition", and its immediate predecessor was the "shock work". For the first time, such a mechanism for stimulating production was applied during the years of war communism. Trotsky's resolution adopted at the Ninth Party Congress stated that “along with agitational and ideological influence on the working masses and repression ... competition is a powerful force for raising labor productivity ... The bonus system should become one of the means of inciting competition. The food supply system must conform to it: as long as the Soviet Republic does not have enough food resources, a diligent and conscientious worker must be better provided for than a careless one. "
Forced industrialization was proclaimed by Trotsky's resolution
A decade later, with the proclamation of forced industrialization, "socialist competition" takes on a second wind. In the address of the XVI Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "To all workers and working peasants of the Soviet Union" dated April 29, 1929, it was stated that the decision of the Ninth Party Congress "is now completely timely and vital." There was a call to organize competition between enterprises for increasing labor productivity, reducing the cost of goods produced and strengthening labor discipline.
Newspapers everywhere agitated young people for industrial achievements. The press was filled with motivating slogans and appeals: “Isn't every day, every worker, every brigade faced with this or that specific task, this or that task? Is it not possible to organize socialist competition among workers at a construction site to fulfill these daily tasks? " Socialist competition in the factories took a variety of forms: roll calls, reviews of achievements, shock brigades, a public tugboat, over-planned echelons of coal, strike sections, ships and workshops. This movement of enthusiastic workers also formed its own heroes, the name of one of whom - Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov - went down in history and even became a household name.
Stakhanov turned from a miner to a nomenklatura worker
Coal was especially acute to meet the needs of industrialization, so the Soviet authorities set out to increase labor productivity among miners. At the same time, the modernization of mines was carried out at a rather slow pace. The future leader of production, Aleksey Stakhanov, worked at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine, which by the beginning of the 1930s was considered one of the most backward in the region, it was even contemptuously called a “garbage pit”. However, during the years of the first five-year plan, the mine underwent technical reconstruction: electricity was supplied there, and some miners received jackhammers, with which they began to set labor records.
On a day off, on the night of August 30-31, a mine worker Aleksey Stakhanov went underground with two bafflers and two haul trucks with coal trolleys. In addition, the party organizer of the mine, Petrov, and the editor of the large-circulation newspaper "Kadievsky Rabochiy", who documented what was happening, were present at the face. Stakhanov had a record shift, producing 102 tons, and in September of the same year he raised the record to 227 tons.
Alexey Stakhanov with a gift from Stalin
People's Commissar of Heavy Industry Sergo Ordzhonikidze accidentally saw a note about Stakhanov's feat, who, due to the low rates of the second five-year plan, left Moscow so as not to catch the eye of Stalin. A couple of days later, the newspaper Pravda published an article entitled “The record of the miner Stakhanov,” which described the feat of the Luhansk miner. Stakhanov was quickly noticed abroad. Time magazine even featured a portrait of the miner on the cover. True, Stakhanov himself no longer worked at the mine, mainly speaking at rallies and party meetings. The leader of production, the media "ideal" of a communist man was not at all distinguished by his exemplary behavior: together with his comrades he broke mirrors in the Metropol restaurant and caught fish in a decorative pool, which caused extreme discontent with Stalin, who promised to change his surname to a more modest one, if he didn’t will be corrected.
Stakhanov on the cover of Time magazine
Active Stakhanovists and shock workers in production received various privileges and had a definite advantage in the hierarchy of distribution of public goods. Thus, a special elite of Soviet workers was formed, which later transformed into an independent social class - the scientific and technical intelligentsia. Opportunities for a better life opened up through shock work, it became a kind of social "lift" for a young man dreaming of a career. The most honored workers "from the machine" were promoted to the positions of foremen, technicians and even engineers (practitioners), and also sent to study in higher educational institutions (the so-called "promoted"). So in the 1920s, the old corps of leadership at all levels of management was replaced by young people who unconditionally supported the Soviet government and flawlessly implemented all the party's guidelines.
On the whole, a successful strategy led, however, to a significant decrease in the proportion of managers with higher and secondary specialized education, which negatively affected the quality indicators of production and the speed of implementation of certain scientific achievements. According to the 1939 All-Union Population Census, in the USSR, only half of all employees had the appropriate professional training, which reduced the effectiveness of management of all processes of socio-economic life.
Stakhanov died in 1977 in a psychiatric hospital from alcoholism
One of the "promoted" was Mikhail Eliseevich Putin, the actual initiator of the shock socialist competition. Since childhood, Putin has tried a number of simple professions: a boy in a coffee shop, a delivery man in a shoemaker, a watchman, a dockman. So he acquired sufficient physical strength, and therefore, in the winter period, he began to work as an athlete-wrestler in a circus - he liked this spectacle very much. There was an interesting episode in Putin's circus career when the future drummer of the production took part in a classic fight with the invincible Ivan Poddubny and was able to hold out for seven minutes. After becoming a member of the RCP (b) on the Lenin call (mass recruitment of all comers from among the workers and the poorest peasants in 1924), after the end of the Civil War, Putin entered the Krasny Vyborzhets plant, where his work made him famous.
Portrait of Mikhail Eliseevich Putin
In January 1929, the newspaper Pravda published an article by Lenin, "How to Organize Competition," which he had written back in 1918. The publication was followed by speeches by activists, including those inspired and directed by party and trade union organizations, in which they called for an increase in production rates, savings in raw materials, and an increase in quality indicators. Soon the Leningrad correspondent office of Pravda was tasked with finding an enterprise where it was possible to significantly reduce the cost of production, and most importantly - to find a worthy, exemplary brigade that would agree to become the "instigator of mass socialist competition." On March 15, 1929, an article appeared in the country's main newspaper about the competition between the cutters of the pipe shop of the Krasny Vyborzhets plant - Mikhail Putin became widely known, and the relay race of socialist competitions began to spread rapidly throughout the country.
In fact, the shock workers were supposed to become real examples of the implementation of communist ideas about the formation of a person of a new formation. The young Soviet state needed a different type of citizen who would meet the requirements of a society at the forefront of the world communist movement. During this period, a large number of works were written that describe the ideal of a new person and list its main qualities: love for society and its members, willingness to fight for their ideals, revolutionary spirit, activity and desire to participate in changes, discipline, erudition, technical abilities. and willingness to subordinate their interests to the interests of society. Such a hero is well known from the textbook works of the school curriculum: the novels of Alexander Fadeev "Defeat" and "Young Guard", Alexander Serafimovich and his "Iron Stream", Nikolai Ostrovsky and his autobiographical novel-diary "How the Steel Was Tempered". Of course, the characters often described in these works remained only a figment of the imagination of their creators.
