USSR WORKING CLASS

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Industrialisation How to motivate workers in a communist State? Oil industry workers, more oil for Motherland!! 1

Transcript of USSR WORKING CLASS

Industrialisation

How to motivate workers in a communist State?

Oil industry workers, more oil for Motherland!! 1

Positive Motivation

•Communism inspired workers with ideas of a better society for them and their children. •They were willing to make sacrifices and work long hours in poor conditions to create this better society A successful propaganda campaign was launched across the USSR to encourage the workers.

Propaganda was to be found in the cinemas, newspapers, on the radio and posters

Those workers who made significant contributions were awarded with better pay, housing and free holidays. Work well and you’ll have

lots of bread.2

ALEXEY STAKHANOV: A ROLE MODEL.

He became a celebrity in 1935 as part of a movement that was intended to increase worker productivity and demonstrate the superiority of the socialist economic system.

On 31 August 1935, it was reported that he had mined a record 102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes (14 times his quota). On 19 September, Stakhanov was reported to have set a new record by mining 227 tonnes of coal in a single shift

Workers who exceeded the production levels were known as ‘Stakhanovites’.

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Statue of Alexei

Stakhanov

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WAGES IN A COMMUNIST COUNTRY.

In four years we have achieved a five years plan!!! 5

1928 Poor and Middle-class Peasants, Increase Crop Plantation, Establish a Technical Culture, and Strengthen your Economy!

To the elections! For collectivisation! For the harvest!

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The Victory of the Revolution is in Co-operation of Workers & Peasants”

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ENEMIES OF THE COMMUNIST ECONOMY

Each hammer blow is a blow at the enemy

Struggle against religion is strugle for socialism. As usual, religion “stands in the way of progress”

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Clergy help capital and stand in the way of the working man.

The black thermometer shows the “American Industry Rate” pitched well below the “Soviet Industry Rate”, which is displayed on the red thermometer. The information box at the bottom tells of an American economic crisis.

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In the poster, a man smashes an alcohol bottle with a hammer. At the time, alcohol was considered an enemy of the revolution.

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NEGATIVE MOTIVATION.

If you were absent from work, you could be punished in the form of fines, the loss of ration cards or dismissal

If you offended more than once, you were given a prison sentence

Workers had to carry two documents at all timesLabour books: these were a record of their jobs and any unfavourable remarks about them. A bad report could lose a worker food rations or lead to imprisonment

Internal Passports: this restricted the movement of workers so that they could not move about the USSR looking for higher wages

Some USSR’s workforce was forced labour, taken from the labour camps

e.g. the Kulaks, political prisoners

They worked out of fear of physical punishment or being denied food 11

If things went wrong, the workers were blamed

Many of them were labelled as saboteurs, or wreckers

Workers who went out of their way to damage the pace of industrialisation or the machinery

Saboteurs did exist: quite a few were kulaks and other political prisoners who were against Stalin and the Communist regime.

Propaganda warns workers to be on thelookout for wreckers andsaboteurs in factories. 12

However many of the ‘saboteurs’ were simply unskilled workers (many ex-peasants) who didn’t know how to use the machinery

In 1928, 33 engineers were accused of wrecking the coal mining industry when they didn’t reach their targets for that year.

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