Horokhivskyi P.

Myths and reality of the «socialist competition» in the 1930s. (according to the materials of the local press)

Abstract: The purpose of the article is to determine the role and place of socialist competition as a method of increasing labor efficiency in the conditions of building a socialist economy, one of the extra-economic means of modernizing the national economy, based on the analysis of publications in the 1930s in the Khrystynovsky railwayman newspaper. It was found that in order to implement the practically unrealistic plans of socialist construction, the authorities resorted to intensifying the work of workers and peasants by using the labor enthusiasm of the population in the form of socialist competition in various forms and types. In particular, the press promoted such forms of production competition as «mutual obligations», «movement for the preparation and implementation of the technical and financial plan», «household settlement teams», «public tugboats». This was done for propaganda purposes, since a certain part of the workers believed in the necessity of the competition and enthusiastically joined it. The most widespread was the Stakhanov movement, as well as the use of the Kutafin method, the Kryvnosov movement, etc. However, the organization of the competition and the fulfillment of commitments were, as a rule, of a formal, propaganda nature. It was concluded that despite the efforts of the Communist Party and the government to attract workers to participate in various types of socialist competition, for the most part, the workers of the Hrystyniv railway junction mostly ignored the calls and did not favor the strikers.

Keywords: party-Soviet government, modernization of production, socialist competition, striking, Stakhanov movement

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/kraieznavstvo2024.02.067     Citation

• Horokhivskyi P. (Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University, Uman, gopeiv@gmail.com) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6905-0116

Cite:
Horokhivskyi P. (2024). Myths and reality of the «socialist competition» in the 1930s. (according to the materials of the local press). Local Lore Studies, ( 2) 67. (In Ukrainian). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/kraieznavstvo2024.02.067

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