Udarnik of Communist Labour
The Shock worker of Communist Labour (Udarnik kommunisticheskogo truda) was an official title of honour awarded in the Soviet Union to those who displayed exemplary performance in labour discipline. It was awarded with a badge and certificate, as well as a cash prize.
The title originated in the late 1950s in a competition in honour of the XXI Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to further develop the communist attitude towards work and the creation of the material-technical basis for the development of communism and education towards a communist society. It was also awarded through the Young Communist League.
According to Pravda, "the main feature of the competition for the title of Shock worker of Communist Labour - as stated in the Salutation of the CPSU Union Conference by participants of the foremost competition teams and Shock worker of Communist Labour - is that it is the organically combined struggle, based on the latest science and technology, to achieve the highest productivity and education of the New Man - the master of the country, which is constantly looking ahead, daring and thoughtful. Tying together the work, learning and life, this contest has an active influence on all aspects of life and human activities, and is an important factor in erasing significant differences between mental and physical labour."
The aims of the movement were as follows:
Fight for the new man
Education on the communist attitude toward work
Education on collectivist principles
An increase in professional skills
Combining work and study
Strengthening of labour discipline
Overcoming and improving poor working conditions
Acquisition of related professions
Improvement of product quality
Development of modern technology
Overcoming small proprietors, religion, and other remnants of the capitalist past
Improvement in morale and behaviour
Increased social activity among team members
Schok workers of Communist Labour should be distinguished from the Udarnik (Shock worker) movement from earlier in Soviet history.
Socialist competition
Socialist competition or socialist emulation ("sotsialisticheskoye sorevnovanie", "sotssorevnovanie") was a form of competition between state enterprises and between individuals practiced in the Soviet Union and in other Eastern bloc states.
The first variant is a literal translation of the Russian term, commonly used by Western authors. The second form is an official Soviet translation of the term, intended to put distance from the "capitalist competition", which in its turn was translated as "капиталистическая конкуренция", "kapitalisticheskaya konkurenciya".
There was a significant amount of propaganda along the lines that "capitalist competition" favors only the winning capitalist, while "socialist emulation" benefits all.
Socialist emulation was voluntary everywhere where people worked or served: in industry, in agriculture, in offices, institutions, schools, hospitals, army, etc. With the natural exception of armed force, committees of Soviet trade unions were in charge of managing the socialist emulation.
An important component of socialist emulation was "socialist self-obligations". While the production plan was the major benchmark, employees and work collectives were supposed to put forth "socialist self-obligations" and even "enhanced socialist self-obligations" beyond the plan.
Deadlines for tallying up the results of a socialist emulation were usually set at major Socialist and Communist holidays or notable dates, like the birthday of Vladimir Lenin or the anniversary of the October Revolution.
Winners were awarded both materially and morally. Material awards were money, goods or perks specific to Socialist system, such as tickets to resorts, authorizations for a trip abroad, right to obtain a dwelling or a car outside the main queue, etc. Moral awards were honorary diploma, honorary badges, putting winners' portraits on the "Board of Honor"; work collectives were awarded with the "Transferrable Red Banner of the Socialist Emulation Winner"
Vladimir Lenin was the originator and the promoter of the idea of socialist emulation as a means for organising "the majority of working people into a field of labour in which they can display their abilities, develop the capacities, and reveal those talents". His milestone article was "How to organize the emulation?" In which among the important goal of the emulation was discovery of persons with organizational and management skills, to replace tsarist-era specialists. Also, he was the first to set "socialist emulation" against "capitalist competition". Later, Joseph Stalin wrote in his streamlined style:
Principles of (capitalist) competition: defeat and death of ones and victory and dominance of the others.
Principles of socialist emulation: friendly assistance to lagging ones by the leading ones in order to achieve a common rise. ...etc.
While criteria of socialist emulation were easy to set, understand and quantify in production areas, it was not so in non-production areas: medicine, education, work of clerks, etc., where significant formalism took place and among the criteria a significant weight was attributed to "social activism", not related to the work done.
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