There was no unemployment in the USSR. There was a complete opposite of this regrettable phenomenon - a constant shortage of labor resources. This problem was especially acute for the country's leadership after the 20th Congress of the CPSU , which marked a certain liberalization of public relations. The labor army of the Gulag prisoners was significantly reduced, the peasants were given the opportunity, albeit limited, to avoid the dreary fate of a lifelong serf collective farmer. Nevertheless, the need for builders remained high. This was especially felt in the fifties, during the development of virgin-fallow lands in Kazakhstan. It was then that the VSSO movement arose, inspired, like any other mass phenomenon, by the Communist Party, the only ruling force in the Soviet Union.
The first virgin soil construction teams
There were few hunters on virgin land. The first wave of immigrants consisted of two unequal parts, enthusiastic romantics (there were a minority of those) and those who were tempted to lift, finding themselves in an extremely difficult position for different life circumstances. In other words, the second, more numerous category was made by those who had nothing to lose, including people with a criminal past. Once in the bare steppe, not provided with housing and supplies, enthusiasts and adventurers equally began to understand the complexity of the situation, many made attempts to go back, but not everyone succeeded. Then the party gave a cry to students, and the Komsomol, as always, replied "yes!" The first construction teams, as the people called the VSSO movement in the USSR , went to Tselina in 1959 and consisted of students from Moscow State University. During the summer, 339 students were erected in Northern Kazakhstan, the place of exile for political prisoners, 12 houses, rabbitry and a couple of houses. These modest achievements were more propaganda than practical. Without the participation of any qualified builders and considerable expenses for transportation, food and accommodation of young people, the construction of these objects would be impossible. About how much each of them earned, and whether this idea was at least self-sustaining, history is silent.
Attempts to attract labor resources of students were earlier and later. Starting from the first five-year periods, the party leadership believed that students should not spend their summer holidays idle. During the years of “mature socialism,” the tradition continued with regular shipments to autumn agricultural work to sponsored collective farms. Moreover, most often the tasks performed by the Komsomol members were not related to construction. In this regard, by 1983 the need for renaming had ripened, since in the USSR the people called the VSSO movement still construction teams. Now they were designated by a shorter abbreviation SB (that is, student groups), thereby expanding their scope. Students were used in industrial enterprises experiencing difficulties, including seasonal, in labor resources. Usually, in such plants and factories, the labor was hard, the standards were high, and the pay very modest.
Organizational structure
Komsomol since its creation has been a loyal assistant to the Communist Party. As in the CPSU, democratic centralism became the fundamental principle in this organization. He was also transferred to the offspring of the Komsomol, construction teams, as the people in the USSR called the VSSO movement. Structurally, all units were controlled by the central headquarters operating under the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Each individual unit (detachment), consisting of thirty to forty people, was subordinate to the corresponding functionary of the Komsomol district committee. It was commanded by the commander and commissar. The first dealt with general leadership issues, the second regulated the ideological side. There were other positions necessary for the unit to function properly, such as an accountant or a cook. The best commanders, selected throughout the vast country, took part in regularly organized gatherings.
The heyday of the construction brigade movement
The VSSO movement in the USSR reached its highest peak in the late sixties and early seventies. Student life was often not rich. The scholarship was 40 rubles (increased - 50), and the "nonresident" residents of the hostels were forced to look for extra money, especially if their parents could not help. Construction teams made it possible to stock up on cash over the summer, sometimes significant. Their geography was extensive, and in some cases, premiums were paid , northern or for remoteness. Making money during the holidays is a common thing for a student in any country, but nowhere has it gained such an organizational scope as in the USSR. The people called the VSSO movement student teams, construction teams, and sometimes just co-workers, but it didn’t matter. As long as the main incentive was a relatively high payment, it developed, and the number of students taking part in it grew. By 1970, it exceeded the figure of 300 thousand, in five years it doubled, and by 1980 it exceeded 800 thousand. Then there was a recession.
The decline of the BSSO
Until the construction teams had a certain opportunity to choose the objects on which they had to work, things went relatively well. But by 1983, the party leadership realized that such a significant able-bodied “mass” could be used more efficiently, which in economic terms was expressed by the simplest formula “pay less, work more and not where they want, but where they say”. The number of people wishing to work under such conditions decreased, and administrative measures were used, up to the threat of expulsion from the university in case of refusal to work the summer in a construction team.
But still…
And yet, those who are 50-60 years old today recall construction teams with a kind word. It is difficult to understand the joy of the sight of the barn built by all together, the sense of independence and happiness of overcoming difficulties, for young people who do not even know how the VSSO movement was called and how these letters are deciphered. Mosquitoes bit, living conditions often left much to be desired, and the diet was not at all what the mother was preparing, but all this did not matter. Songs around the campfire, not always those that Pakhmutova composed about the “furious construction team”, baked potatoes, first love and a magical sense of freedom, backed up by the gentle crunch of self-earned money in your pocket — that’s what the then construction crews, and now quite respectable uncles and aunts, recall. Such nostalgia can be desired for the current twenty years.