Socialist competition is a competition in labor productivity that existed in the Soviet Union between workshops, state enterprises, brigades, and even individual workers. In particular, educational institutions of the "Labor reserves" took part in social competitions. It was assumed that this would be able to replace the competition that existed in the capitalist world. This practice existed in the Soviet Union, as well as in countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc.
Organization of the process
Participation in socialist competition has always been voluntary. Moreover, they were carried out in almost all sectors of the economy, wherever people served or worked. For example, in agriculture, industry, institutions, offices, hospitals, schools, in the army.
Moreover, everywhere, with the exception of the Armed Forces, the committees of Soviet trade unions were responsible for managing socialist competition. Its important part has always been the so-called socialist obligations. When the main guideline was the production plan, labor collectives and individual employees pledged to assume planned or even increased social obligations.
In most cases, the timing for summing up the results of each socialist competition in the USSR was timed to some important or memorable date. For example, the anniversary of the October Revolution, the birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Winners were awarded not only morally, but also financially. The honors pupil of socialist competition relied on specific goods, money or benefits, so that it was characteristic of the existence of a socialist system. For example, it could be tickets to the Black Sea resort, the right to receive a car or housing out of turn, permission to travel abroad.
Among moral rewards there were honorary badges, honorary diplomas. Portraits of winners were necessarily posted on the Hall of Fame. Labor collectives that won in socialist competition were awarded the challenge banner.
History
The date of the appearance of social competitions is considered March 15, 1929, when a note was published in the newspaper Pravda entitled "The Agreement on the Socialist Competition for Chippers of the Pipe Shop of the Krasny Vyborzhets" Plant.
In particular, this text contained an appeal from aluminum choppers Mokin, Putin, Ogloblin, and Kruglov, in which they called for social competition to reduce costs and increase the productivity of beekeepers, specialists who were engaged in scraping, chopping of red copper, and the development of tram arcs. Aluminum choppers themselves pledged to reduce prices by ten percent, taking measures to increase labor productivity by ten percent. They called on the rest of the workers to accept the challenge they had and conclude an appropriate agreement.
This was the first such contract in the history of the country. As a result, today it is believed that it was on the “Red Vyborg” that the first social competitions were born. According to their results, the winners were awarded the title of drummers of communist labor.
Mikhail Putin
It is believed that the mastermind of the cutters was the mastermind of the competition, whose name was Mikhail Eliseevich Putin. This is an advanced worker, a Soviet worker who was born in St. Petersburg in 1894.
His father worked as a switchman on the railway, and his mother worked as a laundress. Childhood was not easy, as ten children grew up in the family. Therefore, at the age of 9, Mikhail already had to go to work. He began by serving in a coffee shop on Nevsky Prospekt. After he replaced many other specialties - a watchman, a delivery man in a shoe shop, a port loader, a utility room. The physical strength acquired through such work allowed him to earn extra money in the circus during the winter seasons by the French wrestling. In his career there was even an episode when he took part in the classic fight against Ivan Poddubny, managing to hold out for seven whole minutes.
When the Civil War began, enlisted in the Red Army. When he was discharged in the early 1920s, he got a job at the Krasny Vyborzhets factory. At first he worked as a stoker-annealer in a pipe workshop, then switched to a pipe rolling mill. On the stump of aluminum since 1923. When industrialization began in the country, Putin became one of the first foremen at the factory.
First Five Year Plan
After the transition of the USSR to administrative command command in society, there was an acute need for the development of moral incentives in production. This was one of the main problems of the First Five-Year Plan, which began in 1928. In January 1929, Pravda published an article by Lenin entitled How to Organize a Competition, which he wrote back in 1918.
Soon activists rallied, many of which were initiated by party workers as well as trade union organizations. In them, they called for saving raw materials, increasing production standards, and improving quality indicators. The correspondent point of the Leningrad "Pravda" was given the task of finding an enterprise that can significantly reduce the cost of its products, and it has a team that would agree to become the pioneers of socialist competition. So the article of aluminum choppers appeared.
This was the first treaty between social competition teams in the history of the Soviet Union. The first initiative was supported in the pipe workshop, and then in the rest of the plant. The obligations undertaken by the team were fulfilled ahead of schedule. After that, Mikhail Eliseevich Putin became a famous and prominent foreman. In 1931 he was awarded the Order of Lenin as the initiator of the first socialist competition.
Since then, he was regularly elected to the factory committee of trade unions, was a member of the presidium of the regional committee of the trade union of workers in the metallurgical industry, and a deputy.
In 1937 he was awarded the title Hero of Labor. Soon after, he began working in the leadership of the construction department of Soyuzspetsstroy. During the Great Patriotic War, he managed the construction trust during the construction of defensive structures around Leningrad. When the war was left behind, rebuilt the city, developed mass industrial and housing construction.
In 1969 he died at the age of 75. He was buried in the Northern cemetery.
Counter plan
Putin's initiative was soon supported throughout the country. Calls for social competitions were published in many newspapers; this form of increasing labor productivity began to spread widely. As one of the phenomena of the socialist economy, social competitions actually existed until 1990.
At the same time, the concept of a counter plan appeared. This is a production plan that provided for the highest performance than was established by the planning organizations. In addition, it was assumed that it will be completed in a shorter time.
Counter plans were developed in the administrations of enterprises, their party organization affirmed. They were considered part of social competition, an important form of efficient use and search of production reserves by workers.
Excellent student of socialist competition
From 1958 to 1965, another award was presented in the Soviet Union. It was a badge of Excellence in Socialist Competition. He was also included in the list of departmental awards, which gave the right to receive the title of "Veteran of Labor".
On the "Excellent Socialist Competition" badge in the very center were a sickle and a hammer on a blue background. Above was the inscription of the same name, and ears of wheat on the sides.
Social competitions were held at different stages, so the award could be received at several levels - the USSR or one of the republics, for example the RSFSR.
Winners
It is worth noting that in the public mind the attitude towards social competitions was twofold. Many researchers and contemporaries note that the desire to win at any cost was strongly encouraged. As a result, frank graffiti became the best, for which the people, as expected, did not like them.
Modern youth may not know what the participants in the socialist competition were called. The triumphs were presented with a single all-Union sign, it was a departmental and trade union award, which operated from 1973 to 1980. The sign "Winner of the Socialist Competition" was established by a joint resolution of the Soviet government and the Communist Party. At the same time, the relevant provisions were approved by the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. The provisions on the sign "Winner of Socialist Competition" in the future were specified and approved every year.
It is worth noting that there were several types of awards. The badge "Winner of the socialist competition" was awarded to the best collective farmers, workers, craftsmen, office workers, employees of design and development, research and other organizations that achieved the highest possible labor indicators, and also differed in overfulfilling the state plan. Also, for victories in the All-Union Socialist Competition, this award was awarded to workers of organizations and enterprises of regional, district and regional subordination, as well as collective and state farms.
There was also a single all-Union award. This sign of the winner of the All-Union Socialist Competition was marked by workers of organizations and enterprises of union subordination by decision of the Central Committee of Trade Unions and the decision of the relevant ministry or department. Separately noted employees of organizations and enterprises of republican subordination, as well as regional, regional and district.
Together with the sign, the winner of the social competition was awarded the appropriate certificate, and an entry was made in the work book. For the participants of these production competitions, who became winners, this award was included in the list of departmental insignia. In particular, she gave the right to confer the title of Veteran of Labor. The winner of socialist competition had additional benefits and advantages that most sought to use.
What the sign looked like
Initially, the sign was made of aluminum. It was a gear with an unfolded banner in the very center, as well as with a fringing of laurel leaves. On the banner flaunted the inscription "Winner of socialist competition." Directly below the banner, a sickle, a hammer and ears of wheat were depicted, as well as the year in which the award was awarded. It was decided to hang this sign in a bow-shaped block with a star located in the center. The award was attached to clothes with a hairpin.
In 1976, the design was changed, but the overall style has been preserved. The badge was also a gear with an unfolded banner in the center, which indicated the year of presentation of the award on a blue background. He was hung from a rectangular block.
The essence of socialist competition
The majority of workers and collective farmers strove to become an excellent student of the socialist competition of the USSR. The leadership of the Communist Party and the Soviet government noted that the matter was not only in incentives and benefits, but also in the very essence of a planned economy.
Socialist competition was considered one of the important elements of the economic mechanism of socialist society. It was a lever for social and economic progress, as well as an effective school of labor, political and moral education of workers. At the same time, the main function was still considered economic. Everything was aimed at improving the efficiency of social production, high labor productivity. Social competitions were designed to orient workers toward the struggle for high quality products and quantitative indicators. At the same time, it was believed that they contributed to the formation of human creative abilities, playing an important role in eliminating the significant differences between physical and mental labor.
It was noted that this is a task of national importance, which was based on comparability of results, publicity, and the possibility of repeating best practices. A major role at all stages belonged to the Communist Party, trade unions and the Komsomol organization.
Control
The authorities noted that the analysis of the functions of social competition demonstrated its great importance in the development and life of society. Therefore, over time, its management became an important lever of economic construction. It was believed that with skillful use it is possible to achieve tactical and strategic goals in the social and economic development of the country.
The management of social competition required a certain specificity, since it was a complex socio-economic process. Common functions were inherent in him, for example, organization, planning, control, stimulation. At the same time, his planning was supposed not by approving a specific plan with a quantitative determination of the results, but by order, setting a goal, developing the direction of the competition.
Taking into account all the specifics of social competitions, a large-scale work was carried out to explain the goals in this section of production for different groups of workers, taking into account their role in the dynamic production process, as well as promoting the best practices of its dissemination. After all, social competitions were held not only in the Soviet Union, but also in most countries that were part of the socialist camp.
After the development of the specific goals of the competition, as well as the characteristics of the production and economic activities of the teams, the main thing in management becomes the coordination of efforts of all production links.
It has always been noted that a major role in the management of social competition is played by its stimulation. It was believed that it was necessary to intensify social and production activities, satisfying the most diverse needs of workers. At the same time, great importance was attached to the combination of moral and material incentives. It was constantly noted that competition, based only on the moral component, contains the danger of becoming an empty formality, empty talk and hype. Competition based solely on material interest risks losing the important socialist content.
In total, four phases were distinguished in the process of managing social competition. The first related to the collection of comprehensive information about the existing situation of social competition as an object of management. On the quantitative side, it is important to determine the composition of its participants, while the qualitative one becomes even more diverse. It includes the content of social obligations, the existence of direct agreements between specific parts of the team, the development of relations of cooperation and friendly mutual assistance.
The second phase of this process involves the formation of the goal. For this, all collected information is analyzed, requirements for the team are formulated, available reserves are evaluated, a model of the future state is compiled. In the third phase, the main forces are devoted to the development of methods and ways to achieve the intended goal. This includes the development of several options for changing each indicator, the selection of specific managers to achieve the intended indicators.
The fourth phase provides the connection of the object with the subject of control. It consists in the impact of the organizers on the entire competition system, as well as in obtaining information about the results and new conditions.
In these ways and methods, direct control of socialist competition was carried out at all its stages and at all levels. This feature of the structure of the planned economy existed in our country and other states for several decades, by the end it had completely exhausted itself, demonstrating non-viability and all its meaninglessness.