Stakhanovite movement in industry

The development of the Soviet economy

In August 1935, the Donetsk miner Alexei Stakhanov laid the foundation for the most remarkable movement of our time - the Stakhanov movement, the movement of the broadest masses of the working class and working people of our country for high socialist labor productivity. The Stakhanovist movement, having originated in the Donbass, soon covered all branches of industry, transport, agriculture, trade, and "... spread throughout the face of our Union not gradually, but with some unprecedented speed, like a hurricane" [Stalin, Questions of Leninism, ed. 11th, p. 498.]. 

The Stakhanov movement was prepared by all the previous successes of socialist construction in our country. It was the result of the successful implementation of the Party's policy in the field of socialist reconstruction of the national economy. In his speech at a meeting of the Stakhanovites, Comrade Stalin pointed to four sources for the emergence and rapid development of the Stakhanov movement: 1) a radical improvement in the material situation of the workers, 2) the absence of exploitation, 3) the restructuring of the national economy on the basis of new technology, 4) the creation of cadres who have mastered the new technology. 

The creation of a new, powerful, technically advanced industry set before the country the task of mastering new technology, the task of training new personnel who could master it in the shortest possible time. To solve this problem, the Party has widely developed work on the training of personnel through universities, technical schools, factory directors, organized mass technical training for workers on the job in the form of a network of production and technical courses, minimum technical circles, production instruction, organized the deployment of public forms of technical training created according to mass initiative. In the struggle to master new technology, the Izotov movement arose, patronage of the old personnel officers over newcomers, public technical examinations, and many other forms of organizing the production activity of the masses, unprecedented and impossible under capitalism.

Of great importance for the accelerated cultivation of new cadres was Comrade Stalin's speech at the graduation of Red Army academicians in May 1935, in which he formulated a new slogan that drew attention to the problem of cadres. This speech was the impetus for enhanced development of technology. New cadres of workers and women who mastered the new technique served as a force that formalized and moved forward the Stakhanov movement. In a speech at the first All-Union Conference of the Stakhanovites, Comrade Stalin said: “About two years ago, the party said that by building new plants and factories and giving our enterprises new equipment, we have done only half the job. The Party said at the time that the enthusiasm for building new factories must be supplemented by the enthusiasm for their development, that only in this way can the work be carried through to the end. Obviously, that during these two years the development of this new technology and the birth of new personnel took place. Now it is clear that we already have such personnel. It is clear that without such cadres, without these new people, we would not have had any Stakhanovist movement. Thus, new people from workers and workers who mastered the new technique, served as the force that shaped and moved forward the Stakhanov movement” [Stalin, Questions of Leninism, ed. 11th, pp. 500 - 501.]. 

The Stakhanovite movement is the highest level of socialist competition and shock work. Explaining this, Comrade Stalin, in his speech at the first meeting of the Stakhanovites, pointed out that the Stakhanov movement, in contrast to the first stage of socialist emulation, is connected with new technology and would be unthinkable without it. The Stakhanovites are people of high consciousness, they are the foremost workers of socialist labor, showing examples of a socialist attitude towards labor. Stakhanovites are not just shock workers. Stakhanovites are new people who "...completely mastered the technique of their business, saddled it, and drove it forward" [Ibid., p. 493.]. 

Under capitalism, there can be no question of the full mastery of technology by the workers. In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels pointed out that in order for the producer to be able to fully develop the totality of his abilities, this requires the appropriation of the entire totality of productive forces, i.e., the transfer of the means of production into the hands of society. “The very appropriation of these forces,” they wrote, “is already nothing but the development of individual abilities corresponding to the material instruments of production” [Marx and Engels, Soch., vol. IV, p. 57.]. The transfer of the means of production into public ownership in the USSR is the basis for the free development of the personality of the producer, for his successful, complete, unprecedented mastery of the newest tools of labor under capitalism. 

Socialism creates the widest scope for the development of the individual. Characteristic of the working people of the Land of Soviets is the continuous improvement of the cultural and technical level. A vivid illustration of this is the biographies of our Stakhanovites. 

The Stakhanovites are the foremost representatives of the working class of the USSR, who, guided by the interests of the socialist homeland and based on the mastery of new technology, broke the routine methods of work, and showed examples of truly socialist labor productivity. Tov. Stakhanov at a meeting of the Stakhanovites said that Comrade Stalin's historic speech at the graduation of the Red Army academicians made him "...thoroughly think about what needs to be done to increase labor productivity, to make full use of all technology" ["First All-Union Conference of Workers and Women Workers - Stakhanovtsev, 1935, p. 12.]. In his book, he writes: “May, June, July, August - during these months we often repeated the words of Comrade Stalin and fought for their implementation” [Stakhanov, Story about my life, Sotsekgiz, 1937, p. 20.]. 

This record deeply stirred the working class and working people of our country. Stakhanov's example was followed by workers in other industries. 

Busygin - in the automotive industry, Gudov - in the machine tool industry, Musinsky - in the forest industry, M., and E. Vinogradovs - in the textile industry, Smetanin - in the shoe industry, Krivonos - in the railway transport, Maria Demchenko, Marina Gnatenko, P. Angelina, Polagutin, Kolesov , Borin, Kovardak - in agriculture - these are the initiators of the Stakhanov movement. They were followed by other Stakhanovists who blocked the productivity of the labor of the pioneers. 

The basis of the high Stakhanov productivity of labor is a creative change in the methods and system of production work on the basis of a high mastery of new technology. Not limited to the excellent performance of their work according to the methods provided for by the projects and instructions, the Stakhanovites creatively change these methods, while solving a number of the most complex organizational and technical problems that move science and technology forward. 

New equipment in the coal Donbass also required a new organization of miners' labor. Prior to the Stakhanov movement, the jackhammer was used for hardly half the working day, and during the rest of the time it was inactive due to the fact that the heaver performed two different functions - both slaughter and fastening; and the length of the ledges did not give the slaughterer the opportunity to turn around. 

Comrade Stalin's speech in May 1935 was the impetus for Comrade Stakhanov and many other best people in industry, who had mastered the new technique, to critically review the organization of labor from the point of view of the full use of the new technique. The conclusion that Comrade Stakhanov came to as a result of this was briefly formulated by him in his speech at the meeting of the Stakhanovites as follows: “It is only necessary to strictly specialize the labor of the workers: the slaughterer must cut, and the fixer must strengthen, the ledges must be increased” [“First All-Union Conference of Workers and Stakhanovite workers”, 1935, p. 13.]. The use of this method of organizing work in the face made it possible to increase the load of the jackhammer by 2-3 times and, on this basis, achieve unprecedented productivity records. 

The blacksmith of the Gorky Automobile Plant Comrade Busygin, a pioneer of the Stakhanovite movement in mechanical engineering, achieved his first records in forging crankshafts as a result of the correct placement of people within the brigade, their specialization in certain operations, good production preparation, and saving time on performing individual operations. 

The struggle to save seconds, to make full use of the machine, is also characteristic of the first Stakhanovite in the shoe industry, Comrade Smetanin. Tov. Smetanin mainly achieved this by better organization of the workplace, careful analysis of hand movements, reduction of unnecessary movements, increased tempo, accuracy, and rhythm in work. Tov. Smetanin, a worker at the Skorokhod factory in Leningrad, worked on a sock constriction on a Menus machine of the Regina type. The operation performed by him was to give the correct position to the workpiece on the block, evenly fit the sock and attach it to the insole with five special nails (texas). Comrade Smetanin performed the sock constriction in seven steps, and according to the old norm, 36 seconds were supposed to be per pair. On September 21, 1935, t. Smetanin doubled the processing rate by issuing 1400 pairs of men's shoes, and on October 6, he had already processed 1860 pairs, reducing the actual time spent per pair to 13.44 seconds. Comrade Smetanin achieved this record by drastically reducing the time spent on manual operations. Under the old methods of work, legalized in "technically sound norms", out of 36 seconds, work on the machine took 10 seconds, or only 27.8% of the time, and 26 seconds, or 72.2% of the time, was spent on manual work. Smetanin radically changed this ratio in time of various types of work per unit of output: out of 13.44 seconds spent by him on a pair of shoes, only 3.44 seconds, or 25.6%, began to go to manual work, and 10 to machine work. seconds, or 74.4%. The time of net operation of the machine during the working day increased by more than 2 Smetanin achieved through a sharp reduction in the time spent on manual operations. Under the old methods of work, legalized in "technically sound norms", out of 36 seconds, work on the machine took 10 seconds, or only 27.8% of the time, and 26 seconds, or 72.2% of the time, was spent on manual work. Smetanin radically changed this ratio in time of various types of work per unit of output: out of 13.44 seconds spent by him on a pair of shoes, only 3.44 seconds, or 25.6%, began to go to manual work, and 10 to machine work. seconds, or 74.4%. The time of the machine's net operation during the working day increased by more than 21/2 times. 

In mechanical engineering and metalworking, the Stakhanovites primarily sought to increase the operating time of the machine: this was achieved by reducing downtime due to untimely supply of tools and workpieces, by reducing changeover times, etc. At a number of plants, at the suggestion of the Stakhanovites, specially tools, which unloaded the machine operators from waste of time walking behind the tool and increased the operating time of the machine. Proper organization of the machine operator's workplace, well-organized maintenance of the machine and its timely repair in the same way contributed to an increase in the operating time of the machine. It was with these events that the Stakhanovites began in the machine shops of machine-building plants. However, it should be noted that the bulk of the time for processing a part in most machine operations is the so-called machine time. Therefore, the thought of the Stakhanovite machine operators begins to work on the question of reducing the time of machining a part, that is, on the question of intensifying the work of the machine tool. This was achieved by the Stakhanovite machine operators by changing the cutting mode - increasing the cutting speed and feed rate. Tov. I. I. Gudov, reaching his first records, increased the cutting mode by 4-5 times. As a result of this change in the cutting mode, the Stakhanovite machine operators achieved a significant reduction in machine time per unit of output and an increase in labor productivity. The Stakhanovites-machine operators destroyed the old ideas about the limiting possibilities of using the machine and said their weighty word on the issue of cutting conditions. 

The Stakhanovites, the new cadres of socialism, who have mastered technology to perfection, showed examples of the use of technology unprecedented under capitalism, destroying not only the norms that were in force in our country, but also the norms of the advanced capitalist countries. Tov. Stakhanov, at the time of his first record, gave, in terms of one worker, twice the output compared to the shift productivity of a worker in the best mines of the Ruhr basin. Tov. Busygin, already at his first records in forging crankshafts, twice exceeded the Ford factory norm. Tov. Smetanin, who processed 1860 pairs of shoes on October 6, 1935, significantly exceeded the best performance of the Thomas Bathy shoe factory, the highest output of which at that time was 1125 pairs of shoes per shift per worker. With their work, the Stakhanovites smashed the limiting "theories" of conservative elements from the environment of engineering and technical workers and workers of science. The Stakhanovites showed that the norms for the use of equipment in the capitalist countries can in no way be a model for the country of socialism, that socialism and the new people of socialism ensure the full use of technology, such as capitalism could never know. 

The work of the Stakhanovites, who boldly destroyed the old ideas about technology and broke the old technical norms, raised the question of revising the norms. On the basis of the instructions of Comrade Stalin and the December (1935) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, work is underway in industry to revise the norms, and as the Stakhanov movement develops, more and more reserves are opened up in this direction. The volume utilization rate of blast furnaces (in terms of nominal operating hours) has improved. In 1937, this coefficient was 1.11 against 1.75 in 1932. The removal of steel from a square meter of the hearth of an open-hearth furnace rose over the same time from 2.12 tons to 4.35 tons (in calendar time). The same sharp increase in the use of technology took place in all other branches of industry. Such an increase in the standards for the use of technology determined a significant increase in the production capacities of our factories. 

At the beginning of 1936, production rates were revised and a significant increase was made. This increase fluctuated in various industries and enterprises within very wide limits. On the average, for individual industries, the increase in production rates was planned by industry conferences in approximately the following sizes: in the coal industry by 22-27.5%, in ferrous metallurgy by 13-20%, in engineering as a whole by 30-40%, in non-ferrous metallurgy by 30%. - 35, in the oil industry by 27 - 29, in chemistry by 34%, etc. 

But even these new, higher norms, already throughout 1936, were significantly exceeded by our glorious Stakhanovites and shock workers. Thus, for example, according to a sample survey of TsUNKhU, at the end of 1936 the average percentage of compliance with the norms was 133.8 in the iron ore industry, 133.3 in ferrous metallurgy, 136.7 in electric power engineering, etc. 

In the spring of 1937, when the new norms were well mastered by almost all workers, on the special instructions of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, an additional revision of the norms for individual branches of industry and their slight increase were carried out. Thus, for example, in the spring of 1937 the standards were increased by 14.7% in the main chemical industry, by 18.1% in mining engineering, etc. 

The over fulfillment of the new standards by the Stakhanovites is due to the better use of technology, the improvement of the skills of the workers and the skillful use of new opportunities in raising labor productivity. Analyzing his record, achieved on June 22, 1936, the noble milling machine comrade I. I. Gudov quite rightly noted that after the introduction of new norms, the Stakhanovites were already required to search for deeper reserves. If at the first steps of the Stakhanov movement, the increase in productivity was achieved mainly due to better organization of labor, the workplace, and the intensification of machine operation (in particular, in machine work by increasing the cutting speed), then in the future, the achievement of new productivity records was increasingly based on the revision technological processes and on the improvement of tools. Having mastered the technique, the Stakhanovites came close to the task of its creative change and improvement. “When I mastered the technique, I began to change the technological process in the direction of increasing productivity and improving quality” [Izvestia of December 29, 1937, article by I. Gudov “Inexhaustible reserves.”], writes Comrade Gudov. All further work of Comrade Gudov went along the line of a bold revision and change in the technological process of processing parts - the use of simultaneous processing of several parts, the use of a number of new devices, the replacement of gouging with milling, etc. Comrade. Gudov showed with a number of brilliant records how effective the rationalization of the technological process is. 

Comrade Gudov's work on the rationalization of technological processes posed the question of revising the entire technology of mechanical engineering before Soviet technical thought. This work revealed, as Comrade Gudov himself writes about it, that technology is one of the most backward areas of mechanical engineering, that “the technologist’s creativity is based on just bare practical experience and personal ingenuity, but no firm scientific provisions, no criteria for evaluating work there are no technologists” [“Engineering” dated June 14, 1938, article by I. Gudov “Putting order in engineering technology”.]. Tov. Gudov set before scientists, in particular before the Academy of Sciences, the task of putting in order the technology of mechanical engineering, typing technological processes on a solid scientific basis, developing the scientific foundations of mechanical engineering technology. 

The locksmith of the Kyiv machine-tool plant named after V.I. A. M. Gorky, Stakhanovite comrade Shvinenko, who replaced traditional manual locksmith work (scraping) with mechanical processing using a prefabricated broach designed by him. On the processing of grooves in chucks for semi-automatic lathes, Comrade Shvinenko completed 500 norms with the help of his device in 2 hours and 4 minutes. The work that previously took 26 hours and 30 minutes, Shvinenko performs in 3.1 minutes. Comrade Shvinenko's method signifies a genuine upheaval in one of the most labor-intensive sectors—the plumbing sector. This method can be applied to all machine-building plants without exception and will give a huge increase in productivity. 

It is known that capitalist machine technology was created in the fierce class struggle between capital and the workers, as an instrument of exploitation and class oppression of the working class. Marx points out in Capital that "one could write a whole history of such inventions since 1830, which were brought to life exclusively as capital's means of combat against the indignations of the workers" [Marx, Capital, vol. I, 1935, p. 335 .]. Technological progress under capitalism was a force hostile to the worker. The working class acted in the process of technological progress by no means as its subject, but exclusively as its object. Of course, even under capitalism, individual individuals, talented inventors, at the cost of the greatest hardships, sometimes managed to get out of the environment of the working classes and break through "into the people." The talents of the masses of working people, as Lenin pointed out, were crushed, strangled by capitalism by the thousands and millions. And it is not surprising that with the advent of machines, "... for the first time there appears a severe indignation of the worker against the means of labor" [Ibid., p. 331.], into the form of mass destruction of machines. The entire 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century are filled with a sharp struggle of workers against machines (the Luddite movement). Under such conditions, the machine technology of capitalism arose. 

Socialism has called the millions of working people to work in the field of technology. The new technique of socialism is being created by the hands of the masses and in the interests of the masses. From an object of exploitation, the working people have turned into conscious creators, true masters of new technology. The Stakhanovite movement is an indicator of this creativity of the masses. 

The development of the Stakhanov movement goes not only in depth, along the line of using new reserves of labor productivity, but also in breadth, along the line of an increase in the number of Stakhanovites. The data of sample surveys of the TsUNKhU, carried out in November 1935 and August 1936, show that during this time the number of Stakhanovites increased 2.5 times at power plants, almost 4 times in ferrous metallurgy and machine building, and in oil refining - 5 times, in the meat industry - almost 6 times and in the confectionery industry - more than 6.5 times. 

The development of the Stakhanov movement in breadth and depth made enormous demands on the economic and technical leadership. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in December 1935 set the task for the production commanders to lead the Stakhanovite movement. 

Engineers and business executives must lead the initiative of the Stakhanovites in overcoming old, obsolete norms and traditions, they must ensure such an organization of production that would enable every worker to achieve Stakhanov productivity. In a speech at the first All-Union Conference of Stakhanovites, Comrade Molotov pointed out that the Stakhanov movement required a restructuring of the organization not only of an individual workplace, but also of workshops and enterprises as a whole. The Stakhanov movement "...requires a new, higher level of organization and a real rhythm already in all the work of the enterprise" ["The First All-Union Conference of Stakhanovite Workers and Workers", 1935, p. 281.]. High skill, complete mastery of technology by individual workers is the basis of Stakhanov's productivity. But the successful development of the Stakhanovist movement still requires an organization of production that would give the masses of workers the opportunity to grow, to rise to the level of advanced workers and to produce high productivity. The Stakhanovite movement demanded innovation from the commanders of production, a bold search for new organizational norms, and work in the closest contact with the working masses, with progressive people - the Stakhanovites. The Stakhanovite movement demanded a new level, a new style of economic and technical leadership. And many production commanders were not up to these requirements. They did not understand their tasks in the new conditions, they were unable to reorganize themselves and become at the head of the masses, and thereby retarded the development of the Stakhanov movement. 

The vile Trotskyist-Bukharin bandits were the worst enemies of the Stakhanov movement. In order to disrupt the Stakhanov movement, the enemies of the people staged accidents, putting the equipment of our enterprises out of action, disrupted the use of Stakhanov methods, confused the wage system, destroyed the normal organization of production, and sought to create such a situation at the enterprise in which jerky work and endless downtime would enter the system. . The enemies of the people did not stop even at the murder of the best people of the working class. 

The defeat of the wrecking gang and the elimination of the consequences of wrecking were an indispensable condition for the development of the Stakhanov movement. Glorious Soviet intelligence, under the leadership of the party, with the assistance of the best people in the country, exposed and destroyed the hornets' nests of wrecking gangs and thus cleared the way for the Stakhanov movement. After the saboteurs were exposed in 1936, some unfortunate theoreticians came up with a rotten theory that the Stakhanovites themselves, by their heroic labor, would "block" the consequences of wrecking. Comrade Stalin at the February-March (1937) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks exposed all the rottenness and hostility of this theory. Comrade Stalin pointed out in this regard: 

“This theory was invented in order, under the guise of chatter about the Stakhanovites and the Stakhanovite movement, to deflect the blow from the wreckers ... What can the Stakhanovites alone do if the wrecking of capital construction, say, in the Donbass has led to a gap between the preparatory work for the extraction of coal, who are behind the pace, and all the other jobs? Is it not clear that the Stakhanovite movement itself needs real help on our part against all and every machinations of wreckers in order to advance the cause and fulfill its great mission? Is it not clear that the struggle against sabotage, the struggle to eliminate sabotage, the curbing of sabotage is a necessary condition for the Stakhanovist movement to be able to unfold in all its breadth? [Stalin, On the shortcomings of party work and measures to eliminate Trotskyist and other double-dealers, 1937, 1937, p. 25.]. 

On the basis of the instructions of Comrade Stalin and the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a lot of work was done to root out the roots of sabotage and eliminate the consequences of sabotage, to cleanse industry and transport of unfit, bankrupt, leaders who had lost their political flair and detached from the masses, to promote new cadres to leadership positions. posts in all sectors of the economy. Many Stakhanovite workers were promoted to leading positions in industry. At the metallurgical plant Dzerzhinsky in 1937, 357 Stakhanovites were nominated for leadership work, including 113 people for the positions of masters and their assistants; at the car factory Molotov in 1937, 162 people were promoted as foremen, 102 as adjusters, 128 as foremen, 8 as section chiefs, 123 as technologists and standard-setters, etc. The promotion also affected the highest levels of the economic apparatus. Former locomotive machinists vols. Krivonos, Ognev and Bogdanov became chiefs of the most important railways; miners tt. Izotov and Kasaurov were appointed heads of the Donetsk coal plants. Many Stakhanovites study at industrial academies, preparing for responsible economic work; many have been nominated for party and Soviet work. This mass movement of people is an indication of the rapid cultural and technical growth of the working people. The socialist system provides them with the broadest possibilities for such growth. This advancement of enterprising, culturally advanced innovators of production devoted to their homeland delivers a powerful blow to inertia and routine, contributing to the broadest development of the Stakhanov movement, accelerating the pace of our development. 

The exposure and defeat of saboteurs, the liquidation of the consequences of wrecking, the strengthening of political vigilance and the promotion of new cadres were the prerequisites for a new upsurge in the Stakhanov movement. This upsurge is expressed both in the further development of Stakhanov's methods, in the emergence of new methods of Stakhanov's work, and in the steady expansion of the ranks of the Stakhanov movement. The proportion of Stakhanovites among workers in all branches of industry increased during 1938 as follows: in the ferrous metallurgy of the center - from 29.5% at the end of 1937 to 41.4% at the end of 1938, in heavy engineering - from 33, 1% to 42%, in the machine tool industry - from 34.7% to 40.6%, at power plants - from 38.8% to 47.6%, etc. 

At large factories, the Stakhanovites no longer number in tens or hundreds, but in thousands. There are enterprises where Stakhanovites make up the bulk of the workers. As an example, you can point to the searchlight plant named after. L. M. Kaganovich, where 85% of all workers are Stakhanovites. The Stakhanovite movement is becoming more and more massive. 

The strength of the Stakhanov movement lies in its mass character. This was not understood by some business executives, who were carried away by individual high records and saw their task solely in providing conditions for the Stakhanovites-record holders, and disregarding the production needs of the rest of the workers. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sharply condemned this hobby for individual records. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in its resolution of December 28, 1937, regarding the then planned Stakhanov month, pointed out with all its might that it was wrong to be carried away by records of individual record holders and to forget the task of expanding the ranks of the Stakhanov movement. 

“It is impossible to consider the name of the alleged Stakhanov month “Stalin's month of Stakhanov records” correct, since any weekly or month of the Stakhanov movement should concern all Stakhanovites, and not just record holders, whose work covers only the most insignificant part of the Stakhanov movement, while the expansion of the ranks of Stakhanovites in the period weekly or monthly should be considered one of the most important tasks, which, unfortunately, was missed in this case by the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the well-known Appeal of the Stakhanovites of Moscow and the Moscow Region ”[Pravda, December 29, 1937]. 

In the directive of the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry L. M. Kaganovich, it was indicated to the leading workers of the coal industry that the decisive condition for a serious economic upsurge was the organization of a mass Stakhanov movement, providing each Stakhanovist and shock worker with the necessary conditions for Stakhanov work and the opportunity to exceed the norm. The most important condition for this is the organization of the entire complex of works as a single harmonious whole. L. M. Kaganovich concretized this requirement for the coherence of production in application to individual branches of industry, formulating for each of them the basic organizational principles of the mass Stakhanovist movement. In the coal and peat industries, the struggle for cyclicity has been put forward as the main organizing slogan, in ferrous metallurgy - for work on schedule, in the copper industry - a cyclogram, etc. 

High examples of the organization of work according to the schedule were shown in the coal industry TT. Gvozdyrkov and Shashatsky. For example, at the end of 1937, the section of Comrade Gvozdyrkov produced 40-45 cycles per month, while on average in the Donbass a cutter made 14-15 cycles. All workers on the site exceeded the norms. More than half of the workers on the site fulfilled two norms or more and were Stakhanovites-coal masters. Plot No. 3 of the mine. Stalin, under the leadership of Comrade Shashatsky, systematically overfulfilled the coal mining plan. The monthly productivity of workers at the mine systematically exceeded the plan by 20 percent. All workers overfulfilled the norm, and out of 330 workers in the section, 140 workers were coal foremen. The experience of the workers of this section was transferred to other sections of mine No. 18 named after. Stalin, which helped bring this mine to one of the first places in the Donbass. Excellent results are obtained by working on schedule in other branches of heavy industry (oil, ferrous metallurgy, etc.). In mechanical engineering and the defense industry, along with Stakhanov brigades, shifts and spans, Stakhanov workshops appear. As an example, we can point to the Stakhanov shop of plant No. 34. The commanders of these sections were able to mobilize the workers, properly organize their work and create conditions for the daily work of Stakhanov. To the initiative of the Stakhanovite workers they added their own initiative of production commanders and thanks to this they made the Stakhanovite methods the usual norm of production, an everyday phenomenon. 

A further extremely important step in the development of the Stakhanov movement is the new forms of the Stakhanov movement that arose in the middle of 1939 - multi-machine service and the combination of professions. In a short time, these forms have become widespread. At the Kharkov Tractor Plant in January 1940, there were 500 multi-machine operators; combined the professions of 200 people; at the Stalingrad Tractor in December 1939 there were about 2 thousand multi-machine operators. At the car factory Stalin in January 1940 there were 1345 multi-machine operators. As early as November 1939, there were up to 3,000 multi-machine workers at the enterprises of Gorky, and 1,250 people combining professions. Multi-machine maintenance and combination of professions have a great effect in terms of reducing the need for labor and increasing labor productivity. 

Multi-station service and the combination of professions means the highest level in the mastery of technology, a further step in raising the cultural and technical level of the working class. This is expressed directly in the expansion of the sphere of production activity of workers - in an increase in the number of machine tools serviced or in a combination of professions. This expansion of the sphere of production activity of the worker is due to a number of organizational and technological measures (changes in the organization of the workplace, the development of schedules and routes for servicing machine tools, the use of a number of new devices, etc.). The new forms of the Stakhanovite movement signify a further flourishing of Stakhanov's creativity, especially Stakhanov's technological creativity. 

On the basis of the development of the Stakhanovist movement, the Party is successfully solving the problem of achieving higher labor productivity than under capitalism. The growth in annual output over these years and in individual branches gives the following figures (1937 as a percentage of 1934): coal - 149.1, chemical - 166.6, ferrous metallurgy - 166.3 and metalworking - 149.4. 

Thus, the Stakhanovite movement led to a sharp increase in the growth rate of labor productivity. 

On the basis of the development of the Stakhanovist movement, the industry of the USSR has already achieved a number of decisive successes in competition with the industry of the capitalist countries in terms of labor productivity. Not only individual Stakhanovists or individual sections, but also the most important branches and the industry of the USSR as a whole, come out on top in Europe in terms of average annual output per worker. In 1937, the USSR firmly secured first place in Europe in terms of labor productivity in such important sectors as ferrous metallurgy and engineering in general, as well as in a number of other sectors. The level of labor productivity in the industry of the USSR as a whole in 1937 was 103.1% compared with the level in British industry and 97% compared with German industry in the same year. 

However, having overtaken Germany and England in terms of labor productivity in industry, the USSR still lags far behind the United States, the most developed country of capitalism, in this respect. Labor productivity in the industry of the USSR in 1937 was only about 40% of the US level in the same year. Coal production per worker in the USSR in 1936 was 327 tons against 965 tons (for bituminous coal) in the USA in 1929; iron smelting per blast-furnace worker in the USSR in 1937 was 756 tons (in kind) against 1729 tons in the USA in 1929 and 1620 tons in 1937. 

Under capitalism, the process of raising the productivity of labor is directed against the worker. Marx pointed out that the development of the productive forces under capitalism proceeds only through the destruction of the main productive force of society. The process of increasing the productivity of labor for the worker under capitalism means increased exploitation, de-skilling, growing poverty and unemployment. All the fruits of this rise are reaped by the exploiting class. Marx wrote that "... the worker would rejoice in the growth of the productivity of his labor ...", while under capitalism he "... in proportion to the growth of productivity creates someone else's enrichment and his own impoverishment" ["Archive of Marx and Engels", vol. IV, 1935, p. 45.]. Under these conditions, the workers are not only not interested in increasing labor productivity, but in a number of cases, while fighting against the intensification of capitalist exploitation, they are even interested in lowering output. The attempts of individual workers to increase output and to apply new methods of work not only meet with no support, but evoke general condemnation on the part of the working masses. The French miner Emile Plessis, in a conversation with Comrade Stakhanov, pointed out that at one time he himself tried to work in excess of the norm. But this did little for him in terms of increased earnings. On the other hand, his attempt aroused unanimous indignation on the part of his comrades at work, for every extra ton of his production under capitalism increased the number of unemployed. 

The transfer of the means of production into the hands of the working people fundamentally changes the attitude of the worker towards the means of production and the labor process. And at the same time, the nature and form of the process of raising the productivity of social labor changes radically: from a process of intensified exploitation and impoverishment of the working class, it turns into the main prerequisite for a continuous rise in the living standards of the working people, an unprecedented flourishing of the economy and culture. The process of raising labor productivity under socialism is directly a process of spiritual and material enrichment of the working people. One of the preconditions for the Stakhanovite movement was a fundamental improvement in the material standard of living of the working class. The Stakhanov movement resulted in a further increase in the well-being of the working people of our country. Stakhanovite productivity entails Stakhanovite earnings. Earnings of 1000 rubles. and more are now commonplace among Stakhanovites. The growth of labor productivity in the USSR means a continuous growth in the material well-being and cultural and technical level of the working people. 

Analyzing the historical significance of the Stakhanov movement, Comrade Stalin pointed out that the Stakhanovites provided examples of high labor productivity, accessible only to socialism. The significance of the Stakhanovite movement in this respect lies in the fact that it breaks the old technical norms, in a number of cases exceeds the productivity of labor in the advanced capitalist countries, and thus opens up the practical possibility of further strengthening socialism in our country. “But this,” Comrade Stalin further pointed out, “does not exhaust the significance of the Stakhanov movement. Its significance also lies in the fact that it prepares the conditions for the transition from socialism to communism” [Stalin, Questions of Leninism, ed. 11th, p. 495.]. 

Communism means a higher level of labor productivity than socialism. The productivity of labor under communism rises to such a level that it ensures a complete abundance of commodities, so that society is able to distribute them according to the needs of its members. The main condition for achieving such an increase in labor productivity is, as Comrade Stalin pointed out, raising the cultural and technical level of workers to the level of workers in engineering and technical labor, which undermines the foundations of the opposition between mental labor and physical labor. “The Stakhanov movement,” Comrade Stalin pointed out, “is significant in this regard in that it contains the first beginnings, although still weak, but still the beginnings of precisely such a cultural and technical upsurge of the working class of our country” [Ibid., 496.].

Stakhanovites are new, special people. Their main feature is the mastery of technology, high work culture. 

They bring in a lot of new things to science, pave new paths in science, pushing engineers, technicians, and workers of science forward and posing before them a whole series of major problems of enormous scientific and practical importance. Speaking at a meeting of higher school workers on May 17, 1938, Comrade Stalin said: “It also happens that new paths in science and technology are sometimes paved not by people well-known in science, but by people completely unknown in the scientific world, ordinary people, practitioners, innovators of business. . Comrades Stakhanov and Papanin are sitting at a common table here. People who are unknown in the scientific world, who do not have academic degrees, who do not practice their business. But who does not know that Stakhanov and the Stakhanovites, in their practical work in the field of industry, overturned the existing norms established by famous people of science and technology as outdated, and introduced new norms, corresponding to the requirements of real science and technology?” [Pravda, May 19, 1938]. 

For 1935 - 1937 the Stakhanovite movement unfolded in depth and breadth. The cultural and technical level of the working class is growing rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of workers undergo special training in the system of technical training, on-the-job, created by decision of the December (1935) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Thousands of Stakhanovites are being promoted to leadership positions. Increasingly large sections of the working people are being drawn into social and state activities. The whole country is embraced by a craving for culture. Such a mass movement of working people for culture, for high labor productivity has not yet been known in history. Only socialism could give rise to this movement of millions, which Comrade Stalin called the most vital and most irresistible movement of our time. It is vital and irresistible because it is the blood affair of the whole people, who, on the basis of free socialist labor under the banner of the party of Lenin and Stalin, are building the bright edifice of communism.