From the history of the Stakhanovite movement in the Urals transport sector during the pre-war five-year plans

The article examines the Stakhanovite movement in the Urals transport sector during the socialist five-year plans before World War II. On the basis of archival documents and materials from the periodical press the author analyses the specific features of the Stakhanovite movement in rail, water and other transport. The emphasis is made on the role of the Bolshevik party committees in the Urals in organizing the Stakhanovite movement. The article refers to numerous facts and statistical data about accidents caused due to interventions of the Bolshevik party authorities who tried to turn the Stakhanovite movement into a massive movement among soviet workers and a significant labour productivity factor in the USSR economy. The author arrives at the conclusion that during the pre-war five-year plans the Stakhanovite movement involved a considerable amount of workers in the Urals transport system. It did raise the labour productivity and other production indicators and helped the transport sector catch up with growing economic demands. However, in the course of the Stakhanovite movement under the guidance of the Bolshevik party authorities the social and spiritual roots of the movement were damaged, as a result it stopped being a “grass-roots” initiative turning into something enforced from “the top”. Administrative coercive methods typical of totalitarian regime were applied. “Stakhanovite records” instigated by the Bolshevik party committees caused frequent accidents and disarray in the work of the Urals transport system. Moreover, the opponents of “Stakhanovite records” among technical intelligentsia and employees were denounces as “enemies of the people” and were subjected to repressions.