Abolition of compulsory 8-hour labor service. Universal labor conscription. Short story

Ireland and Conscription Daily Chronicle April 18, 1918 Sir! I wholeheartedly support your position on this issue. No one has spoken out more sharply than I have (and in the Irish press) about the very sad inability of the majority of Irish people

According to which, compulsory labor was established for “bourgeois elements.” The Labor Code (LC) adopted on December 10, 1918 established labor service for all citizens of the RSFSR. Decrees adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on April 12, 1919 and April 27, 1920 prohibited unauthorized transition to a new job and absenteeism. According to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 29, 1920, “On the procedure for universal labor service,” the entire working population, regardless of permanent work, was involved in performing various labor tasks. By decree, the Main Committee for General Labor Service (Glavkomtrud) was created under the Defense Council, headed by Dzerzhinsky. In 1920-21, on the basis of the departments of a number of the Red Army army, labor armies were created into which the civilian population was conscripted. Being under military command, these armies were used to carry out economic tasks (carrying out surplus appropriation, logging, restoration of transport and production infrastructure, etc.) After the economic collapse of the policy of forced construction of communism and the transition to the NEP, the use of labor service was curtailed. The Labor Code of the RSFSR of 1922 allowed for the use of labor conscription to combat natural disasters when there was a shortage of labor to carry out the most important government tasks.

G. A. Solomon described the effect of labor conscription in Moscow as follows:

Germany

In Germany, labor conscription was first organized in the 1920s on a voluntary basis, including for the purpose of gathering young people of different origins. With the advent of the National Socialists to power, labor conscription in Germany became mandatory. The law of June 26, 1935 declared labor service compulsory for all German citizens aged 19 to 25 years within the framework of the created Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reichsarbeitsdienst). Twice a year all young Germans were sent to work in labor camps, mainly for agricultural work. For 6 months, men worked on farms and fields, and women helped with housework.

Norway

In occupied Norway, labor conscription was organized by the Administration Council in the summer of 1940 to help forestry, agriculture and construction.

Hungary

In Hungary, labor conscription was organized during World War II by recruiting young men of Jewish and Roma origin.

see also

Literature

• Trotsky L. D. The transition to universal labor conscription in connection with the police system (thesis) // Works. T. 15. M.-L., 1927.

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation.

2010.

See what “Labor conscription” is in other dictionaries: Labor service

Encyclopedia of Law LABOR SERVICE - (corvee labor) a form of labor required by the state or government agent, often as rent, taxation, or other tribute. Many societies in history have found labor conscription. Wittfogel (1957) saw in it... ...

See what “Labor conscription” is in other dictionaries: Large explanatory sociological dictionary - see General labor conscription...

Large legal dictionary

Encyclopedia of Law In the USSR, until the 50s. short-term labor obligation to perform socially necessary work in exceptional cases. In the first years of Soviet power, manufacturing was used mainly as a method of attracting various... ... - – attraction to mandatory able-bodied citizens to perform. Typically used in wartime. In peacetime conditions, t.p. is used very rarely, Ch. arr. to combat natural disasters: snow... ... Soviet legal dictionary

The set of measures taken by the Soviet government in 1918-20 to compulsorily recruit all able-bodied citizens of the RSFSR to work. V. T. P. was necessary to break the sabotage of bourgeois elements and provide workers... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Universal labor conscription Labor service

The totality of events of the Soviet government carried out in 1918 20 on obligatory. attracting to work all able-bodied citizens of the RSFSR. V. t. p. followed from socialist. the principle of compulsory labor; including coercive measures, it was conditioned... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Universal labor conscription- in the RSFSR, a set of government measures carried out in 1918-1920. on the mandatory involvement of all able-bodied citizens in work. V.t.p. introduced by the Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People (January 1918) “for the purpose of ... ... - see General labor conscription...

War communism can be defined as “the name of the economic policy of the Soviet state during the years of the civil war and foreign military intervention in the USSR in 1918-1920” Soviet Historical Encyclopedia, M., 1963, vol. 3, p. 600. At this time, a number of measures were taken aimed at centralizing state control and management of all spheres of economic life, which was partly explained by the difficulties created by the civil war and economic devastation, but at the same time was supposed to contribute to the implementation of the ideological guidelines of the Bolsheviks who came to power.

On October 5, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution to involve all non-working people in compulsory labor. Instead of passports, they were given work books, in which notes were made about the completion of public works. The right to move within the country and receive food rations was granted only to those who went to work and received a work book.

In December 1918, the “Code of Labor Laws” was adopted, which provided for the introduction of labor service for all citizens aged 16 to 50 years Gimpelson E.G. “War communism”: politics, practice, ideology. M, “Thought”, 1973, p. 87, while those who did not work could be forced to perform public works.

The shortage of workers that arose during the civil war caused a further aggravation of the problem of supplying industry labor resources, which led to increased militarization of labor. On September 3, 1918, the People's Commissariat of Labor adopted a resolution on the forced deployment of labor, according to which the unemployed had no right to refuse work offered in their specialty. At the beginning of 1920 there arose new form militarization - the creation of labor armies on the basis of military formations. Such labor armies could be transferred from place to place in accordance with the needs of the state.

Reflection of the introduction of universal labor conscription in literature

The myth of the “Labor Day”

The introduction of universal labor conscription was a forced and unpopular measure, but in order to attract workers, the idea began to be actively introduced that the policy pursued was not only caused by necessity, but was also the first step towards building a communist society. On April 12, 1919, communist workers of the Sortirovochnaya station of the Moscow-Kazan Railway went out to a cleanup day to repair steam locomotives A.N. Bokhanov, M.M. Gorinov. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 20th century // http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/Bohan_3/16.php, and on June 28 of the same year, Lenin, in the article “The Great Initiative,” highly appreciated the heroism of the workers in to the rear and regarded the holding of communist subbotniks as evidence of the onset of a communist attitude towards work: conscious, collective and free. Subsequently, the practice of holding communist subbotniks became widespread (for example, 1.5 million workers and employees took part in the All-Russian May Day subbotnik in 1920), but one could not count on the fact that only such measures would be able to restore the economy.

However, in literature and, especially in poetry, 1918-1920. It was precisely this attitude towards work that found the most obvious expression. In the poem “Labor” Demyan Bedny wrote:

“Comrade, know, while celebrating our subbotnik:

The path to victory is thorny and rocky.

Whoever is a communist is a true worker,

He who is not a worker is not a communist!” Poor D. Collected works in 5 volumes. T. 2. Poems, epigrams, fairy tales, stories (November 1917-1920), M., GIHL, 1954 // http://az.lib.ru/b/bednyj_d/text_0120.shtml.

Here, in poetic form, the same idea is expressed that was contained in Lenin’s article “The Great Initiative,” where he wrote that “we must ensure that everyone and everyone who calls their enterprise, institution or business a commune, without proving hard work and the practical success of long work, the exemplary and truly communist way of doing things, was ridiculed mercilessly and indulged in shame as a charlatan or idle talker. The great initiative of the “communist subbotniks” should also be used in another respect, namely: to cleanse the party” Lenin V.I. Great initiative // ​​http://vilenin.eu/t39/p027.

Both new revolutionary poets and representatives of the older generation wrote about the happiness of selfless work for the benefit of society and the Motherland. For example, V. Bryusov in the poem “Work” expresses the same idea:

“The only happiness is work,

In the fields, at the machine, at the table, -

Work until you sweat hot

Work without extra bills,

Hours of hard work!”

These sentiments are reflected in prose. A. Gastev in his “white poem” “Miracles of Work” also glorifies the labor enthusiasm of workers who received freedom and dream of building a bright communist future in the near future:

“We are all at work.

We’ll put a line of men a hundred miles long on the ridges of the Urals.”

“Is this at home?

House on house, column on column, gate on gate. Above the sky, to the stars.

Are these mines?

To the lava, to the hottest madness of the earth... we swarm!” Gastev A. Miracles of work // “Proletarian Culture”, 1918, No. 2, M., State Publishing House, p. 29.

Another poem in prose by A. Gastev and I. Dozorov, “The Poetry of the Worker’s Impact,” expresses the same myth about the joy of free labor:

“When morning beeps sound in the working-class suburbs, this is not at all a call for captivity. This is the song of the future" Gastev A., Dozorov I. Poetry of the worker's blow // "Proletarian Culture", 1918, No. 1, p. 14.

The theme of inspired labor was innovative for literature, but very soon it became one of the most common in revolutionary poetry. In 1921, V. Kirillov wrote in the poem “To Work”?

“The poets did not sing of you in their odes,

The priests did not burn fragrant fires,

Even though you were in the dark waters of history

Holy Christ and Buddha" Kirillov V. Labor // http://vcisch2.narod.ru/KIRILLOV/Kirillov.htm.

Although the topic was new, it very soon began to acquire cliches - such as “banners of labor”, “feast of labor”, “holiday of labor”, “joy of labor” Farber L.M. Soviet literature of the first years of the revolution. 1917-1920, M., Higher School, M., 1966, p. 85. Criticism of this official position in those years was extremely rare. As an example of such criticism, which reflected the realities of that time much more plausibly, one can cite the lines from P. Oreshin’s poem “Above the City”:

Neither slave life, nor joyless hard labor" Oreshin P. Red Rus'. Poetry. // “Proletarian Culture”, 1919, No. 6, p. 43.

According to which, compulsory labor was established for “bourgeois elements.” The Labor Code (LC) adopted on December 10, 1918 established labor service for all citizens of the RSFSR. Decrees adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on April 12, 1919 and April 27, 1920 prohibited unauthorized transition to a new job and absenteeism. According to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 29, 1920, “On the procedure for universal labor service,” the entire working population, regardless of permanent work, was involved in performing various labor tasks. By decree, the Main Committee for General Labor Service (Glavkomtrud) was created under the Defense Council, headed by Dzerzhinsky. In 1920-21, on the basis of the departments of a number of the Red Army army, labor armies were created into which the civilian population was conscripted. Being under military command, these armies were used to carry out economic tasks (carrying out surplus appropriation, logging, restoration of transport and production infrastructure, etc.) After the economic collapse of the policy of forced construction of communism and the transition to the NEP, the use of labor service was curtailed. The Labor Code of the RSFSR of 1922 allowed for the use of labor conscription to combat natural disasters when there was a shortage of labor to carry out the most important government tasks.

G. A. Solomon described the effect of labor conscription in Moscow as follows:

Germany

In Germany, labor conscription was first organized in the 1920s on a voluntary basis, including for the purpose of gathering young people of different origins. With the advent of the National Socialists to power, labor conscription in Germany became mandatory. The law of June 26, 1935 declared labor service compulsory for all German citizens aged 19 to 25 years within the framework of the created Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reichsarbeitsdienst). Twice a year all young Germans were sent to work in labor camps, mainly for agricultural work. For 6 months, men worked on farms and fields, and women helped with housework.

Norway

In occupied Norway, labor conscription was organized by the Administration Council in the summer of 1940 to help forestry, agriculture and construction.

Hungary

In Hungary, labor conscription was organized during World War II by recruiting young men of Jewish and Roma origin.

see also

Literature

• Trotsky L. D. The transition to universal labor conscription in connection with the police system (thesis) // Works. T. 15. M.-L., 1927.

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation.

• Kherson State University
• Narcolepsy

2010.

See what “Labor conscription” is in other dictionaries: Labor service

Encyclopedia of Law LABOR SERVICE - (corvee labor) a form of labor required by the state or government agent, often as rent, taxation, or other tribute. Many societies in history have found labor conscription. Wittfogel (1957) saw in it... ...

See what “Labor conscription” is in other dictionaries: Large explanatory sociological dictionary - see General labor conscription...

See what “Labor conscription” is in other dictionaries:- in the USSR, until the 50s. short-term labor obligation to perform socially necessary work in exceptional cases. In the first years of Soviet power, manufacturing was used mainly as a method of attracting various... ...

Encyclopedia of Law- – mandatory involvement of able-bodied citizens in the performance of labor duties. Typically used in wartime. In peacetime conditions, t.p. is used very rarely, Ch. arr. to combat natural disasters: snow... ... Soviet legal dictionary

Universal labor conscription- a set of measures taken by the Soviet government in 1918-20 to compulsorily recruit all able-bodied citizens of the RSFSR to work. V. T. P. was necessary to break the sabotage of bourgeois elements and provide workers... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Universal labor conscription Labor service

UNIVERSAL LABOR CONVICTION- a set of events of the Soviet government carried out in 1918 20 by obligation. attracting to work all able-bodied citizens of the RSFSR. V. t. p. followed from socialist. the principle of compulsory labor; including coercive measures, it was conditioned... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Universal labor conscription- in the RSFSR, a set of government measures carried out in 1918-1920. on the mandatory involvement of all able-bodied citizens in work. V.t.p. introduced by the Declaration of the Rights of Working and Exploited People (January 1918) “for the purpose of ... ... - see General labor conscription...

The principle underlying it is simple: “No one has the right to refuse the work that the bureau assigns to him.” In the countryside, where there was an excess of labor, there was no need for forced labor at that time, but in the cities it was recognized as necessary. Under such a system, “labor conscription<...>there is a method of forcing people to work, replacing the previous “economic incentive”

“War communism” provided for the use of compulsory forms of attracting the population to work on the basis of labor service. The “Code of Labor Laws” (December 1918) decreed the introduction of labor service for all able-bodied citizens of the RSFSR aged 16 to 50 years. On January 29, 1920, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree “On the procedure for universal labor service,” which provided for the involvement of the population, regardless of permanent work, in the one-time or periodic performance of various labor duties (fuel, agricultural, road, etc.); using parts of the Red Army and Navy as labor force, attracting the necessary qualified workers from the army: redistribution of available labor. At the beginning of 1920, the Council of People's Commissars decided to use separate armies on the labor front. A total of 8 labor armies were formed. They were used to solve critical problems: restoration of railways, bridges; procurement and delivery of fuel and food to cities, etc. With the introduction of NEP, the need to use army labor disappeared. By resolution of the Council of Labor and Defense of December 30, 1921, they were disbanded.

Industry and Agriculture during the period of "War Communism"

It was only in 1919 that the full impact of the industrial crisis began to be felt. The existing reserves of materials at the time of the revolution were now completely used up, and the civil war or the Allied blockade everywhere prevented their renewal. Turkestan, the only source of raw cotton supply, was completely cut off until the autumn of 1919; the Baltic countries, one of the main sources of flax, moved away from Russia, and trade with them did not resume until 1920. The supply of oil from the Baku and Caucasian fields was completely stopped from the summer of 1918 to the end of 1919. Only in 1920 again Ukraine's largest coal and iron ore basins became accessible. The main factor behind the industrial decline was the fuel crisis. According to calculations made in May 1919, industry received only 10% of the normal level of fuel supplies. Cold in the winter of 1918/19 and 1919/20. was probably a more serious cause of human misery and inefficiency than famine. Another important factor, which was both a part and an additional cause of the decline, was the crisis in railway transport. Of the 70 thousand miles of railways in the European part of Russia, only 15 thousand remained undestroyed as a result of the world and civil wars. The rolling stock suffered in the same proportion; at the end of 1919, when the crisis reached its most critical point, more than 60% of the total number of 16 thousand locomotives were disabled. All these factors contributed to the creation of a situation in which, as noted at the III All-Russian Congress of National Economic Councils in January 1920, “the country’s productive means could not be fully used and a significant part of the factory enterprises was suspended.

A census of industrial enterprises carried out in 1920 throughout the entire territory that was then under Soviet rule (including virtually all the regions that later made up the USSR, with the exception of Eastern Siberia), showed that the total number of “industrial establishments” reached 404 thousand, of which of which there were 350 thousand operating. Of these 350 thousand, approximately three quarters were individual or family enterprises, only 26% used at least some hired labor. The total number of hired workers in industry was 2,200 thousand, or 89% of all workers employed in industrial production, and of them 1410 thousand worked in the so-called large enterprises with more than 30 workers. The total number of industrial enterprises nationalized on the basis of the November decree of 1920 was 37 thousand, employing 1615 thousand people; in addition, 230 thousand workers worked in cooperative industrial enterprises.

The most serious was the decline in iron ore and pig iron production, which in 1920 fell to 1.6 and 2.4% of 1913 levels, respectively. Best results were noted in oil production, which in 1920 amounted to 41% of the 1913 level. Next came textile industry, and then coal production, which reached 27%, but the overall production picture by the level of 1913 varied from 10 to 20%. Calculations of the cost of manufactured products in pre-war rubles show that the cost of finished goods in 1920 reached only 12.9% of the 1913 level, and semi-finished goods - 13.6%. The paradox was that the establishment of the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” was accompanied - a noticeable reduction in both the number and a certain weight in the economy of the class in whose name this dictatorship was carried out."

However, the most striking symptom of industrial decline was probably the dispersion of the industrial proletariat. In Russia, where the mass of industrial workers were recent peasants who rarely completely severed their ties with the countryside and in some cases returned there for the harvest season, the crisis in the cities or factories - hunger, cessation of production, unemployment - did not give rise to the problem of proletarian unemployment in the Western sense of the word, but the mass flight of industrial workers from the city and their reversion to the status of a peasant and a return to peasant labor

Calculations based on trade union statistics for the entire territory under Soviet rule in 1919 show that the number of workers in industrial enterprises as a whole fell to 76% of the 1917 level, and in construction by railways- up to 66 and 63% respectively

The general conclusion of the message containing these figures was that “the Russian metallurgical and metalworking industry has reached a dead end.” Historians, analyzing in January of the same year the depressing set of problems that arose due to “the general reduction in all production, extremely low labor productivity and the insignificant use of functioning enterprises,” see the main reason for this in “the outflow of healthy, able-bodied elements: a) into the countryside; b) to the army; c) to labor communes and Soviet farms; d) to handicraft industry. production cooperatives; e) on government work(food detachments, inspection, army, etc.)", as well as in the insignificant influx of fresh labor from the countryside to industry

A decision was made to force the extractive industries, consumer goods production, transport and banks into syndicates, subject to a single state plan. It was assumed that instead of individuals, syndicates would own shares of enterprises, selling and buying them on the free market. Local self-government bodies (presumably Soviets) should be united into syndicates or municipalized retail trade and housing stock. It is also necessary to “syndicate” peasants for the distribution of food products and agricultural equipment 16 . Guided by this program, the government will be able to control private enterprise without resorting to its complete liquidation.

The policy of confiscating surpluses from peasants inevitably led to a reduction and decline in agricultural production. Equalization policy wages inevitably led to a decrease in labor productivity. The policy of centralized bureaucratic management of industry excluded the possibility of truly centralized and full use technical equipment and available labor. But all this policy of war communism was imposed by a regime of a blockaded fortress with a disorganized economy and depleted resources.

However, these measures did not produce any noticeable results. Bread stocks did not increase. Moreover, the food dictatorship and the often unlawful actions of food detachments to implement it aroused discontent among the middle strata of the peasantry. By decree of the Council of People's Commissars of January 11, 1919, food appropriation (prodrazverstka) was introduced. Lenin considered it the most important element and basis of the entire policy of war communism. In his work “On the Food Tax” he wrote: “A kind of “war communism” consisted in the fact that we actually took from the peasants all the surplus and sometimes not even the surplus, but part of the food necessary for the peasant, we took it to cover the costs of the army and maintenance workers were mostly borrowed, for paper money. Otherwise, we could not defeat the landowners and capitalists in a ruined petty-bourgeois country.” The surplus appropriation system was a continuation and development of the previous food policy and was assessed as a socialist measure. The introduction of surplus appropriation meant a departure from the principle of commodity exchange. The surplus appropriation system confiscated grain, essentially, without compensating it industrial goods. “Surplus” was considered the amount of products that the state needed, which in turn led to the withdrawal of part of the product necessary for the peasant economy. With the increase in food surplus procurements, the scope of commodity-money relations narrowed (trade was curtailed, money depreciated, workers' wages were naturalized).

The struggle for bread was won. In 1918 - 1919 107.9 million poods of bread and grain fodder were collected, in 1919-1920 - 212.5 million poods, and in 1920-1921 - 367 million poods. But at what cost? The surplus appropriation system led to the loss of interest among peasants in producing more products than they needed to satisfy their own needs. This made it difficult to climb productive forces, had an extremely difficult impact on everything national economy. "War communism" was unable to ensure a strong economic union between the working class and the peasantry, between socialist industry and individual peasant farming. In the spring of 1921, Lenin admitted that as a plan and method for an accelerated transition to communist production and distribution, the policy of "war communism" had failed.

The violence and abuses that often accompanied the surplus appropriation system caused severe discontent among the peasants. At the end of the Civil War, this discontent resulted in a widespread insurgency (peasant uprisings in Western Siberia, in the Urals, on the Don, in the Volga region and central provinces).