V. V. Mirkin. Mobilization forms of labor organization in telecommunications (1940s–1980s, on the example of Siberia) // Petersburg historical journal, no. 3, 2022, pp. 253–265
Abstract:
On the basis of publications of communications periodicals (Vestnik Svyazi, Elektrosvyaz magazines), regional periodics, departmental publications, as well as archival materials, on the example of the Siberian departments, the personnel policy of the Soviet telecommunications industry in the post-war period is considered, the use of various mobilization forms and methods of labor organization. A brief review of such practices is provided. Starting from the first post-war forms of impactful and effective labor — the “movement of part-time work”, the “movement for achieving above-plan savings”, the “team of excellent quality”, — in the types of practices that followed them, the element of “mobilization” inevitably decreased — the movement of innovators and inventors, “transfer of advanced experience”, “a team of excellent quality”, “the best in the profession”, “the shock worker of communist labor” and other forms of socialist competition. On the one hand, the unconditional positive contribution of such methods to increasing labor productivity, material support and technological progress of the “communications” industry is noted, on the other hand, the contradictory and largely forced nature of these practices is emphasized. An objective economic assessment of shock work and innovation was essentially impossible; the brilliant results of the labor activity of individuals and individual teams were often obscured by the general low level of the quality of the functioning of the industry as a whole. Therefore, mobilization practices were often formal in nature, and the efficiency of the excellent work of the leaders of production did not have a significant impact on improving the overall quality indicators. The author comes to the conclusion that as the results of scientific and technological progress penetrated the industry, many advanced practices lost their relevance, while the forms of socialist competition at the end of the Soviet period became as diverse and wide as they were formal, covering practically the entire workforce of the industry.
Keywords:
telecommunications, telegraph, telephone, radio, socialist competition, rationalization, invention, innovation, advanced experience.
Author:
Mirkin, Vladimir V. — the candidate of sciences in history, associate professor, Department of History and Documentation, Faculty of Historical and Political Sciences, National Research Tomsk State University.
E-mail: wwm@lenta.ru