Labor exchange in the USSR. Elimination of mass unemployment, closure of labor exchanges

83 years ago there was no unemployment. True, she died only in one particular country, and only according to official reports, but the story about this has still been preserved. On March 13, 1930, the last labor exchange in the USSR, the Moscow one, closed. After this, the Soviet Union declared itself the first country in the world to finally end unemployment.

Labor exchanges were first created in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their branches appeared in several large cities of the Russian Empire: in Moscow, Riga, Odessa, and, of course, in the capital St. Petersburg. In addition to them, private offices arose that provided employment for a fee.

With the Bolsheviks coming to power, the latter were abolished, and unemployment itself was declared a shameful “legacy of capitalism.” The struggle against the “heritage” began, which was greatly hampered by the NEP: people without income were drawn from the villages to the cities, and in the meantime, in the cities, factories were closed en masse, and factory staff were reduced. There were more and more unemployed people, they held protests, and it became clear that action was urgently required.

And measures did not fail to appear. In July 1924, new registration rules were introduced: those who had less than 6-7 years of work experience were prohibited from registering for unemployment, as were those who did not have working qualifications. Those who met these requirements, but were already registered, were removed from the register. As "low value elements". At the same time, unemployment benefits stopped. Formally, in order not to indulge those who do not want to work, but only want to receive benefits, but in fact this measure contributed to a decrease in the population’s interest in registering: why the extra paperwork and queues if it gives nothing (no work, no money )? The number of documented unemployed has decreased significantly. People, of course, rebelled (information about pogroms at labor exchanges surfaced here and there), but, as usual, they achieved nothing. On paper, all these disgruntled unemployed people simply did not exist.

After this, mass collectivization began, and the methods of its implementation forced collective farmers to forget about the possibility of looking for a better life. The peasants were securely tied to the land, which means they were “busy.” In the cities, the problem was solved by completely abolishing private property relations in the sphere of labor, that is, by prohibiting the free hiring of labor, the right to choose specialization, and making labor relations exclusively between a citizen and the state. The latter itself provided jobs and itself determined who, how and why would work for them.

All together, these measures, although not only did not solve, but only aggravated the problem of low labor efficiency, nevertheless made it possible to make a statement about a complete and unconditional victory over unemployment. On March 13, 1930, at the last Soviet labor exchange, the last job assignment was issued to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov. After which the exchange closed. The Pravda newspaper wrote about this: “The proletariat of the USSR, in alliance with the working peasantry under the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), defeating class enemies and their supporters, in a fierce struggle for socialism, achieved the complete elimination of unemployment in the USSR.” This statement was especially timely from a political and propaganda point of view, because the Great Depression was just raging in the West, the stock exchanges were overcrowded, and the Soviet leadership promised the complete collapse of capitalism not today or tomorrow.

The fight against parasitism, in many ways, immediately turned into a witch hunt. Because it is impossible to derive clear and uniform rules for everyone about who is considered to be working and who is evading work. Abuses arose, neighbors settled scores with the unwanted through slander, and free interpretations of legal norms arose. Among those brought to justice for parasitism in the first three years of the decree alone, 37 thousand people were found to be sick or completely disabled. There were also many victims among citizens who tried to earn extra money by selling vegetables and fruits grown in their summer cottages. Despite the fact that these citizens even had a main job. But many, to whom this decree was supposedly aimed, skipped past. There were also political victims at the decree, the most famous of whom was the poet Joseph Brodsky.

On March 13, 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange closed. The USSR declared itself the first country in the world to overcome unemployment.

In Russia, labor exchanges created by city governments arose at the beginning of the twentieth century in the largest industrial centers - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Odessa. Along with them, private intermediary firms became widespread, charging high fees from the unemployed for providing work.

In the USSR, labor exchanges existed in the first years of Soviet power. They were an instrument of the proletarian state in the systematic fight against unemployment - the “legacy of capitalism.” Published on January 31, 1918, signed by V.I. Lenin, the decree “On Labor Exchanges” liquidated all private and paid bureaus and hiring offices and established state free labor exchanges. They were entrusted with: employment of the unemployed, issuing benefits to them, accounting and distribution of workers in all sectors of the national economy, as well as streamlining the demand and supply of labor, organizing public works, etc.

Stalin made the fight against unemployment in the USSR one of the most important tasks.

“One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years is that we eliminated unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” Stalin I.V., Results of the first five-year plan, “Questions of Leninism”, p. 501, ed. 10th.

On March 13, 1930, the last job order was issued at the Moscow Labor Exchange - to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov, after which the exchange closed.

Modern Russia

It’s not very often that representatives of big business allow themselves the luxury of being frank. The most odious initiatives of employers, such as Prokhorov’s amendments to the Labor Code, are usually accompanied by demagoguery about social responsibility and the desire to make working people happy. All the more valuable are the revelations of businessmen like Oleg Tinkov, who do not hesitate to publicly express the cherished thoughts and aspirations of their class.

The billionaire shared his impressions after visiting a sneaker factory in China in the video blog of Finance magazine. According to Tinkov, unemployment is an excellent incentive for increasing labor productivity.

“So we need to teach technologies, and the factor that forces us to implement these technologies is the queue on the streets. These times, fortunately, have come. I actually love this crisis. I like it because efficiency and labor productivity increase, people become more accommodating. Otherwise there were no waiters to be found in the restaurant... They’ll go now, thank God. And they will work better for the same money. This is good", says Tinkov.

Monstrous working conditions in Chinese enterprises, famous for their meager wages, widespread use of child labor, disregard for basic safety rules and the brutal suppression of labor protests, are the object of constant criticism from international organizations and trade unions. Such factories are aptly named sweatshops. Mr. Tinkov, without a shadow of embarrassment, proclaims lawlessness and poverty as a condition for “increasing labor productivity.”

We should be grateful to Mr. Tinkov. The more such revelations there are, the sooner thinking Russian workers will begin to see the essence behind the smooth speeches of the gentlemen from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the government, the sooner they will develop in themselves the same clear understanding of their class interests as the Tinkovs.

Reference:
Oleg Tinkov was born on December 25, 1967 in Leninsk-Kuznetsky. Since 1992, he was engaged in the wholesale trade of electronics from Singapore and created the Tekhnoshok chain of household appliance stores, the MusicShok chain of stores, and the SHOK-Records recording studio in St. Petersburg. In 1997, he sold these companies and started the dumpling business, producing products under the Daria brand. In 2003, he created the Tinkoff brewing company (sold in 2005, the proceeds from the transaction are estimated at approximately 200 million €) and a restaurant chain of the same name with their own breweries (sold on September 24, 2009). Since 2006, he has headed the commercial bank Tinkoff. Credit Systems". In October 2012, Oleg Tinkov, together with other shareholders, sold a 4% stake in TKS Bank to the Horizon Capital fund for $40 million, thus his entire business was valued at $1 billion. In April 2013, Forbes magazine placed him in the ranking of newcomers among the richest businessmen of Russia.

Custom Search

Forced industrialization

Materials catalog

Basic knowledge Presentations Lectures Charts and tables Cards Video materials Points of view Test yourself!
Basic knowledge

Dates/events

1925- XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which proclaimed a course towards industrialization in the USSR.
1928-1932- The first five-year plan.
1933-1937- Second five-year plan.
1930- Elimination of mass unemployment, closure of labor exchanges.
1934- The XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy for 1933-1937.

Terminology

forced industrialization in the USSR- creation in the shortest possible time of a powerful heavy industry, on the basis of which the country’s defense capability (military-industrial complex), light industry and agriculture would be strengthened. Industrialization was also intended to solve social issues - to end unemployment and increase the size of the working class - the support of Soviet power.
Urbanization(from Latin urbanus - urban) - the historical process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society.
Stakhanov movement- movement of workers in the USSR for increasing labor productivity and better use of technology. It arose in 1935 in the coal industry of Donbass (named after its founder, miner A.G. Stakhanov), and spread to other industries, transport, and agriculture.
Socialist competition- competition in labor productivity between state enterprises, workshops, teams and individual workers, as well as educational institutions of the Labor Reserves. Ideologically it was supposed to replace capitalist competition.
Drummers- workers demonstrating increased labor productivity. This concept originated in the Soviet Union during the first five-year plans. The word is associated with the expression “impact work,” that is, work with full effort, focused on exceeding established standards and deadlines. The expression “shock brigade” was also common. The shock movement was an important means of ideological influence. The names of the shock workers who achieved the most impressive results were widely used as role models (miner Alexei Stakhanov, locomotive driver Pyotr Krivonos, tractor driver Pasha Angelina, steelmaker Makar Mazai and many others), they received the highest government awards, they were nominated to elected bodies and etc.
Gulag(Main Directorate of Camps and Places of Detention) - a division of the NKVD of the USSR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the Ministry of Justice of the USSR, which managed places of mass forced confinement and detention in 1930-1960.

Personalities

Stakhanov A.G.- Soviet miner, innovator of the coal industry, founder of the Stakhanov movement, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970). In 1935, a group of miner Stakhanov and two fasteners in one shift produced 14 times more coal than the prescribed norm for one miner.
Trotsky L.D.- (1879-1940), politician and statesman. He advocated forced industrialization at the expense of the peasant majority. The main provisions of the economic platform of the left wing, which in addition to Trotsky also included Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, Preobrazhensky, were presented at the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) held in April 1927.
Bukharin N.I.- (1888-1938), politician, academician. At the end of the 1920s. opposed the use of emergency measures during collectivization and industrialization, which was declared “a right-wing deviation in the CPSU (b).” A supporter of “soft” transformations and the development of a market economy. As an economist, Bukharin pointed out the growing imbalance between various sectors of the economy, the danger of a continuous increase in capital costs, and objected to the redistribution of national wealth from agriculture to industry. Criticizing Stalin’s course, Bukharin wrote: “Crazy people dream of gigantic, gluttonous construction projects that for years give nothing and take too much.” In the article “Lenin's Political Testament,” Bukharin criticized the “general line” of the party, contrasting it with Lenin’s views set forth in his last works. Representatives of the “right” faction (N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, M.P. Tomsky) spoke out for the development of small-scale production and the continuation of the NEP, the intensification of agricultural production without consolidation of agricultural production, in a natural (with an emphasis on private owners) way , for the construction of an industrial industry as commodity production (primarily grain) in agriculture grows (industrialization according to the Bunge-Witte method at the expense of income from grain exports).
Stalin I.V.- (1878-1953), Soviet politician and statesman. Headed in 1920-40. party majority, which included such prominent party figures as L.M. Kaganovich, G.K. Ordzhonikidze, A.I. Mikoyan, M.I. Kalinin, M.M. Litvinov, S.V. Kosior, V. M.Molotov, N.M.Shvernik, A.A.Zhdanov, V.V.Kuibyshev, K.E.Voroshilov, A.V.Lunacharsky, S.M.Kirov. This majority, having defeated the Trotskyists, also advocated intensive industrialization as part of Lenin’s triune approach to building socialism in the USSR (industrialization, collectivization, cultural revolution).

Presentations

Industrialization in the USSR

Lectures

"Industrialization

By the mid-20s, the economy was approaching 1913 levels. The restoration policy was quickly ending. The task arose not so much of re-equipping existing factories, mines, and oil fields, but of building new enterprises. After all, the country still remained predominantly agrarian, peasant, in which the bulk of the workers were engaged in manual labor; Unemployment grew in the city, the village became overpopulated. The need to expand the scale of industrialization and turn to new construction was obvious by 1925. The XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), held in December 1925, appears in Russian historiography as a congress of industrialization. Indeed, at the congress, Stalin spoke for the first time about the course towards industrialization as the general line of the party; the main task of industrialization was formulated: to transform the USSR from a country importing machinery and equipment into a country producing machinery and equipment, so that in a situation of capitalist encirclement the USSR would represent an economic an independent state built in a socialist manner.
In the fall of 1926, the XV Party Conference considered it possible to put forward a slogan calling on the Soviet people to catch up and surpass the capitalist world in the shortest possible time in history. On October 1, 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan, scheduled for 1928/29-1932/33, officially began, although its main tasks were approved in April 1929 by the XVI Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and then in May approved by the V Congress of Soviets. Industrialization was considered as the leading beginning of socialist construction throughout the country and in all spheres of the national economy. With the rapid growth of industry, the highest rates were envisaged for the industries of group “A”, i.e., the production of means of production. 78% of all capital investments in industry were directed here. The gross output of large industry should have increased more than 2 times, and in the industries of group “A” - more than 3 times.
In December 1929, Stalin put forward the slogan: “Five-year plan in four years!” All planned indicators were revised upward by almost 2 times. Stalin's call was enthusiastically received by almost all segments of the population. Millions of people with great enthusiasm, almost for free, worked on the construction sites of the Five-Year Plan. Socialist competition unfolded throughout the country. The scale of the tasks and the extreme limitation of material financial resources contributed to a sharp increase in centralized planning. Tasks, resources and forms of remuneration are strictly regulated. There was only one goal - to concentrate maximum forces and resources in heavy industry.
During the years of the first five-year plan, the following were built: Dneproges, Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants, Ural copper plant, Ridder polymetallic plant, Volkhov aluminum plant, Stalingrad and Kharkov tractor plants, Moscow and Gorky automobile plants, Minsk machine tool plant, Turkestan-Siberian railway (Turksib ), new coal mines in Kuzbass and Donbass, new oil fields in Baku. There are about 1,500 industrial facilities in total. Mechanical engineering has made significant progress. Entire industries appeared that did not exist in pre-revolutionary Russia: aviation, tractor, electric power, chemical industries, etc. The USSR was turning from a country importing industrial equipment into a country producing equipment.
The Soviet Union experienced a shortage of engineering and technical personnel. In order to solve this problem, the network of technical universities was rebuilt and expanded, their funding funds were increased, industrial academies were opened, evening departments were established in institutes, and at the same time the number of workers' faculties was increased. It became a practice to send advanced workers to study on vouchers from party, Komsomol and trade union organizations. As a result, in the first five-year period the country received 128.5 thousand specialists with higher and secondary education, and 45% of the replenishment were yesterday's workers.
The achievements are impressive, but no less impressive were the failures of the Great Leap Forward in industrialization. The planned tasks of the “first five-year plan” were essentially thwarted, and the real results lagged far behind not only the target figures of the inflated plan, but also the original “optimal” plan. The rate of industrial development fell from 23.7% in 1928-1929 to 5% in 1933, and lack of funds led to the cessation of appropriations for 613 of the 1,659 major heavy industrial projects under construction. In connection with the issue, inflationary processes intensified. Social tension grew in the cities, where millions of rural residents driven by collectivization from their homes rushed. The cheap labor of yesterday's peasants was widely used on the construction sites of the Five-Year Plan, many of which were built by hand, and industrial growth did not occur by increasing labor productivity, but by attracting new workers. It took a long time and with great difficulty for the newly built enterprises to reach their designed capacity. Due to the low qualifications of the new workers, the technology was slowly mastered. Expensive imported machines fell into disrepair or could not produce performance standards that met the standard for a long time.
The communications system lagged behind the pace of industrialization. Rail, sea and river transport remained vulnerable. Of the new transport routes envisaged in the construction plan, only a third were implemented. Serious imbalances developed in the national economy: light industry was sacrificed to heavy industry and began to seriously lag behind it; agricultural production was in decline. It was during the years of the “Great Leap Forward” that deep economic imbalances were formed, which for decades to come would characterize the entire development of the economy and society in the USSR.
Historians agree that failures in the implementation of the first five-year plan forced the Stalinist leadership to announce its early implementation (in four years and three months) in order to make adjustments to the planning. At the January 1933 plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Stalin stated that there was now no need to “spur and urge the country on” and the pace of industrial construction should be slowed down. In January - February 1934, the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) approved the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy for 1933-1937. In it, the average annual growth rate of industrial output decreased to 16.5% (versus 30% in the first five-year plan). Miscalculations in the development of light industry were taken into account, which was now expected to outstrip heavy industry (14.5%) in terms of average annual production growth (18.5%).
During the years of the second five-year plan, the following were built: the Ural Heavy Engineering Plant (Uralmash) and the Kramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, the Ural Carriage Plant, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ), the Novotulsky Metallurgical Plant, Voskresensky, Nevsky, Aktobe, Gorlovsky, Bobrikovsky and other chemical plants, Moscow metro There are about 4,500 industrial facilities in total.
At the beginning of 1929, a campaign began to launch mass socialist competition in production and construction. The press and public organizations vigorously promoted various labor initiatives, many of which were taken up by the workers. The most widespread forms of competition are the movement of shock workers, the movement for the adoption of counter plans, the “continuity”, the movement to “catch up and overtake” capitalist countries in terms of production volumes and labor productivity. Socialist competition was proclaimed one of the main conditions for fulfilling the tasks of the Five-Year Plan.
A bright page in the history of industrialization was the Stakhanov movement, which embraced wide layers of workers. The origin and name of this movement was given by the miner Alexei Stakhanov, who set a record in September 1935 by fulfilling 14 labor standards during a shift. Stakhanov's successes gained all-Union fame, and the movement quickly spread to all sectors of industry. In fact, the national heroes, along with Stakhanov, were the miner N. Izotov, the blacksmith A. Busygin, the metallurgist A. Mazai, the textile workers, the Vinogradov sisters, and others. At the same time, the desire to set records also had a downside. The insufficient preparedness of newly appointed economic managers and the inability of the majority of workers to master new equipment sometimes led to its damage and disorganization of production.
By the end of the 30s, in terms of absolute volumes of industrial production, the USSR took 2nd place in the world after the USA. The gap with the leading powers in industrial production per capita has narrowed. The USSR became one of three or four countries in the world capable of producing any type of industrial product. The Great Patriotic War staged a merciless test of the Soviet economy. And on the whole she withstood it. The basis of military success was the powerful industrial potential created in the 30s.
Based on materials from the lecture course “National History” of the Ryazan State University named after S.A. Yesenina. The lecture materials were published under the "open content" right

Unemployment in the USSR was eliminated in 1930, when the last job application was officially issued to a certain mechanic worker named Shkunov at the Moscow Labor Exchange.

Soviet labor exchanges arose throughout the country during the period when V. I. Lenin’s decree “On labor exchanges,” adopted at the beginning of 1918, came into force. The document outlined a plan for how to reorganize work with the population to provide jobs, pay benefits when registering the unemployed, and also indicated the immediate cessation of the work of all commercial labor exchanges that previously operated on a paid basis.

The decree “On Labor Exchanges” talked about how to correctly organize the supply and demand for jobs in the country in all spheres of the national economy.
The Bolsheviks intended to eliminate the legacy of capitalism, which was unemployment, in the shortest possible time.

With the beginning of the systematic nationalization of all lands and branches of agriculture and industry, attracting a huge number of people from rural areas to the city, new jobs were created.

By the beginning of the 30s, the collectivization plan was completed and the industrialization of the country began - this provided an influx of new workers.

J.V. Stalin expressed his historical idea that by 1930 the five-year plan had been completed in 4 years and its main achievement was “that we destroyed unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” In March 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange was closed down as unnecessary, and the Bolsheviks loudly declared themselves to the whole world as a country that had completely defeated unemployment.

For the unemployed of this world, such information was like a breath of hope.

How was it even possible to get rid of unemployment in such a short time?

Labor exchanges in the USSR, of course, were closed, but they also turned a blind eye to those who were left out of society; more precisely, unemployment simply did not fit into the already created system of the totalitarian state of the USSR. And the real unemployment simply went underground. A systematic persecution of identified “parasites” began, who were subjected to administrative penalties through the People’s Commissariat of Labor, which was headed by the Bolshevik A.M. Tsikhon.

At that moment, all payments to the unemployed stopped and an order came into force for the compulsory retraining of the unemployed previously registered at the Soviet labor exchange. By 1931, about 250,000 unemployed people across the country were undergoing retraining.

Those who had previously been on the labor exchange in the USSR had their benefits and allowances canceled, but were also immediately given directions to work. Neither professional, nor age, nor territorial factors (place of residence) were taken into account. For example, a person with a higher education did not have the slightest opportunity to refuse a job, for example, as a laborer at a meat processing plant or a miner, otherwise he was recognized as a parasite. The more a person refused, the more disastrous his situation became, both financially and territorially - jobs were offered further and further from his place of residence.

With the abolition of Soviet labor exchanges, unemployment acquired a hidden form.

In the absence of labor exchanges in the USSR, only in the 30s, millions of peasants who moved to the cities after collectivization and the outbreak of famine received jobs in enterprises with a reduced work schedule and a continuous three-shift work schedule. This system created more jobs in more than half the businesses in the country. By 1932, over a million former unemployed people had found work.

The liquidation of labor exchanges in the USSR led to the problem of unskilled workers, and Stalin expressed a new thesis: “Cadres decide everything!” “Socially alien” and kulak elements began to be expelled from enterprises; unemployed people previously registered on the Soviet labor exchange were sent to their places.

Those who did not have a job were administratively sent to forced labor. Labor exchanges in the USSR were transformed into territorial personnel departments, their work consisted of an uninterrupted supply of labor to the national economy and correction of its redistribution for the country's shock construction projects.

However, these departments, which replaced the Soviet labor exchanges, did not cope with the task at all. As industrial career guidance increased in the country, by the end of the 30s, the personnel departments at each enterprise began to work on recruiting personnel - “forging personnel” on the ground. The work of retraining and providing qualified workers in accordance with the needs of each individual enterprise came under their full responsibility.

By the mid-30s, they stopped talking about the homeless and the hungry, and by the early 40s in the USSR, any mention of unemployment, any kind of strikes or labor conflicts completely disappeared.

Victoria Maltseva

The USSR declared itself the first country in the world to overcome unemployment

“One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years
is that we have eliminated unemployment
and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.”

Stalin I.V., Results of the first five-year plan,
"Questions of Leninism", p. 501, ed. 10th.

Following the “great turning point” of 1929, a totalitarian system of state socialism began to take shape in the country, deforming the processes of free socio-economic development.

Like any totalitarianism of that time, for example, in Germany, Italy, Japan, the Stalinist regime put the fight against unemployment in the USSR among the most important tasks and was the first to proclaim the “final solution” of this issue as its main achievement in the social and labor sphere.

The decisive step was the abolition of the labor market. It was from this that the path to the commodity-free utopia of barracks socialism began, which changed the system of social and labor relations. The first five-year plan assumed that the “socialist labor plan” would become the only regulator of the movement of labor. To do this, it was necessary to deliberately destroy the real relations of purchase and sale, i.e. hiring labor through the labor market, social guarantees for the unemployed, and also limit the freedom of choice of employment only to the public sector of the economy.

On March 13, 1930, the last job order was issued at the Moscow Labor Exchange - to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov, after which the exchange closed. And on November 7, 1930, the Pravda newspaper proclaimed:

For propaganda purposes, the whole world was announced about the final deliverance from the damned legacy of capitalism - unemployment. The victory of world-historical proportions was applauded by the proletarians of all countries: after all, the great crisis left millions of people unemployed. Economically, socially, and most importantly, politically, unemployment did not fit into the socialist labor system constructed by totalitarianism.

For a long time it seemed that, while pursuing social policy, the Soviet state was struggling with unemployment in the city and agrarian overpopulation in the countryside, creating more and more jobs, until, with a “triple leap” into socialism - through industrialization, collectivization and the cultural revolution - it eliminated these problems at once together with the remnants of the exploiting classes. In fact, it was not unemployment itself that was eliminated first, but the system of social guarantees for workers in the labor market. Real unemployment, which by the end of the five-year plan was supposed to be at least 0.5 million people, was “outlawed” and “driven underground.” Identified unemployed people were subject to administrative prosecution. In the summer of 1930, the People's Commissariat of Labor and its local bodies were reorganized, and its leadership, declared opportunistic, was replaced. The new People's Commissar of Labor A. M. Tsikhon, who replaced N. A. Uglanov in this post, accused of right deviation, like a parrot, repeated after Stalin that there was no longer unemployment in the USSR.

Where could she have disappeared in such a short time?

The issue was resolved very simply and, as always, “from above.” In October 1930, a decision was made to stop paying unemployment benefits and immediately distribute all unemployed people to work. Using the freed up funds, mass forced retraining of the unemployed at the labor authorities was launched (by the beginning of 1931, 20-22 thousand people were undergoing it at a time).

All benefits were canceled for those registered at the labor exchange, except for one - immediate assignment to work. Everyone registered with the exchanges was forcibly offered jobs, regardless of age, gender, place of residence, existing profession or specialty. If a person of an intelligent profession refused the vacancy of a hauler in a mine or a laborer at a construction site, he was automatically ranked among the “idlers” and “parasites” who were still found work, but in more remote places. In fact, unemployment in big cities has become hidden.

The dissolution of registered unemployment was also facilitated by the accelerated creation of new jobs, including through the transition from an 8-hour to a 7-hour working day (in accordance with the Manifesto of the Central Executive Committee session of October 15, 1927). By the beginning of 1931, 58% of all workers and employees were transferred to a shortened working day, and in 1932 it was established throughout industry. To increase equipment utilization, part-time working weeks and three-shift work were introduced at industrial enterprises. All this required additional workers. As a result, over a million formerly unemployed people found work.

During the first five-year plan, all private and most cooperative and mixed enterprises were successively nationalized, confiscated or closed, and then industrial and consumer cooperation was completely reorganized on a state-centered Union basis.

At the same time, collectivization was going on - a particularly ugly form of state forced cooperation. Suppression was widespread in agriculture, from ruinous taxes and confiscations to evictions and extreme “welfare” measures. By the end of the Five-Year Plan, about 15 million peasants were subject to dispossession, deportation to remote areas of the country, suffered from the consequences of the socialization of their personal property, and became victims of the famine that broke out in the country. But at the same time, more than 9 million peasants came to the cities, agreeing to any work. In 1931 alone, 1.5 million people were recruited for logging, 2.6 million for construction, 200 thousand for peat mining, and 150 thousand peasants for Donbass coal mines.

Production requirements for the quality of the workforce and its professional and qualification level have dropped sharply. Where previously one skilled worker worked, 3-4 new jobs were created. A typical figure of a worker is someone who came from the village yesterday, who previously did not know industrial work and the urban way of life. It is he - the semi-skilled proletarian - who turns into an appendage of the machine in the factory, stands at the conveyor belt at the automobile or tractor plant, the sweatshop systems introduced in the Taylor-Ford model, previously unprecedented in Russia, were designed for him. To expand the “front of work,” labor operations were artificially divided into private functions, and a “semi-manufacturing” division of labor was introduced. The industrial worker increasingly turned into a partial worker, completely dependent on the distribution of work at the production site. Deprofessionalization has led to a further increase in the demand for labor, contributing to an increase in its general shortage.

Along with the expansion of employment, conditions were created that gave rise to high staff turnover and workers leaving enterprises in the hope of improving their financial and living conditions. The proclaimed “fight against unemployment” gradually became a fight against staff turnover. The People's Commissariat of Labor was tasked with identifying “labor deserters”, flyers, and depriving them of the right to get a job for six months. In order to ensure full employment of the proletariat not employed by the stock exchange, “socially alien” and kulak elements were expelled from enterprises, and registered unemployed were sent in their places. The exchanges did not register “former people” for employment, and those who did not have a job were subject to administrative eviction and forced labor. Labor exchanges were transformed into territorial personnel departments, responsible for “supplying” the national economy with labor, carrying out its planned transfer and redistribution to shock enterprises and construction sites.

And yet, unemployment continued to exist. Under the pretext that half of them were “idlers” and “grabbers”, everyone was removed from the register. However, despite the regularly carried out purges of “false unemployed”, the almost complete closure of exchanges and labor departments that carried out registration and assignment to work, obvious unemployment to one degree or another was detected in many large cities (Leningrad, Odessa, Kharkov). According to official statistics, as of August 1, 1931 (with the complete elimination of unemployment), more than 18 thousand people were registered. Then all mention of unemployment disappeared. As well as mentions of homeless people, starving people, strikes and labor conflicts.

Having excluded the labor market and unemployment from the system of regulation of social and labor relations, labor authorities have failed to fulfill the task assigned to them - to organize the direct distribution and redistribution of labor resources. Therefore, they were universally abolished as unnecessary (1933). Gradually, the functions of selection, training and transfer of labor were transferred to enterprises and their departments. Personnel departments began to be created that independently resolved issues of providing enterprises with qualified personnel in accordance with production plans.

Mechanic Mikhail Shkunov became the last unemployed in the Soviet Union. On March 13, 1930, he was given a job assignment, after which the Moscow Labor Exchange closed. Thus, the USSR became the first (and last) country in the world to defeat the “legacy of capitalism” - unemployment. In Belarus they now want to repeat this record: by May 1, employment services should or at least all the unemployed. the site found out how in the USSR, according to the editorials of state newspapers, all citizens were employed in an instant.

In the cutting shop of the Vitebsk garment factory of the Garment Industry Committee to Combat Unemployment. Vitebsk, 1921. Photo: BGAKFFD

"The rise in unemployment is beginning to become alarming"

The Bolsheviks faced the threat of mass unemployment even before the four republics officially united into the USSR. In the early 1920s, the post-war collapse of industry began. And if in 1919 - early 1921 the demand for labor exceeded supply, then by the autumn of 1921 there were not enough jobs.

« The rise in unemployment was influenced by the sales crisis in 1923, which was expressed in the discrepancy between exorbitantly high prices for industrial products and low prices for food products. As a result, some match, paper and other industries were closed and workers were released", writes the Belarusian historian in his scientific work Nikolay Opimakh.

The situation on the labor market was complicated by the fact that a reduction in the administrative apparatus began, demobilized Red Army soldiers were returning to everyday life, and peasants, due to crop failure, hunger and exorbitant food appropriations, moved to the cities. All this led to the number of unemployed growing every day.

« The rise in unemployment is beginning to become alarming: the provinces with a total of(1922 - Ed.) 10-11 thousand unemployed and numbering only a few are no longer a rarity in December“- says the political-economic review of the State Political Administration (GUP) under the NKVD for December 1922.

In the USSR as a whole, in 1928 the unemployed made up almost 10% of the total economically active population. Finding a job became more and more difficult every year. The average duration of unemployment in the country in 1923 was 4.6 months, in 1926 - 9.1 months.

At the May Day subbotnik in Zhlobin, 1920. Photo: BGAKFFD

At the same time, unemployment did not threaten qualified specialists; the country lacked educated personnel. But unskilled workers made up 70% of all unemployed. There were especially many women and teenagers among the unemployed.

The unemployment rate began to decrease immediately, just as it increased. " The reporting year can be marked as a turning point in the dynamics of unemployment in the USSR. The rapid rate of increase in the total number of unemployed that had occurred in previous years gave way in 1928/29 to a significant decrease“- says the materials for the report of the USSR government for 1929. As of October 1 of this year, 1.2 million unemployed were registered in the USSR, and a year later Pravda announced the “complete elimination of unemployment.”

In the sewing department of the Vitebsk garment factory of the Garment Industry Committee to Combat Unemployment, 1921. Photo: BGAKFFD

“Where does it say that the husband and wife have a job at a time when there are unemployed”

Having come to power, the Bolsheviks tried to support the unemployed: they paid monthly benefits, provided free or cheap meals, opened special dormitories, provided benefits on utilities, taxes and discounts on travel. At the same time, the unemployed were prohibited from refusing to be assigned to work in their specialty. Economic sanctions were applied to “refuseniks”—they were deprived of the right to benefits and social insurance benefits. The amount of benefits was not lower than 1/6 of the average salary in a given area, depending on qualifications and length of employment. Benefits were paid for a maximum of 6 months.

Interesting fact. In Vitebsk in 1922, the “House of the Unemployed” was opened, supported by trade unions and insurance funds. Here the unemployed spent the night, received coffee with saccharin in the morning, one pound of bread a day, soap for bathing and washing clothes. We took advantage of the free bathhouse and the services of a hairdresser (5 kopecks per haircut). Lectures were held in the “House of the Unemployed” and there was a library.

Collecting scrap metal from the physical and chemical building of the Belarusian Agricultural Academy in Gorki, 1920. Photo: BGAKFFD

The main way to combat unemployment was public works. The unemployed were sent to work in timber harvesting and construction, in rafting work and in agriculture - on beet, cotton and tobacco plantations. Seasonal work earned less than permanent work. If the average salary in production at the end of the 1920s was 2 rubles 30 kopecks per day, then for seasonal work it was 1 ruble 85 kopecks.

A note on the progress of public works. “Zvyazda”, April 4, 1930.

« In accordance with the state of unemployment and the growing need of the national economy for qualified workers» local labor exchanges were engaged in training and retraining of the unemployed. The unemployed were trained to become mechanics, turners, blacksmiths and builders, as well as nurses and rural teachers. About 80 thousand people throughout the Union received a new specialty. In addition, already in the 20s there was a distribution of young specialists after universities and technical schools.

Newspapers often published citizens' proposals on how to solve the unemployment problem. Residents of Vitebsk in “The Dawn of the West,” for example, wrote:

“In view of acute unemployment, remove from work those who have several workers in the family and replace them with the unemployed. Where does it say that the husband and wife should have a job at a time when there are unemployed people who have been without work for many months.”

The change from an 8-hour to a 7-hour work day in 1927 created more jobs in the country. By the beginning of 1931, 58% of all workers and employees were transferred to a shortened working day, and in 1932, the entire industry switched to a 7-hour shift. To increase equipment utilization, industrial enterprises introduced a third shift. This required additional workers.

Column with letters from the unemployed in the newspaper “Rabochy”, November 29, 1929.

But unemployment was often fought conditionally. They tried to reduce the number of unemployed people in the USSR through purges at labor exchanges. For example, " unskilled and low-value elements seeking benefits rather than jobs».

With every cleaning unemployed registered at labor exchanges became 30−70% less. For example, in Leningrad in about the time of one of these purges in the summer of 1924 95 thousand unemployed out of 140 thousand registered were removed from the register.

“The unemployed are mainly used by anarchists”

Dissatisfied and desperate unemployed people became an increasing problem for the authorities. " The mood of the unemployed continues to be extremely unsatisfactory. In a number of provinces, acute dissatisfaction with labor exchanges is emerging. The unemployed express the opinion that exchanges are completely unnecessary, which only hinder getting a job. The unemployed are extremely embittered by the meager wages of the unemployed who are sent to this or that work. In this regard, it was noted that in a number of cases the unemployed refused to work altogether"- says the GPU report for June 1924.

Caricature in the newspaper Pravda, 1930.

In Vitebsk, unemployed people reminded the “leaders” of the existence of “ army of millions of unemployed, doomed with their families to starvation».

« The mass of unemployed people represents the most favorable material for anti-Soviet agitation. The unemployed are used mainly by anarchists“,” GPU officials wrote with concern.

Gradually, the unemployed moved from expressing discontent to strikes and mass protests. In 1925, the GPU wrote:

« The protests of the unemployed were of a strongly anti-Soviet nature. Individuals who stood out from among the unemployed tried to give the movement an anti-Soviet character, throwing out slogans: “Act by other means,” “Take up arms,” etc.... During the May Day demonstrations, there were a number of cases of attempts by the unemployed to speak out with separate demonstrations under the slogan “Give me a job.” (Bobruisk, Pervomaisk, Saratov and Vladivostok). At the Omsk Labor Exchange there is campaigning for the organization of a “unemployed union”. In Vladivostok, a group of unemployed people tried to rally on May 1 with a black flag and the slogan: “Give bread and work to former fighters for Soviet power».

An employee of the Vitebsk clothing factory “Banner of Industrialization” E.S. Spiridonova teaches sewing to the former unemployed Birinbaum, who came for permanent residence from Western Belarus to Vitebsk, 1939. Photo: BGAKFFD

Throughout the USSR, the unemployed destroyed local labor exchanges and executive committees. In Minsk this happened more often than anywhere else:

« The mood of the unemployed in Belarus is constantly noted as extremely excited; Recently, a definite pogrom mood has developed among the unemployed; there have been calls to destroy institutions, beat up workers of the People's Commissariat of Labor and rob stores; Anti-Soviet sentiments are especially strong. On May 30, due to a slight delay in the issuance of benefits, a crowd of unemployed people in Minsk burst into the office of the People's Commissar of Labor, and the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Comrade. Adamovich could not reassure the unemployed. The next day, a crowd of unemployed people, due to not being sent to work contrary to promises, tried to beat up the People's Commissar of Labor; the latter barely disappeared into the building of the Council of People's Commissars, and a huge crowd followed him».

Chief accountant of the Mogilev Silk Factory named after. Kuibysheva teaching the former unemployed of Western Belarus the Soviet accounting method, 1939. Photo: BGAKFFD

By 1926, the movement of the unemployed had reached such proportions that they began to nominate their leaders for elected bodies. And in some cities - Leningrad and Tiflis - representatives of the unemployed were elected to local councils.

To reduce the political activity of the unemployed, the Bolsheviks arrested the “leaders” of the protest movement - organizers and activists.

On December 27, 1927, a large demonstration of the unemployed was to take place in Moscow under the slogan “Work and Bread.” " Anti-Soviet leaflets and appeals to the unemployed of all sections were found at the labor exchange", warns the GPU.

However, the action did not take place: on the eve of the speech, the GPU arrested six main organizers of the demonstration. So the protest movement of the unemployed began to decline.

Is there really no unemployment in the USSR?

On November 7, 1930, Pravda was published with a festive cover dedicated to the next anniversary of the revolution. Next to the portraits of Lenin and Stalin are all the achievements of the Bolsheviks over 13 years. Among other things on the list is “about final elimination of unemployment».

Cover of the issue of Pravda, which announced the elimination of unemployment, November 7, 1930.

« One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years is that we eliminated unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors“- adds Stalin about the results of the first five-year plan.

In November, the elimination of unemployment was officially announced, but as early as June 1930, Stalin acknowledged the existence of a million unemployed in the USSR, noting “great confusion” in the labor market:

“On the one hand, according to these institutions, it turns out that we have about a million unemployed people, of whom the minimally qualified make up only 14.3%, and about 73% are people of the so-called intelligent labor and unskilled, with the vast majority of the latter made up of women and teenagers who were not involved in industrial production.

On the other hand, according to the same data, we are experiencing a terrible hunger for qualified labor, labor exchanges do not satisfy the demand of our enterprises for labor by 80 percent, and we are thus forced to quickly, literally on the fly, train completely unskilled people and prepare of them qualified to meet at least the minimum needs of your enterprises.

Try to sort out this confusion. It is clear, in any case, that these unemployed do not constitute either a reserve, or, especially, a permanent army of unemployed in our industry.”

Unemployment disappeared only formally; in fact, it continued to exist. Even according to official statistics, as of August 1, 1931, there were more than 18 thousand unemployed in the USSR.

Along with the achievements of the Bolsheviks over 13 years, Pravda published statistics on unemployment in “capitalist countries”, November 7, 1930.

« The proclaimed “fight against unemployment” gradually became a fight against staff turnover. The People's Commissariat of Labor was tasked with identifying “labor deserters” and “flyers” and depriving them of the right to get a job for six months. In order to ensure full employment of the proletariat who were not employed by the stock exchange, “socially alien” and kulak elements, “disorganizers of socialist production,” were expelled from enterprises, and registered unemployed were sent to their places.”- how the Soviet leadership instantly got rid of the unemployed explains Igor Zaslavsky in his book “Labor, Employment, Unemployment.”

The exchanges did not register “former people” for employment, and those who did not have a job were subject to administrative eviction and sent to forced labor, writes Igor Zaslavsky.

“Labor exchanges were transformed into territorial personnel departments, obliged to “supply” the national economy with labor, carry out its planned transfer and redistribution to shock enterprises and construction sites“,” notes the book “Labor, Employment, Unemployment.”

A group of drivers and mechanics, formerly unemployed, in a car garage in Baranovichi, 1939. Photo: Photo: BGAKFFD

In fact, “eliminating unemployment” means that labor exchanges have been closed throughout the country. Unemployment was “outlawed,” and the unemployed were deprived of all benefits and called “labor deserters.”

« In October, a decision was made to distribute all unemployed people to work and to stop paying unemployment benefits. Then all other benefits for those registered at the labor exchange were canceled, except for one - immediate assignment to work, regardless of age, gender, place of residence, existing profession or specialty. In fact, unemployment has become hidden.", says Zaslavsky’s book.