The XXVI Congress of the CPSU once again emphasized that the leading force, social intelligence and social heart of the economic, political, social and spiritual progress of socialism was and remains the working class1 . "The revolution placed the working class at the center of the modern epoch," it was noted at the June (1983) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, " and released the gigantic creative energy of the working people. This is where the best features of the Soviet character come from. " 2 The Soviet working class was the first in the history of the exploited classes to become the leader of society. For the first time in history, a class that took state power into its own hands not only did not cease to be a direct producer of material goods, but also used this power to strengthen and enhance its role as the main productive force of society. Radically transforming the system of social production of material goods, their exchange and distribution, he simultaneously rebuilt the spiritual production, distribution and exchange of cultural values. He changed himself both as a subject and as an object of history.
The objective prerequisite for these processes was the elimination of private capitalist ownership and the establishment of public ownership of the means of production, and the main socio - political factor in the formation of a new social image of the 3 Soviet worker lies in the process of socialist construction itself. It is in labor that "a person not only creates material values, but also forges his best abilities, hardens his will, develops creative forces, and asserts himself as a citizen" 4 . The working class, K. U. Chernenko, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, emphasized at a meeting with workers of the Moscow metallurgical plant "Hammer and Sickle", is "at the forefront of the struggle to accelerate the development of the country's economy" .5
In this essay, the authors describe only some of the most important features of the social appearance of the workers of the Soviet Country in the 1920s and 1930s. In those years, its development was accompanied by a rapid increase in numbers, to some extent social homogeneity, an unprecedented rise in the cultural and technical level, labor and political activity, and the enrichment of the spiritual sphere of class life,
1 Materials of the XXVI Congress of the CPSU, Moscow, 1981, pp. 52-54.
2 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU June 14-15, 1983. Stenogr. otch. M. 1983, p. 6.
3 The term "social appearance" is used in the literature in a broad and narrow sense. In the first case - as a synthesis of objective and subjective characteristics; in the second-as a combination of mainly spiritual, socio-psychological features. It is the second aspect of the problem that has attracted more and more attention in recent years (see, in particular: Shishkin V. F. This is how revolutionary morality developed, Moscow 3967; Sobolev G. L. The revolutionary consciousness of the workers and soldiers of Petrograd in 1917. The Period of Dual Power, L. 1973; Vdovin A. I., Drobizhev V. Z. Growth of the working class of the USSR, 1917-1940, Moscow, 1976; Social image of working youth. Based on the materials of sociological surveys in 1936 and 1972, Moscow, 1980; Petropavlovsk R. V. Revolutionary morality of the working class. Istoki i stanovlenie [Origins and formation], Moscow, 1981; Lebina N. B. Rabochaya molodezha Leningradskogo: trud i sotsial'nyi oblik [Working youth of Leningrad: labor and social image]. 1921-1925. L. 1982; et al.).
4 Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, June 14-15, 1983, p. 14.
5 Pravda, 30. IV. 1984.
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that is, a qualitative change in the public image. Then the revolutionary energy that helped the working class to withstand the trials of the proletarian power struggles and the fiery battles of the civil war was enriched in the course of the struggle against the devastation, tempered in the boiling weeks of the assault on the Dnieper and Magnitogorsk, and multiplied by the determination and skill of the drummers and Stakhanovites. The scope of creative work testified to the further development of such a feature of the workers ' appearance as revolutionism. The ability to perceive the ideas of socialism was supplemented by a dedication to the cause of socialism under construction, a deeper and more conscious understanding of one's world-historical mission, which grew out of the daily practice of socialist construction.
One of the initiators of the Stakhanov movement in industry, A. Kh. Busygin, recalled how he once turned to his assistant, a recent peasant, with a question: "Why are you trying?" "But how can we not try, Kharitonich," the latter replied, "otherwise we will not reach socialism?" 6 This former peasant did not study Marxist theory, but he had a class sense of loyalty to the Bolshevik cause and gave it his all. The construction projects of the first five-year plans became for millions of people - yesterday's peasants and artisans-not only an educational program, a school of professional skill, but also the greatest school of socio-political maturity, a school of socialism. "People studied and worked," wrote N. P. Bogdanov, a party member from 1914 and one of the leaders of the construction of the Dneproges, "carried away by the idea." 7 Here are some figures from that time: according to a sample survey of the working youth of large industrial centers conducted in 1936, 50% of young workers and 37% of female workers read Lenin's speech at the Third Congress of the RKSM, and among Komsomol members - 70% of workers and 64% of female workers; 8 or 9 out of every 10 Komsomol members knew the materials of the XVII Congress of the CPSU(b) 8 . "When I realized at the construction site what great things were happening in the country, I wanted to know more, a great curiosity awoke in me," 9 recalled one of the builders of the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Combine, A. S. Filippov.
The atmosphere of an insistent desire to industrialize the country as soon as possible could not be more convincing evidence of the depth of penetration of the ideas of socialism into the consciousness of the masses. In one of the many letters sent to the construction directorate of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Komsomol member Lyashchenko wrote:: "To the director of a global giant. I'm a drummer. I even have bonuses for good work. If you want to tow Magnetostroy, I ask for your order to arrive at the world giant. Don't write back, because our team has already left Moscow and is on its way to you. " 10 The propositions of Marxism-Leninism concretized in the policy of the Bolshevik Party became an integral part of everyday consciousness. This meant that ideas became a decisive factor in social progress. "Ideas become a force," Lenin repeatedly quoted Karl Marx as saying, "when they take hold of the masses." 11 The revolutionary character of the proletariat, which was overthrowing the old world, developed into the great creative quality of the class that was building the new world.
The inherent quality of the social image of workers, such as the ability to organize and discipline, also rose to the highest level. In the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, it was no longer opposed by the competition of sellers of labor power with its corrupting influence that divides people. It is no coincidence that in those years the time frame for forming labor collectives of new buildings was reduced. "There were a lot of people at the plant and at the construction site," recalled I. M. Danishevsky, the construction manager of one of the aviation plants. - At first it seemed that it was one continuous sea of identical human beings, from which only screamers and rowdies stood out. But great is the strength of the workers ' collective with its qualified core, with the Communists, with the Komsomol members, with their organizations at all levels!.. From raznosherst-
6 Say builders of socialism, Moscow, 1959, p. 270.
7 Were industrial. Moscow, 1973, p. 322.
8 Youth of the USSR. Stat. collection. M. 1936, p. 260-261, 264-265.
9 Say the builders of socialism, p. 113.
10 Ibid., p. 83.
11 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 34, p. 332.
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detachments of creators were formed, who not only became qualified production workers themselves, but also turned into organizers of wonderful teams of sites, spans ,and workshops. " 12
The growth of organization and discipline accelerated as new qualities of the workers matured, and above all the quality of the master of social production and the country, a master previously unseen in history - the bearer of new property relations, the subject of socialist ownership, use and disposal of the means of production. What is this quality? This is an awareness of oneself as a collective co-owner of all social wealth, responsible for these riches; awareness of the inseparability of the fundamental interests of the individual and society; coincidence of the main moral guidelines of the individual, collectives, class with the ideas of the Communist Party and the resulting social activity, demanding of oneself and everything that happens around you.
In the early 1920s, the Danish communist writer M. A. Nex visited Soviet Russia. What he observed among the workers of Petrograd and a number of other cities, he called " a revolution in the spirit." "The destruction of the right of property appalled the old world, "he wrote," and the material revolution that makes every bourgeois tremble with fear is nothing compared to the spiritual revolution that has taken place in Russia. It is in it that lies the source of all material upheavals." After conversations with the workers, the writer was convinced that the source of this spiritual upheaval was the socialist revolution. "She gave us everything... she made us human." This newness in the soul, Nexx noted, "makes the whole world here a new world." 13 Such observations are confirmed by numerous letters, diaries, and memoirs. For example: "I'm telling everyone: Soviet power is our power"; "You are now a Soviet worker... and you work not for the capitalist, but for your Soviet power. " 14 These simple, heartfelt words convincingly testified to the ordinary worker's comprehension of the sense of unity, of the inseparability of the interests of class and individual, of the interests of the workers 'and peasants' state.
A huge number of facts indicate an increased sense of workers ' responsibility for the preservation of public property. Nizhny Tagil workers tell how in the early 20s they selflessly saved a mine that was in danger of flooding. The continuous heavy rain caused the drainage system to fail. The water was rising fast. "Mud, yes night, but nothing to see, but you'll be thrice damned. Look at your feet (worker. - Auth.): whether in shrouds, or in what! Still going to save the mine." When the first onslaught of the elements was overcome, it turned out that the engine of the drainage system was flooding. Then one of the workers threw himself into the icy water to free him from the fastenings on the foundation. A serious accident was averted. It is significant that in the early 30s, i.e. about ten years after this event, a similar situation developed at one of the workings of the same mine. And completely different workers acted in the same way. "But I will not leave until I save the car," said the driver M. Ivanova, despite the danger. And she, with the help of her friends, saved the unit for which she was responsible for 15 .
The sense of ownership was also evident in the daily care of protecting the people's goods. In this regard, the observations of A.M. Gorky are extremely interesting. "On my tongue," he wrote, "there was a question that had long and deeply troubled me:' Does the worker feel - and to what extent does he feel - like a master?'. A profound expert on the psychology of the working class, Alexey Maksimovich understood the fundamental importance of answering this question for understanding the changes in the social image of the working man who has become a worker? at the helm of the country's government. Not entirely trusting to personal observations, he repeated the question again and again to various people "who are at the head of the working masses, keeping pace with them, following them." I got mixed responses. The final answer was given by life itself. And she answered, as Gorky remarked, "to my question."
12 Were industrial, p. 104.
13 Nex M. At Dawn, Moscow, 1925, pp. 35, 93-94.
14 Staraya i novaya Danilovka, M. 1940, p. 165; Amosov V. Kvart ' veka u martena, M. 1950, p. 11.
15 There were High mountains. Moscow, 1935, pp. 249-251, 332-333.
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a very objective view." For example, during the inspection of a new factory in Baku in July 1928, a fire broke out not far from the place where the writer was located. The gas was burning. Immediately, Russian and Azerbaijani workers who happened to be nearby and were passing by rushed to the place of the fire. "I have never seen a fire extinguished so fiercely, with such fearless audacity, with such disregard for the pain of burns - there was something incomprehensible to me in this friendly, adroit work... I repeat that the speed with which the workmen rushed to the fire, the dexterity with which they extinguished it, and the fact that they did it without any unnecessary noise or shouting - all this was new to me and very surprising... I left Baku... with the gratifying consciousness that I have seen a real city of workers, where they are the owners. " 16
Under the influence of their own experience, the workers became more deeply aware of the truth that without the uninterrupted operation of production, the constant increase of public property, and economy, neither social nor personal welfare can grow. Such a deep connection between the personal and the whole social was perceived by everyone in their own way. "At one time, we had a gathering," recalled a worker from Nizhny Tagil, V. I. Makhnev. - We decided to save everything: oil, solidol, and coal. Even the cleaning rags have to be exchanged at the end of the month." However, in practice, as the worker was convinced, some of the colleagues preferred to act in the old-fashioned way, and sometimes just harm. The foreman, for whom V. I. Makhnev worked as an assistant, ordered him to bring a sleeper for kindling. "I say:' But the sleeper is not for our fire daden. We'll chop up the sleeper and burn the butter for kindling... If we burn everything down and chop it up, then where do we get it again?" And he said, " Oh, I got cold feet right away! It hurts how economical you are for everything. became". I say: "If we don't save money and stop following each other, then we will never be able to reduce the price, the cost price." Then we quarreled with him about this. " 17
Such a deeply personal and at the same time socially typical perception of collective interest is vividly echoed by the thoughts of an elderly spinner, a cadre worker at the Trekhgornaya Manufactory named after F. E. Dzerzhinskiy A. S. Batova: "I look around - everything is now my own, native. The factory is its own, the state is its own. I myself am part of the entire Soviet government." And then she goes on to say: "We still have some who are working sloppily. It is true that they have not felt the king's lash, and they do not know the master's fist. After all, now the government is ours, the factory is ours, the land is ours - so who should keep order if not ourselves? I'm watching... At one time, I was assigned as the loss control commissioner, because every piece of cotton costs us hard work and money. It must be protected. And now, when I work, I inspect the floor, pick up the rags, if anyone left... I was assigned to vegetable stores in the winter. Almost every day I went to check the condition of the vegetables. My heart goes out to every potato, because I need to save it so that it doesn't get trampled on." 18 And even though hundreds of kilometers separated the Moscow spinner and the Ural worker, the socialist reality gave rise to and brought up among the workers the same attitude, the same thoughts, and basically identical interests and value orientations. They were vividly and very figuratively expressed by the young writer Ya. N. Ilyin: "I go around buildings, people, streets as a diligent owner, proud of the success of his business. Everything is mine, and I am responsible for everything. This is not the realm of impersonal irresponsibility-no, this is the sixth sense of the owner of the country... This is the feeling of socialism. " 19
And when, during the first five-year plan, the Communist Party appealed to workers to fight for increasing labor productivity, saving labor time, raw materials and supplies, it resonated with hundreds of thousands of people. The workers ' initiative gave rise to new forms of promoting the country's rapid industrialization. At the Dzerzhinskiy Iron and Steel Works, a 24-year-old turner named Hrzhanishevsky said: "They gave me 91 rubles and 60 rubles for turning the shaft; I said that it could be done for 75 rubles, and I refused the difference - let it go to our industrialization. This will be my competition."
16 Gorky, M. Sobr. soch. Vol. 17, Moscow, 1952, pp. 121-122, 129.
17 There were High Mountains, p. 351.
18 How we lived under the tsar and how we live now. Moscow, 1937, pp. 6, 7.
19 Komsomolskaya Pravda, 23. XII. 1932.
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Planer of the plant named after him. Kalinina A.V. Kopylov said: "At our factory, we implement the slogan" Work all four hundred and twenty minutes a day " (the working day was 7 hours. - Author) . Not a single minute of downtime or absenteeism. Time is things " 20 . Taking on additional labor obligations, the workers simultaneously demanded a clear work of the management staff. The decision of the meeting of workers of the agglomeration factory of the same combine stated: "Given the difficulties experienced by the republic, which can only be overcome with the help of all the forces of the workers, we, the workers of the sintering factory, do not want to remain indifferent and declare our readiness to increase productivity... Please increase our production rate by 20%. At the same time, we declare that our commitment can be fulfilled if all organizations pay attention to the sintering factory." 21
The social image of the working class is inseparable from its conscious, purposeful activity as a subject of history. The workers ' desire to master the ideas of socialism and put them into practice, their increased organization, their growing sense of ownership, and other unshakable or new qualities of their social appearance were realized in production, in the mass movements of participants in industrial meetings, in the work of Soviets, trade unions, and so on. In the second half of the 1930s, more than 83% of workers and employees were members of trade unions. In the first convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 42% of the deputies were workers. In city councils, workers owned half of the parliamentary seats. Three-quarters of all factory and factory directors in the country have left their ranks .22
The most striking manifestation of the new quality of the owner was the attitude to work, to discipline in production, in public life. At one time, in connection with the emergence of communist subbotniks, N. K. Krupskaya noted that collective work for the common good is the first step towards the awareness of the masses of the close connection of their work with the national economy of the country. "The psychology of the wage worker here is replaced by the psychology of the worker - the creator of life," 23 Nadezhda Konstantinovna wrote. In subbotniks, Sundays, shock groups and brigades, mass competition and the Stakhanov movement, the awareness of workers to eliminate the objective contradiction between their position in society and their personal desire for active work became more and more clearly manifested. And as a result, their new attitude to work was revealed more fully. It was found in the masses ' understanding of the fundamental differences in the nature of work in socialist and capitalist enterprises, in the assimilation of the organic connection between work "for themselves" and work "for all", in the growing material and spiritual satisfaction with work, and in the enthusiasm of millions. "The furnaces remain the same, but they work differently, because people began to work differently," 24-this is how the steelworker of the Krasny Oktyabr plant I. S. Potapov characterized the changes in attitude to work. This feeling was shared by many participants in the first five-year plans: "We just worked, because we felt in our gut that the workers 'and peasants' state desperately needed our work."; "The proletarian hated his work, and the Soviet worker is proud of every extra ton, because he has acquired a real life and works for himself." 25
For the first time, the worker understood the simple and great truth that there is no path to happiness more certain than the path of free, creative work. The innovative turner B. F. Danilov writes in his memoirs that he went to work as if on a holiday. "It seems to me," he shares his innermost thoughts with readers, "that a person who has first started to think creatively and has at least once solved a technical problem on his own will definitely catch fire, and then you will not push him from this path." 26 Labor in the Soviet country is getting fuller every year
20 Our Achievements, 1929, No. 5, pp. 42-43; 1935, No. 3, p. 28.
21 Ibid., 1929, No. 5, p. 48.
22 Ot kapitalizma k sotsializmu [From capitalism to Socialism], vol. 2, Moscow, 1981, p. 174.
23 Pravda, 4. XII. 1920.
24 People and steel. Stalingrad. 1935, pp. 75-76.
25 Class of Creators, Moscow, 1967, p. 75; Rabochy klass SSSR. Sat. Moscow, 1937, pp. 43-44.
26 Danilov B. F. Zhizn - poisk [Life-search], Moscow, 1975, p. 54.
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it was revealed as a matter of honor, valor and glory. "I have 47 years of work experience behind me," said Hero of Labor Fyodor Rumyantsev, a Trekhgorka worker and delegate to the XIII and XIV Party congresses. - Forced labor in Prokhorovka was a curse for me, and my work in the last 20 years has become a pride and honor for me... Everyone feels like a human being. " 27 The most profound changes in the attitude of the Soviet worker towards work were especially evident to their foreign colleagues. "Never in the history of mankind has labor been so free as in your country, "stated a British labor delegation that visited the USSR in the spring of 1931." Your slogan 'whoever doesn't work doesn't eat' is signed by the worker of any country." 28
Understanding the collective nature of work went hand in hand with understanding the essence of the new discipline. From an awareness of the need to comply with its elementary requirements to self-discipline as an expression of a person's life position - this is the way to establish this new feature of the social image of workers. To the self-discipline of class-conscious, united workers who "know," Lenin noted, "no yoke and no power over themselves, except that of their own association, their own more conscious, bolder, united, revolutionary, sustained vanguard." 29 By the early 1930s, this consciousness had taken deep root among the working masses. Krupskaya stated that now the working masses "already look upon the factory as their own offspring, they feel responsible for the way work is going on at the factory, i.e., this is what com. Lenin called conscious discipline not under duress, not under duress, but that conscious discipline without which socialism cannot be built. This is a real communist discipline. " 30
The consciousness that the worker is the true bearer of new social relations entered into the blood and flesh, and became the basis of the class's worldview. It was an integral part of his social image. At the same time, old habits, traditions, and prejudices were still preserved in the image of the transitional working class, which were rooted in centuries of forced labor, oppression, poverty, disenfranchisement, and the rule of bourgeois ideology and morality. The remnants of tsekhovism affected. Small-scale production had a corrupting effect. Lenin repeatedly noted that the Soviet working class, its spiritual and social qualities, were formed "not out of fantastic and specially created human material, but out of what we have left to us," and that the working class was constantly being formed of people who came from the petty-bourgeois milieu of yesterday, who bore views and habits that were alien and openly hostile to the proletariat. inherited by capitalism " 31 . Idleness, sloppiness, marriage dealing, "secrecy", the desire to snatch more and give less, distrust of new technology, or even hostility to it, the habit of working in the old-fashioned way, hiding the reserves of increasing labor productivity, the dislike of yesterday's singles for common solidarity work, darkness, religiosity-this is not a complete list of traits, habits views that weighed heavily on the consciousness of the working class. By the beginning of the recovery period, the picture was compounded by the appearance of temporary, transitory features caused by devastation, hunger, fatigue ,anarchic moods and other "diseases of petty-bourgeois collapse" 32.
It was precisely these obsolete features of the workers ' appearance that the petty-bourgeois parties tried to rely on in their struggle against socialism. Demagogic demands were made to raise wages and improve supplies without taking into account the specific capabilities of the country's economy .33 In this way, self-seeking, irresponsibility, disregard for public interests and the proletarian state were revived. One of the main methods of the struggle of the petty-bourgeois counter-revolution against the proletarian state in the early 1920s was "bagpipes", strikes that did not allow the proletarian state to be destroyed.
27 How we lived under the king and how we live now, pp. 14, 15.
28 Guests of the Proletariat of the USSR, Moscow, 1932, p. 71.
29 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 39, p. 17.
30 Krupskaya N. K. Pedagogicheskie sochineniya [Pedagogical Works], vol. 4, Moscow, 1959, p. 244.
31 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 41, p. 33.
32 Ibid., vol. 36, p. 364.
33 Bulletin of the Twentieth Conference of the Leningrad Provincial Organization of the RCP (b), May 7, 1924, No. 1, p. 9.
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Not only did they undermine the already war-weakened economy, but they were also a means of ideological disarmament and spiritual disintegration of the working class. By the mid-20s, "bagpipes" had become a rarity. This was evidence of the increased political level of the industrial workers, of the strengthening in their social image of such an important feature as the sense of ownership of the country and production. However, the liberation of the consciousness of the advanced class from the "birthmarks" of exploitative society in conditions of multi-structure, the predominance of small-scale commodity production was extremely difficult and contradictory. In addition, it should be borne in mind that the formation of the views and moods of the working people was influenced not only by the achievements of socialist construction, but also by the inevitable shortcomings and difficulties .34 Clashes with bureaucracy, poor organization of work, lack of proper care for everyday life, bribery and embezzlement caused a state of apathy and indifference to the results of their work, strengthened egoistic feelings, and disbelief in the future. It is not by chance that the vanguard of the working class displayed the highest consciousness and self-discipline interspersed with the egoism and self-interest of its backward strata.
On January 9, 1924, at the delegate meeting of the workers of the Baltic Plant in Leningrad, one of the first production meetings in the country was created .35 The increased sense of ownership of socialist production, of responsibility for its condition on the part of the cadre core of workers, has been translated into a concrete form that only the advanced workers can understand as yet. The meetings quickly spread to all the factories in the country. However, at the same meeting of Baltics, there were also such statements:" Why should I try when the plant does not interest me financially? " 36 . It is clear that for such workers the interests of the Soviet state have not yet become their own. At the end of April 1929, a discussion was held at the Yuzhskaya Textile Factory about the significance of socialist competition and striking. Expressing the distrust of some of the workers for these initiatives, one worker was indignant: "The competition was invented! We don't need it. Previously, they worked without competition. What do you want? Outrun yourself? You're lying, I won't do it. As I have worked, so I will continue to work. " 37 The rest of the workers succumbed to various provocations of the class enemy. During the construction of the Berezniki chemical Plant, for example, a gang of hooligans shouted "Beat the strikers!" and attacked M. Arduanov's brigade .
In the second half of the 1920s, the already difficult process of forming a new social image of workers became particularly complicated. The huge influx of yesterday's individual farmers, artisans, and sometimes hostile elements into the industry was making itself felt. The old and obsolete attacked the new not only with kulak sawn-off shotguns, but also with all sorts of sayings that had one goal: to compromise the socialist ideals, new features in the appearance of the worker.
The" tentacles of the petty-bourgeois hydra, " as they said at that time, were not only manifested in the attitude to production and labor. One of the most inveterate features of the past was a bad attitude towards women. "The proletariat cannot achieve complete freedom without winning complete freedom for women," Lenin noted; at the same time, he stressed that the transition to the real emancipation of women is difficult, " because it is a question of remaking the most ingrained, habitual, hardened, ossified "orders" (in truth, ugliness and savagery...)." 39 . This savagery persisted in the minds of many workers. It was not uncommon to hear at meetings that "the male worker, being physically stronger, should receive much more than the female worker." 40 Many industrial workers were convinced that a woman is capable of performing only unskilled work. And a considerable part of them
34 See Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, June 14-15, 1983, p. 10.
35 Central State Archive of the October Revolution of Leningrad (TSGAORL), f. 4591, op. 5, 4, l. 46.
36 Ibid.
37 Our Achievements, 1931, N 5, p. 13.
38 Say the builders of socialism, pp. 128-129.
39 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 40, p. 158; vol. 42, p. 369.
40 TSGAORL, f. 4591, op. 8, d. 4, l. 19ob.
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in the first years of socialist construction, the workers did not believe in their own strength. I. A. Rybakova, an employee of the Krasnaya Roza textile factory in Moscow, recalled that when the slogan about improving the skills of women was put forward, the factory organized training for the title of assistant master and assigned eight workers. Only two Komsomol members agreed to study, the rest refused. When Rybakova began to master a new business, employees from other departments began to enter the shop and she could hear: "What kind of upstart is this? It won't work anyway." "They looked like an elephant in the zoo," 41 the employee recalled with resentment.
The spirit of inveterate mastery was also evident in the attitude towards young people. Often skilled workers - "kings" tried to hide the secrets of their skills. They didn't answer questions, and they carefully hid their tools and equipment. Some even summed up the "theoretical basis": "And this is not a study, if they tell you everything and show you. When you reach it with your own mind, then it will last for life. " 42 There were cases of extortion for hiring, for working on a good machine, demanding treats from the first salary, etc. 43 . Drunkenness remained a serious problem. It was no less difficult to teach a worker to live in a family in a new way, to have a cultural holiday, than to teach a worker to work in a new way. Reading, going to the cinema, theater, and physical education classes seemed to many to be a "master's whim" that was alien to the proletariat. Ignorance showed its "strong elbows". Some workers even demanded respect for their lack of culture. "It is very sad that there is no gray working spirit in this theater, "we read in a letter sent to the magazine"Worker and Theater". - A worker needs a simple working environment. Otherwise, be sure to undress, pay a dime for the coat rack, and shut your mouth - don't you dare yawn or cough... It is necessary to adapt to the working "mess" 44. F. V. Gladkov, in a letter to Gorky in August 1927, described a scene spied on the construction of the Dneproges: "Several workers of peasant appearance come to Rabochkom. They are outraged: "What is it... for orders of magnitude? There is no life. And you can't spit on the floor - try to put it in the drawer, and for every trifle - soap, and with your feet on the bed do not go... - I went to the yard-soap, for lunch - soap... We are not used to it, it is not usual with us. We disagree. " 45
In the 1920s, religious rites were still commonplace. The state could not ignore this. Sometimes icons continued to hang in workshops, especially in light industry enterprises. Religious holidays were celebrated. M. E. Koltsov wrote in those years: "We have come to a time when ignorance, slovenliness, drunkenness, and sloppiness are often identical with direct counterrevolution, so the struggle for culture, for sobriety, and for new life and labor skills is the purest form of counterrevolution. the revolutionary struggle with all its dangers, heroism, defeats, and the great joy of victory. " 46 This struggle could only be led by the Communist Party. She remembered Lenin's words that " workers build a new society without becoming new people who are clean from the dirt of the old world, but standing up to their knees in this mud... It would be utopian to think that this can be done immediately. " 47 The front of the struggle for a new social image of the working class literally passed through the minds, souls, and hearts of millions of workers. The role and significance of the Communists, the cadre core of the working class, in this struggle cannot be overemphasized. "What a dark place it was on Vysokaya Gora under the Demidov rulers! - recalled one of the Ural workers. "There was only one law for everyone: steal, cheat, and rip up everything you can find. To overcome this old habit of ours and teach it... Thanks to the conscientious collective work of the miners, the Bolsheviks of the mine had to work hard... At first, it is very difficult for the Communists to do this
41 Rybakova I. Other Days, Moscow, 1934, pp. 20-21.
42 Amosov V. UK. soch., p. 10.
43 Rybakova I. UK, soch., pp. 23-24.
44 Rabochy i teatr, 1925, No. 3, p. 11.
45 Literaturnoe nasledstvo [Literary Heritage], vol. 70, Moscow, 1963, p. 99.
46 Tear-off calendar for 1930, April 22 (on the back). Leningrad.
47 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 449.
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it was given, the matter moved slowly, with small steps, but they did not hesitate, did not lose heart, and finally insisted on their own" 48 .
The most important activity of party organizations in educating workers, especially young recruits, was class education. "The development of the consciousness of the masses remains, as always, the basis and main content of all our work." 49 This thesis of Lenin's, formulated even before the October Revolution, remained valid even after its completion. It guided the party. The main ways of class education were general political, cultural, and industrial education, and the main principles were taking into account the heterogeneity of the working class and a differentiated approach to individual social, industry, age, gender, and other groups within it; constant attention to the growth of the material and cultural standard of living of workers, the development of their political consciousness; the widespread use of trade unions and organizations as schools of education in the socialist spirit; leading role of communists and their personal example; deployment of criticism and self-criticism, socialist competition, creative initiative. The main content of education in the spirit of socialism was the conviction of people that they work for their state, for their class, for themselves, that the socialist reconstruction of the national economy of the Country of Soviets is inextricably linked with the solution of social problems - the elimination of exploitation, unemployment, poverty, and raising the standard of living of the people.
This struggle was a battle for the new man, against all that made the worker an unconscious slave. In such a struggle, there were no easy victories and could not be. It was necessary to help people, in the words of A. P. Chekhov, squeeze out "a slave drop by drop" 50 . .The Communists carefully studied each sprout of the new, contributing in every possible way to this. "At first we had only one desire - to earn more," recalled Arduanov, a former farmhand and builder of the Berezniki chemical plant. - Our artel was cemented primarily by the ruble. But, throwing away tens and hundreds of cubic meters of land for laying the future buildings of the plant, we gradually began to understand what we were building and for whom we were building. The party organization helped us to understand this very much... The old artel was dying. A team of conscious builders was born. " 51
Taking into account the increasing role of the subjective factor as the socialist reconstruction unfolded and was completed, the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) and local party organizations continuously increased their efforts to cultivate the socialist qualities of the working class. Overcoming habits and remnants of the old in the economy and consciousness of the working people, turning them into conscious and active builders of socialist society, was included in the main tasks of the Second five-year plan by the XVII Party Conference and then the XVII Congress of the CPSU(b). 52 The Communists continuously improved the methods and forms of working with the masses. A special place was occupied by the organization of individual work. Special attention was also paid to the correct combination of material and moral incentives, measures of persuasion and coercion, elimination of egalitarianism, industrial propaganda, and political education. "Sloppiness and sloppiness fight!" - industrial meetings, light cavalry detachments, etc. worked under this slogan. The results of meetings and raids immediately became the property of brigades and workshops. Often at the polling stations, in the red corners, you could see caricatures of truants, marriage dealers, posters with the following content: "I, a Pittler machine bought abroad for gold, am drowning in mud. Machine operator Zhestkov treats me badly, leaves shavings, does not lubricate. Save me! " 53 .
A significant role in the fight against the remnants of the past was played by the press, the influence of labor collectives. Workers ' correspondents aptly branded likhoimtsev,
48 There were High mountains, p. 305.
49 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 13, p. 376.
50 Chekhov A. P. Sobr. soch. T. 11. Moscow, 1963, p. 317.
51 Say the builders of socialism, p. 125.
52 CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee. Ed. 8-E. T. 5, p. 36, 131.
53 Were industrial, p. 172.
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"nezunov", drinkers and the like. "Skorokhodovsky's boot is firmly sewn for our feet, and the slave of Bogdanov, who is lazy and drunk, crushes this boot in the morning, evening and afternoon." 54 So skorokhodovtsy highly appreciated the work of an active worker, sewing worker A. Bogdanova. The Komsomol members bravely fought against all sorts of bad things. Komsomol member Ivashkin entered one of the Leningrad factories. Master E. Platonov, as usual, demanded to "spray" this event. However, he received such a rebuff that "he even became snow" (turned white. - Ed.) 55 .
Soviet reality, the example of Communists and cadre workers, patient educational work supported by organizational measures, and the confident pace of the cultural revolution were doing their job. Ugly habits, old-fashioned traditions, were receding under the relentless pressure of a new life. During the second five-year plan, staff turnover sharply decreased, and the number of violations of labor discipline decreased. On the" leaps and bounds of the revolution", the consciousness of the working masses quickly matured: from illiteracy, downtroddenness, faith in God - to educational circles, delegate meetings, active social work, and drumming. "Many of those who knew me 15-20 years ago," wrote M. V. Murasheva, a proud employee of Trekhgorka, " will not understand that Marfa Vanifatyevna Murasheva, a member of the Moscow City Council, was once an illiterate, hungry and barefoot Marfutka." "In Praskovya Stepanovna Komarova," the master of the same enterprise echoed her, " you will not recognize the once forced, downtrodden Pasha. I now know my dignity, understand it, and feel it. " 56 The former belittlement of the female worker in production and in the family was collapsing. No wonder it was in those years that the proverb arose: "There was a road from the pot to the trough, and now the road is open everywhere."
By the mid-1920s, the mass departure of working-class youth from religion was already clearly marked. A survey conducted in Leningrad at that time showed that the majority of young workers, when asked about their attitude towards it, replied: "I consider religion to be an old darkened prejudice; I regard religion as a darkening of the people." 57 To give a clearer picture of the huge shift in consciousness that was behind such estimates, we recall that every Putilov worker's pay card from 1898 contained the column "Church contributions". And the one who refused to make them, was waiting for the fate of M. I. Kalinin. On the back of his card, where there was an entry: "He doesn't want to donate to the church," it was clearly written - "Dismiss" 58 . For many centuries, faith was hammered into consciousness in the literal sense of the word "not by washing, but by rolling." By the beginning of the 1930s, in proportion to the success of socialist construction, the awareness of the creative forces of one's class, its ability to build a just society, and the assimilation of a scientific worldview, faith in the supernatural and in God also fell. "It is difficult for God to be with us: we build a paradise on Earth ourselves" - such jokes, born in the midst of the masses, testified to their departure from the church. In Belarus alone, in 1930-1931, 1,022 religious institutions were closed at the request of workers, primarily workers .59 A similar pattern was observed in other districts. This made it possible to convert the days of religious holidays into working days in 1930. Builders of the automobile plant in Nizhny Novgorod celebrated, for example, Christmas days and Easter week in 1931 with shock work. Strike-production godless brigades 60 have become widespread at a number of enterprises . Thus, the victory of the new attitude to work and the liberation from the fetters of religious ideology were intrinsically linked. One of the slogans of that time also reminds us of this: "Every godless person should be a drummer!"
54 History of the Leningrad State Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Skorokhod Shoe factory named after Ya. Kalinin, L. 1969, p. 261.
55 Zhiga I. Dumy rabochikh, zaboty, dela [Workers ' Thoughts, concerns, and affairs]. l. 1927, pp. 54-55.
56 How we lived under the tsar and how we live now, pp. 23, 47.
57 Lebina N. B. UK. soch., p. 97.
58 Markov V. Krasnoputilovskie bezbozhniki v bor'be za sotsializm [Krasnoputilov's Godless people in the Struggle for Socialism].
59 Vyshinsky V. I. Razvitie rabochego klassa BSSR (1921-1937 gg.) [Development of the working class of the BSSR (1921-1937)]. In: Formation and development of the multinational working class of the USSR during the Construction of socialism (1921-1937 gg.). Tbilisi. 1980, p. 194.
60 Fedorov V. D. People of new factories. Gorky, 1981, p. 66.
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Ideas about the use of free time were radically broken: workers were involved in physical education, studying, reading, participating in amateur performances, visiting museums and theaters. "Once a church and wine, now a club and a movie," was one of the new sayings. Gorky was very touched by a letter he received in 1930 from gold prospecting workers from the Aldan mines: "We have a big request for you: recommend us what literature to read in order to understand the writer's language well, what literature should be written out so that it develops the brain, ... let us know about it, you can write an additional letter, we're not poor, we don't drink, we're not infected with it." 61 Many Stakhanonians of the 1930s are proud to talk about their new needs. The famous blacksmith Busygin recalled :" If I had been told earlier that I would spend money on the theater, I would have laughed, but now I began to go to the theater at least twice a month, and to the cinema once a week. Subscribed to the newspaper " 62 .
The workers ' relentless thirst for knowledge and their thirst for art amazed their contemporaries. This served as a source of faith in the future for many intellectuals. Here are some thoughts that arose in 1934 from the writer Yu. K. Olesha: "I recently thought at the theater about how smart our audience is. It was once thought that the ability to understand the subtleties of art is a privilege of especially cultured people... It turned out to be a lie... Many things have already been comprehended that seemed to be comprehended only by a select few. I once visited the Ball Bearing factory. There the workers talked about literature. It seemed that the proletariat would never care about such words as" composition, "" characterization, "or" metaphor, " but the workers expressed themselves with such knowledge that I thought: now there is no difference between the statements of writers and workers. Such an expression as "cultural growth", became familiar, became a newspaper. But when the radio tells me that works by Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner will now be performed at the request of the workers, I begin to understand something. I am beginning to understand that there is some commonality between such things as work, art, and struggle. " 33
The fight against drunkenness also gave certain results. Merciless exploitation, desperate need, and darkness were its main socio-economic causes in the past. The Soviet government eliminated them. However, there were still socio-psychological factors that caused some workers to abuse alcohol 64 .
In the irreconcilable struggle between the inviolable and newly emerging qualities of the workers ' social image, such moral traits as loyalty to the ideals of socialism, social optimism, and enthusiasm were forged. Kalinin described the socio-psychological and moral consequences of changes in the position of the Soviet worker in this way:: "The consciousness of constancy, the consciousness that the team needs my work, makes a person independent, increases his life activity, makes it possible to work with complete calmness. This conquest of the October Revolution leaves its mark on our entire working class and changes its character. From an incredulous person, unsure of the future, our worker becomes an active optimist. " 65
Social optimism was formed in direct connection with the victory of a new attitude to work, the triumph of collectivism. Revealing this connection, the foundry worker of the F. E. Dzerzhinskiy factory (Dneprodzerzhinsk) I. Manida wrote in the 1930s: "Now look at the worker-he has a free eye, he feels dignity, respect for himself and his comrades." 66 For comparison, here is a document kept in the museum of the Yenakiieve Steel Plant: "I, the undersigned-
61 Our Achievements, 1931, N 3, pp. 72-73.
62 Say the builders of socialism, p. 268.
63 Writers of the XVII Party Congress, Moscow, 1934, pp. 165-166.
64 Lisitsyn Yu. P., Yupyt N. Ya. Alcoholism. Sotsial'no-gigienicheskie aspekty [Social and hygienic aspects], Moscow, 1978, pp. 144-148.
65 Kalinin M. I. Chgo was given by the Soviet power to the working people. In: Before and Now, Moscow, 1938, p. 9.
66 Rabochy klass SSSR, p. 45.
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Written by Joseph Shabanov, I hereby confirm that upon my admission to the Petrovsky Plant of the Russo-Belgian Metallurgical Society, I was informed that I have no right either at present or subsequently to demand from the company either an apartment, coal, water, or anything else, except for a certain salary. " 67 Someone else signed for the illiterate Shabanov. "I have no right" is the all-encompassing formula that defined the place of the working man in the old society. And no wonder the old worker, master of the Ural Machine-building Plant named after S. Ordzhonikidze P. Antonov shared his thoughts: "I became a man only under the Soviet regime... I have found my dignity, I have tested my strength, I hold my head high, I do not break my neck in front of anyone. " 68
In the victories of socialist construction, the elimination of unemployment, the strengthening of the social security system, and the growth of the welfare and culture of their class and the entire people, the workers saw confirmation of the reality of scientific socialism. Everything that happened was built by their own hands, suffered, taken from battle. This is how confidence in the present and future was born. "The optimism of the Soviet worker is more than justified, because it follows from the very essence of the Soviet system, it proceeds from the fact that the entire collective, the entire working class, is interested in the welfare of the individual worker." 69 This is just one of the typical signs of a new working class attitude to life: "I do not get enough of my life, and even more so-the lives of my children... Although I am 63 years old, - admitted the worker of the Trekhgornaya manufactory E. I. Ovchinnikov, - I continue to work, I will not leave the factory. It has become my native land. " 70 Folklore, such a sensitive indicator of the state of everyday consciousness of the broadest masses, reveals many changes in the appearance of the workers: "We used to live-we shed tears, now we live-we forge happiness"; "If you follow the Communists , you will find your way in life";" The word of the party will not be forgotten, what it says will come true " 71 . Socialist construction revolutionized the minds of millions of working people. The Bolshevik Party helped them overcome their age-old "timidity" and get used to the fact that "they are now the ruling class." 72
The most general indicator of the consolidation of the new social image of the workers was and remains the connection of the revolutionary class with the Communist Party. The forms of this connection are diverse and historically determined, and they always embody the growth of class consciousness, its loyalty to the ideas of scientific socialism, and its readiness to take responsibility not only for personal work, but also for the fate of the entire country. One of the concrete historical forms of rallying the working class around the party, which clearly highlighted new features in the image of the workers, was the Leninist appeal. Indeed," even Ilyichev's death itself "became" the greatest Communist organizer." "An unprecedented mobilization of the masses, a huge warm wave of sympathy that surged... and it is moving powerfully towards the party of the proletariat, towards it, to help it, to support it in a difficult moment - all this is the result of long, hard work; all this is proof of how firmly the new order of things, inspired by Comrade Lenin, has taken root. " 73 There are innumerable documents of those years, moving from the very heart of the working man, confirming the loyalty of thousands and thousands of workers to the ideas and cause of Lenin. They are an everlasting symbol of unity, of the indissolubility of the ties that bind the party and the class, of the firmness of the consolidation of new value orientations in the minds of millions. The Party, the vanguard of the revolutionary class, embodies the dialectical unity of continuity and change in the appearance of the workers. The overcoming of petty-bourgeois deviations within the CPSU(b), the growth of its ideological and organizational solidity, and the support and confidence of the broadest masses of workers clearly testified to the fact that the best qualities of the class were embodied by the Communists, and the best qualities of the Communists, in their turn, were embodied by the Communists.
67 Izvestiya, 16. VII. 1981.
68 Rabochy klass SSSR, p. 41.
69 Kalinin M. I. UK. soch., pp. 9-10.
70 How we lived under the tsar and how we live now, p. 78.
71 Narodnye proverbitsy i proverbki [Folk proverbs and sayings]. Moscow, 1961; Krylatye slova na Ural ' [Winged words in the Urals]. Sverdlovsk. 1960.
72 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 35, p. 199.
73 Pravda, 30. I. 1924.
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In turn, they were firmly fixed in the public image of the working class as a whole. "When I first felt that I was also responsible for the mine, I decided to join the party." 74 "After I saw our first metal, I felt that I didn't have any other road like the one that the party is taking us along. I carried this idea for a long time and soon submitted an application to the party cell... And when I got the party ticket, I realized that I couldn't work in the old way, I'd rather still do it." 75 These and other statements are deeply individual, in which the personal in the thoughts and feelings of the workers and at the same time the socially typical merged into a single stream. In the mid-1930s, every tenth worker was already a member of the Communist Party. The strengthening of the unbreakable bond between the party and the working class strengthened the leading role of the workers and the party's leadership of social development. The most important quality of the social image of the proletariat - its ability to lead the broadest masses of working people - was rising to a new and higher level.
The new economic policy strengthened the alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry, and strengthened the leading role of the working class in it. It provided for the broad and systematic involvement of industrial workers in communist construction in agriculture. Considering the relation of the city to the countryside as the main political question of importance for "our entire revolution," Lenin put forward and justified the idea of patronage of the city over the countryside. He set himself the task of developing and strengthening comradely communication between workers and peasants in every possible way. "Under capitalism, the city gave the countryside what corrupted it politically, economically, morally, physically, and so on," he wrote. But all this is done precisely by itself, spontaneously, and all this can be strengthened (and then increased a hundredfold) by introducing consciousness, planning and systematicity in this work. " 76 The response to the leader's appeal was a mass movement for the patronage of the workers over the village. Its significance consisted not so much in material assistance, but in a great moral and political impact on the working peasantry. They explained the policy of the Soviet government and exposed the fabrications of class enemies. They brought the peasantry not only the light of knowledge, but also acted as active propagandists of revolutionary ideas, morality, and the skills of collectivism.
For many rural areas, the political and spiritual baggage that seasonal workers acquired on the construction sites of socialism was of great importance. The well-known Stakhanovite N. A. Zezyulin recalled: "The first time I came to Shatura, all the interest was to earn more money. And then, it seems, I would have gone to my Shatursky marshes for nothing." What attracted the peasant to the hard work of harvesting peat? Zezyulin is responsible for: expanding your horizons, new knowledge, creating new needs, feeling the meaning of life, the usefulness of your hard work and pride in it. "What did I have before?.. He lived to feed himself for a day, that's all." Now, every year brought him something new. "You work out the season, and when you go to the country for the winter, you feel as if you have increased your height by one inch." 77
During the years when the prerequisites for mass collectivization were created and implemented, the patronage movement and other forms of workers ' influence on the peasantry rose to a higher level. Twenty-five thousand men, factory brigades, and community organizations taught the villagers by deed, word, and example how to conduct a large-scale socialized economy. They brought up the responsibility of the collective owner in yesterday's sole proprietors, awakened class consciousness, irreconcilability to the enemy, etc. Assessing the effectiveness of the influence of the workers - messengers of the socialist city, members of the artel "New Life" of the Volsky district of the Saratov region wrote in a message to the Leningrad workers:: "The vast revolutionary experience accumulated by the proletarians of Leningrad will be the very thing that is particularly important.-
74 Say the builders of socialism, p. 245.
75 Ibid., p. 115.
76 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 45, pp. 367-368.
77 Zezyulin N. Moya zhizn - moya rabota [My Life-my Work], Moscow, 1935, pp. 4, 5, 9.
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our collective farm movement is coming to an end." The same idea was expressed by the collective farmers of the Usman district of the Central Chernozem region: "We expect that the proletarians will lead the fight against the kulaks. Collective farms need your collective work skills." Meetings of collective farmers everywhere demanded that workers be sent to the collective farms faster .78 "Give us one worker brought up in the collective spirit, "members of the Novy Put artel of the Lower Volga Region addressed the bosses," so that he can pass it on and instill it in our young collective farm. " 79 The transfer of the social qualities of the working class and their initial assimilation by yesterday's individual farmers in the process of collectivization were an integral part of the revolutionary revolution in the countryside, the formation of a class of collective farmers.
The working class also had a decisive influence on shaping the image of the people's intelligentsia, guided by the following principles:: strengthening the alliance of the intelligentsia with the working class and recognizing its leading role, close unity of the intelligentsia with the working masses on the basis of the coincidence of fundamental interests in the joint struggle for socialism. Reflecting on the role that communication with workers played in her life and views, the actress of the Pushkin Academic Theater (Leningrad), People's Artist of the USSR E. P. Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya wrote: "From the first days of the revolution, I saw a new type of woman, a social worker and a revolutionary. I saw him in factories, factories, in public organizations, in everyday life. " 80 Such a social activist, a passionate propagandist of revolutionary morals and morals on stage and in life, became "Aunt Katya", as the Leningrad workers lovingly called Korchagina-Alexandrovskaya.
As socialist construction unfolded, the working class asserted itself as the bearer of national and national interests, as a creative class. The authority of its ideology, morals, and value orientations acquired a socially standard character in the eyes of IT intellectuals. For the scientific and technical intelligentsia, the creation of the material and technical base of socialism opened up vast expanses of creative work. Future academician I. P. Bardin spoke about the feelings that he experienced when he received an offer to become the chief engineer of Kuznetskstroy: "Building an entire factory... in my own country , isn't this what I've been dreaming about all my life, isn't this what my soul as an engineer has been striving for, isn't this the happiness and ideal of every engineer who has the slightest respect for his knowledge and work?" 81 Given the opportunity to carry out their most ambitious plans and at the same time make sure that they serve the people, honest representatives of the old intelligentsia could not help but reconsider their previous position in life. "The years of the first five - year plan," wrote E. O. Paton, " were crucial for the final formation of my consciousness... I took the side of the Soviet government entirely and forever. " 82
The changes in the spiritual appearance of the peasantry and intelligentsia not only represented a living embodiment of the growing political, economic, and ideological leadership of the entire society by the working class, an indicator of the degree of maturity and new qualities in its social status, but also marked profound changes in the appearance of Soviet nations and nationalities. From the first years of peaceful economic construction, the party of the working class and the proletarian State strove to involve the peoples of the backward suburbs in industrial production. In international labor collectives, along with Russian workers, representatives of other nationalities acquired a profession and learned to read and write. A window opened before them to a new world, free from isolation, alienation, including national isolation. The builders of the Stalingrad tractor Plant - three former Kazakh farmhands-told about their new life: "We are not the only ones who have become happy! See how people of other nationalities live. We have Tatars, Mordvins, and Kalmyks at the plant. Who is a worker, who is an engineer, who is a technician! Each one its own
78 Union of Creators of a new Society, Moscow, 1979, p. 147.
79 Under the Banner of the Soviets, 1930, No. 12, p. 23.
80 by unknown paths, L. 1967, p. 356.
81 Bardin I. P. Rozhdenie zavoda [The birth of a factory]. Novosibirsk. 1936, p. 14.
82 Paton E. O. Memoirs. Kiev, 1962, p. 126.
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I found the place. We love our homeland very much. " 83 Continuing these thoughts, one of the participants in the construction of Turksib, D. Omarov, wrote: "My fellow countrymen were literally reborn, becoming different people" 84 .
Russian workers helped these people to feel confident and master new professions. Their behavior and attitude towards representatives of peoples who were making a difficult transition to industrial labor filled the theoretical formulas of proletarian internationalism with living flesh. A participant in the construction of the Balkhash mining and Metallurgical Combine, foreman plotnikov Khudoleev, recalled in 1934 the first steps of the Kazakh carpenter's team: "There was no clarity and organization in the work of this team... So she lagged behind the others. Working in the neighborhood, we've seen it all. We decided to help. In November, we took Tursukhanov's brigade in tow. We worked together for two hours every day. We told and showed you how to properly place forces in a team, organize a tray of materials, and set up tools. Two hours of towing turned into two hours of industrial training. " 85 However, in the spiritual, social and psychological spheres, the process of rapprochement, especially in the initial phases of the transition period, was slow. There were many obstacles in his way: unaccustomed to industrial labor, the persistence of prejudices, the conservatism of everyday life, the desire of yesterday's "masters of life" to keep the masses in the dark. Therefore, the introduction of hundreds of thousands of yesterday's dehkans, auls, and nomads to work on construction sites, factories, and collective farms was also a victory over the conservative aspects of national psychology and outdated traditions.
In a short historical period, significant national detachments of the working class of the USSR emerged. If in 1929-1940 the number of workers in the Soviet Union increased by 189%, then during the same period in Tajikistan-by 672%, Kyrgyzstan-by 293%, Kazakhstan-by 249%, Uzbekistan-by 235% .86 The working class consisting of previously backward peoples who were making the transition to socialism, bypassing the capitalist stage, was immediately formed as a socialist class. The formation of such detachments and their social appearance were distinguished by a number of peculiarities, but the significance of proletarian internationalism of historically more mature national detachments, primarily of the Russian working class, was particularly great here. The proportion of national workers ' detachments during the transition period was far from the same across the republics. However, everywhere they were those generators of enormous power, the energy of which increasingly determined the main directions of the economic, social, spiritual, and psychological development of nations. Under their influence, all-Soviet features of the spiritual image of socialist nations were formed: a sense of the master of the country and public property, a conscious attitude to work, internationalism, a consciousness of the indivisibility of the historical destinies of the Soviet people, equality, and social justice.
It was this life-giving spring that gave rise to the feeling of a united family, eroded the dam of patriarchy. In the summer of 1929, one of the journalists who came to Turksib, in an interview with Kazakh workers, asked who of them belonged to what family. Kazakh workers proudly responded: "We gathered from all sorts of families, but now only one - proletarian" 87 . One of the most ingrained feudal-Bayan traditions, sanctified by religion, also receded - the belittlement, the slave status of women. In Uzbekistan, for example, international teams consisting of qualified Russian workers and Uzbek students, individual patronage, have become very popular. "Studying in the center of the country," noted Bibi Palvanova, a well - known researcher on women's issues, " has become a school for women in the East... rich revolutionary and life experience and information-
83 Cit. In: A brief history of the Soviet Working Class, 1917-1967, Moscow, 1968, p. 258.
84 Say the builders of socialism, p. 54.
85 Pinegina L. A. The Copper Giant. Alma-Ata, 1963, p. 65.
86 A brief History of the Soviet Working Class, pp. 243-244.
87 Cit. by: Dahschleiger G. F. Turksib-the firstborn of socialist industrialization. Alma-Ata, 1953, p. 77.
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international education" 88 . If in 1926 only 112 Uzbek women workers were employed in the industry of Central Asia ,in 1937 the number of Uzbek women workers reached 7,5 thousand 89.
The internationalism of the Soviet working class is an integral feature of its social image. During the transition period, this quality was the most important tool through which the ideological, moral principles, norms, and life attitudes inherent in the hegemon class were rooted in the image of Soviet people, regardless of their nationality. Nations and nationalities became socialist not only in terms of their state-legal status and objective socio-economic characteristics, but also in terms of the main content of spiritual culture and social psychology. 90 The foundation was laid for a new historical community of people - the Soviet people. "This community is based on the inseparability of the historical destinies of the Soviet people, on profound objective changes in both the material and spiritual order, on the unbreakable union of the working class, the peasantry and the intelligentsia." 91
While helping previously backward nations and nationalities, the Soviet worker also became increasingly aware of itself as an integral part of the international working class. The Communist Party, which was born as a party of internationalists, has always cultivated among the broad masses a sense of brotherhood with the working people of foreign countries. During the difficult years of the civil war, foreign intervention, and the restoration of the national economy, the solidarity of the Soviet working class and the international proletariat was born. When the revolutionary events in Germany began to escalate in the autumn of 1918, Lenin wrote:: "Let us prove that the Russian worker is able to work much more energetically, to fight and die much more selflessly when it comes not only to the Russian revolution, but also to the international workers' revolution." 92 And the working class responded to this call of the leader. Starving workers were then sending some of their bread to the German people, and when the Bolsheviks were accused of sending the last of their bread to Germany, a middle-aged worker at the Giraud factory in Moscow said: "I, women, speak like a mother. The mother herself will not finish eating, but will feed the children. And our Russia is now the mother of all revolutions! So will the Russian people really think about their bellies, and not about their entire family?" 93 In the 1920s and 1930s, workers in Soviet Russia repeatedly raised funds for the benefit of striking comrades in capitalist countries. The workers of Krasny Putilovets wrote to the textile workers of Poland: "Remember that the working class of the USSR is always with you and is always ready to support you." 94 It was a noble and effective friendship, it was selfless help, sometimes requiring considerable sacrifices from the person who provided it.
Foreign workers unanimously noted the great interest of the Soviet workers in the situation of the proletariat in the capitalist countries, and the cordial welcome they received in the U.S.S.R. Here are lines from several reports of the British, German and French proletarian delegations of the early 1930s: "Everywhere we are greeted with joy", "we were met with an exceptionally fraternal attitude... on the part of the broad working and laboring masses... Here, in the U.S.S.R., we saw a true example of the international solidarity of the proletariat"; they were struck by "the general interest with which they listened to our information about the living conditions of the British proletariat"; "We noted with great joy the high political level of development of the U.S.S.R. proletariat, its vivid internationalism, and its fraternal feelings
88 Cit. by: Chirkov P. M. The solution of the women's question in the USSR (1917-1937) M. 1978, p. 124.
89 Women of the Country of Soviets, Moscow, 1977, p. 141.
90 Sovremennye etnicheskie protsessy v SSSR [Modern ethnic processes in the USSR]. Moscow, 1977, p. 117.
91 On the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU of February 19, 1982. Moscow, 1982, p. 8.
92 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 99.
93 Cit. by: Drabkina E. Chernye sukhari [Black breadcrumbs], Moscow, 1961, p. 252.
94 Ozerov L. S. Construction of socialism in the USSR and international proletarian solidarity. 1921-1937, Moscow, 1972, p. 63.
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to the international proletariat " 95 . The high spirit of proletarian internationalism was also written and spoken about by those foreign workers who worked in our country during these years. A participant in the construction of the Moscow metro, a Berlin plasterer, bricklayer and concrete worker, M. Mielke, recalled that one of the Komsomol members-tunnelers readily showed him how to fix the station . In September 1931, foreign workers and specialists working at the Krasny Putilovets factory wrote: "Here, in the Land of the Soviets, we are called foreign workers, but this is not entirely true. We are not foreigners now. We are Soviet workers, or even more precisely: we are Krasnoputilovtsy. And we are proud of it. " 97
Rapprochement with the working class of the main masses of the peasantry and the intelligentsia, their transformation into the direct builders of socialism, and their assimilation of the basic spiritual, socio-psychological features inherent in the workers, meant that a great historical force, the man of labor, grew up in the USSR. He successfully built a new, socialist state, new social relations, a new world, and was ready to defend and defend it to the end. "Even though I am forty-nine, even though I am not completely healthy now," wrote one of the Moscow workers in the 30s, "but I am ready to go strangle my enemies with my own hands,... with these hands I will still weave a shroud for the fascist reptiles." 98 Thus, the realization by ordinary workers of the immutable truth that they acquired their real socialist Fatherland in the Soviet Union is inseparable from the emergence of a sense of Soviet patriotism. Like other qualities of the new spiritual image of the working class and the entire people, this patriotism was manifested in all its power and hardened during the most difficult trials of the Great Patriotic War.
As a result of the transition period, the social image of the working class of the USSR was transformed. The changes were comprehensive in nature, covering the labor and socio-political spheres, social psychology, morality, and morals. In the spiritual image of the workers, new value orientations were clearly defined, social qualities were crystallized, which directly followed from the cardinal changes in their economic and political situation. A new attitude to work and social property, high organization, devotion to the ideas of socialism, collectivism, responsibility for the fate of the country, and internationalism now determined the appearance of this class. The moral and psychological traits formed by the social environment, such as self-control, courage, determination, will, enthusiasm, hatred of all exploitation and exploiters, and the ability to put class-wide interests above group interests, have been tempered and consolidated.
The ideological and moral character of the workers became a kind of standard for the collective-farm peasantry, the people's intelligentsia, and all the nations and nationalities of the country. The role of the working class as a national force has grown not only in the sphere of economics and politics, but also in the spiritual sphere as a whole. The material and spiritual foundations of the socialist way of life and the formation of a new person were laid. Strengthening the foundations of a new way of life, continuing the restructuring of all social relations, overcoming the remnants in the minds of people, changing the spiritual sphere on the basis of collectivist principles inherent in socialism became the order of the day as an urgent task of the subsequent stages of socialist construction.
95 Guests of the Proletariat of the USSR, pp. 28, 64, 75, 142.
96 Stories of Metro builders, Moscow, 1935, p. 281.
97 Cit. By: Rosenko I. A. Internatsionalnye svyazi rabochikh Leningradskogo (1921-1937 gg.) [International relations of Leningrad workers (1921-1937)]. l. 1977, p. 137.
98 How we lived under the tsar and how we live now, p. 32.
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