Shil'nikova I.V. The social factors in labour motivation of the textile-workers during the years of the first Five-Year Plan (based on the archival material of the Trekhgornaya factory)

Abstract: During the years of the first Soviet Five-Year Plan one of the key questions was the increase of labour productivity, which compelled plant managers to devote particular attention to the creation of work stimulus. A significant role was played by the quality of the social services that the plants could offer their workers: housing, provision of essential commodities, etc. Undoubtedly, the ideological setting had its effect and the struggle for the creation of a “socialist way of life”, which by definition had to be of better quality in comparison to the pre-Revolutionary one, forced the development of the social sphere. At the same time, plant managements were well aware that the household disarrangement lowered productivity, labour quality and discipline. This research, based on archival material and directed at the study of the social factors in labour motivation on a separate plant during the years of the first Five-Year Plan (1928–1932), permits a detailed analysis of the precise measures undertaken in this sphere by the party and economic managements, their effectiveness, including as opposed to the earlier period. In this case at the heart of the study is the large textile plant with a rich pre-Revolutionary history – the Trekhgornaya factory.

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