Behavioral practices as a marker of the socio-cultural portrait of students of the USSR State Labor Reserves (1940s-50s)

Razinkov Sergey Lvovich ORCID: 0000-0002-0018-7931 PhD in History Associate professor of the Chair of Theory and History of International Relations, Ural Federal University; Associate professor of the Chair of Document study, Law, History and Russian Language, Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University 620012, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, Mashstroiteley str., 11, room 509 sergerazinkov@mail.ru Other publications by this author

1. Introduction = Introduction

The creation of the state labor reserves of the USSR (1940-1958) was accompanied by the formation of a specific socio-cultural environment, whose representatives often differed in their social appearance, cultural and everyday lifestyle, life experience, personal ideas and goals. Teenagers from collective farms and young prisoners released from punishment, urban youth and conscripts transferred from other regions of the country were forced to live together for a long time in a relatively closed world. United by a paramilitary system into study groups, they entered into a complex system of collective and interpersonal communications, forming a subculture, many elements of which were far from the "ceremonial" portrait of the student, that is, the official image set by the system of state labor reserves. The real conditions of life in educational institutions formed a different, "non-paraded" image of the student, including those features that ensured survival, reflected the variety of life problems, requests, requirements.

The basis for the reconstruction of the portrait of students of the system of state labor reserves is the allocation of subculture markers in the optics of parade and non-parade. Such markers include behavioral practices, which (along with socio-demographic characteristics, cultural values and the appearance of students) make it possible to represent the demographic, psychological and socio-cultural appearance of students ^{[3, pp. 67-69]}.

By behavioral practices at this stage of the study, we mean relatively stable patterns of behavior of individuals and social groups, as a rule, repeatedly reproduced by them in typical life situations. The variety of life situations determines the breadth and, to some extent, the duality of the manifestation of behavioral practices, which, being a kind of social practices, can be collective and individual; mainly everyday, institutional, stable to habitalization, but also extraordinary, protest and variable; involving an actor as a subject or object.

In modern historiography, an understanding has been formed of the importance of the problem of addressing subculture and socio–cultural characteristics (including behavioral practices) of future young workers, however, in relation to the system of state labor reserves, this problem remains unresolved - there are practically no special historical studies on it.

The purpose of the article is to determine the structure and composition of behavioral practices as an element of the official and informal portrait of students of the state labor reserves.

2. Material, Methods, Review = Material, Methods, Review

The conceptual basis for analyzing the behavioral practices of students of educational institutions of state labor reserves can be the Talcott Parsons social action system and the work of Alf Ludtke on the history of everyday practices of German workers. Thus, T. Parsons considered a behavioral act as a genetic unit of social action, the structure of which consists of: 1) an actor (an individual or a collective who is the subject or object of an action); 2) a goal (a desirable state for the actor after the action); 3) a situation including means to achieve a result, objective conditions and a normative standard for choosing patterns of behavior ^{[8, pp. 94-95, 138-139]}. Students' behavioral practices can also be considered in the context of everyday practices, which A. Ludtke defined as behavior through which actors (actors) become familiar with the conditions of their lives (survival) in a sensually practical way, demonstrating a multifaceted, rarely unambiguous profile of behavior and emotions within the framework of the "force field" of social connections, because "opportunities the choices are not always predetermined and therefore fundamentally limited" ^{[5, pp. 58-63]}.

With regard to the reconstruction of the portrait of students of the system of state labor reserves based on the identification of behavioral practices on the scale of transition from "parade" to "non-parade", the "norm/anomaly" dichotomy, used by N.B. Lebina as a methodological approach to the study of Soviet everyday life, is of interest ^{[4, pp. 7-10]}.

In concrete historical research, the study of behavioral practices of individuals and social groups is often based on an ad hoc description relating to limited historical periods, processes and social groups, however, some of the described practices can also be used in analyzing the behavior of students of labor reserves. For example, O.S. Nagornaya notes a number of features of the behavioral practices of Russian prisoners of war of the First World War in Germany: the influence on the behavior of the "reception shock"; the orientation of practices towards passive / active adaptation and hidden / open resistance to the camp regime; the difference in behavior strategies depending on the localization of the place of work (industrial enterprise or rural team), time captivity (organizational chaos and ill-treatment at the initial stage of the development of the camp system and a well-established mechanism in a later period) and the status (rank and file or officers) of prisoners of war; interpretation of alcohol and smoking practices as a form of escape from reality ^{[7, pp. 237-252]}.

Only a limited number of scientific papers are devoted to the issues of social practices of students of labor reserves. For example, the British researcher O. Kucherenko, considering state labor reserves as an organic part of the Stalinist totalitarian system, gives examples of some behavioral practices of students, primarily related to passive or open resistance: "since state terror prevented effective social actions and prohibited any forms of open protest, the reactions of teenagers were different: failing to achieve any- or significant changes in their situation through institutional means, some became demoralized and apathetic, while others "deserted" by running away from their schools" ^{[11, p. 394]}.

3. Results and Discussion = Results and Discussion

3.1. Classification of behavioral practices

Based on the structure of social action in relation to this study, we have identified several types of behavioral practices – acts, procedures and behavioral strategies, the characteristics of which are presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Types of behavioral practices

A single act of behavior is the smallest unit of a specific system of social actions in which an individual actor interacts with a situation. Often, isolated acts of behavior constitute procedures and behavioral strategies, but they can also represent sporadic actions, including those not provided for by current rules, norms or cultural standards. For example, the deputy. Director of the political department of the school of Federal Law No. 3 (Degtyarsk) Sharipova in December 1941 mentioned the following case: "An evacuated boy is sitting in the dining room, he was served lunch. A boy from the local guys comes up to him, takes him by the scruff of the neck and throws him away, and he sat down to lunch, saying that he worked, and you were idle for two months and did not have the right to have lunch in the first place" [CDOOSO, F. 4, op. 35, D. 299, L. 93].

Behavioral procedures, despite their typicality, repeatability and determinism by regulatory standards, are characterized by variability of actions – what A. Ludtke, in relation to industrial workers, called the term Eigensinn (literally – "stubbornness", "waywardness"), and S.V. Zhuravlev interprets as the employee's defense of a certain autonomy in the workplace, the form of "forced" adaptation to labor processes in the absence of absolute dependence on superiors ^{[2, pp. 20-21]}.

By behavioral strategies, we mean a certain sequence of mental and behavioral actions aimed at achieving basic, basic goals for mastering a person with the conditions of their life or survival. These strategies can be aimed at adapting to existing conditions (for example, to achieve success in studies, work, sports) or getting rid of the situation (for example, through "desertion", organizing an escape from an educational institution). The latter can be traced, among other things, in ego documents - for example, in a letter from a student of RU No. 4 (Nizhny Tagil) Serebryakov, illustrated by the military censorship of the NKGB of the USSR in 1943, contains an indication of possible ways to get rid of unbearable living and working conditions at the school: "They feed us rotten potatoes and cabbage. It's cold in the dorm. They don't give me shoes, I go to the factory almost barefoot. My legs are full of sores and boils, both at night and roaring. I'll run away anyway, if I don't run away, I'll kill myself, but I won't live here" [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 5, 51, L. 87].

A variety of behavioral practices of students, examples of which are given in Table 2, are reflected in the internal regulations of educational institutions, administrative documents of the Main (GUTR) and Sverdlovsk Regional Department of Labor Reserves, as well as in the transcripts of meetings of directors, deputies. directors of the political department of colleges and schools of the Federal Law.

Table 2

Examples of behavioral practices in educational institutions of state labor reserves

Table 2. Continued

Despite the diversity, variability, situationality and, in many cases, spontaneity ^{[10, pp. 581-590]} of social practices in general and behavioral practices of students, in particular, it seems possible and necessary for further research to develop a unified structure of behavioral practice (not from the point of view of the psychology of activity, but based on the possibilities of reconstruction of the "parade" and a "non-paraded" portrait of students based on the content of available historical sources).

3.2. Structural and functional model of behavioral practice of students of labor reserves

The formalization of the structure of behavioral practices is possible by creating a model aimed at highlighting their basic functions and the relationships between them. For functional modeling, the graphical notation IDEF0 is traditionally used, in which the functions of the system and the relationships between them are represented, respectively, by blocks and interface arcs. Each side of the functional block has a standard value that uniquely defines the role of the arc adjacent to it: the input (on the left) contains many material objects or information flows that are transformed by the function into outputs (on the right) through mechanisms (from below) reflecting equipment and personnel, and in the presence of control (from above), which is a restrictive and prescriptive information regulating the activities of the system [see details: 6].

The system of state labor reserves naturally cultivated behavioral practices that are an integral part of the student's "ceremonial portrait", including the obligation to attend classes and take their studies seriously. Thus, in the internal regulations of educational institutions, it was noted that students of craft, railway schools and schools of the Federal District are obliged to "study hard and persistently in order to become qualified and cultured workers and bring as much benefit to their Soviet Homeland as possible." At the same time, all students "must report to the place of educational and industrial classes in training workshops and classrooms 15 minutes before the start of classes" [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 1, d. 20, l. 1].

However, in the official documents of the labor reserves of the 1940s and 50s, it is often mentioned that students deviate from these requirements - a common practice of absenteeism. For example, the head of the Sverdlovsk Regional Department of State Labor Reserves, A.F. Putintsev, in a report at a meeting of school principals of the Federal District noted that "on January 2 ^[1941], out of a total of 8,400 people in schools of the Federal District, we have only 6,642 people in classes, over one and a half thousand children were not present in classes. The question is, where were these 20% of our contingent?" [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 1, D. 2, L. 3].

Let's consider the structure of students' behavioral practice related to non-attendance of classes. At the first stage, the functional model is formed in the form of a contextual diagram, in which the main output and input parameters are determined, but the internal structure of the system remains unknown (see Fig. 1)

Fig. 1. Functional model of behavioral practice of absenteeism by students (context diagram)

The inputs of behavioral practice reflect the polymerization of any social act, to which a person is prompted by a whole complex of individual, group and social motives, which "necessarily include ethics" ^{[9, pp. 181-182]}. Absenteeism by students of educational institutions of labor reserves, as evidenced by clerical and EGO documents, was also due to several factors, for example: 1) dissatisfaction with the "choice" of a future profession ("... students were divided into professions. From that moment, indiscipline began to manifest itself among the students… They say why study when you can have this specialty without wasting time on studying" [GASO, F. R-2033. op. 1, D. 1, L. 11, 12 vol.]); 2) lack of availability of work clothes and shoes ("studies do not shine with good indicators. A lot depends on the shoes. Bad shoes – the guys don't want to go to work, we can't provide for everyone" [GASO, f. R-2033. op. 1, d. 1, l. 11]); 3) unsatisfactory living conditions ("it's cold in the hostel, there is no light, there is nowhere to wash and wash... there is no change of linen There are no funds either. Life is worse than that of primitive people" [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 5, D. 51, L. 87]); 4) physical and psychological characteristics ("[some students] cannot work because they are too weak in physical development... once they went to the mine, looked when the puncher weighs 25 kg, it must be kept at a height of 1.5 meters, but they cannot lift it" [GASO, F. R-2033. op. 1, D. 2, L. 31]); 5) weak supervision and control ("little attention is paid to the school of the Federal Law No. 9 of Uralmash students, ... they are left to themselves" [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 5, d. 201, l. 162]); etc.

Among the controlling influences that determine the conditions and limitations of the implementation of the function, we mention what researchers call the group experience of overcoming life troubles ^{[1, p. 213]} or "the power of example" ^{[10, p. 560]}, i.e. in our case – the collective experience and traditions of a group of students who do not fall under the mechanisms of formal control. Such collective actions of students on absenteeism are mentioned, for example, in a letter from the masters of the Krasnouralsky school of the Federal Law No. 1, sent to the Trud newspaper: "Students systematically do not attend industrial training. As they say, "we are on strike." So gr[upa] m[aste]ra Zakirova did not come out in early February ^[1955] for 7 days and 3 days before that. And the magazines are full. Without losses..." [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 5, d. 383, l. 127].

3.3. Implementation of control and correction functions on the example of the practice of not attending classes

Fig. 2. Functional model of behavioral practice of absenteeism by students (decomposition on the diagram of the first level)

The function of monitoring behavioral practice on the part of the educational institution is aimed at reinforcing positive practices, preventing potential deviations from them, as well as identifying and accounting for violations of discipline and internal regulations committed by students. In the case of attendance at training sessions and industrial practice, the main control mechanism is classroom journals of study groups, in which masters and teachers kept "records of student attendance in lessons and current assessment of academic performance" [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 1, d. 20, l. 20]. The control function was also carried out through an assessment for the student's behavior, introduced in educational institutions of labor reserves precisely "in order to strengthen discipline": a score of "5" was given "for the impeccable behavior of the student and the strictest observance of internal regulations by him" [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 1, d. 86, l. 120].

In an attempt to circumvent the control mechanisms, students sought to justify their isolated cases of discipline violations (tardiness and absenteeism) for valid or objective reasons: lack of necessary clothes and shoes, delay in receiving meals in the cafeteria, illness, etc. For example, in the information information (political report) of the Murmansk regional Department of Labor Reserves in 1949, it was noted that "in all schools, dozens of students feign illness and do not go to industrial training… Feigning illness, some students... require a doctor to examine their health condition. When the examination was carried out and they were found to be perfectly healthy, these students stated that "the doctors do not understand anything" [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 5, d. 237, l. 43].

The function of behavioral practice correction involves actions taken by an educational institution to eliminate detected inconsistencies in student behavior. The records of the labor reserves mention actions related to the correction of absenteeism.

1. Conversations with truants – from individual ones, which were conducted with the violator by other students (elders and agitators) or employees of educational institutions (educator, master of industrial training, teacher, deputy. political directors, etc.), up to the front, with all students to increase their motivation to study. The latter concerned mainly professional orientation – for example, in the above-mentioned report by A. F. Putintsev it was noted: "... it must be said bluntly that some guys can still put up with the shortcomings of one or the other, but [,] if there is no clear perspective on the issue of industrial training, of course[,] this is the last thing. That's why, at the very beginning, it's important to show the guys their growth prospects, show the profile of their specialty, since they are still dealing with the elements today, they don't see the whole specialty as a whole... tell the guys about the riveters who imagined – here's a hole, riveted, that's dolby for a century. When he was shown that he was a participant in world construction – the Palace of Soviets^[1] he had a completely different attitude to the case… First of all, it is necessary to interest children in their specialty, to make them love their specialty. If we have reached such a position, then this will already be half done with regard to consolidation..." [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 1, D. 2, L. 12].

However, such motivational conversations were not always effective – for example, in December 1940, Serovsky RU No. 5 "had to conduct explanatory work and conversation with individual students" who did not attend classes due to dissatisfaction with the profession, however, despite the fact that the conversation was conducted by skilled workers and illustrated with "facts taken from practice", it did not bring a full-fledged result and "the mood among students that they do not want to study in certain professions remains to this day" [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 1, d. 1, l. 11].

2. Involving students in organized educational, educational and recreational activities. In the certificate of the USSR State Planning Committee "On the reasons for the dropout of students from schools of the Federal Educational District, craft and railway schools", it was noted that the vast majority (80%) of students who voluntarily left educational institutions of the labor reserves of the Sverdlovsk region in October 1943 – February 1944, escaped during the first month of study^[2] [GARF, F. R.-9507, op. 5, 93, l. 127]. In our opinion, these data indicate that behavioral practices related to discipline violations (not only escapes, but also absenteeism) manifested themselves mainly at the initial stage of education, were largely the result of the "admission shock" and were primarily associated with insufficient adaptation of students to new realities for them educational institution.

As a mechanism for correcting such informal behavior in educational institutions of labor reserves, institutional leisure practices were actively used, aimed at reaching students with numerous and diverse educational, cultural, entertainment and propaganda activities, active involvement in amateur artistic activities, military physical education and sports, technical creativity, etc. For example, in the order of the GUTR dated 05/04/1944, on the weekly day of rest for students, it was recommended to "conduct collective visits by students to museums, exhibitions, watching films, organize special matinees showing amateur performances by students themselves, hold meetings of students with honored workers of science and art, participants of the Great Patriotic War, heroes of Socialist labor, notable people of the country, Stakhanovites of production, arrange special festivities in parks and gardens with games and entertainment, mass outings of students outside the city, into the forest, on the river, organizing berry picking, mushrooms, fishing, hunting, etc." [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 1, d. 88, l. 71].

3. A friendly court consisting of three "best and disciplined excellent students" at an open meeting could consider cases of unfair attitude to educational and industrial discipline and express public condemnation of the student's misconduct in the form of a friendly warning or censure, including with a message to the parent and the board of the collective farm [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 1, d. 13, l. 21-22 vol.].

4. On the basis of the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 12/28/1940, the directors of educational institutions could, no later than the next day after the establishment of the facts of systematic and gross violations of school discipline, which led to the expulsion of a student from a college (school), transfer materials about these facts to the prosecutor's office for the conclusion of the violator by court verdict in a labor colony for up to one year [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 1, d. 14, l. 1].

However, criminal punishment for gross violation of school discipline on the basis of decree 12/28/1940 was applied only in exceptional cases – the threat of its use acted as a mechanism for correcting behavior. As A. F. Putintsev noted in a report at a meeting of school principals of the Federal District in January 1941: "... now the decree of December 28 ^[1940] makes it possible [with] such incorrigible elements, the spoiled part of the guys to fight with repressive measures. But I must emphasize that this measure is an extreme one, which must be resorted to in exceptional cases when nothing else helps. It is necessary to explain to every student that for violating school discipline or for leaving school without permission, he will be brought to justice... it's not just that he will be sent to court and that's it, but that it is a great disgrace [–] to be brought before a Soviet court. It is necessary to make sure that the entire student body participates in the consideration of this issue and it is necessary to achieve such a situation that these measures, as extreme measures, are not resorted to" [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 1, D. 1, L. 9].

In addition to the above examples of institutional tools for correcting this behavioral practice, informal mechanisms were actively used in educational institutions of labor reserves, which, in many cases, made it possible to quickly solve the problem of non-attendance of classes, but were considered by the management system as gross "anti-pedagogical perversions" of educational work.

5. Depriving a student of meals for being late or skipping classes without a valid reason is repeatedly mentioned in the administrative documents of the state labor reserves of the 1940s and 50s as a negative phenomenon that must be combated. For example, in the memo on the inspection of the Omsk RU No. 1 after the complaint of students (1948), it was noted that "the school established the procedure for issuing food stamps to those who were late in class [only] after explaining the reasons for being late in the academic part and not including the masters of the groups in the application for meals of students [who] did not go to the work[,] until the reasons for absenteeism are clarified," i.e., "leaving students without food has been turned into punishment" [GARF, F. R-9507, op. 5, d. 201, l. 29].

6. Physical assault and beating of violators of discipline by individual employees of educational institutions and students dependent on them. For example, the order on the Sverdlovsk Regional Management of Labor Reserves dated 06/02/1943 cited the fact of systematic "use of physical force against students" at the Verkhne-Salda school of Federal Law No. 5, where "the so-called asset group was created, headed by a student [, an assistant to the master of industrial training] Ivanov, who beat up other students who were guilty of something. The beating of students took place with the knowledge and on the instructions of the headmaster" [GASO, F. R-2033, op. 3, d. 4, l. 54].

4. Conclusion = Conclusions

Behavioral practices are one of the key indicators that make it possible to reconstruct the socio-cultural appearance of students of state labor reserves on a scale of transition from "parade" to "non-parade".

The classification of various behavioral practices of students on several grounds (structure of action, content of activity, frequency of application and attitude to public institutions), as well as the development of a unified functional model allowed us to identify a number of features of behavioral practices of students of state labor reserves.

Firstly, the close connection of many behavioral practices of students with each other, in such a way that they represented an interconnected system. For example, the practice of absenteeism often turned into the practice of escapes and were closely interdependent with institutional leisure practices.

Secondly, the dynamic change of factors acting as conditions (inputs) for the implementation of behavioral practice at various stages of the existence of the system of state labor reserves: (pre-war period / period of the Great Patriotic War / post-war period / first half of the 1950s). So, in relation to the practice of absenteeism (while preserving the diversity of student motives) the leading factors were various: dissatisfaction with the profession and lack of provision for work clothes (in 1940 – early 1941); appalling living and working conditions (1941-1946); insufficient educational work (1950s).

Thirdly, the behavioral practices of students (especially informal ones associated with a "non–paraded" portrait) varied significantly depending on the type of educational institution (which in the 1940s were railway schools, vocational schools and the school of the Federal Law) and on the situation in a particular educational institution.

Thanks:

The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 23-28-01065 "Non-parade portrait" by Danila Kuzmich: the potential for updating the system of State labor reserves in the subculture of students (1940s-1950s)")

Sources and accepted abbreviations

1. GARF — State Archive of the Russian Federation. F. R-9507 (Institutions for the management of vocational education in the USSR)
2. GASO — The State Archive of the Sverdlovsk region. F. R-2033 (Sverdlovsk Regional Department of Vocational Education)
3. CDOOSO — Documentation Center of public organizations of the Sverdlovsk region F. 4. (Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU)

^[1] We are talking about students of the Verkhne-Salda school of the Federal Law No. 5 at the Uralstalmost plant, who participated in the production of metal structures for the construction of the grandiose Palace of Soviets in Moscow (the project was not implemented).

^[2] 6% of the students who escaped did so during the second month of their stay in educational institutions of the Sverdlovsk region, 4% – in the third month, and the remaining 10% – after three months of study