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By the time the US stock market crashed in October 1929, the worldwide economy was already slowing down. In the new Soviet Union (only twelve years in existence), the first economic Five-Year Plan was underway. Josef Stalin (1878-1953), who became head of state through shrewd and unscrupulous politicking, had high and nefarious expectations. It was his ambition to industrialize the country in a generation or less. As a result, the Russian people, who had had a long history of making sacrifices for the sake of autocrats, were called on to do so once again. Production and more production was the order of the day. Any and all resistance was punished - whether by imprisonment, exile to Siberia or plain murder - as was the case in Stalin's ruthless campaign to collectivize agriculture. Peasants, who were often led by women, fought to retain their land, but they were no match for state power. Due to forced collectivization, a famine resulted, and millions (estimates range between 4-10 million) of Russians died. For Stalin and his henchmen, the elimination of conscience was a necessary price to establish "socialism in one country."
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Russian workers - now declared Soviet workers by dint of communist ideology - were challenged to transcend their work limits and become "new socialist men" for the sake of creating a modern utopia. Individual rights largely did not exist. Only the state and the making of the state mattered. As such, more than a few laborers answered the call. One of them was a Ukrainian mine worker named Alexei Stakhanov (1906-1977). On the last day of August of 1935, he attempted to beat the coal-extraction record of 6.5 million tons over one shift using a jackhammer. According to his bosses, Stakhanov obliterated the mark by first reaching more than 100 tons and then over 200 tons a couple of weeks later. His achievement was ceaselessly broadcasted by the Soviet government as emblematic of the superiority of socialism, and Stakhanov even found his face on Henry Luce's Time magazine - a then relatively new American periodical devoted to life, liberty and the pursuit of free enterprise. For raising the bar to such high standards, Stakhanov received four weeks of extra pay, relocation to an upgraded apartment, free tickets to the movies and fame. In the party newspaper Pravda ("Truth"), Stakhanov was made into a Soviet industrial hero and used as a propaganda tool to encourage all Soviet citizens to become Stakanhovites - pliant leaders of production in the making of a socialist paradise. More than likely, however, Stakhanov's feat was greatly exaggerated for effect.
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Twenty-First Century Stakhanovites
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Taking pride in one's work is important. Yet, what if your employer does not adequately remunerate you for your efforts? If your boss asks you and your co-workers to increase your hours and production level frequently with little to no extra compensation, what should you do? The current economic climate has shaped the decisions of most workers on this question.
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In a book just published (April 2012), Nobel Prize-winning economist and Princeton University professor Paul Krugman (b. 1953) makes quite a statement in the title alone - End This Depression Now!. The exclamation point is right on target. For the last five years, most Western economies have contracted and stalled. Few jobs are being produced, and the ones available are either high-paying positions for highly-skilled workers (i.e. engineers) or low-paying jobs at or near minimum wage for unskilled labor. Prior to the 1980s, a college degree usually ensured entrance into a company or organization that would provide both training and a decent salary. Not anymore. Those days are over, and tens of millions of college graduates in the West now compete for jobs with workers without a college education.
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At the same time, many companies continue to cut personnel and expect remaining employees to take on the additional workload at their current salary. As there are no other jobs, workers feel trapped. In their minds, they believe they cannot quit or say anything. Hence, they just passively accept their circumstances out of fear. This is the Stakhanovite of the 21st century - a worker that pledges to do all for the company just to save his or her job. More work and more stress with fewer and fewer rewards have now become a way of life. Consequently, it seems nearly everyone is now living for the weekend - as the workplace has become an albatross.
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Is this rational? Of course not.
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Rather than blaming employers or employees, perhaps it is time for a new approach to work and industry. Laissez-faire capitalism and bureaucratic-heavy socialism have both been tried before, and both proved to be miserable failures. The real question is: why is there no discussion on reconciling the needs of capital and labor in our twenty-first century "The World Is Flat" economy? Where are the big ideas? Where is the debate? Campaign slogans promising an economic turnaround will not do. The world needs new ideas quickly. Look at Europe. An entire generation of young people from Lisbon to Bucharest are watching their dreams break day-by-day as gainful employment largely does not exist. This tragedy ought to promote the rise of intellectual Stakhanovites - a group of intellectuals who are willing and able to go above and beyond the call of duty to offer a fresh economic blueprint that takes the interests of everyone into account - especially the people that do the work.
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Moreover, workers cannot simple go on bearing increasingly intolerable conditions. People must stand up politely but firmly and demand reasonable work hours and fair compensation. Silence only guarantees further misery for everyone.
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There is no one magical solution, but solutions are possible. Yet, they can only be reached if an honest dialogue begins.
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(Image: A rendering of Alexei Stakhanov)
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Key Source
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Richard Overy, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia (New York: WW Norton, 2004)
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J Roquen