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| Title | What has become of the Russian Revolution |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Contributor (Local) |
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| Publisher | International Review |
| Place of Creation (TGN) |
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| Date | 1937 |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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| Subject.Topical (Local) |
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| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Extent | 63 pages; 22 cm |
| Original Item Location | HN523.Y8613 1937 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304536~S11 |
| Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | In Copyright: This item is protected by copyright. Copyright to this resource is held by the creator or current rights holder, and the resource is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without permission of the copyright owner. Users assume full responsibility for any infringement of copyright or related rights. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Image 36 |
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| File Name | uhlib_2209396_035.jpg |
| Transcript | The "social securities" are favors that the all-powerful State-employer grants or does not grant. They are alms thrown to the pariahs it exploits. And since the new Moloch is much more exacting than the old, the State-employer wills to have everything utilized "rationally." Even repose, distributed so meagerly among the workers, is transformed, in the name of science, into a system of political education, into exercises for the increase of productivity and preparation for military service. IV Conditions of Work We have considered the lodging, food, and wages of the Russian worker. It remains for us to see what labor is gotten out of him in exchange. The Work Week Up to 1929-1930, the week was seven days long, as elsewhere. You rested on Sundays and revolutionary and religious holidays. At the beginning of the first five-year plan, however, the master minds in charge of Russia thought they had discovered an easy way of overtaking America. The idea was logically irreproachable. It was brilliant. The instruments of production were to be kept in motion during the entire year without interruption. With this purpose, the week became a mobile week five days long. Each day became a holiday for a fifth of the workers. There were no more "Sundays". The street was expected to become uniform, no more or less lively, from one end of the year to another. The life of man was going to resemble the life of ants. It is true that this arrangement created widespread inconvenience. Your day off did not coincide with that of your wife or children. It became impossible for two or three friends to get together. But of what account was that from the angle of the grandiose economic machine that was going to function day and night, the whole year round, realizing greater gain by using its equipment more rapidly? For two or three years the utmost was done to impose the five-day week on the country. The efforts included the imprisonment and shooting of obstinate "saboteurs", an object lesson to those who might dare not to abide by the new calendar. Happily enough experience proved in time that logic and practice do not always go together. A fifth of the country's workers were changed daily, with the result that the shifts produced less, the machines suffered more damage than usual. There was no more time to repair the broken-down machinery. Indeed, more than a 100% reserve of machinery would have been necessary if the five-day week had been permitted to continue. Finally, after much effort and expense, a retreat was made to the fixed week. Toward 1931-1932, a fixed week of six days was established. This is the rule in the cities at the present time. The days of rest for everybody are the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of each month. There are besides five revolutionary holidays every year: the 1st and 2nd of May, the 7th and 8th of November and 22nd of January. Beginning with 1937, the 5th of December has been a holiday, commemorating the accepting of the new constitution. 34 |