"Revolutionary Bolshevik work": Stakhanovism in retail trade

Russian Review

Volumn 59, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 425-441

  Randall, Amy E ^a,b  

^a DEPAUL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b PRINCETON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040050503     PISSN: 00360341     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/0036-0341.00131     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. See Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv po ekonomike (RGAE), f. 7971, op. 1, d. 245, ll, 147, 205-11
2. and Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF), f. 5452, op. 28, d. 39, ll. 5-8
3. The preeminent book on Stakhanovism in industry is Lewis Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935-1941 (Cambridge, England, 1988)
4. See also Donald Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Stalinist Industrialization: The Formation of Modern Soviet Production Relations, 1928-1941 (Armonk, NY, 1986)
5. and Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization (Berkeley, 1995)
6. For Stakhanovism in agriculture see Mary Buckley, "Krest'yanskaya gazeta and Rural Stakhanovism," Europe-Asia Studies 46, no. 8 (1994): 1387-1407
7. and idem, "Why Be a Shock Worker or a Stakhanovite?" in Women in Russia and Ukraine, ed. Rosalind Marsh (Cambridge, England, 1996), 199-213
8. For more on the campaign for kul'turnost' and its connection to consumption see Vadim Volkov, "The Concept of Kul'turnost': Notes on the Stalinist Civilizing Process," and Julie Hessler, "Cultured Trade: The Stalinist Turn to Consumerism," both in Stalinism: New Directions, ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick (New York, 2000), 210-30, and 182-209, respectively
9. Sheila Fitzpatrick, "Becoming Cultured: Socialist Realism and the Representation of Privilege and Taste," in The Cultural Front (Ithaca, 1992), 216-37
10. and Amy E. Randall, "The Campaign for Soviet Trade: Creating Socialist Retail Trade in the 1930s" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, forthcoming)
11. Julie Hessler briefly mentions Stakhanovism in trade in "Culture of Shortages: A Social History of Soviet Trade, 1917-1953" (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1996), 273-74
12. Leonard Hubbard devotes two sentences to the matter in Soviet Trade and Distribution (London, 1938), 256. He argues, incorrectly, that "the term Stakhanovite, strictly speaking, [was] not applied to shop assistants." Elena A. Osokina does not discuss Stakhanovism in trade in Ierarkhiia potrebleniia: O zhizni liudei v usloviiakh stalinskogo snabzheniia, 1928-1935 gg. (Moscow, 1993), and Za fasadom "Stalinskogo izobiliia": Raspredelenie i rynok v snabzhenii naseleniia v gody industrializatsii, 1927-1941 (Moscow, 1997)
13. Vera Dunham, In Stalin's Time: Middle-Class Values in Soviet Fiction (London, 1976)
14. Nicolas Timasheff, The Great Retreat (New York, 1946)
15. Fitzpatrick, "Becoming Cultured"; Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity, 246
16. On labor unrest see Jeffrey Rossman, "The Teikovo Cotton Workers' Strike of April 1932," Russian Review 56 (January 1997): 46-69
17. David L. Hoffmann, Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941 (Ithaca, 1994), 206
18. and Hiroaki Kuromiya, Stalin's Industrial Revolution: Politics and Workers, 1928-1932 (Cambridge, England, 1988), 235, 304
19. On labor turnover see Moshe Lewin, The Making of the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia (New York, 1985), 220-21
20. Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain, 95-99
21. and Eugene Zaleski, Planning for Economic Growth in the Soviet Union, 1918-1932, trans. Maire-Christine MacAndrew and G. Warren Nutter (Chapel Hill, 1971), 89
22. Osokina coined the phrase "hierarchy of consumption" in Ierarkhiia potrebleniia. The adopted system of rationing was hierarchical; some groups of people and geographical regions received better rations (See Zafasadom, 57-58, 65-70)
23. I. V. Stalin, "Otchetnyi doklad tovarishcha Stalina o rabote TsK VKP (b)," in XVII s''ezd Vsesoiuznoi kommunisticheskoi partii (B): Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1934), 26
24. Stalin, "Otchetnyi doklad," 31
25. While there was some improvement in the general standard of living between 1934 and 1936, scarcity and material deprivation persisted. See R. W. Davies, Mark Harrison, and S. G. Wheatcroft, The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913-1945 (Cambridge, England, 1994), 17, 54, 102-3, 302
26. I. Plotnikov, "Stakhanovskoe dvizhenie i bor'ba za kul'turu torgovogo obsluzhivaniia," in Za stakhanovskoe dvizhenie v sovetskoi torgovle, ed. G. Ia. Neiman (Moscow, 1936), 102
27. V Stushkov, "O sovetskoi torgovli v svete zadachi vtoroi piatiletki," Problemy ekonomiki, 1932, no. 6:69
28. V. M. Molotov, "Plan i nashi zadachi," Pravda, 11 January 1936, 1-3
29. I. Ia. Veitser, "Voprosy sovetskoi torgovli," Bolshevik, 1936, no. 8:13
30. "Bibliografiia," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 9:79
31. Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity, 228
32. See Randall, "Campaign for Soviet Trade," chap. 2
33. For example, "Opasnye spekulanty," Vecherniaia Moskva, 9 August 1929, 3
34. For negative depictions of private traders and cooperative and state trade workers during the NEP years see Alan Ball, Russia's Last Capitalists (Berkeley, 1987), esp. 165-68
35. Sheila Fitzpatrick, "After NEP: The Fate of NEP Entrepreneurs, Small Traders, and Artisans in the 'Socialist Russia' of the 1930s," Russian History/Histoire Russe 13 (Summer-Fall 1986): 187-234
36. and Hessler, "Culture of Shortages," chap. 3
37. See, for example, Ball, Russia's Last Capitalists, 167
38. L. M. Khinchiuk, "Polozhenie i zadachi potrebitel'skoi kooperatsii," Torgovo-promyshlennaia gazeta, 7 January 1926, 4
39. Leo, "Nauchilis' li my torgovat'," Trud, 2 July 1927, 2
40. "Perestroiku raboty kooperatsii - v tsentr perevybornoi kampanii FZMK," Trud, 19 November 1931, 2
41. "Segodnia," Vecherniaia Moskva, 12 January 1933, 2
42. Stalin, "Otchetnyi doklad," 26
43. I. Ia. Veitser, "Stakhanovskie metody - v torgovliu," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1935, no. 12:12
44. Veitser quoted in M. Zernov and I. Dimant, "Stakhanovskie metody v rabote prodmagov," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 2:52
45. Z. Bolotin, "Stakhanovskie metody v sovetskoi torgovle," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 2:8-9
46. Zernov and Dimant, "Stakhanovskie metody," 51
47. N. Strogov, "Izuchenie pokupatel'skogo sprosa v pokazatel'nykh univermagakh," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 9: 56-62
48. Iu. Berkovich, "Rastit' podlinnykh stakhanovtsev torgovli," ibid., no. 10:19
49. Veitser, "Stakhanovskie metody v torgovliu," 4-5
50. Bolotin, "Stakhanovskie metody," 4
51. "Zadachi stakhanovskogo goda v torgovle," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 1:10
52. "Za kul'turnuiu sovetskuiu torgovliu," Pravda Vostoka, 28 January 1936, 4
53. Bolotin, "Stakhanovskie metody," 6
54. T. Ch., "Bibliografiia: 'Nash opyt,'" Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 10:72
55. I. Dimant and M. Zernov, "Ot stakhanovskogo mesiachnika - k povsednevnoi rabote po-stakhanovski," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 4-5:45, 47
56. G. Nikolaev, "Dve Stakhanovki," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 10 August 1937, 2
57. I. Semenychev, "Kak ia rabotaiu," ibid., 30 August 1937, 3
58. N. C-ov, "Stakhanovskoe dvizhenie v torgovle promtovarami," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 2:44
59. Socialist competition campaigns and shock work preceded Stakhanovism in trade. See, for example, Z. Dain, I. S. Golodovskii, "Za vysokuiu kul'tury sovetskoi torgovli," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1934, no. 5:55
60. and "Stakhanovtsy gostorgovli Buriat-Mongolii u Tov. I. Ia. Veitsera," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 29 June 1936, 2
61. K. Grichik and V. Pirkovskii, Organizatsiia i pravila roznichnoi torgovli (Moscow, 1936), 306-7
62. "Mnozhit' riady stakhanovtsev torgovli: Iz vystupleniia sekretaria VTsSPS t. Polonskogo na 2-m plenume TsK soiuza rabotnikov gostorgovli," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 24 January 1936, 3
63. Iu. Berkovich, "Stakhanovskoe dvizhenie v torgovle," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1935, no. 12:24
64. "Zadachi stakhanovskogo goda v torgovle," ibid., 1936, no. 1:11
65. GARF, f. 5452, op. 28, d. 125, l. 190, and d. 168, l. 9; "Za pravo raporta istoricheskomy s''ezdu sovetov - organizuem stakhanovskii mesiachnik v torgovli," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 30 September 1936, 1
66. and "Vstretit' velikuiu godovshchinu proletarskoi revoliutsii dosrochnym vypolneniem plana - Vyzov Stakhanovstev-Galantereishchikov," and "Khronika sorevnovaniia," ibid., 28 July 1937, 1
67. Dimant and Zernov, "Ot stakhanovskogo mesiachnika," 42-47
68. Berkovich, "Rastit' podlinnykh stakhanovtsev torgovli," 18
69. Pashkovskaia, "Budem po-stakhanovski obsluzhivat' pokupatelia," Rabotnitsa i krest'ianka, 1936, no. 17:12. Bakaleia were specialized and model grocery shops. Since women constituted 80 percent of these employees, many Stakhanovites were female
70. Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 179, 205
71. Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, 5th ed. (New York, 1972), 124
72. A. Osipov, "Krugovaiaporuka,"Stakhanovets torgovli, 1936, no. 2:3
73. E. Sadal'skaia, "Direktor Panteleiimov ne liubit kritiki," Rabotnitsa, 1937, no. 11:12
74. For example, Ekel'chik, "Direktor otorvavshiisia ot massy," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 26 March 1937, 2
75. and M. Zernov, "Opyt raboty instruktorov po vnedreniiu stakhanovskikh metodov raboty," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 7-8:81
76. For example, Berkovich, "Rastit' podlinnykh stakhanovtsev torgovli," 23
77. V. V. Egorova, "Kak ia rabotaiu," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1 August 1936, 2
78. Semenychev, "Kak ia rabotaiu," 3
79. and M. P. Smirnov, "Ne prevrashchit' instruktorov-stakhanovtsev v inspektorov," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 4 June 1936, 3
80. For gender-related hostility see Moskovskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv obshchestvennogo dvizheniia (MGAOD), f. 69, op. 1, d. 944, ll. 44, 51
81. Although the number of women workers in trade grew considerably in the 1930s, a corresponding percentage of women did not move into management and leadership positions. The vast majority of trade officials, store managers, assistant store directors, and the heads of retail departments remained men. See Kadry sovetskoi torgovli (Moscow, 1935), 11, 94
82. For example, Moskovskii gosudarstvennnyi arkhiv, f. 2458, op. 1, d. 152, l. 31
83. V. Nodel', "Sorevnovanie chetyrekh stolits," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 11-12:24
84. Gosudartsvennyi arkhiv Saratovskoi oblasti (GASO), f. 2108, op. 1, d. 20, ll. 117a, 118
85. L. Mirkina, "Istoriia odnogo ratsionalizatorskogo predlozheniia," Stakhanovets torgovli, 1936, no. 2:2
86. See, in Sovetskaia torgovlia, "Nashi trebovaniia," 11 April 1936, 3, "Chto nam meshaet stat' stakhanovstami," 24 May 1936, 1, and A. Bukhman, Ia. Posudievskii, "Prazdnye obeshchaniia," 11 April 1936, 3
87. "Desiat' biografii," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 8 March 1937, 3
88. and Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain. See also Sheila Fitzpatrick's discussion of "celebrated ordinary people" in Stalin's Peasants, Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization (Oxford, 1994), 273-74
89. For coverage about Borisova see Berkovich, "Stakhanovskoe dvizhenie v torgovle," 20
90. and "Stakhanovtsy o svoei rabote," Sovetskaia torgovlia, 1936, no. 1:52-54