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A Study on the Stakhanovite Movement and the Soviet Central Railway Union in 1935~1936
Journal of Humanities
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The article is aimed at examining a difference between the Central railway union and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (VTsSPS) of the Soviet Union in relation to the Stakhanovite movement. The Central railway union became involved in the development of the Stakhanovite movement earlier and more actively. The political status of L. M. Kaganovich as head of the People’s Commissariat of Ways of Communications (NKPS) and the closest henchman of Stalin, and the early achievement of Krivonos in July 1935 exercised a strong influence on its early development. Kaganovich, using his political power, placed the commissariat as well as the related unions under his direct control. In addition, a structural change which had been pursued by the Stalinist leadership from 1931 made a contribution to this subordination. In both 1931 and 1934, the party Central Committee made decisions to subdivide the unions. Apparently these changes aimed to raise the work efficiency of the individual unions by closely attaching them to the related commissariats. But the real effect was the reduction of the central power of VTsSPS over individual unions. By weakening the link between VTsSPS and the individual unions, the party intended to place the individual unions more directly under its own control. On the other hand, the status of railway transport in the economy played a large part in its achievement during 1935 and 1936. In 1935 the Soviet government made huge investments in railway transport and this led to a record performance from the second quarter of 1935 before the beginning of the Stakhanovite movement. The enlarged financial resources and the appointment of Kaganovich as Narkom of NKPS allowed railway transport to perform favorably and the Stakhanov-Krivonosite movement to become more evident.
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