About terrible workdays and "sticks". Workdays: what was the most useless "currency" in the USSR What are workdays on collective farms

To strengthen labor discipline, the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated May 27, 1939 "On measures to protect public lands of collective farms from squandering", along with other instructions, established a mandatory minimum of workdays for able-bodied collective farmers - 100, 80 and 60 workdays per year (depending on the edges and regions). Workers who did not work out (without good reason) during the year a minimum of workdays were to be expelled from the collective farm, deprived of household plots and benefits established for collective farmers. As a result, in 1939, compared with 1936, the average output per collective farm household increased from 393 to 488 workdays. During the war, the mandatory annual minimum of worked out workdays was raised. Depending on the natural and climatic conditions for various regions and regions (by groups), it began to be calculated at 150, 120 and 100 workdays. It was envisaged that adolescents, members of the families of collective farmers, aged 12 to 16, were to work at least 50 workdays a year. This contributed to the labor education of adolescents, allowed them to combine work with school and reduced the possibility of them committing crimes. In addition, additional payments were introduced for increasing crop yields and livestock productivity. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 15, 1942, it was provided that persons guilty of failing to work out the mandatory minimum of workdays were punished with corrective labor work on a collective farm for up to 6 months with a deduction from payment of up to 25 percent of workdays. Moreover, this deduction was made not in favor of the state, but in favor of the collective farm. This decision contributed to the collective farm's interest in not hiding this crime. Within the meaning of the decree, only able-bodied persons could bear criminal liability for failure to meet the mandatory minimum of workdays. By order of the People's Commissar of Justice of the USSR dated July 4, 1942, the courts were forbidden to consider cases of criminal liability for failure to comply with the mandatory minimum workdays, if it was about collective farmers over 60 years old, collective farmers over 55 years old and teenagers under 16 years old. Consequently, adolescents from 12 to 16 years old, members of the families of collective farmers, although they had to work out at least 50 workdays a year, they did not bear criminal liability for failure to fulfill such a minimum. It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that in the face of the threat of loss of power, our managers, and not only them, work much more efficiently. By the way, the heroism of soldiers during the Great Patriotic War was not formed on bare enthusiasm. In the active army there was a differentiated and very understandable payment for destroyed enemy equipment: “A downed German fighter, for example, was estimated at 1000 rubles, a reconnaissance aircraft - at 1500, a bomber - at 2000. Attack aircraft pilots were paid 3000 for 50 sorties, a destroyed steam locomotive "cost" 900 rubles, a car - 600. The "prices" for German tanks were similar. For example, the calculation of an anti-tank rifle with one well-aimed shot could earn 750 rubles: 500 for the gunner, 250 for the second number. An infantryman who knocked out a tank with a grenade or a Molotov cocktail received 1,000 rubles. At first, as you know, they paid for orders, but later, when the danger to the authorities had passed, "at the request of the working people" this payment was canceled.

And then Khrushchev came ...

If there was people's capitalism...

As a teenager, I often saw how, after work, my father took out a thick notebook from the table every evening and wrote down in it what work he did that day. He carried straw, mowed grass, made windows for the pig farm, prepared firewood in the collective farm forest, and so on. Then, on a weekly basis, he took a work book, which was issued to each collective farmer, and went to the foreman so that he wrote down in it the number of exits made and workdays worked out.

At the same time, it was necessary to meet the established minimum, otherwise there could be trouble later. I don’t know how much it was then, but in my concept, a workday was associated with the expression workday. That is, he worked on the collective farm for a day, despite what and where he did, you can safely write down the workday at your own expense, and they will put a wand in the report card. And only later, when the number of exits did not coincide with the number of workdays, it became clear that something was wrong here. It turns out that this was a form of accounting not only for the quantity, but also for the quality of labor. So, during the working day, a tractor driver could work out four or more workdays, and a full-time watchman could receive only half a workday. The production rates and rates of work in them were approved at general meetings of collective farmers.

In the fifties of the last century, in one of the Lida agricultural artels, a quarter of a hectare had to be mowed in one workday; rake hay - 0.75 hectares; put in layers and shocks of it - 0.9 hectares. One could earn a workday by stacking hay on a cart. To do this, it was necessary to lay 12 carts. Laying hay from a cart into a stack was considered easier work - 14 carts had to be laid in a workday.

Then at the end of the year, after the fulfillment of obligations to the state, that is, a kind of state order, all the income received was placed at the disposal of the economy. It turned out that they earned what they got, but mostly grain, straw, potatoes, and other agricultural products in accordance with the number of workdays worked out.

This form of payment was used for more than 30 years, until 1966. During this time, it has changed and improved more than once, taking into account the situation in the country and the industry. But its essence remained practically unchanged. Thus, with the introduction of workdays in 1930, it was supposed to eliminate the equalization in the distribution of income. But already in the first years of using such wages, distortions appeared due to a mismatch in rates for various categories of collective farmers, which contributed to the crisis of the collective farm system in 1931-1932 and the famine in 1933.

During the Great Patriotic War, collective farmers also worked on the territory not occupied by the Nazis for workdays, receiving for each basically up to three kilograms of grain.

At the final stage of this form of remuneration, that is, the last 6-7 years, they began to introduce a guaranteed minimum with cash wages, and part of it was issued as a monthly advance, and at the end of the year a final payment was made. I remember very well when my parents after the New Year received two or four sacks of grain, brought the so-called thirteenth salary, and sometimes even the fourteenth - for flax or sugar beets. But it was also such that sometimes the thirteenth amounted to pennies. So the cost of a workday in each household was not the same. The best collective farm in the republic after the Great Patriotic War, Rassvet, in the Buda-Koshelevsky district of the Bobruisk region, headed by the famous Kirill Orlovsky, in 1950 received 294,398 rubles (20.1 percent) from field crops, and 195,584 rubles (13.3 percent) from vegetable growing. ), from gardening - 124,087 rubles (8.5 percent), from animal husbandry - 803,794 rubles (55.2 percent), from auxiliary industries - 11,352 rubles (0.8 percent) and other cash income in the amount of 22,132 rubles (2.1 percent). percent). If in 1948 "Rassvet" collected 8.2 centners of grain per hectare, then in the next - 11.3 centners. The yield of potatoes increased by a third, which was harvested at 174 centners, and in brigade number two - 220.

As a result, the collective farmers received for each workday in 1951 2 kilograms of grain, 14 kilograms of potatoes, 1.2 kilograms of vegetables, 3 kilograms of roughage for keeping their own animals, and 7 rubles in cash. The average output per able-bodied member of the agricultural artel was 278 workdays. There were no those in the household who would not have fulfilled the established minimum.

By decision of the general meeting of collective farmers, the board could establish one of the three recommended methods for calculating workdays and distributing wages. The first is that collective farmers were credited with workdays in proportion to the fulfilled plan for productivity established for each brigade. The second differed from the first in that workdays were calculated on the basis of the average yield plan for the collective farm, and not from the one established for the brigade. And the third - they could be charged for each centner of the actually harvested crop.

Shortly after serving in the army, he worked on a combine for some time on the farm, - recalls Alexander Grinkevich, a resident of the village of Voronino in the Kletsk district. - They threshed grain - sheaves stacked in stacks. They worked late for several days. As it turned out later, my daily work was estimated at 1.75 workdays. But the final payment for it was received somewhere in April-May of the following year.

As for the chairmen of collective farms, until 1948 their salary was determined depending on the size of the sown area and their cash income. Then it was tied to the number of animals on farms. During the year, the amount of the additional payment to the head of the household was determined based on the income for the previous year. At the same time, he was paid only 70 percent of the additional payment, and the final payment was made at the end of the year - after the approval of the annual report by the general meeting of collective farmers and the district executive committee. But for the chairmen, both incentive measures were used, as well as writing off workdays for failure to fulfill plans for the production of products or the development of public animal husbandry. At the end of the year, it was possible to miss one percent of workdays for each percent of underfulfillment of the plan, but not more than a quarter of the workdays accrued for the year on basic pay. A similar scheme was in place for foremen of field-growing brigades and farms.

At that time, many also called workdays chopsticks. The welfare of the collective farmer depended on their number in the foreman's journal. In most farms, grain, flour, and other agricultural products were the measure of these sticks.

The abolition of workdays in 1966 and the introduction of guaranteed wages for the material interest of the peasants, - recalls Vyacheslav Adakhovsky, a resident of the village of Gervyaty, Ostrovets district, - could only be compared with a revolution in agriculture. Collective farmers began to receive money regularly.

In our village, for example, they were constantly brought by the collective farm cashier to the red corner of the pig farm.

Anatoly TSYBULKO, "SG"

They worked for workdays. I think you have heard more than once that in Soviet collective farms people were not paid wages, but instead they put sticks in account books, which later may be will be exchanged for food or other products of the collective farm. Fans of the USSR like to say that this is all a lie, that all this did not exist at all, and if it did, it was only for the good, and in general the great know better.

In fact, the system of workdays was the actual legalization of slave labor in the USSR, and its direct consequence was the abolition of passports from collective farmers (because they ran away to the city, and somehow it was necessary to keep them in the countryside) - which, of course, brought the Soviet system to real serfdom.

What started it all.

In 1917, an event took place in the Russian Empire, during which the Bolsheviks, great demagogues and populists, came to power under the leadership. At first, they adopted several seemingly reasonable laws ("decree on land", "decree on peace"), later the NEP was announced at all - but in parallel it began to turn out that free and hard-working people did not care about the Bolsheviks, in general, and in free and fair elections, the Bolshevik demagogues will never win.

Around the same years, it began to become clear that the "people's Soviet power" was in fact not at all popular and even in some sense not "Soviet" - no one consulted with anyone, at the factories the trade unions were no longer engaged in protecting the rights of workers (and they only informed them of "decisions of the party and government"), and in the countryside the Bolsheviks collapsed in all respects - wealthy and hard-working peasants rolled the Bolsheviks in local elections, exposing their demagogy to ridicule and voting for sensible managers.

As a result, the Bolsheviks began to spin the flywheel of repression against all those who disagreed; by and large, they did not know how to do anything else. All other parties were declared "enemies" and destroyed, rich and independent peasants were declared "kulaks" and began to be expelled, and those workers who wanted real "Soviet" management in the factories were quickly taken to the OGPU and accused of "counter-revolution".

In the USSR, this was never written about - but by 1930, a dictatorship and lack of freedom were actually established in the country ten times more powerful than the tsarist one. If in the period 1905-1917 workers could gather, create strike committees, even publish their own newspapers and protest in some other way, now any protests were extinguished in the bud, the "instigators" were expelled or shot, and real serfdom returned to the collective farms.

Workdays and Soviet serfdom.

The system of "workdays" was introduced in 1930, during the period of early Stalinism, and worked right up to 1966 - affecting the rule of three general secretaries and several generations of peasants. This system consisted in the fact that collective farmers stopped paying salaries, instead charging so-called "workdays", the system was extremely cruel and somewhat reminiscent of the accounting system in concentration camps. A person worked hard physical work on a collective farm, and instead of being paid for his work, he received a "stick" in the collective farm accounting book. Later, these "sticks" could be exchanged for food, or they could not be, part of the "workdays" could be deleted for some minor offenses, and so on - for example, for "failure to comply with standards" (extremely high), a whole quarter of workdays.

What was the monetary equivalent of "workday"? In the 1930s, in poor collective farms, one workday was estimated at 30 kopecks - for this amount, as a result of work, a collective farmer could be given, for example, bread, grain or wool. As a result, all this led to mass starvation and incredible poverty among the peasants. Moreover, if under the tsar people could still somehow survive, having income from their own allotment, then in the USSR exorbitant taxes were introduced on household plots - which ruined the peasants even more.

Of course, all this only led to the fact that the peasants fled en masse to the cities - they fled from this slavery, hunger and hopelessness. The Bolsheviks decided that it would not go on like this, and from 1932 effectively legalized slavery- peasants were no longer issued passports, and they were deprived of exactly the same rights that they were deprived of under serfdom - they could not move freely, choose their type of activity, and so on.

The analogue of the "master" in the new Soviet serfdom was the chairman of the collective farm - now he issued permission for the peasant to leave his village somewhere, permission to study in one or another educational institution - in general, they completely controlled the fate of the peasants and their children. Young people tried with all their might to escape from collective farm slavery (for example, few people returned to their native collective farm from the army), but not everyone succeeded.

What is even more interesting is that due to the general poverty, the collective farms did not actually pay pensions to the elderly. Formally, it was - but often it was only 2 rubles a month.

How did it all end?

And it all ended a little predictably: first, in 1959, they introduced a "guaranteed minimum wage" - so that the people on the collective farms did not die of hunger at all (as often happened in the late 1940s), then in May 1966 it was decided to still cancel workdays by introducing a guaranteed right to wages. In the same year, collective farmers began to receive passports - after almost 50 years of "the power of workers and peasants," the communists finally recognized the right of peasants to be called people.

During the years of Perestroika, many Soviet publications began to write the truth that workdays were just sticks in office books and were identified with unpaid, slave labor, this system began to be called a "mistake". As a result of this "mistake" several generations of peasants lived in virtual slavery, lack of rights and often died of starvation...

However, in some places, workdays have been preserved even now - in the unrecognized "LPR" in eastern Ukraine, work in agriculture is recorded in the very workdays that subsequently may be will be exchanged for food parcels. So this is a very good place for all fans - you can move there and enjoy "the very greatness". And there is probably very tasty ice cream.

So it goes.

Write in the comments what you think about all this, it's interesting.

1. Collective farms distinguish between basic and additional wages. The measure of the basic wage is the workday. Additional payment is issued for overfulfillment of the plan for the yield and productivity of animal husbandry in excess of income for workdays.

All types of collective farm labor, depending on their difficulty and complexity, are assessed according to a nine-digit grid. The first category includes the lightest and least skilled work - they are estimated at half a day's work; according to the ninth category, the most difficult and highly skilled work is evaluated - 2.5 workdays are set for them.

The value of a workday is determined after the collective farm fulfills its obligations to the state, forms public funds, and allocates products due in the form of additional wages for increased crop yields and increased livestock productivity. The output and cash income remaining after that and subject to distribution among the collective farmers determine the natural and monetary value of one workday, depending on the workdays expended by the collective farm. Thus, the value of a workday is a variable value: it is determined by the profitability of a given collective farm in a given agricultural year.

The workday is the best form of combining the personal interests of the collective farmer with the interests of developing the social economy of the collective farm.

The workday is not a measure of the working time spent by an individual collective farmer during the working day. The workday is a measure of the quantity and quality of labor invested by each member of the collective farm in the social production of the collective farm. A collective farmer who performs skilled work during the working day (for example, a tractor driver) can work out four or more workdays per day, while an unskilled worker (for example, a watchman) can receive only half a workday for a full day.

The workday determines the collective farmer's right to collective farm income: the more and better the collective farmer works, the more workdays he gets. The workday, being a measure of labor on the collective farm, at the same time serves as a measure of wages.

The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948 approved the approximate norms for output on collective farms and the rates for work in workdays. The resolution obligated the councils of ministers of the union and autonomous republics, regional executive committees and regional executive committees to organize, on the basis of approximate production rates and uniform rates of agricultural work in workdays, a revision of the output norms and rates of work in workdays, taking into account the characteristics of individual collective farms and ensuring higher wages for the most important jobs and reducing wages. for secondary jobs.

The production rates and rates of work in workdays are approved at general meetings of collective farmers.

For those types of work for which there are no approved approximate output standards, regional executive committees are allowed to develop additional approximate output standards.

The district departments of agriculture and the MTS are obliged to assist the collective farms in developing output standards and mastering them in production.

2. The planning of labor and the proper organization of its accounting is one of the necessary conditions for the correct organization of collective farm production.

The standard form of the production plan of the collective farm establishes the procedure for planning labor and the expenditure of workdays. The production plan of the collective farm should provide how many workdays are supposed to be spent on each crop in each branch of the collective farm, and also how many workdays will be spent on paying administrative and service personnel.

The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948 recommended that the boards of collective farms “simultaneously with the preparation of the annual production plan and income and expenditure estimates, draw up a plan for the expenditure of workdays by sectors of the economy, for each crop or group of homogeneous crops - for each brigade, for types of livestock - for for each livestock farm, for each auxiliary enterprise, for the construction of each facility, as well as for on-farm work and wages for administrative and maintenance personnel.

When drawing up plans for the expenditure of workdays, the collective farm management is obliged to take into account the level of mechanization of work for individual teams, the difference and weediness of soils, and the varietal characteristics of the crops sown. Brigadiers and advanced collective farmers should be involved in drawing up plans for the expenditure of workdays on collective farms.

3. All agricultural work on collective farms is carried out on a piecework basis. Time wages are allowed only in relation to the administrative and service personnel of collective farms (chairman, accountant, cleaner, watchman, etc.).

Individual piecework and small group piecework differ.

Under individual piecework, workdays are credited to each collective farmer for the work he personally does. In small-group piece work, workdays are credited to a group of collective farmers engaged in the same work, with subsequent distribution of workdays among the individual collective farmers of this group.

In some jobs, the use of individual piece work is not caused by the conditions of production and leads to the dispersion of forces and means. So, for example, to demand the use of individual piece work in threshing bread would mean abandoning work on a complex threshing machine and switching to threshing in a primitive way - with flails.

4. Accounting for the workdays worked out by each member of the collective farm is kept by the foreman (Article 15 of the Exemplary Charter).

Each member of the collective farm is issued a work book of the established form. At least once a week, the collective farmer is obliged to present his work book to the foreman for recording in it the work performed and the number of workdays worked out.

The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948, suggested that the boards of collective farms strictly observe the procedure for daily accounting by foremen of the work performed by each collective farmer, establish control over the timely entry in the collective farmer's work book of the number of workdays worked out by him.

At the end of each month, the collective farm board is obliged to post in a conspicuous place a list of members of the collective farm indicating the workdays worked by them during the month. At the end of the year, no later than two weeks before the general meeting convened to discuss the results of work and the distribution of income, the annual result of the work of each collective farmer is posted, certified by the foreman, accountant and chairman of the artel.

Accounting for workdays and harvest for each brigade in the areas assigned to them should be carried out separately.

5. Workdays, as a rule, are credited only to members of the collective farm and only for their work in the social economy of the collective farm. The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of September 19, 1946 strongly condemned the practice of calculating workdays for work not related to collective farm production.

The charter does not provide for the accrual of workdays to members of the artel released from work on the collective farm due to illness or for other reasons (vacation work, studying at courses, etc.).
There are some exceptions to this rule. Thus, workdays are credited to collective-farm letter carriers and mail carriers; during the period of distraction of collective farmers for military training camps, they are credited with half the average number of workdays, which is credited during the same time to other collective farmers of the same specialty and qualifications; it is recommended to accrue 15-20 workdays per month to students of two-year state schools for the training of collective farm managers who have dependent family members who are unable to work; for the chairmen of collective farms, seconded to six-month courses for retraining of chairmen, workdays for their position are saved in full. As already noted above, the Rules of the agricultural artel provide that pregnant collective farmers are released from work a month before giving birth and a month after giving birth, while maintaining their maintenance for these two months in half the amount of their average workday output.

6. Along with the basic wages in workdays, since 1941 additional wages have been introduced on collective farms for overfulfillment of the plan for crop yields and livestock productivity.

For the first time, additional wages were introduced by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of December 31, 1940 in the collective farms of the Ukrainian SSR. Subsequently, this wage system was extended to all other republics, territories and regions.

In order to increase crop yields and raise the productivity of animal husbandry, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks recommended that collective farms issue brigades to collective farmers in addition, in excess of the established payment for workdays, in kind, or pay in cash part of the products they received in excess of the plan. For individual republics, territories and regions, various amounts of additional payment for overfulfillment of the plan have been established. So, for example, in the Ukrainian SSR, collective farmers of a brigade that has exceeded the grain yield plan are given 25% of the grain harvested by the brigade in excess of the planned harvest; for sunflowers, a third of the seeds collected in excess of the plan are issued; for sugar beet and cotton, collective farmers in the Ukrainian SSR receive additional payment in cash at the rate of 50% of the average cost of one centner of beet and cotton handed over to the state in excess of the plan, etc.

The additional payment due to collective farmers for exceeding the planned yields is distributed among the members of the brigade in proportion to the workdays worked out by each of them in the work that resulted in the above-planned output.

Additional wages are issued only to those collective farmers who produce the established annual minimum workdays. Tractor drivers receive additional wages on a par with the collective farmers of the field-growing brigades on whose plots they worked. The foreman of the tractor brigade is given 50%, and his assistant 30% more than the average additional payment for one tractor driver of the brigade. The accountant-refueler of the tractor brigade receives an additional payment in the amount of the average additional payment per one tractor driver of the brigade.

Collective farmers engaged in animal husbandry receive additional payment for exceeding the planned targets for milk yield, keeping young animals, fattening livestock, shearing wool, etc. For example, milkmaids in the Chkalovsky region for exceeding the plan for milk yield when the plan for a fixed group of cows is up to 1500 liters a forage cow is given 15% of the milk milked above the plan, with a milking plan of 1500 to 2000 liters, 20% of the milk milked above the plan is given, etc.

The norms of additional wages for collective farmers for overfulfillment of assignments for rearing young stock, preserving mature livestock, and raising the productivity of animal husbandry are different in different republics, territories, and regions. The issuance of additional payment is made only after the collective farm fulfills the plan for increasing the number of livestock on the farm and in the brigade.
The Council of Ministers of the USSR, in its resolution of April 19, 1948, suggested that the regional executive committees establish strict control over the timely issuance of additional payments due to collective farmers.

By a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated June 10, 1950, party and Soviet bodies were asked to ensure the correct organization and accounting of labor in harvesting, to establish strict control over the timely and correct calculation of workdays for collective farmers in accordance with the volume and quality of work performed, to organize separate accounting of the harvest by production teams, and by crops assigned to units - by units, in order to ensure the issuance of additional wages to collective farmers and tractor drivers of the MTS for increasing the yield of agricultural crops.

7. As the practice of collective farm construction has shown, the accrual of workdays to collective farmers for the work performed without taking into account the results of work created some elements of equalization in wages and put those who worked well at a disadvantage, did not stimulate the struggle to increase labor productivity on collective farms. Therefore, the development of legislation on wages in collective farms went in the direction of increasing the material interest of collective farmers in raising labor productivity. This was expressed, on the one hand, in the introduction of the above-mentioned additional wages for overfulfillment of the plan for crop yields and livestock productivity, and on the other hand, in additional accrual of workdays for high yields and writing off workdays for low yields.

The February Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1947) recognized the need to eliminate shortcomings in the wages of collective farmers, which hindered a further rise in labor productivity. The plenum recognized the need to work out more correct methods of remuneration and encouragement of well-working collective farmers.

In accordance with the instructions of the Plenum, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted on April 19, 1948 a resolution "On measures to improve the organization, increase productivity and streamline wages in collective farms." This resolution established new provisions on the procedure for calculating workdays, taking into account the results of the work of individual teams.

By decision of the general meeting of collective farmers, the board may establish one of the three methods recommended by the Government for calculating and distributing workdays.

The first way of calculating workdays is that the collective farmers are credited with workdays in proportion to the fulfillment of the yield plan established for each brigade.

The second method differs from the first in that the accrual of workdays is based on the average yield plan for the collective farm, and not on the basis of the plan established by the brigade.

And, finally, the third way is that the accrual of workdays is allowed to be made for each centner of the crop actually harvested by the collective farmers.

The accrual and distribution of workdays by brigades, depending on the fulfillment of the harvesting plans established by them (the first method), is carried out as follows:

a) a brigade that has overfulfilled its harvest plan is charged an additional 1% of workdays for each percentage of overfulfillment of the harvest plan, based on the number of workdays spent by the brigade on a given crop or group of homogeneous crops;

b) a brigade that has not fulfilled its harvesting plan for fixed crops is deducted for each percentage of underfulfillment of the plan by 1%, but not more than 25% of the workdays of the number of workdays spent by it on a given crop or group of homogeneous crops;

c) the brigade that has fulfilled the harvesting plan established by it is credited with the entire number of workdays spent on this crop or group of homogeneous crops.

The second way of calculating workdays consists, as has already been pointed out, in the distribution of workdays among brigades depending on the average percentage of the harvesting plan for the collective farm.

With this method, the brigade receives additional accrual or write-off of workdays by as many percent as the percentage of the fulfillment of the plan for harvesting a given crop (or a group of homogeneous crops) for the brigade is more (less) than the percentage of fulfillment of the plan for harvesting this crop on average for the collective farm.

The number of workdays to be written off from the collective farmers of the brigade, with this method, should also not exceed 25% of the workdays worked out by them on fixed crops. From the brigade that has fulfilled or exceeded the plan of productivity set for it, although in a smaller percentage than the average for the collective farm, no write-off of workdays is made, and the entire number of accrued and accepted for payment of workdays is left to it after checking the fulfillment of the plan for the expenditure of workdays.

The third way of calculating workdays is as follows: by decision of the general meeting, the calculation of workdays for collective farmers of brigades and units for vegetable and row crops is allowed to be made for each centner of the harvested crop at rates in workdays. Prices for a centner of the crop are set based on the harvesting plan approved for the brigade or unit, the accepted production rates and work rates, as well as the cost of workdays required to grow the planned crop. If necessary, these rates at the end of the year are subject to clarification based on the actual work performed.

In order to apply this third method of calculating workdays, the collective farm board at the beginning of the year draws up rates in workdays per centner of the harvest of each crop. Prices for a centner of crops are set as follows: the sum of the planned costs of workdays per hectare is divided by the planned yield per hectare. In the crops for which the indicated rates are established, the workdays of the collective farmers during the year are calculated in the usual manner according to the norms of output and rates. At the end of the harvest at the end of the year, the workdays are recalculated according to the approved prices per centner of the crop. In those cases when the collective farmers of a brigade or link for a given crop are accrued less workdays during the year than are due for the harvested crop at prices per centner, they are additionally credited with workdays. If, however, the collective farmers of a brigade or unit received more workdays for a given crop during the year than are due at the rates per centner of the crop, they are written off.

The decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948 stipulates that additional accrual or write-off of workdays to collective farmers for the harvest is carried out in proportion to the total number of workdays worked out by each collective farmer on a given crop or group of homogeneous crops.

Collective farmers who, without good reason, have not worked out the mandatory minimum workdays during the year, are not subject to additional calculation of workdays for overfulfillment of the harvest plan, and workdays are not written off from disabled collective farmers and adolescents under 16 years of age.

By the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated June 10, 1950 “On Harvesting and Procurement of Agricultural Products”, in order to encourage collective farmers for exceeding the plans for harvesting hay and laying silage, collective farms are recommended for the work performed by collective farmers in harvesting hay and ensiling fodder in excess of the established norms of production to accrue workdays at a double rate.

Collective farmers working on livestock farms are credited with workdays depending on the quantity and quality of the products obtained - meat, milk, etc., and also depending on the preservation of young animals.

8. The boards and audit commissions of collective farms are obliged to exercise control over the correct expenditure of workdays on brigades and farms and at least once a quarter, and also at the end of the year, before distributing income, to compare the number of accrued workdays with the number of workdays provided for by the plan for the amount of work performed and for pay for administrative staff. When checking the accrual of workdays, the board and the audit commission must identify persons. responsible for both overspending workdays and failure to carry out the measures provided for by the plan to ensure the quality of the work performed, and report the results to the general meeting of collective farmers.

In the event that foremen and farm managers discover incorrect calculation of workdays as a result of an unauthorized reduction in production rates, overpricing, incorrect measurements and inaccurate accounting of work performed, as well as the calculation of workdays for work performed of poor quality and subject to alteration, collective farm boards are recommended to write off incorrectly calculated workdays from those collective farmers to whom they were illegally accrued, and, in addition, write off, by decision of the collective farm board, up to five workdays from the foreman or farm manager who incorrectly calculated workdays.

The chairman of the collective farm has the right to authorize the performance of work not provided for by the plan for the expenditure of workdays, if these works will contribute to the increase or preservation of the harvest and the development of animal husbandry. The number of workdays spent on the performance of such additional work is subject to subsequent approval by the general meeting of collective farmers.

9. The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948 established a new procedure for remuneration for the work of chairmen of collective farms. Until 1948, this payment was determined depending on the size of the sown areas of the collective farms and their cash income. The state of animal husbandry on the collective farm was not taken into account.

According to the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948, the workdays of the chairman of the collective farm should be accrued in direct proportion not only to the size of the sown area, but also to the availability of livestock on collective farms. If the collective farm fails to meet the new minimum number of productive livestock and poultry established by the state, the payment for the work of the chairman is reduced by 10% of the number of workdays accrued for each type of livestock and poultry.

In addition to workdays, the chairman of a collective farm is given a monthly cash bonus from the funds of the collective farm, the amount of which is determined depending on the amount of the annual cash income of the collective farm. For example, if the amount of the annual income of the collective farm is from 50 to 100 thousand rubles. the chairman is issued monthly in excess of payment for workdays 125 rubles.

Until the final amount of the annual monetary income is clarified, the amount of the additional payment to the chairman is established based on the income for the previous year, while he is paid only 70% of the established additional payment, and the final calculation is made at the end of the year - after the approval of the annual report by the general meeting of collective farmers and consideration of the annual report by the district executive committee. For overfulfillment by the collective farm of the plan for harvesting and productivity of animal husbandry, the chairman of the collective farm is charged an additional 10 to 25% of workdays, and in monetary terms, an additional payment of 15 to 40% is issued. This additional payment is issued subject to the fulfillment of the sowing plan for all crops.

If the average harvesting plan for all grain crops or the plan for the development of social animal husbandry is not fulfilled, one percent of workdays is deducted from the chairman of the collective farm for each percent of the shortfall in the plan, but not more than 25% of the workdays accrued to him for the year on basic pay.

Collective farm chairmen are charged percentage bonuses for the length of service, namely: when working on a collective farm for the third year - 5%, for the fourth and fifth years - 10%, and for working more than five years - 15% of the number of monthly accrual of workdays.

10. Attaching great importance to the selection of leading personnel for enlarged collective farms, it is recommended that persons with higher or secondary agricultural education, as well as practitioners who know agriculture and have extensive experience in managerial and organizational work, be elected chairmen of enlarged collective farms. Specialists and other persons elected as chairmen of collective farms must become members of the artel.

The remuneration of the work of the chairman of the collective farm is made up of the actual cost of the workday and the monetary supplement to the chairman of the collective farm in accordance with the existing situation.
In the event that the collective farm fails to fulfill the production plan for both field crops and animal husbandry, obligations to the state for the delivery of agricultural products, filling seed and fodder funds, as well as the plan for issuing food and money to collective farmers for workdays and income and expenditure estimates, payment to the chairman of the collective farm, at the discretion of the general meeting of collective farmers, may be reduced, but not more than 10 percent.

In large collective farms, by decision of the general meeting of collective farmers, it is recommended to introduce the position of a released deputy chairman of the collective farm. By decision of the general meeting of collective farmers, the remuneration of the released deputy chairman of the collective farm is set at 80-90 percent of the payment accrued to the chairman in accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948.

The deputy chairman of the collective farm, as well as the chairman of the collective farm, are credited with additional workdays for overfulfillment of the collective farm plan for harvesting agricultural crops and livestock productivity, or workdays are written off for failure to fulfill the plan for harvesting and developing the social livestock for each type of livestock and milk yield plan.
The deputy chairman of the collective farm is subject to the procedure for additional accrual of workdays, depending on the length of service; their length of service includes the time they worked as chairmen of collective farms prior to enlargement.

11. The payment for the work of an accountant or an accountant of a collective farm is established by the board. It is recommended to set the remuneration of the accountant in the amount of 60-80% of the remuneration of the chairman in workdays and in monetary terms. In addition, for a good accounting, the accountant is given 50% of the additional payment received by the chairman of the collective farm for overfulfilling the plan for crop yields and livestock productivity.

The accountant is also credited with workdays for continuous work experience on a given collective farm - from 5 to 15% of the workdays of his basic pay. In case of unsatisfactory record keeping and for dishonest attitude to the preparation of the annual report, the general meeting of the collective farm may reduce the wages of the accountant up to 10% of the number of workdays accrued to him for the year.

12. Foremen of field-breeding brigades are credited with workdays depending on the size of the sown areas assigned to them, namely: with a sown area of ​​up to 100 hectares, a foreman is monthly accrued on grain collective farms up to 30 workdays, and on collective farms with crops of grain and industrial crops - up to 35 workdays; with a sown area of ​​more than 700 hectares - respectively, up to 50 or 55 workdays per month are charged.

Brigadiers, subject to the fulfillment of the sowing plan, receive allowances in workdays for each percentage of overfulfillment of the harvest plan in the amount of one percent; in case of underfulfillment of the plan, one percent is written off from them, but not more than 25% of the workdays accrued to them for the year on the basic payment.

Foremen are given bonuses for work experience from 5 to 15% of the number of monthly workdays accrued to them.

Seniority bonuses are paid to chairmen, bookkeepers and foremen only when working in the same position on the same collective farm. When moving from one collective farm to another or when there is a break in work, the right to receive an allowance for seniority is lost.

13. Heads of specialized livestock collective farms are appointed in cases where the collective farms have a livestock population not lower than that specified in the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 19, 1948.

On a collective farm, the number of livestock of which is less than the specified norms, instead of the heads of the farms, a head of animal husbandry is appointed, who is charged from 10 to 15 workdays per month for managing the work of the farms.

Collective farm managers are paid according to the size of the farm. If there are from 35 to 50 cows on the farm, the head of the dairy farm is charged up to 40 workdays per month, and if there are more than 80 cows on the farm - 50 workdays per month.

In addition, farm managers are entitled to a seniority bonus in the amount of 5 to 15% of the number of workdays accrued to them for their work.

On large dairy and pig-breeding collective farms, by decision of the general meeting, foremen can be appointed for every 100 cows and 30 sows.

Foremen of livestock farms are charged workdays at the rates established for collective farmers, and for leading a brigade they are charged an additional 5 to 10 workdays per month.
Heads of livestock farms accrue or write off workdays, depending on the implementation of the plan for the growth of the livestock population and its productivity, in the same manner as for the foremen of field-breeding brigades.

14. A special procedure for remuneration of labor has been established for collective farmers working on tractors serving collective farms and other complex agricultural machines belonging to the MTS.

Collective farmers working on MTS tractors, foremen of tractor brigades, tractor drivers, etc., are given workdays by the collective farms in which they worked. Tractor drivers are paid in workdays by direct piece-work in accordance with the quantity, quality, terms of work performed and the harvest obtained in the cultivated areas.

Tractor drivers are charged daily workdays at established rates, depending on the fulfillment of shift production norms. In addition, they receive allowances in workdays for fulfilling the established task for spring work, for inter-row cultivation of tilled crops, for lifting and processing fallows, for ploughing, if these works are completed within the time limits stipulated by MTS agreements with collective farms, and subject to agrotechnical requirements. by quality. At the end of the year, tractor drivers are additionally credited with workdays for overfulfillment of the yield plan, but not more than 100%, and if the yield plan is not met, workdays are written off within no more than 10% of the workdays accrued for work in the relevant areas.

Workdays for tractor drivers are credited only for work performed that meets the requirements of agricultural technology and accepted by the foreman of the field teams. Workdays are not accrued at all for the downtime of tractors for any reason, for moving tractors from site to site, for the delivery of machines from the MTS estate to the place of work and back, for unscheduled and emergency repairs during field work.

Tractor drivers are subject to general rules for calculating and distributing workdays: for overfulfillment of the harvesting plan on plots cultivated by tractors, tractor drivers are given additional workdays, and if the yield plan is not met, workdays are written off.

For tractor drivers and other workers of tractor brigades (refueling accountants), a guaranteed minimum wage for a workday in kind and in money terms has been established (for more details, see Chapter IV).

15. In order to attract all able-bodied collective farmers to work directly in production and in order to avoid the need to involve outside labor, foremen, farm managers and other administrative and service personnel, with the exception of the chairman of the collective farm, accountant and specialists, are obliged to work out in general collective farm work in the field and on farms not less than 25% of the minimum workdays established for collective farmers.

Collective farms are recommended to approve at general meetings of collective farmers the staffing of administrative and service personnel and the cost of workdays for their payment, and also to establish the number of workdays that each worker of administrative and service personnel must work directly in the field and on farms. For the assumption of overspending of workdays on payment of administrative and service personnel, up to 10% of the workdays accrued to them for their work during the year are written off from the chairman, accountant and each of the members of the collective farm board by decision of the general meeting of collective farmers.

When collectivization was carried out in Soviet villages and villages by the 1930s and the way of life of cultivators and pastoralists was forcibly socialized, the state made a workday by evaluating their work by a special decree of the Council of People's Commissars. This single measure of accounting for labor and the distribution of income of collective farmers existed until the mid-1960s. Ideally, the workday was to become a share of the collective farm's income, which was distributed depending on the degree of labor participation of one or another worker.

The system of workdays, which has been repeatedly reformed throughout the history of its existence, nevertheless, remained a rather intricate scheme of material incentives for collective farmers. It most often did not depend on the efficiency of production, but at the same time it allowed for a differential distribution of income from the grown crop (or cattle handed over for slaughter) - in proportion to the contribution of a certain worker. For non-working out of the norm of workdays in the USSR, criminal liability was provided - the offender was sentenced to corrective work on his own collective farm with a quarter of workdays withheld.

The remuneration for labor was mainly payment in kind (mainly in grain). In the military proud (1941 - 1945), less than half a kilo of grain was issued per workday. In the winter of 1946-1947, a massive famine occurred in the USSR due to crop failure.

Collective farmers from the very beginning of the operation of such a payment system massively protested - they slaughtered livestock, left the villages for the cities. In 1932, a special passport regime was introduced in the USSR, as a result of which the inhabitants of villages and villages actually received the status of serfs, who were forbidden to leave the settlement without the permission of the "master" (the chairman of the collective farm or village council). For the children of peasants in such a case, after leaving school, there was most often one way - to go to work on a collective farm. In films about collective farm life, which are classics of Soviet cinema, there are often scenes in which the chairman decides whether to let graduates of a rural school go to study further in the city or not. The guys who served in the army, knowing what fate awaits them at home in the village, by any means sought to gain a foothold in the cities.

If the serf peasant in Russia before the revolution had the opportunity to receive income from his land allotment and sell the surplus, then the Soviet collective farmer was deprived of this too - the state imposed exorbitant taxes on the household plot in the village or in the countryside, the peasant was forced to pay almost for every apple tree in garden.

Pensions for old people on Soviet collective farms were either not paid at all, or they were meager.