In the 1930s workers’ wages were low, food was short, working conditions and hours were appalling, houses were poor and there were few consumer goods to buy. How did Stalin get the workers to work hard?

1. Many were inspired by the task of transforming Russia & building a better society.
EG volunteers from Komsomol (Communist Party Youth) helped to construct new industrial cities such as Magnitogorsk (Urals) and Komsomolsk (Siberia)
A huge propaganda campaign was launched - cinema, radio, newspapers and posters.

2. The Stakhanovite movement was set up to encourage workers to ‘speed up’.
This was named after Stakhanov (a miner who supposedly dug 102 tonnes of coal . instead of 7 in one shift)
This movements was backed up by
lecture tours by Stakhanov
a massive propaganda campaign (posters and paintings)
use of ‘shock brigades’ - specially trained workers brought in to show how new ideas such as mass-production (copied from US Ford methods devised by Frederick Taylor) could be put into practice

3. There were positive encouragements:
industrial workers were given social security benefits
skilled workers were paid 4 times as much as unskilled workers
work books were introduced for workers to record their productivity
workers were paid according to how much they produced
medals and honours were given to those who worked exceptionally hard

4. Coercion and fear were used:
workers were made to work hard by compulsion, fear of physical punishments or being denied food.
in 1932 food supplies were put under the direct control of the factory managers - food was allocated to workers on the basis of their performance.
food was rationed and the unemployed could not get ration cards, nor any place to live.
theft of state property resulted in death
one days absence led to fines, loss of ration cards or instant dismissal and from 1940 absence from work was punishable by imprisonment
Kulaks and critics of Stalin were herded into Labour Camps and forced to work on construction projects
workers could only change jobs with government permission
internal passports were introduced to prevent free movement around the country