This article is an interesting look at vacations and tourism within the USSR (first place in the world to require paid leave). But, the author can't help but describe everything as a sinister authoritarian conspiracy. I wonder what percent of American workers were going on paid multi day river cruises in the 1970s.
In socialist Yugoslavia I lived in, worker cooperatives (a thing our socialist were committed to, as opposed to a more state led Soviet model) built vacation houses, while more successful ones had even resorts their workers could use. Usually there would be summer holiday houses/resorts and winter holidays/resorts you could use. They would also organize shorter trips to other countries as well. It was very neat.
After the "collapse" (i.e. intentional demolition) and during the "privatization" (i.e. brutal plunder), "investors" (i.e. criminals close to the new ruling elite) would grab those companies for nothing, destroy them, fire everyone and sell all this lucrative real estate, making them extremely rich, overnight. We were told that's fine, because these companies were "inefficient" and would have failed anyway on the "latest fad" called the "free market"...
Meanwhile U.S. rail workers are so overworked they can't even take a day off when they get sick.
While all Soviet citizens were entitled to paid time off, only a small number could afford to go on an actual vacation without state subsidies. Some members of the Communist Party liked it this way. “By withholding the drug of prosperity,” Whetten explains, “the Soviet government more easily inspires self-sacrifice.”
THE EVIL GOMMUNISTS PAID FOR PEOPLES VACATIONS, HOW DARE THEY NOT STARVE THEIR POPULACE INTO SUBMISSION
Withholding prosperity is when you pay for everyone's vacation
During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime's atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn't go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
:parenti:
“By withholding the drug of prosperity,”
sounds like they were giving it out lol
damn reading this just makes me genuinely sad i didnt live in the soviet union
They got a week's pto In 1920. You be lucky to get that in America today
I don't think retail workers anywhere in the US get that today, 100 years later lmao
Hell, some companies still barely give more than that for entry level office jobs
the author can’t help but describe everything as a sinister authoritarian conspiracy
So much of the propaganda against the USSR is just middle class and wealthy people being horrified that socialism might give workers something at their expense. The purges for instance were apparently incredibly popular in the USSR at the time. Why? Because workers could get their shitty boss fired, publicly humiliated, and even imprisoned or killed for for being abusive to them. Of course middle class PMC bugeaters are afraid of that because they are the shitty bosses lording over their serfs. Of course they're also afraid of workers getting paid vacations because when the actual proletariat gets a vacation they aren't producing for middle class consumers like them.
Edit: It is also so telling that the petty bourgeois and the intelligentsia become horrified at state violence when it is wielded by communists. No doubt that the excesses of the purges were bad and ideally there would be no state violence, but nothing is spared when it is the workers being crushed by the bourgeois state, so why should our terror be any different?
Because workers could get their shitty boss fired, publicly humiliated, and even imprisoned or killed for for being abusive to them
I want to get my boss imprisoned or killed and all he's done is tell us no mor earbuds and refuse to let me play music when we're open even though nobody in the fucking world is going to complain because The Pizza Guy has some flamenco guitar playing at a low volume. I'm sick of the screeching of the convection oven especially when I am NEEDLESSLY SUBJECTED TO IT
The best part is it's "the health inspectors recommendation," not the fucking health code. Translation, the director doesn't like it and is using the inspector as an excuse.
I wanna scream at this dude, what is your idiot fucking problem, you would be doing your job better if you let people wear them because your job isn't ffucking aesthetics or health/safety, it's making sure this fucking dining hall is staffed, and you just had another dishwasher quit because you told him no earbuds, you stupid, shortsighted bourgeois FUCK
i have the advantage of working at a grocery store where we have a floor and a hidden workspace and i'm the dept. manager. store maangement did a memo a few months ago "no earbuds" and i just told my crew to ignore it. if our director or anyone comes around we just tuck them. to be safe i just pop mine out on the floor so customers don't complain we're ignoring them or switch it to pass through mode.
i've worked pizza before too. yeah that's shit excuse what is the ear bud going to fall in the pizza? and there's no customers to complain you are in a kitchen being all greasy and sweaty. shit they should just let us be atomized already like they want us to.
yeah that’s shit excuse what is the ear bud going to fall in the pizza?
Yeah that was the reason for the health inspectors "recommendation" but like fuck if it falls in shit just throw it away and remake it, easy. Before that they were grumbling about it being a safety issue but it's really not. Especially not for me, because my station is out of the kitchen 30ft from anyone else
They really just don't want to have to yell for people's attention. And unfortunately all the supervisors are shitty and following along with it
be like "it's either numb my mind with podcasts/music" or "I'll spend the whole work day thinking about how much i hate this place and how i'm going to quit".
Working for a massive chain, I have the feeling that even my head manager would appreciate being able to say no to Corporate's cost-cutting demands at literally any point. He's a pencil-pushing dork who scrunches instead of folding, but I suppose even he could pick up an AKR...
The Soviet Union introduced paid time off well before other industrialized countries. France did not bestow this right until 1936; Great Britain followed two years later. Last was the United States, where PTO remained a luxury reserved for the middle and upper class until the end of the Second World War and where it remains controversial.
They really buried the lede lmao
Designed to refresh and reenergize workers for upcoming Five-Year-Plans, these resorts subjected their guests to daily wellness procedures, such as massages and mineral baths.
Upcoming five year plans? You get at least two weeks of that torture per year. Golly, I'd sure hate it if somebody subjected me to spa treatments just to steel me for the next five years of Communist work. I'd be subjected to at least 70 days of leisure in that time!
"During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them."
confused soy DSA liberal: I don't understand, I thought I was going to a cottage in the mountains, not a bungalow by the beach
soviet soldier with ushanka and AK: put on the swimsuit and sunglasses!
This is a hilarious bit of Sovietology, thanks for sharing.
Each year, a limited number of accommodations at these locations were offered at a reduced cost or—in some cases—free of charge to one in every ten Soviet workers.
Shock! Horror! Imagine allocating a limited resource fairly :porky-scared:
hackernews posted this one today and i had to try really hard not to read the comments. i failed. it was awful.
I havent been on a vacation or had a prolonged time away from work in nearly 5 years. Good portion of this ive had two jobs, fuck these people.
The older I get and the longer I'm in the machine, the more academia is just a complete load.
Noooooooooooooooooo I don't want to go to the beach, I want to stay in my :gamer-gulag: cave! :ooooooooooooooh:
