ABSTRACT
Strike action by trade unions remained legal under the terms of Soviet labour legislation, and in the course of the early and middle ‘20’s numerous strikes took place. To judge by an order of the Soviet Control Commission in 1936 on “the examination of workers’ complaints”, forbidding certain practices, breaches of regulations concerning disciplinary penalties and the hearing of appeals and complaints had been frequent. The majority were fairly young, between 25 and 30: men and women of the new Soviet generation whose factory experience and the later part of whose schooling had fallen within the period of the Soviet regime. In June, 1940, four days after the French capitulation at Compiegne, measures were adopted which virtually put labour discipline in Soviet industry on a war footing. In the first place, the cherished seven-hour day was abandoned and a normal working day of eight hours was introduced instead.
