Współzawodnictwo pracy jako element codzienności robotniczej – na przykładzie zakładów przemysłowych województwa kieleckiego (1947–1956)

Work competition was undoubtedly an important element of Polish life in the 1940s and the 1950s. It was a characteristic feature of all aspects of social life, but remained most important in the sector of industry. The movement developed in the USSR and was initiated in Poland by Wincenty Pstrowski, miner, with his famous letter completed with the sentence: “Who will mine more than me?” For a decade to follow, work competition was the basic form of motivating workers to make more effort. Industrial plants in the Kielce province almost immediately joined in. Trade unions with various Competition Committees were responsible for the organization of the movement. They were in charge of all administration tasks, ranging from organization of forms of competition to awarding prizes for outstanding workers. Throughout the entire period under discussion, competition movement assumed various forms. Initially, it was exclusively connected with exceeding production norms but in time in referred to the issues of economy and fighting with waste and squandering. At the same time, the movement became very much bureaucratized, which was connected with the establishment of a new workers’ elite. An honorable title of “work leader” and other privileges that went with it were not awarded in a fair way and frequently led to the worsening of workers’ relations in a given plant. Apart from competition, much attention was paid to rationalization and workers’ inventions. However, the movement met with the same difficulties at the competition movement – bureaucratization, race against statistical data (which was to meet approved schedules). The economic results of both phenomena were far from great and in time competition became a ritual of not much significance.