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The foreman was a born anti-Semite, though there were few Jews at the plant. He was envious: this ‘kike’ was able to master something that he himself wasn’t able to do. He began to watch me, looking under my hand, spying on my work. So I took a sick-leave at the polyclinic and didn’t come to work for three or four days. I warned everybody that I was sick and couldn’t come to work. He forgot about me. When I came to work again I made 500 joints without any rejects. The standard daily work was 25 to 30 parts per shift at most. My picture was placed on the Board of Honor with the inscription ‘udarnik’ [shock worker] Plotkin. I was 17 years old.
After that the anti-Semitic foreman conceived a dislike for me and began to torment me with night shifts. He put me on night shifts every other week. It was very hard for me. I couldn’t stand night work. I couldn’t stay conscious after one or two sleepless nights and fell asleep upright. I was afraid to fall asleep and fall into the machine. I complained to my mother, saying that I couldn’t go to work at the plant. I asked her to take me away from it, though I liked the lathe operator job.
After that the anti-Semitic foreman conceived a dislike for me and began to torment me with night shifts. He put me on night shifts every other week. It was very hard for me. I couldn’t stand night work. I couldn’t stay conscious after one or two sleepless nights and fell asleep upright. I was afraid to fall asleep and fall into the machine. I complained to my mother, saying that I couldn’t go to work at the plant. I asked her to take me away from it, though I liked the lathe operator job.
Period
Location
St. Petersburg
Russia
Interview
Mikhail Plotkin