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I looked for a job for about three months before I went to work at the military plant that manufactured radar sets. I was a senior foreman and deputy superintendent of galvanic shop. When working at the plant I got a good knowledge of greatly praised socialist organization of labor and planned economy. There was no work in the first two weeks of a month when all employees had to come to work to pretend they worked hard between 8am – 6pm. In the next two weeks the shop got overloaded with work. We worked until 2-3 am to complete the plan or otherwise workers might be fired or even arrested for ‘sabotage’. There were terrible conditions at the plant when exhaust ventilation didn’t function and workers refused to work. Lower management had to give an example of work in such conditions.
In the summer of 1947 the Town Party Committee sent me to Kopachev village, Obukhov district, Kiev region. I was responsible for harvesting. 20-30 people, mostly women, worked in this village. There was no equipment, but starved horses. However, it was necessary to collect the crops and I had to demand superhuman efforts from these miserable exhausted people. We worked 12-14 hours per day. Another difficulty was that the chairman of the kolkhoz was permanently drunk and it was next to impossible to make him work.
In the summer of 1947 the Town Party Committee sent me to Kopachev village, Obukhov district, Kiev region. I was responsible for harvesting. 20-30 people, mostly women, worked in this village. There was no equipment, but starved horses. However, it was necessary to collect the crops and I had to demand superhuman efforts from these miserable exhausted people. We worked 12-14 hours per day. Another difficulty was that the chairman of the kolkhoz was permanently drunk and it was next to impossible to make him work.
Period
Location
Ukraine
Interview
Solomon Manevich