HE REALITY OF SOCIALIST COMPETITION IN NOWA HUTA (1949-1956)

• Authors: Wilk H.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Socialist competition was envisaged as a foremost way of mobilising the workers. Apart from exceeding production norms, it was supposed to generate a new working class aristocracy - the so-called shock workers. Construction sites in Nowa Huta during the 1949-1956 period witnessed an evolution of socialist competition which assumed increasingly new forms. First, it consisted primarily of intensifying manual labour (the shock workers phase) and then it concentrated on improving the quality of the production, the elimination of faults, and the introduction of better discipline (rivalry for the title of the best professional, the application of work methods used by Soviet and Polish Stakhanovites, and long-term competition based on collective contracts). The best moment for creating new heroes proved to have been the first two phases. The considerable surpassing of production norms was universally admired, and the records were additionally popularised by the mass media of the time. The most celebrated shock worker during that stage in building Nowa Huta was Piotr Ozanski, who became a model for the character of Mateusz Birkut, the protagonist of Andrzej Wajda's film 'Man of Marble'. Elevated to the rank of a national hero thanks to his record-breaking work as a bricklayer, he subsequently ceased to be indispensable for the decision-makers and was cast down from his pedestal. The prime organiser of socialist competition were the trade unions, although the actual burden was frequently carried by the local representatives of the Polish United Workers' Party. The Nowa Huta administrative authorities often preferred to opt for an indifferent stand - in view of urgent economic plans and deadlines, socialist competition tended to lose its ideological dimension and became an instrument which to a certain extent made it possible to consider the realisation of the overall plan.

Keywords

EN

NOWA HUTA (1949-1956); SOCIALIST COMPETITION

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Dzieje Najnowsze
• Year: 2007
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 97-116
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Wilk H.

• H. Wilk, Instytut Historii PAN, ul. Rynek Starego Miasta 29-31, 00-272 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA03206619