So much for the organization, with its Communist Party, its system of meetings and counter-meetings, its adapted TradesUnions, its infinitely various propaganda, which is doing its best to make headway against ruin.I want now to describe however briefly, the methods it has adopted in tackling the worst of all Russia's problems-the non-productivity and absolute shortage of labor.
I find a sort of analogy between these methods and those which we used in England in tackling the similar cumulative problem of finding men for war.Just as we did not proceed at once to conscription, but began by a great propaganda of voluntary effort, so the Communists, faced with a need at least equally vital, did not turn at once to industrial conscription.It was understood from the beginning that the Communists themselves were to set an example of hard work, and I dare say a considerable proportion of them did so.Every factory had its little Communist Committee, which was supposed to leaven the factory with enthusiasm, just as similar groups of Communists drafted into the armies in moments of extreme danger did, on more than one occasion, as the non-Communist Commander-in-Chief admits, turn a rout into a stand and snatch victory from what looked perilously like defeat.But this was not enough, arrears of work accumulated, enthusiasm waned, productivity decreased, and some new move was obviously necessary.This first move in the direction of industrial conscription, although no one perceived its tendency at the time, was the inauguration of what have become known as "Saturdayings".
Early in 1919 the Central Committee of the Communist Party put out a circular letter, calling upon the Communists "to work revolutionally," to emulate in the rear the heroism of their brothers on the front, pointing out that nothing but the most determined efforts and an increase in the productivity of labor would enable Russia to win through her difficulties of transport, etc.Kolchak, to quote from English newspapers, was it"sweeping on to Moscow," and the situation was pretty threatening.As a direct result of this letter, on May 7th, a meeting of Communists in the sub-district of the Moscow-Kazan railway passed a resolution that, in view of the imminent danger to the Republic,Communists and their sympathizers should give up an hour a day of their leisure, and, lumping these hours together, do every Saturday six hours of manual labor; and, further, that these Communist "Saturdayings" should be continued "until complete victory over Kolchak should be assured." That decision of a local committee was the actual beginning of a movement which spread all over Russia, and though the complete victory over Kolchak was long ago obtained, is likely to continue so long as Soviet Russia is threatened by any one else.
The decision was put into effect on May 10th, when the first Communist "Saturdaying" in Russia took place on the Moscow-Kazan railway.The Commissar of the railway, Communist clerks from the offices, and every one else who wished to help, marched to work, 182 in all, and put in 1,012 hours of manual labor, in which they finished the repairs of four locomotives and sixteen wagons and loaded and unloaded 9,300 poods of engine and wagon parts and material.It was found that the productivity of labor in loading and unloading shown on this occasion was about 270 per cent.of the normal, and a similar superiority of effort was shown in the other kinds of work.This example was immediately copied on other railways.The Alexandrovsk railway had its first "Saturdaying" on May 17th.Ninety-eight persons worked for five hours, and here also did two or three times as much is the usual amount of work done in the same number of working hours under ordinary circumstances.One of the workmen, in giving an account of the performance, wrote: "The Comrades explain this by saying that in ordinary times the work was dull and they were sick of it, whereas this occasion they were working willingly and with excitement.But now it will be shameful in ordinary hours to do less than in the Communist 'Saturdaying.' " The hope implied in this last sentence has not been realized.
In Pravda of June 7th there is an article describing one of these early "Saturdayings," which gives a clear picture of the infectious character ofthe proceedings, telling how people who came out of curiosity to look on foundthemselves joining in the work, and how a soldier with an accordion after staring for a long time open-mouthed at these lunatics working on a Saturday afternoon put up a tune for them on his instrument, and, delighted by their delight, played on while the workers all sang together.