White-Collar Workers in the Second Revolution and Postwar Reconstruction

Abstract

White-collar workers remain an understudied though important social group in Soviet history. Though much has been written about workers, peasants, and now even certain professions, the life and fate of the ordinary sluzhashchie remain obscure.¹ And this despite the fact that this social formation was in absolute terms larger than the so-called intelligentsia, and in the early years of Soviet power it was as large as the working class itself. This chapter offers an overview of the white-collar workers during the years 1930–4, crucial years in the formation of Soviet society that embraced industrialization, collectivization and cultural revolution. It then considers the status, agendas and dilemmas of white-collar workers (sometimes referred to in the text as employees) during the years immediately after World War II up to the death of Stalin. This history of employees in the Soviet era may be seen as the evolution of a large and somewhat incoherent social group whose leaders devoted considerable energy to self-defense in a hostile ideological environment (during the 1920s and 30s), then to gradual participation and ever greater responsibilities in the growing state apparatus and even in the management and operations of the economy.