Alexandra Oberländer1; 1 Osteuropa Institut an der FU Berlin, Germany
Discussion
How can it be that male workers who have regular jobs during the year can’t wait to go on two-month stints on construction sites during their official annual holidays? How is it possible that Soviet newspapers or party meetings shunned these seasonal laborers as semi-legal, shady and essentially anti-socialist elements when their memories effectively sound like stemming from a propaganda textbook on socialist labor? This paper follows seasonal laborers (shabashniki) from Moscow to Siberia and explores their stunning work morale.
