Within the
second economy of the Soviet Union, shabashka ( rus, шабашка, p=ʂɐˈbaʂkə) was semi-official
seasonal work
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...
. The word ultimately derives from "
shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
" and literally means "work in free time".
[ A person engaged in ''shabashka'' is called a shabashnik ( rus, шабашник).][Articles Шабашка, Шабашник, in etymological dictionary (Т.Ф. Ефремова Новый словарь русского языка. Толково- словообразовательный)] In the Soviet era it was commonly work off the books, and the tradition continued in many post-Soviet states. In modern times, the term refers to any kind of work outside primary, official employment, a concept similar to "moonlighting
Moonlighting may refer to:
* Side job, a job taken in addition to one's primary employment
Entertainment
* ''Moonlighting'' (film), a 1982 drama film by Jerzy Skolimowski
* ''Moonlighting'' (TV series), 1985–1989 American television series, s ...
"[D. Rogers, ''The Old Faith and the Russian Land'', Cornell University Press, 2011, ]
p.211
/ref>[''Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian'', Routledge, 2013, ]
p. 554
/ref>
A common form of ''shabashka'' was construction works in kolkhozes and sovkhozes which, unlike industrial enterprises had a certain amount of freedom with cash flow
A cash flow is a real or virtual movement of money:
*a cash flow in its narrow sense is a payment (in a currency), especially from one central bank account to another; the term 'cash flow' is mostly used to describe payments that are expected ...
and could pay the workers in cash, often unofficially.[Axel Delwig, ''Life in Moscow; Communism and now'', ,]
p. 147-150
/ref> Since the official enterprises operating in agricultural sector (Межколхозстрой, etc.,) did not have sufficient capacity, kolkhozes and sovkhozes had right to contract so-called "temporary work collectives".
In many cases ''shabashka'' work had an official status, and the ''shabasniks'' had a confirmation of their employment in their ''trudovaya knizhka'' (employment record book
An employment record book is an official personal document recording the employment status of its owner over time. Some European countries issue such documents, others did earlier. The first employment record books are said to have been issued in ...
).[
There were two categories of ''shabashniks''. One of them were non- working class city dwellers: scientists, engineers and students.][
Another were migrant workers from republics of Caucasus and Central Asia with excess of workforce. In the modern times, these migrants are called гастарбайтеры ('' gastarbeiter'') in Russian.][
The style of payment for the job was so-called "аккордно-премиальная" ( piecework/ bonus): total payment for the whole job done plus bonus for beating the schedule.
]
References
Second economy of the Soviet Union
Employment classifications
Soviet phraseology
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