An udarnik ( rus, уда́рник, p=ʊˈdarnʲɪk; English plural udarniks or udarniki), also known in English as a shock worker or strike worker (collectively known as shock brigades or a shock labour team) was a highly

productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

worker in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, the Eastern Bloc, and other

communist countries A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

. The term derived from the expression "udarny trud" for "superproductive, enthusiastic labour". In the

, the term was linked to

Shock worker of Communist Labour The Shock worker of Communist Labour ( rus, Ударник коммунистического труда, r=Udarnik kommunisticheskogo truda) was an official title of honour awarded in the Soviet Union to those who displayed exemplary performance i ...

(''Ударник коммунистического труда''), a Soviet

honorary title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

, as well as

Alexey Stakhanov Alexey Grigoryevich Stakhanov ( rus, Алексе́й Григо́рьевич Стаха́нов, p=staˈxanəf; 3 January 1906 – 5 November 1977) was a Soviet and Russian miner, Hero of Socialist Labour (1970), and a member of the CP ...

and the movement named after him. However, the terminology of shock workers has also been used in other

socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term '' communist state'' is of ...

s, most notably in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, the

People's Republic of Bulgaria The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; bg, Народна Република България (НРБ), ''Narodna Republika Balgariya, NRB'') was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the ...

, and the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

. Soviet shock workers were not always necessarily citizens of the USSR, as one British communist and trade union leader

Jessie Eden Jessie Eden (née Shrimpton; 24 February 1902 – 27 September 1986) was a British trade union leader and communist activist, most famous for leading between 40,000 to 50,000 households during the Birmingham rent-strike of 1939. She was also in ...

, was elected one at the Stalin automotive plant (later renamed the ZiL automotives). The ideology behind promoting shock labour was that through

socialist emulation Socialist competition or socialist emulation (, "sotsialisticheskoye sorevnovanie", or , "sotssorevnovanie") was a form of competition between state enterprises and between individuals practiced in the Soviet Union and in other Eastern bloc state ...

the rest of the workforce would learn from the vanguard.

In Poland

In People's Republic of Poland a similar title was ''przodownik pracy'' (translated into English as "

model worker Model worker (, abbreviated as 劳模 or ''láomó'') refers to an exemplary worker who exhibits some or all of the traits appropriate to the ideal of the socialism. Exemplary worker come from various sectors of the Chinese economy, including the i ...

"),Lebow, K. A. (2001) "Public Works, Private Lives: Youth Brigades in Nowa Huta in the 1950s," ''Contemporary European History''. Cambridge University Press, 10(2), pp. 199–219. doi: 10.1017/S0960777301002028. a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...

from another Soviet/Russian term ''peredovik proizvodstva'', literally "leader in production", which was also a formal title of merit. Seen as the Polish version of the

Stakhanovite movement The term Stakhanovite () originated in the Soviet Union and referred to workers who modeled themselves after Alexey Stakhanov. These workers took pride in their ability to produce more than was required, by working harder and more efficiently, thu ...

, famous Polish workers given the title of ''przodownik pracy'' included Piotr Ożański and especially the "Polish Stakhanov" Wincenty Pstrowski, a miner who in 1947 achieved 270 percent expected efficiency per month. Later Pstrowski died due to misconducted dental intervention, but in popular opinion (and official propaganda), it was due to deadly exhaustion.

In Czechoslovakia

In the

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

, an udarnik was called ''úderník'' (with slightly different

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...

in the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

and Slovak languages). Úderníci were elite workers who surpassed their work quotas and were used by the Party as propaganda. This breaking of production quotas, while usually real and often reaching astounding heights of the order of several hundred percent, was achieved at the cost of substandard quality, lack of work safety regulations and lack of concern for personal health. Most importantly, úderníci usually did not perform any minor tasks mandated by the job standards they were supposed to follow. These tasks were performed by other workers, yet this work counted towards the úderník's quota.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Soviet phraseology Labor history Economy of the Soviet Union

In Poland

In Czechoslovakia

See also

References