View source for Udarnik

{{Use American English|date=August 2024}}
{{short description|Soviet term for an exceptionally high productivity worker}}
{{other uses}}
[[Image:Plakat mayakowski gross.jpg|thumb|right|[[Agitprop]] poster by [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]]: "Hurry to join shock brigades!"
'' – Do you want it? Then join.
1. Want to defeat cold?
2. Want to defeat hunger?
3. Want to eat?  
4. Want to drink?
Hurry, join the advanced exemplary labour group.'' ]]
In the terminology of the [[Soviet Union]], the [[Eastern Bloc]], and other [[communist countries]], an '''udarnik''' ({{IPAc-en|u:|'|d|a:r|n|I|k}},<ref>{{Cite OED|term=udarnik|id=3650501751|access-date=2024-08-14}}</ref> plural '''udarniks''' or '''udarniki'''; {{lang-rus|уда́рник|p=ʊˈdarnʲɪk}}), also known in English as a '''shock worker'''<ref>Moskvin, V.D., 1970. Development of socialistic competition and the introduction of the Saratov system of defectless {{sic}} production at the Volga-Don chemical combine. ''Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils, 6''(3), pp.190-192.</ref> or '''strike worker''' (collectively known as '''shock brigades'''<ref name="Siegelbaum1990">{{cite book|author=[[Lewis H. Siegelbaum]]|title=Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935-1941|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFO2JAuI1WkC&pg=PA51|date=29 June 1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39556-4|page=51}}</ref> or a '''shock labor team'''<ref>{{cite book|title=Asia and Africa Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwgLAQAAMAAJ|year=1991|publisher=Asia and Africa Today|page=464}}</ref>) is a high [[workforce productivity|productivity]] worker. It derived from the expression "udarny trud" for "superproductive, enthusiastic labor".<ref>{{cite book|title=Art and Its Global Histories: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CPUtDwAAQBAJ|date=16 June 2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-1-5261-1992-6|page=309}}</ref>

== Soviet Union ==
In the [[Soviet Union]], the term was linked to [[Shock worker of Communist Labour]] ({{lang|ru|Ударник коммунистического труда}}), a Soviet [[title of honor|honorary title]], as well as [[Alexey Stakhanov]] and the [[Stakhanovite movement|movement named after him]]. However, the terminology of shock workers has also been used in other [[socialist state]]s, most notably in the [[People's Republic of China]],<ref name="Chen1999">{{cite book|author=An Chen|title=Restructuring Political Power in China: Alliances and Opposition, 1978-1998|url=https://archive.org/details/restructuringpol0000chen|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=978-1-55587-842-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/restructuringpol0000chen/page/94 94]}}</ref> [[North Korea]],<ref name="Armstrong2013">{{cite book|author=Charles K. Armstrong|title=The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq6dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA162|date=15 April 2013|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-6880-3|page=162}}</ref> the [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]],<ref name="Mevius2013">{{cite book|author=Martin Mevius|title=The Communist Quest for National Legitimacy in Europe, 1918-1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYTaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-98640-9|page=64}}</ref><ref name="Sygkelos2011">{{cite book|author=Yannis Sygkelos|title=Nationalism from the Left: The Bulgarian Communist Party During the Second World War and the Early Post-War Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aU0pfO7S0o0C&pg=PA227|date=19 January 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-19208-9|page=227}}</ref> and the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]].<ref name="Goulding2002">{{cite book|author=Daniel J. Goulding|title=Liberated Cinema: The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6KOL-DnxIkC&pg=PA106|year=2002|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-34210-4|page=106}}</ref><ref name="Batinić2015">{{cite book|author=Jelena Batinić|title=Women and Yugoslav Partisans: A History of World War II Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FutCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA219|date=12 May 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-09107-8|page=219}}</ref>

Soviet shock workers were not always necessarily citizens of the USSR, as one British communist and trade union leader [[Jessie Eden]], was elected one at the Stalin automotive plant (later renamed the ZiL automotives).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stevenson|first=Graham|title=Eden Jessie: The Real Jessie Eden and Peaky Blinders|work=Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies|url=https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2008/09/19/jessie-eden-mccullough/|access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref>

The hope behind promoting shock labour was that through [[socialist emulation]] the rest of the workforce would learn from the vanguard.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Soviet Economy|year = 1968|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnYkeJXzOAoC&pg=PA268|publisher=Ardent Media|page=268|id=GGKEY:1SK4L7X01QE}}</ref><ref name="Hanson2000">{{cite book|author=Stephen E. Hanson|title=Time and Revolution: Marxism and the Design of Soviet Institutions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fanqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA163|date=9 November 2000|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-6190-5|page=163}}</ref>

The Soviet Union promoted shock work during the [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|First Five-Year Plan]] period in an effort to increase productivity through human effort in the absence of more developed machinery.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Jie |title=Cinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2023 |isbn=9780231206273 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=57}}

Cultural theorist [[Susan Buck-Morss]] contrasts shock work's stimulation of productivity in rushes of labor with the standardization of [[Scientific management|Taylorism]].<ref name=":10" />{{Rp|page=57}}

== In Poland ==
In [[People's Republic of Poland]] a similar title was ''przodownik pracy'' (translated into English as "[[model worker]]"),<ref name="Lebow">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.</ref> a [[calque]] from another Soviet/Russian term ''peredovik proizvodstva'', literally "leader in production". Seen as the Polish version of the [[Stakhanovite movement]],<ref>{{cite book|title=International Free Trade Union News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KcaAQAAMAAJ|year=1949|publisher=Free Trade Union Committee of the American Federation of Labor.}}</ref> famous Polish workers given the title of ''przodownik pracy'' included [[Piotr Ożański]]<ref name="Lebow" /> and especially the "Polish Stakhanov" [[Wincenty Pstrowski]], a miner who in 1947 achieved 270 percent expected efficiency per month.<ref name="Fowkes2016">{{cite book|author=Ben Fowkes|title=Rise and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ww6_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13|date=27 July 2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-349-24218-4|page=13}}</ref> Later Pstrowski died due to misconducted dental intervention, but in official propaganda, it was due to deadly exhaustion.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Polish Review and East European Affairs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TP8VAQAAMAAJ|year=1949|publisher=Polish Review, Incorporated|page=72}}</ref>

== In Czechoslovakia ==
In the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]], an udarnik was called ''úderník''<ref name="Zarecor2011">{{cite book|author=Kimberly Elman Zarecor|title=Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1960|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkMa0UQG3WMC&pg=PA82|year=2011|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-7780-3|page=82}}</ref> (with slightly different [[pronunciation]] in the [[Czech language|Czech]] and [[Slovak language|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.{{Source?|date=October 2024}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
[[Category:Labor history]]
[[Category:Economy of the Soviet Union]]