The Voroshilov Sanatorium (Named for the Soviet General and one time People's Commissar for Defense), Sochi 1972. Note the funicular railway which allowed direct access to the sea for visitors.
One of many interesting aspects of the largely ignored social history of the USSR was the exceptional efforts Soviet society made to provide heavily subsidized leisure and vacation activities and options for workers and citizens.
There are many remarkable aspects to this from the Pioneer resorts and camps for youth to the extensive network of health spas and sanatoriums. By the 1980s the right to adequate rest and leisure was guaranteed by Soviet law and even the Soviet constitution.
This article from the Soviet English language magazine Socialism: Theory and Practice gives an overview of the impressive evolution of this by 1982. What is important to recognize is that the entire philosophy governing the approach to leisure was different in that it was regarded as a right and an end in itself leading to greater human development as opposed to a "luxury" granted by employers reluctantly.
This is a philosophy and approach that we need to embrace as part of the re-envisioning of a post-capitalist society.
The Socialist Way of Life
THE RIGHT TO REST AND LEISURE
The Constitution of the USSR provides for the right of Soviet citizens to rest and leisure. This right is inseparably bound up with the right to work and it cannot be realized without the right to guaranteed employment. The right to rest and leisure means that society gives all working people time for restoring their strength and energies, for building their health, and for leisure and recreation.
WORK AND REST
A tendency towards reduction of working time and an increase in free time is characteristic of socialism. In pre-revolutionary Russia the working week at the enterprises of basic industry exceeded 58 hours while in small-scale and craft industries it lasted even longer. An eight-hour working day was established in Soviet Russia in 1917, and at the end of the 1950s there was a further reduction in the working week. At present the working day in industry averages seven hours, and for some categories of workers it is six hours, and even less, under a six-day working week. Under a five-day working week with two days off the working time does not exceed 41 hours.
All people employed in the Soviet national economy enjoy guaranteed weekly days of rest, a shorter working day on the eve of holidays and shorter hours for night work. Overtime is limited for adult workers and is banned altogether for persons under 18 years of age. For young people under 18 the working week is reduced to 24-36 hours (depending on age).
Overall, the working week for blue- and white-collar workers in the USSR averages 39.4 hours, one of the world's shortest. A further reduction of the working week will proceed in step with the provision of requisite economic and other conditions. In the capitalist countries the actual working week, more often than not, exceeds the statutory one. For example, the statutory working week in the FRG, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and some other countries, is 48 hours whereas in reality it is much longer. For instance, in Japan one worker in seven works at least 60 hours a week. The labour laws in Great Britain limit the working week only for women (48 hours) and adolescents (44 hours).
In the USSR all working people are granted annual paid leave with their jobs (posts) reserved for them. The pay is provided from the social consumption funds. In 1958 leave for blue- and white-collar workers lasted an average of 18.5 working days and in 1979 21.6 working days.
Workers under 18 are granted annual leave lasting one calendar month. Additional leave is granted to certain categories of workers and other employees having a long period of service at one and the same enterprise. Blue-and white-collar workers employed in arctic regions and in the eastern regions held to be equivalent to them, where natural resources are being developed and put to use, enjoy longer leave and other privileges. Women are granted maternity leave (56 calendar days before childbirth and 56 days after) with a maternity allowance payable from the state social insurance budget.
"Many millions have no paid vacations. Millions who do have vacations, are limited to just a week because of the usual practice requiring an employee to be on a job a whole year with a given employer to be eligible for a week-5 working days. Most often it takes five years of employment to be entitled to a second week. Some trade union contracts provide a third week after 15 years of employment. Most US workers change jobs often and do not acquire enough seniority with an employer for the longer vacations." - George Morris, US political writer. From the book "USSR-USA: Trade Union Compared", Moscow, Profizdat, 1979.
For many categories of workers and employees in other countries (e.g. Japan, Canada, Italy) leave does not exceed ten days. In the capitalist world, one working woman in three enjoys short, partly-paid prenatal and post-natal leave. In Italy, for instance, it is usual for the employers to dismiss women immediately after childbirth. The same fate befalls women in Austria. Two-thirds of all enterprises in Japan have instructions to dismiss working women immediately after they get married. Mothers-to-be and mothers are dismissed because the employers want to cut social expenditures and do not want to make personnel shifts and replacements.
HEALTH RESORTS FOR ALL
"Many millions have no paid vacations. Millions who do have vacations, are limited to just a week because of the usual practice requiring an employee to be on a job a whole year with a given employer to be eligible for a week-5 working days. Most often it takes five years of employment to be entitled to a second week. Some trade union contracts provide a third week after 15 years of employment. Most US workers change jobs often and do not acquire enough seniority with an employer for the longer vacations." - George Morris, US political writer. From the book "USSR-USA: Trade Union Compared", Moscow, Profizdat, 1979.
The Soviet state not only guarantees paid leave to working people but also provides them, and their families, an opportunity to spend holidays in sanatoria, rest homes, boarding houses, etc. Health-building institutions have been established in all the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, in every territory and region. In its scope the network of sanatoria and other health resort facilities has no parallel in the world.
The state provides vouchers to working people at large discounts. The average price of a 24-day accommodation at a trade union sanatorium is 121 roubles (one rouble is roughly equivalent to 1.4 US dollars according to the official rate of exchange). But only one fifth of all vouchers are to be paid for in full; the same proportion is provided free of charge, and the rest are provided at thirty per cent of the actual cost. Accommodation at a disease prevention centre is free or at a discount. One in ten vouchers to rest homes and holiday hotels are provided free of charge. So-called family vouchers (for 2-4 persons) are also sold at reduced rates. For instance a period of rest lasting 12 days costs a family of four a mere 40-50 roubles, i.e. one rouble per person per day. The rest of the sum is paid out from the state social insurance budget. In 1980, for instance, 1,400 million roubles was al-located for these purposes.
Over 260 million blue- and white-collar workers, and members of their families, had their rest and medical treatment in sanatoria and other health resorts in 1976-1980. To compare: in 1921, when Lenin signed the decree "On Rest Homes", they admitted 100,000 people, in 1940-2.7 million people.
At this preventive treatment sanatorium of the Stroiplastmassy factory (Mytishchi, a town near Moscow) workers and office employees rest and receive treatment at trade union expense.
The Soviet state seeks to create such conditions under which working people could spend their free time pursuing their wide-ranging and diverse interests. The USSR has about 600 professional theatres, 1,400 museums, 350,000 libraries and over 2,000 recreation parks. The Soviet Union is ahead of the advanced capitalist countries in the number of cultural institutions and facilities per 1,000 residents.
Sport in the USSR is accessible to everyone and is an inseparable element of the people's life. With every passing year, hundreds of thousands of new people of different ages and occupations take up sports. The membership of sports groups has increased five times over the past thirty years, to reach almost 64 million. Besides, thousands of amateur athletes use the facilities provided by tens of thousands of stadiums, swimming pools, gymnasiums and sports grounds, skiing bases, skating rinks, etc.
The right to rest and recreation, and its guarantees, is an important indicator of the real socio-economic status of working people in countries with different socio-political systems. Under capitalism the working person is a special kind of commodity capable of yielding profit. Therefore, the ruling classes regard outlays for rest and recreation as unproductive, as losses, and reduce them whenever they can.
Under socialism the labourer is society's greatest asset. The socialist state gives its citizens every opportunity to use their free time for intellectual and physical perfection, for a full and harmonious development.
The Sun the Air and the Water are Our Best Friends -- Soviet Youth Recreation Poster c. 1985
L. ZLOMANOV, L. UMANSKY,
Our Rights: Political and Economic Guarantees, Moscow, Politizdat. 1981 (in Russian)
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