Table of Contents
Passage
Historian investigates how Stalin changed the calendar to keep the Soviet people continually at work.
A. “There are no fortresses that Bolsheviks cannot storm”. With these words, Stalin expressed the dynamic self confidence of the Soviet Union’s Five Year Plan: weak and backward Russia was to turn overnight into a powerful modem industrial country. Between 1928 and 1932, production of coal, iron and steel increased at a fantastic rate, and new industrial cities sprang up, along with the world’s biggest dam.
Everyone’s life was affected, as collectivised farming drove millions from the land to swell the industrial proletariat. Private enterprise disappeared in city and country, leaving the State supreme under the dictatorship of Stalin. Unlimited enthusiasm was the mood of the day, with the Communists believing that iron will and hard-working manpower alone would bring about a new world.
B. Enthusiasm spread to tune itself, in the desire to make the state a huge efficient machine, where not a moment would be wasted, especially in the workplace. Lenin had already been intrigued by the ideas of the American Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), whose time-motion studies had discovered ways of stream-lining effort so that every worker could produce the maximum. The Bolsheviks were also great admirers of Henry Ford’s assembly line mass production and of his Fordson tractors that were imported by the thousands.
The engineers who came with them to train their users helped spread what became a real cult of Ford. Emulating and surpassing such capitalist models formed part of the training of the new Soviet Man, a heroic figure whose unlimited capacity for work would benefit everyone in the dynamic new society. All this culminated in the Plan, which has been characterized as the triumph of the machine, where workers would become supremely efficient robot-like creatures.
C. Yet this was Communism whose goals had always included improving the lives of the proletariat. One major step in that direction was the sudden announcement in 1927 that reduced the working day from eight to seven hours. In January 1929, all Industries were ordered to adopt the shorter day by the end of the Plan. Workers were also to have an extra hour off on the eve of Sundays and holidays. Typically though, the state took away more than it gave, for this was part of a scheme to increase production by establishing a three-shift system. This meant that the factories were open day and night and that many had to work at highly undesfrable hours.
D. Hardly had that policy been announced, though, than Yuri Larin, who had been a close associate of Lenin and architect of his radical economic policy, came up with an idea for even greater efficiency. Workers were free and plants were closed on Sundays. Why not abolish that wasted day by instituting a continuous work week so that the machines could operate to their full capacity every day of the week?
When Larin presented his idea to the Congress of Soviets in May 1929, no one paid much attention. Soon after, though, he got the ear of Stalin, who approved. Suddenly, in June, the Soviet press was filled with articles praising the new scheme. In August, the Council of Peoples’ Commissars ordered that the continuous work week be brought into immediate effect, during the height of enthusiasm for the plan, whose goals the new schedule seemed guaranteed to forward.
E. The idea seemed simple enough, but turned out to be very complicated in practice. Obviously, the workers couldn’t be made to work seven days a week, nor should their total work hours be increased. The Solution was ingenious: a new five-day week would have the workers on the job for four days, with the fifth day free; holidays would be reduced from ten to five, and the extra hour off on the eve of rest days would be abolished. Staggering the rest-days between groups of workers meant that each worker would spend the same number of hours on the job, but the factories would be working a full 360 days a year instead of 300.
The 360 divided neatly into 72 five-day weeks. Workers in each establishment (at first factories, then stores and offices) were divided into five groups, each assigned a colour which appeared on the new Uninterrupted Work Week calendars distributed all over the country. Colour-coding was a valuable mnemonic device, since workers might have trouble remembering what their day off was going to be, for it would change every week.
A glance at the colour on the calendar would reveal the free day, and allow workers to plan their activities. This system, however, did not apply to construction or seasonal occupations, which followed a six-day week, or to factories or mines which had to close regularly for maintenance: they also had a six-day week, whether interrupted (with the same day off for everyone) or continuous. In all cases, though, Sunday was treated like any other day.
F. Official propaganda touted the material and cultural benefits of the new scheme. Workers would get more rest; production and employment would increase (for more workers would be needed to keep the factories running continuously); the standard of living would improve. Leisure time would be more rationally employed, for cultural activities (theatre, clubs, sports) would no longer have to be crammed into a weekend, but could flourish every day, with their facilities far less crowded. Shopping would be easier for the same reasons.
Ignorance and superstition, as represented by organized religion, would suffer a mortal blow, since 80 per cent of the workers would be on the job on any given Sunday. The only objection concerned the family, where normally more than one member was working: well, the Soviets insisted, the narrow family was far less important than the vast common good and besides, arrangements could be made for husband and wife to share a common schedule. In fact, the regime had long wanted to weaken or sideline the two greatest potential threats to its total dominance: organised religion and the nuclear family. Religion succumbed, but the family, as even Stalin finally had to admit, proved much more resistant.
G. The continuous work week, hailed as a Utopia where time itself was conquered and the sluggish Sunday abolished forever, spread like an epidemic. According to official figures, 63 per cent of industrial workers were so employed by April 1930; in June, all industry was ordered to convert during the next year. The fad reached its peak in October when it affected 73 per cent of workers. In fact, many managers simply claimed that their factories had gone over to the new week, without actually applying it. Conforming to the demands of the Plan was important; practical matters could wait. By then, though, problems were becoming obvious.
Most serious (though never officially admitted), the workers hated it. Coordination of family schedules was virtually impossible and usually ignored, so husbands and wives only saw each other before or after work; rest days were empty without any loved ones to share them — even friends were likely to be on a different schedule. Confusion reigned: the new plan was introduced haphazardly, with some factories operating five-, six-and seven-day weeks at the same time, and the workers often not getting their rest days at all.
H. The Soviet government might have ignored all that (It didn’t depend on public approval), but the new week was far from having the vaunted effect on production. With the complicated rotation system, the work teams necessarily found themselves doing different kinds of work in successive weeks. Machines, no longer consistently in the hands of people who knew how to tend them, were often poorly maintained or even broken. Workers lost a sense of responsibility for the special tasks they had normally performed.
I. As a result, the new week started to lose ground. Stalin’s speech of June 1931, which criticised the “depersonalised labor” its too hasty application had brought, marked the beginning of the end. In November, the government ordered the widespread adoption of the six-day week, which had its own calendar, with regular breaks on the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 30th, with Sunday usually as a working day.
By July 1935, only 26 per cent of workers still followed the continuous schedule, and the six-day week was soon on its way out. Finally, in 1940, as part of the general reversion to more traditional methods, both the continuous five-day week and the novel six-day week were abandoned, and Sunday returned as the universal day of rest. A bold but typically illconceived experiment was at an end.
Questions
Questions 27-34
Reading Passage has nine paragraphs A-I.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number I-XII in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Benefits of the new scheme and its resistance
ii Making use of the once wasted weekends
iii Cutting work hours for better efficiency
iv Optimism of the great future
v Negative effects on production itself
vi Soviet Union’s five year plan
vii The abolishment of the new work-week scheme
viii The Ford model
ix Reaction from factory workers and their families
x The color-coding scheme
xi Establishing a three-shift system
xii Foreign inspiration
Example Answer
Paragraph C iii
27 Paragraph A
28 Paragraph B
29 Paragraph D
30 Paragraph E
31 Paragraph F
32 Paragraph G
33 Paragraph H
34 Paragraph I
Questions 35-37
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 35-37 on your answer sheet.
35 According to paragraph A, Soviet’s five year plan was a success because
A Bolsheviks built a strong fortress.
B Russia was weak and backward,
C industrial production increased.
D Stalin was confident about Soviet’s potential.
36 Daily working hours were cut from eight to seven to
A improve the lives of all people.
B boost industrial productivity,
C get rid of undesirable work hours.
D change the already establish three-shift work system.
37 Many factory managers claimed to have complied with the demands of the new work week because
A they were pressurized by the state to do so.
B they believed there would not be any practical problems,
C they were able to apply it.
D workers hated the new plan.
Questions 38-40
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.
38 Whose idea of continuous work week did Stalin approve and helped to implement?
39 What method was used to help workers to remember the rotation of theft off days?
40 What was the most resistant force to the new work week scheme?
Answers
Below are the answers, key words, synonyms and full explanations for the IELTS Reading passage Soviet’s New Working Week (Passage 3, Questions 27–40).
Questions 27–34: Matching Headings (paragraphs A–I; Paragraph C = iii is the example)
27. Paragraph A
Answer: iv (Optimism of the great future)
Key words: Unlimited enthusiasm was the mood of the day … iron will and hard-working manpower alone would bring about a new world
Synonyms: optimism of the great future = unlimited enthusiasm and belief in a new world = “Unlimited enthusiasm was the mood of the day, with the Communists believing that … hard-working manpower alone would bring about a new world”
Explanation: Paragraph A conveys the confident, optimistic mood of the Five Year Plan → iv.
28. Paragraph B
Answer: xii (Foreign inspiration)
Key words: the ideas of the American Frederick Winslow Taylor … great admirers of Henry Ford’s assembly line … a real cult of Ford
Synonyms: foreign inspiration = the American models of Taylor and Ford that the Soviets emulated = “Lenin had already been intrigued by the ideas of the American Frederick Winslow Taylor … The Bolsheviks were also great admirers of Henry Ford”
Explanation: Paragraph B shows the foreign (American) inspiration behind Soviet efficiency ideas → xii.
29. Paragraph D
Answer: ii (Making use of the once wasted weekends)
Key words: Why not abolish that wasted day by instituting a continuous work week so that the machines could operate to their full capacity every day
Synonyms: making use of wasted weekends = abolishing the wasted Sunday with a continuous work week = “Workers were free and plants were closed on Sundays. Why not abolish that wasted day by instituting a continuous work week?”
Explanation: Paragraph D is about Larin’s plan to use the previously idle Sundays → ii.
30. Paragraph E
Answer: x (The colour-coding scheme)
Key words: each assigned a colour which appeared on the new Uninterrupted Work Week calendars … Colour-coding was a valuable mnemonic device
Synonyms: the colour-coding scheme = workers split into colour groups on the calendars = “Workers … were divided into five groups, each assigned a colour which appeared on the new Uninterrupted Work Week calendars”
Explanation: Paragraph E explains the colour-coded calendar system → x.
31. Paragraph F
Answer: i (Benefits of the new scheme and its resistance)
Key words: Official propaganda touted the material and cultural benefits … The only objection concerned the family … the family … proved much more resistant
Synonyms: benefits and its resistance = the promoted benefits plus the family’s resistance = “Official propaganda touted the material and cultural benefits of the new scheme … the family, as even Stalin finally had to admit, proved much more resistant”
Explanation: Paragraph F lists the scheme’s advertised benefits and the family’s resistance → i.
32. Paragraph G
Answer: ix (Reaction from factory workers and their families)
Key words: the workers hated it. Coordination of family schedules was virtually impossible … rest days were empty without any loved ones
Synonyms: reaction from workers and families = workers hated it and family schedules could not be coordinated = “Most serious … the workers hated it. Coordination of family schedules was virtually impossible”
Explanation: Paragraph G describes the negative reaction of workers and families → ix.
33. Paragraph H
Answer: v (Negative effects on production itself)
Key words: the new week was far from having the vaunted effect on production … Machines … were often poorly maintained or even broken
Synonyms: negative effects on production = machines broke down and workers lost responsibility, hurting output = “the new week was far from having the vaunted effect on production … Workers lost a sense of responsibility for the special tasks”
Explanation: Paragraph H shows how the scheme damaged production itself → v.
34. Paragraph I
Answer: vii (The abolishment of the new work-week scheme)
Key words: in 1940 … both the continuous five-day week and the novel six-day week were abandoned, and Sunday returned as the universal day of rest
Synonyms: the abolishment of the scheme = the schemes were abandoned and Sunday returned = “Finally, in 1940 … both the continuous five-day week and the novel six-day week were abandoned … A bold but typically ill-conceived experiment was at an end”
Explanation: Paragraph I describes how the new work week was finally abolished → vii.
Questions 35–37: Multiple Choice
35. According to paragraph A, the Soviet’s Five Year Plan was a success because
Answer: C (industrial production increased)
Key words: production of coal, iron and steel increased at a fantastic rate, and new industrial cities sprang up
Synonyms: a success because industrial production increased = coal, iron and steel output rose fast = “Between 1928 and 1932, production of coal, iron and steel increased at a fantastic rate”
Explanation: The Plan’s success is shown by the rapid rise in industrial output → C.
36. Daily working hours were cut from eight to seven to
Answer: B (boost industrial productivity)
Key words: the state took away more than it gave, for this was part of a scheme to increase production by establishing a three-shift system
Synonyms: to boost industrial productivity = part of a scheme to increase production = “this was part of a scheme to increase production by establishing a three-shift system”
Explanation: Although presented as a benefit, the shorter day was really a way to raise production via three shifts → B.
37. Many factory managers claimed to have complied with the new work week because
Answer: A (they were pressurized by the state to do so)
Key words: many managers simply claimed that their factories had gone over to the new week, without actually applying it. Conforming to the demands of the Plan was important
Synonyms: pressurized by the state = conforming to the demands of the Plan mattered, so they pretended = “many managers simply claimed that their factories had gone over to the new week, without actually applying it. Conforming to the demands of the Plan was important”
Explanation: Managers only claimed compliance because meeting the Plan’s demands was compulsory → A.
Questions 38–40: Short Answer (NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS)
38. Whose idea of the continuous work week did Stalin approve and help to implement?
Answer: Yuri Larin
Key words: Yuri Larin … came up with an idea for even greater efficiency … he got the ear of Stalin, who approved
Synonyms: whose idea Stalin approved = Yuri Larin’s continuous-work-week idea = “Yuri Larin … came up with an idea … he got the ear of Stalin, who approved”
Explanation: The continuous work week was Yuri Larin’s idea → Yuri Larin.
39. What method was used to help workers remember the rotation of their off days?
Answer: colour-coding
Key words: Colour-coding was a valuable mnemonic device, since workers might have trouble remembering what their day off was going to be
Synonyms: method to remember off days = colour-coding as a mnemonic device = “Colour-coding was a valuable mnemonic device, since workers might have trouble remembering what their day off was going to be”
Explanation: Colour-coding helped workers recall their changing rest days → colour-coding.
40. What was the most resistant force to the new work-week scheme?
Answer: (the) family
Key words: the family, as even Stalin finally had to admit, proved much more resistant
Synonyms: the most resistant force = the family, which proved much more resistant = “Religion succumbed, but the family, as even Stalin finally had to admit, proved much more resistant”
Explanation: The family resisted the scheme more than anything else → family.
Answer Key (Quick Reference)
| Q | Answer | Q | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | iv | 34 | vii |
| 28 | xii | 35 | C |
| 29 | ii | 36 | B |
| 30 | x | 37 | A |
| 31 | i | 38 | Yuri Larin |
| 32 | ix | 39 | colour-coding |
| 33 | v | 40 | (the) family |
