Soviet Woman, 31 Juli 1964: 'A Factory and Its Workers' (memuat profil 'Kartini')

=== [PDF page 1] === P I I T f r W W W V 1! 7,*fA^v;^'tjgges^gwBBM xt f ' ■ 5^ i s s s S r r r v RBBww'v':.'" *V; liii® i....■i-iii^’' ' ' ' a H n 1 1 tom*'*' 4 n B H p ■ i. WBr "'[Tfk Ifl^ f lf a k ' M liii E ® F lf F * JSS^& iw === [PDF page 2] === T his piece of reportage might begin in a va riety of ways, for instance with the pine-bordered avenues that lead up to the works, or with rows of impressive figures, such as 2,183 workers of the Minsk Tractor Works studying at seconda ry and higher schools and 2,403 authors of high er-efficiency proposals that have saved about two million rubles a year, or with the fact that machines produced by the works are doing yeo man service on the land, both in our country and far beyond her borders— in 52 other countries. However, it is not to unearth figures that we are visiting this realm of mechanization and auto mation. W e have a different aim. Bourgeois so ciologists have asserted that the tremendous tech nical progress achieved in industry— both capi talist and socialist— tends to depersonalize the worker, to turn him into a kind of appendage to the machine, a robot. W e do not dispute the fact that an employee in a capitalist enterprise tends to be a mere cog in the industrial wheel, and sees his work not as a field of creative endeavour but merely as a means of earning a living. It is quite different in socialist society. Here, work at the factory, far from suppressing the work er's individuality, provides him with every op portunity to develop it. SEARCH AND DISCOVERY The first of the people we interview at the Minsk Tractor Works is Valentina llyukevich. A grinding-machine operator, she has been at the R, B E R L I N Grinder Valentina llyukevich (right) and her friends Irina Dainovskaya and Nadezhda Ryabova, who also work at the factory Photograph by I. ZMITROVICH and K H M E L N IT S K A Y A Photographs by V. VOLODKIN Crane operator Zinaida Demidovich, driller Sofia Loktik, and adjuster Marat Krukovich whom we snapped in the shop === [PDF page 3] === works for almost ten years, during which time she has completed a number of study courses and acquired several skills. At present she is studying to enter an institute. She wants to become an engineer. Besides, she is a deputy to the district Soviet. She tells us how she and her workmate Galina Potalei have achieved a saving in working time. "After the February Plenary Meeting of the Party's Central Committee the works set itself the goal of getting each tractor off the production line in four minutes instead of six. That meant more parts to be produced which could be done only by raising labour productivity. W e re checked the working arrangements in our shop and found that unnecessary time was spent on bringing up parts and tools. W e asked for the shelves to be moved closer to the machines. W e found other ways of turning out more compo nents without any particular increase of effort. "Then Galina and I wrote to the shop trade union committee, suggesting that the quotas be raised and the rates of pay cut. In each shift we now turn out an extra five hundred components, raising output to three thousand." These two women are no exceptions at the Minsk Works. They have enthused so many of their workmates that it has proved necessary to set up twenty-three volunteer rate-fixing bu reaus, consisting exclusively of workers. Unlike previous practices, it is- these people, and not the works administration, who decide where and how working hours can be made more produc tive. W e remember the simple and matter-of-fact way in which Valentina replied to our question. "You.ask what this initiative has given me. Joy and a deep sense of satisfaction at having made a contribution to our common cause." To preclude any possibility of our thinking that she had done something out of the ordinary, she went on to tell us of the initiative shown by grinder-operator Ivan Petrov, and driller Sofia Loktik, who proposed ways to ensure high qual ity work. "This is also very important," Valentina con cludes. Very important— this is an expression that keeps on cropping up when we talk to the work ers. It reflects their sense of responsibility to society, their link with the common cause and their desire to make a fitting contribution to something "very important." When we later met Sofia Loktik we could see in her the same alertness for improvements in production, but this time with a difference. Sofia had a way of giving a literary and even poetic quality to everyday matters. "You seem very much interested in litera ture," we remarked. "M ore than that. It's my second speciality," she replied. "I am a student in the Department of Philology at the University." BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW Our next visit was to a performance of one of Ostrovsky's plays at the club of the Polytechnical Institute in Minsk. It was being presented by the People's Theatre (a purely amateur compa ny) of the Minsk Tractor Works. The audience had a particularly warm reception for Olga Kra marenko. W e asked her whether she had ever thought of becoming a professional actress. "This isn't the first time I've been asked that." She smiled. "No, I haven't. I love acting, but I love my works too." W e learnt that hers had not been an easy life. She had seen service at the front as a scout, had been gravely wounded, and had lost her husband. During the enemy occupation of Byelo russia she lost her children and found them again only after five years of searching. She was not growing any younger, and it seemed that her dream of acting on the theatrical stage would never come true. She took a job at the works, where her fellow workers soon discovered that she was an excel lent narrator of stories. She was invited first to perform in the shop and.then to join the amateur company at the factory's House of Culture where several thousand amateur artistes are given pro fessional training. "Last year I was awarded the title of Artiste of the People's Theatre," she told us. "I'd like you to meet another member of our theatre com pany with that title. She is a crane operator." Zinaida Demidovich proved so petite and frag ile a woman that we told her we could hardly believe she followed so robust a calling as that of crane operator. "Oh, the crane obeys me. You need have no doubts on that score," she smiled. === [PDF page 4] === A SfRIOUS and \U I FlL DISCUSSION Fitter Victor Makovetsky ' For many actors and actresses chance debuts have been a turning point in their careers, but the theatre holds second place in Zinaida's af fection. Just as before she takes her place on the crane at 7: 30 sharp every morning. CREATORS OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS The two men are probably discussing some highly complex machine. The elder man's gaze is steady and keen. The younger is listening at tentively, evidently weighing the pros and the cons. Then he moves off, evidently satisfied. ” 1 feel sure that you have the situation under full control," are his parting words. W e are introduced to the older man. Victor Makovetsky is not an engineer but a maintenance fitter in the foundry shop. In the course of the last ten years, this man has produced such a number of efficiency devices and modernized or perfected so many mechanisms that he may well be called a creator of technical progress. At present he is hard at work on a new prob lem. Makovetsky has worked out a design for a new sandslinger and in this he gets the support and engineering advice of Victor Penzya, a young specialist and member of one of the 18 volunteer designers' bureaus set up at the works. "I suppose you are right," Victor Makovetsky tells us in reply to a remark we make. "I find nothing more absorbing than working on techno logical improvements. That must be why I have been elected chairman of the shop innovation bureau. However, my great interest would yield far fewer results if i were working on my own. Anybody who goes in for this sort of work needs a lot of help and cooperation— materials for ex periments, and lathes and tools. All this is pro vided by the works although there can be no guarantee that any proposal will yield results. "Ordinary ingenuity isn’t enough nowadays, for modern equipment requires more knowledge. A training centre has been set up, with dozens of courses, seminars, technical schools, and even a branch of the Polytechnical Institute." W e have described only a few representatives of the workers at a typical, highly developed socialist factory. They do not bear the least re semblance to robots, to standardized and unthink ing products of the industrial machine. W e would like to conclude this article by quoting from the Visitors' Book. A group of del egates from Latin America wrote: "W e have been thrilled by what we have seen at your works. W e have seen a variety of forms of public initiative and note with great satisfac tion that here, unlike the state of affairs in capi talist countries, mechanization and automation help develop the workers. They feel that they are the masters of their plant and have confi dence in the future.” LYDIA If! the late autumn of 1961 a group of Soviet women (I was one of them) took part in the First conference of Soviet and American women, convened by the American Section of the Wom en's International League for Peace and Free dom. The conference was held at Bryn Mawr, near Philadelphia. This spring a delegation of twelve American women, headed by Dorothy Hutchinson, Chairman of the American Section of the League for Peace and Freedom, arrived in Moscow for the second conference, called by the Institute of Soviet-American Relations. Many notable events have taken place in the time that has elapsed between the two confer ences, events which have further lessened in ternational tensions: the signing of the Moscow Partial Test-Ban Treaty, the agreement on the non-orbiting into outer space of objects with nuclear weapons, and the declaration by the heads of states on reducing the production of fission materials. In their speeches both Olga Chechotkina, who headed the Soviet delegation, and Dorothy Hutchinson welcomed these devel opments. An improvement in American-Soviet relations, as expressed in these agreements, cannot but strengthen the hopes of the women of our two countries for the establishment of KISLOVA Chairman, Women's Commission,. Institute of Soviet-American Relations a permanent peace. That was why there was such a feeling of goodwill at the opening of the conference, best expressed in the warm words of greeting voiced by Nina Popova, Chairman of the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. There we twelve Soviet and twelve American women took our places at a round table to discuss frankly and seriously the most pressing problems of our times. Mutual understanding was our goal. We spoke in detail of disarma ment, of the steps that must be taken towards further lessening of international tensions, of the role of the United Nations in preserving peace, of the further development of SovietAmerican relations along lines of peaceful coexistence. Needless to say, we devoted special attention to the role of women in preserving world peace; we discussed the problems inherent in bring ing up our children in a spirit of peace and friendship among the peoples of the world. And, quite naturally, there were questions on which we differed. A t times we did not agree in our evaluation of a given event or development on the international arena. But this did not hinder us in our approach to the main problems. We were in unanimous agreement on the basic question: that peace on earth must be preserved and strengthened. Each and every one of us was convinced that the most effective means K A R T I N I She has remained forever young in the hearts of her people. Everybody in Indonesia knows her face. It is young and fragile, like a flower petal. In her large dark eyes there is a hint of sadness, yet there is hope, expectation, bright intelligence. Kartini spent twenty-four years in her father's house and another year in her husband's. Hers was such a short life, almost devoid of incident. W hy then has the twenty-first of April, the birthday of Kartini, become a national holiday in Indonesia? Mr. Manai Sofian, Indonesian Ambassador to the U.S.S.R., explained it thus: "Kartini was a great woman. She did much to shape the In donesian character, and one who shapes charac ters, shapes a nation as well." How many Indonesian women passed silently through life, how many of them were simply the slaves of their husbands? But here was one among them who became the spokesman of those who were silent, who voiced their demands, and proved that the women of Indonesia were worthy of a beautiful future. Kartini was exceptionally fortunate in that her father sent her to school. At that time there were only eleven girls attending school in all of Indonesia. Her four years of study flew by in a shining halo of joy. But— have you ever heard of "pingitan"? "Pingitan" means "the time of retirement”; more accurately, it was a time of imprisonment in the father's house. As soon as a girl reached puberty she became a prisoner. Thus, twelve-year-old Kartini entered her period of "pingitan." But she did not resign herself to her fate. She continued studying by