“Partisanship” at the Late Soviet Factory through the Prism of Andrey Alekseev's Dramatic Sociology.
Research Article
Acknowledgments
The article was prepared as part of the postgraduate project «Organization of working time at the industrial enterprises of Leningrad in the 1980s.» under the scientific supervision of Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov at the Department of History of the HSE University (St. Petersburg); the project was supported in 2020 by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (No. 20-39-90029) as part of a competition among graduate students for the best projects of fundamental scientific research.
How to Cite
Pinchuk O.V. “Partisanship” at the Late Soviet Factory through the Prism of Andrey Alekseev’s Dramatic Sociology. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation. 2022. Vol. 14. No. 3. P. 78-97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2022.14.3.4 (in Russ.).
Abstract
The article attempts to analyze informal practices at a late Soviet factory through the prism of the factory ethnographic project of the Soviet sociologist Andrei Alekseev, who in the 1980s. worked in the workshop of the Lenpoligraphmash plant. Based on the materials published as a result of the research project, a number of questions are raised: What is remarkable about the experience of the sociologist Andrey Alekseev? How does participant observation research help to study the organization of labor in a Soviet factory? Is it possible to say that informal practices in the work of workers were aimed only at “escaping” from the control of the factory administration, and autonomy at the workplace served solely to satisfy personal needs? The focus of the article is an informal practice, which the workshop workers called "partisanism" — the informal production of spare parts that are subsequently used not for personal purposes, but for the needs of production. It is argued that, firstly, contrary to the belief of researchers of Soviet labor, the ability of workers to act outside the field of view of the administration can be aimed not only at shirking and avoiding work, but also at building new ways of organizing labor, aimed, among other things, at management of collective planning obligations; secondly, Alekseev’s research project itself became “partisan”, since, on the one hand, it made it possible to explore and capture in detail the informal life of a Soviet enterprise shop in the 1980s, on the other hand, it became an alternative way to study Soviet society, a methodological and empirical initiative, an invention , but at the same time a contribution to the history of Soviet industrial sociology.
Keywords:
Soviet labor, ethnography of work, participant observation, Soviet sociology, organization of work, industrial labor, late Soviet period
References
Abramov R.N. (2014) “Strukturshchiki” i “zavodskie sociologi”: k istorii issledovanij social'noprofessional'nyh grupp v SSSR v 1960-1980-e gody [“Structuralists” and “Industrial Sociologists”: on the History of Studying Social Professional Groups in the USSR, 1960-1980th]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 10. P. 50–59. EDN: STFCKF
Alasheev S.Y. (1995) Neformal'nye otnosheniya v processe proizvodstva: «vzglyad iznutri» [Informal Relations in the Production Process: “An Inside Look”]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 2. P. 12–19. (In Russ.)
Alekseev A.N. (1997) Dramaticheskaya sociologiya: eksperiment sociologa-rabochego [Dramatic Sociology: the Experiment of Sociologist-Worker]. Moscow: Institute of Sociology RAS. (In Russ.)
Alekseev A.N. (2003) Dramaticheskaya sociologiya: eksperiment sociologa-rabochego [Dramatic Sociology: the Experiment of Sociologist-Worker]. St. Petersburg: Norma. (In Russ.)
Alekseev A.N., Doktorov B.Z. (2010) V poiskah adresata [In search of the addressee]. St. Petersburg: Foster City. P. 281–313. (In Russ.)
Bikbov A., Gavrilenko S. (2002) Rossijskaya sociologiya: avtonomiya pod voprosom (CHast' 1) [Russian Sociology: Autonomy in Question (Part 1)]. Logos. No. 5–6. P. 186–210. (In Russ.) EDN: TJJLSX
Clement C. (2003) Neformal'nye praktiki rossijskih rabochih [Informal Practices by Russian Labor]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 5. P. 62–72. (In Russ.) EDN: OOOTKN
Filtzer D. (1996) Labor Discipline, the Use of Work Time, and the Decline of the Soviet System, 1928–1991. International Labor and Working-Class History. Vol. 50. P. 9–28.
Gorshkov M.K., Toshchenko Z.T. (2018) Osnovnye vekhi v razvitii otechestvennoj sociologii (konec 1950-h — 2010-e gody) [Main Milestones in the Development of Russian Sociology: late 1950-s — 2010-s]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 6. P. 3–16. (In Russ.) EDN: XQOMLJ
Grigor'ev L.G. (2003) Recenziya: Alekseev A.N. (2003) Dramaticheskaya sociologiya i sociologicheskaya autorefleksiya: V 2-h t. SPb.: Norma [Review: Alekseev A.N. (2003) Dramatic Sociology and Sociological Self-Reflection: 2 Vol. St. Petersburg: Norma]. Sociologicheskij zhurnal [Sociological Journal]. No 2. P. 180–186. (In Russ.) EDN: PZQNXH
Lebskij M.A. (2021) Rabochij klass v SSSR: zhizn' v usloviyah promyshlennogo paternalizma [The Working Class in the USSR: Life in the Conditions of Industrial Paternalism]. Moscow: Gorizontal' publ. (In Russ.)
Maksimova A.S. (2012) Analiz polevyh dnevnikov v kontekste proizvodstva etnograficheskih tekstov [Analysis of Field Diaries in the Context of the Production of Ethnographic Texts]. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskie i social'nye peremeny [Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes]. No. 1 (107). P. 128–140. (In Russ.) EDN: OQMGKB
Oberländer A. (2017) Cushy Work, Backbreaking Leisure-late Soviet Work Ethics Reconsidered. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. Vol. 18. No. 3. P. 569–590.
Ol'shanskij V.B. (1999) Byli my rannimi… [We were early]. In: Batygin G.S., Yarmolyuk S.F. (eds) Rossijskaya sociologiya shestidesyatyh godov v vospominaniyah i dokumentah [Russian Sociology of the Sixties in Memoirs and Documents]. St.Petersburg: The Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities. P. 175–189. (In Russ.) EDN: ZGEKVN
Patrushev V.D. (1981) Osnovnye itogi i zadachi issledovanij byudzhetov vremeni v SSSR [The Main Results and Objectives of Time Budget Research in the USSR]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 3.
Patrushev V.D., Artemov V.A., Novohackaya O.V. (2001) Izuchenie byudzhetov vremeni v Rossii XX v. [The Study of Time Budgets in Russia of the Twentieth Century]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. Vol. 6. P. 112–120. (In Russ.)
Pinchuk O.V. (2021) Kak vozmozhno etnograficheskoe issledovanie truda v Rossii? Demarginalizaciya etnografii v pole prikladnogo issledovaniya [How is Ethnography of Work Possible in Russia? Demarginalization of Ethnography in the Field of Business Research]. Sociologiya vlasti [Sociology of Power]. Vol. 33. No. 3. P. 109–130. (In Russ.) EDN: CBZYRL
Piskunov M.O. (2017) Mikropolitika pozdnesovetskogo zavoda: obshchee «Svoevolie» i bor'ba za disciplinu truda (sluchaj Vyborgskogo cellyulozno-bumazhnogo zavoda 1982-1985 gody) [Micropolitics of the Late Soviet Plant: General “Self-will” and the Struggle for Labor Discipline (the Case of the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Plant 1982-1985)]. Zhurnal issledovanij social'noj politiki [The journal of Social Policy Studies]. Vol. 15. No. 2. P. 217–234. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/727-0634-2017-15-2-217-234. EDN: YZBNXX
Rogozin D. (2015) Kak rabotaet avtoetnografiya? [How Autoethnography Works?]. Sociologicheskoe obozrenie [Russian Sociological Review]. Vol. 14. No. 1. P. 224–273. (In Russ.) EDN: TRRRBD
Scott J.C. (1989) Everyday forms of resistance. The Copenhagen journal of Asian studies. Vol. 4. P. 33–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22439/cjas.v4i1.1765
Seim J. (2021) Participant Observation, Observant Participation, and Hybrid Ethnography. Sociological Methods & Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124120986209
Shah A. (2017) Ethnography? Participant observation, a Potentially Revolutionary Praxis. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Vol. 7. No. 1. P. 4559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau7.1.008
Smith V. (2001) Ethnographies of work and the work of ethnographers. Handbook of ethnography, Sage. P. 220–233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608337.N15
Smolyak O.A. (2012) Sovetskie nesuny [Soviet Pilferers]. Otechestvennye zapiski [Patriotic Notes]. No. 1. P. 311–318. (In Russ.) EDN: QJAVXF
Sokolov A.K. (2009) Rezhimnost' na sovetskih predpriyatiyah [Regime at Soviet enterprises]. Rezhimnye lyudi v SSSR [Regime People in the USSR]. P. 99–127. (In Russ.) EDN: PVFEWH
Sokolov M.M. (2011) Rynki truda, stratifikaciya i kar'ery v sovetskoj sociologii [Labor Markets, Stratification and Careers in Soviet Sociology]. Ekonomicheskaya sociologiya [Journal of Economic Sociology]. Vol. 12. No. 4. P. 37–72. (In Russ.) EDN: OZFLYP
Ssorin-Chaikov N. (2012) Gobbs v Sibiri: social'naya zhizn' gosudarstva (iz knigi «Social'naya zhizn' gosudarstva v severnoj Sibiri») [Hobbies in Siberia: on the Social Life of the State (from the book “Social Life of the State in the Northern Siberia”]. Sociologiya vlasti [Sociology of Power]. No. 4–5. P. 155–187. (In Russ.) EDN: RCHOLD
Ssorin-Chaikov N. (2008) Political Fieldwork, Ethnographic Exile, and State Theory: Peasant Socialism and Anthropology in Late-Nineteenth-Century Russia. New history of anthropology. Р. 191–207.
Van der Linden M. (1995) Keeping Distance: Alf Lüdtke’s “Decentred” Labour History. International Review of Social History. Vol. 40. No. 2. P. 287–296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000113239
Yadov V.A. (1999) Recenziya na knigu: Alekseev A.N. Dramaticheskaya sociologiya: eksperiment sociologa-rabochego [Book Review: Alekseev A.N. Dramatic Sociology: the Experiment of Sociologist-Worker]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 1. P. 152–153. (In Russ.)
Yanowitch М. (1984) Work in the Soviet Union: Attitudes and Issues. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/130494
Yurchak A. (2020) Geterohroniya: zastoj i beskonechnost' na granice sovetskoj istorii [Heterochrony: Stagnation and Infinity on the border of Soviet History]. In: Eto bylo navsegda 68/85 [It was Forever 68/85]. M.: Tretyakov Gallery. P. 94–100. (In Russ.)
Zhevakina M.A. (2020) Sovetskie cekhoviki: etika «levyh» otnoshenij [Soviet Shopkeepers: Ethics of “Left” Relations]. Neprikosnovennyj zapas. Debaty o politike i kul'ture [NZ. Debates about Politics and Culture]. No. 5. P. 207–217. (In Russ.) EDN: XMWCXM
Alasheev S.Y. (1995) Neformal'nye otnosheniya v processe proizvodstva: «vzglyad iznutri» [Informal Relations in the Production Process: “An Inside Look”]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 2. P. 12–19. (In Russ.)
Alekseev A.N. (1997) Dramaticheskaya sociologiya: eksperiment sociologa-rabochego [Dramatic Sociology: the Experiment of Sociologist-Worker]. Moscow: Institute of Sociology RAS. (In Russ.)
Alekseev A.N. (2003) Dramaticheskaya sociologiya: eksperiment sociologa-rabochego [Dramatic Sociology: the Experiment of Sociologist-Worker]. St. Petersburg: Norma. (In Russ.)
Alekseev A.N., Doktorov B.Z. (2010) V poiskah adresata [In search of the addressee]. St. Petersburg: Foster City. P. 281–313. (In Russ.)
Bikbov A., Gavrilenko S. (2002) Rossijskaya sociologiya: avtonomiya pod voprosom (CHast' 1) [Russian Sociology: Autonomy in Question (Part 1)]. Logos. No. 5–6. P. 186–210. (In Russ.) EDN: TJJLSX
Clement C. (2003) Neformal'nye praktiki rossijskih rabochih [Informal Practices by Russian Labor]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 5. P. 62–72. (In Russ.) EDN: OOOTKN
Filtzer D. (1996) Labor Discipline, the Use of Work Time, and the Decline of the Soviet System, 1928–1991. International Labor and Working-Class History. Vol. 50. P. 9–28.
Gorshkov M.K., Toshchenko Z.T. (2018) Osnovnye vekhi v razvitii otechestvennoj sociologii (konec 1950-h — 2010-e gody) [Main Milestones in the Development of Russian Sociology: late 1950-s — 2010-s]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 6. P. 3–16. (In Russ.) EDN: XQOMLJ
Grigor'ev L.G. (2003) Recenziya: Alekseev A.N. (2003) Dramaticheskaya sociologiya i sociologicheskaya autorefleksiya: V 2-h t. SPb.: Norma [Review: Alekseev A.N. (2003) Dramatic Sociology and Sociological Self-Reflection: 2 Vol. St. Petersburg: Norma]. Sociologicheskij zhurnal [Sociological Journal]. No 2. P. 180–186. (In Russ.) EDN: PZQNXH
Lebskij M.A. (2021) Rabochij klass v SSSR: zhizn' v usloviyah promyshlennogo paternalizma [The Working Class in the USSR: Life in the Conditions of Industrial Paternalism]. Moscow: Gorizontal' publ. (In Russ.)
Maksimova A.S. (2012) Analiz polevyh dnevnikov v kontekste proizvodstva etnograficheskih tekstov [Analysis of Field Diaries in the Context of the Production of Ethnographic Texts]. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskie i social'nye peremeny [Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes]. No. 1 (107). P. 128–140. (In Russ.) EDN: OQMGKB
Oberländer A. (2017) Cushy Work, Backbreaking Leisure-late Soviet Work Ethics Reconsidered. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. Vol. 18. No. 3. P. 569–590.
Ol'shanskij V.B. (1999) Byli my rannimi… [We were early]. In: Batygin G.S., Yarmolyuk S.F. (eds) Rossijskaya sociologiya shestidesyatyh godov v vospominaniyah i dokumentah [Russian Sociology of the Sixties in Memoirs and Documents]. St.Petersburg: The Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities. P. 175–189. (In Russ.) EDN: ZGEKVN
Patrushev V.D. (1981) Osnovnye itogi i zadachi issledovanij byudzhetov vremeni v SSSR [The Main Results and Objectives of Time Budget Research in the USSR]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 3.
Patrushev V.D., Artemov V.A., Novohackaya O.V. (2001) Izuchenie byudzhetov vremeni v Rossii XX v. [The Study of Time Budgets in Russia of the Twentieth Century]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. Vol. 6. P. 112–120. (In Russ.)
Pinchuk O.V. (2021) Kak vozmozhno etnograficheskoe issledovanie truda v Rossii? Demarginalizaciya etnografii v pole prikladnogo issledovaniya [How is Ethnography of Work Possible in Russia? Demarginalization of Ethnography in the Field of Business Research]. Sociologiya vlasti [Sociology of Power]. Vol. 33. No. 3. P. 109–130. (In Russ.) EDN: CBZYRL
Piskunov M.O. (2017) Mikropolitika pozdnesovetskogo zavoda: obshchee «Svoevolie» i bor'ba za disciplinu truda (sluchaj Vyborgskogo cellyulozno-bumazhnogo zavoda 1982-1985 gody) [Micropolitics of the Late Soviet Plant: General “Self-will” and the Struggle for Labor Discipline (the Case of the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Plant 1982-1985)]. Zhurnal issledovanij social'noj politiki [The journal of Social Policy Studies]. Vol. 15. No. 2. P. 217–234. (In Russ.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/727-0634-2017-15-2-217-234. EDN: YZBNXX
Rogozin D. (2015) Kak rabotaet avtoetnografiya? [How Autoethnography Works?]. Sociologicheskoe obozrenie [Russian Sociological Review]. Vol. 14. No. 1. P. 224–273. (In Russ.) EDN: TRRRBD
Scott J.C. (1989) Everyday forms of resistance. The Copenhagen journal of Asian studies. Vol. 4. P. 33–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22439/cjas.v4i1.1765
Seim J. (2021) Participant Observation, Observant Participation, and Hybrid Ethnography. Sociological Methods & Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124120986209
Shah A. (2017) Ethnography? Participant observation, a Potentially Revolutionary Praxis. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. Vol. 7. No. 1. P. 4559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau7.1.008
Smith V. (2001) Ethnographies of work and the work of ethnographers. Handbook of ethnography, Sage. P. 220–233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608337.N15
Smolyak O.A. (2012) Sovetskie nesuny [Soviet Pilferers]. Otechestvennye zapiski [Patriotic Notes]. No. 1. P. 311–318. (In Russ.) EDN: QJAVXF
Sokolov A.K. (2009) Rezhimnost' na sovetskih predpriyatiyah [Regime at Soviet enterprises]. Rezhimnye lyudi v SSSR [Regime People in the USSR]. P. 99–127. (In Russ.) EDN: PVFEWH
Sokolov M.M. (2011) Rynki truda, stratifikaciya i kar'ery v sovetskoj sociologii [Labor Markets, Stratification and Careers in Soviet Sociology]. Ekonomicheskaya sociologiya [Journal of Economic Sociology]. Vol. 12. No. 4. P. 37–72. (In Russ.) EDN: OZFLYP
Ssorin-Chaikov N. (2012) Gobbs v Sibiri: social'naya zhizn' gosudarstva (iz knigi «Social'naya zhizn' gosudarstva v severnoj Sibiri») [Hobbies in Siberia: on the Social Life of the State (from the book “Social Life of the State in the Northern Siberia”]. Sociologiya vlasti [Sociology of Power]. No. 4–5. P. 155–187. (In Russ.) EDN: RCHOLD
Ssorin-Chaikov N. (2008) Political Fieldwork, Ethnographic Exile, and State Theory: Peasant Socialism and Anthropology in Late-Nineteenth-Century Russia. New history of anthropology. Р. 191–207.
Van der Linden M. (1995) Keeping Distance: Alf Lüdtke’s “Decentred” Labour History. International Review of Social History. Vol. 40. No. 2. P. 287–296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000113239
Yadov V.A. (1999) Recenziya na knigu: Alekseev A.N. Dramaticheskaya sociologiya: eksperiment sociologa-rabochego [Book Review: Alekseev A.N. Dramatic Sociology: the Experiment of Sociologist-Worker]. Sociologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Research]. No. 1. P. 152–153. (In Russ.)
Yanowitch М. (1984) Work in the Soviet Union: Attitudes and Issues. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/130494
Yurchak A. (2020) Geterohroniya: zastoj i beskonechnost' na granice sovetskoj istorii [Heterochrony: Stagnation and Infinity on the border of Soviet History]. In: Eto bylo navsegda 68/85 [It was Forever 68/85]. M.: Tretyakov Gallery. P. 94–100. (In Russ.)
Zhevakina M.A. (2020) Sovetskie cekhoviki: etika «levyh» otnoshenij [Soviet Shopkeepers: Ethics of “Left” Relations]. Neprikosnovennyj zapas. Debaty o politike i kul'ture [NZ. Debates about Politics and Culture]. No. 5. P. 207–217. (In Russ.) EDN: XMWCXM
Article
Received: 20.07.2022
Accepted: 28.09.2022
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Pinchuk, O. V. (2022). “Partisanship” at the Late Soviet Factory through the Prism of Andrey Alekseev’s Dramatic Sociology. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation, 14(3), 78-97. https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2022.14.3.4
Section
Research discourses: professional work, employment, ethnography
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
