To win the Civil War, and save the conquests of the Revolution, required near-total mobilization and super-human efforts. One of those was the ‘Subotnik’, giving volunteer labor to the collective on Saturdays.All kings of work unconnected to the war was done and could include anything from an extra, unpaid shift at your factory to cleaning the park with your classmates.

‘Communist Saturdays: Proletarian Workers’ Discipline’ from Soviet Russia (New York). Vol. 2 No. 8. February 21, 1920.

THE Soviet Press, writes Lenin, reports many examples of heroic deeds performed by soldiers of the Red Guard. In the defense of the accomplishments of the revolution against Kolchak, Denikin, and other hirelings of the landed proprietors and capitalists, workers and peasants have repeatedly achieved wonders of valor and endurance. Not less worthy of admiration are the heroic efforts of the workers in the rear. In this connection, the establishment of the Communist Saturdays by the workers, on their own initiative, is of far reaching importance.

The introduction of the “Saturdays” has barely begun, and yet the institution is already of immense importance. It is the beginning of a new revolution, of a revolution which is a workers’ revolution in the highest measure, which is more material, more radical, and more significant than the mere overthrow of the bourgeoisie, for it signifies nothing less than a victory over indolence, over disorder, over the petty bourgeois egoism, a victory achieved by the working class themselves, a victory over all the bad habits bequeathed to the workers and peasants as a legacy of the capitalistic anarchy. Only the soldification of this victory may secure the creation of a new public, socialistic, discipline, and render impossible a return to capitalism by making Communism invincible.

What are these Saturdays?

Early in May, 1919, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia issued a manifesto to the workers in which the committee called attention to the necessity of devising new methods of productive labor and of replacing the old habits that had been transmitted by capitalism with new revolutionary customs. The immediate consequences of this appeal are well illustrated in the following article in Pravda, the central organ of the entire Communist Party in Russia. In the edition of this paper dated May 17th there appeared an article under the title, “The Revolutionary Communist Workers’ Saturdays.” This article gives an idea of the first reply of the Communist workers to the appeal of their party. The following is an extract from this article:

“The communication of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party concerning revolutionary labor has given a tremendous impulse to the communist organizations as well as the communists themselves. Many railroad workers, under the influence of a similar impulse, went to the front, but the majority found it impossible to leave their responsible positions in order to find in the field opportunities for truly revolutionary activity. The reports that have been received concerning the slowness with which the work of mobilization proceeded, caused the special section of the Moscow-Kazan Railroad workers to turn their attention to the study of the mechanism of the railroad administration. It was then discovered, among other things, that as a consequence of irregularities in the work done, important orders and urgent operations in the repair of locomotives had been delayed. On May 7th, in a general meeting of the Communists and members of the Special Section of the Moscow-Kazan Railroad, the question of a coalition of methods of work, or a transition from words to deeds, in their participation in the war against Kolchak, was proposed. The following resolution was passed:

“In view of the serious internal and external situation which has been created by the struggle to defeat our class enemies, we Communists and friends of the Railroad Workers must make a new effort by yielding one hour daily of our leisure time, in other words, by increasing the work day by one hour. We can attain the same end by giving six full hours in succession on Saturdays. In view of the fact that the Communists in the defense of the conquests of the revolution may spare neither their health nor their lives, this work is to be done without compensation. Communist Saturdays shall be introduced in all of the Special Section until the final victory over Kolchak has been gained.”

After some hesitation and discussion this resolution was unanimously adopted.

On Saturday, May 10th, at six o’clock in the evening, the Communists and friends of the Special Section, as well as the soldiers, reported for their work, divided into groups, and were allotted to their assigned places by their foremen without further ceremony.

The excellent results attained by this revolutionary work is apparent to anyone.

The intensity of work in the operation of unloading exceeded the normal by 270 per cent. All other work was performed with practically normal intensity. In this way delays in the execution of urgent orders, caused by a lack in labor supply, were avoided.

The work was continued in spite of a number of irregularities which were easily remedied, but which had delayed individual groups for thirty or forty minutes. The administration that had been installed to supervise the work had hardly time enough to prepare the work, and perhaps the statement of an old foreman who claimed that the work done on the Communist Saturday was equivalent to that of an entire normal week was not much exaggerated.

Ten per cent of the Communists were regular employes, the others were in positions of responsibility, or were normally engaged in other lines, all the way from railroad and other commissars to union officials and members of the transportation commissariat.

The zeal and the esprit de corps in this work reached a height hitherto not observed. Once when the workers, employes, and managers rushed like a swarm of busy ants at a gigantic cylinder weighing more than forty poods in order to roll it to the proper place, there ensued as a result of this common labor a feeling of well being which filled us with certainty as to the victory of the working class.

Those present at the conclusion of the work witnessed a scene for which words are too weak. About 100 Communists who had remained on the spot, and whose eyes were flashing with fire, hailed the successful completion of the work with a triumphant outburst of “The Internationale.” They felt as if the peals of this triumphant hymn were surging from their souls and rolling through the Moscow of the workers, thence to fill all of Russia and waken the backward and petty-spirited in all places.

Soviet Russia began in the summer of 1919, published by the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia and replaced The Weekly Bulletin of the Bureau of Information of Soviet Russia. In lieu of an Embassy the Russian Soviet Government Bureau was the official voice of the Soviets in the US. Soviet Russia was published as the official organ of the RSGB until February 1922 when Soviet Russia became to the official organ of The Friends of Soviet Russia, becoming Soviet Russia Pictorial in 1923. There is no better US-published source for information on the Soviet state at this time, and includes official statements, articles by prominent Bolsheviks, data on the Soviet economy, weekly reports on the wars for survival the Soviets were engaged in, as well as efforts to in the US to lift the blockade and begin trade with the emerging Soviet Union.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/srp/v1v2-soviet-russia-Jan-June-1920.pdf