STALIN ANTIWORKER WORKERISM, 1924-1931

This article sketches the background of the development of the ''worke rist myth'' in the Soviet Union in the period 1924-1931. From 1924 onw ard workers were subjected to mounting pressure to increase productivi ty and tighten discipline, against the background of the great debate on how to transform the Soviet Union from an agrarian country into a c ountry with a powerful industrial sector as rapidly as possible. Betwe en 1928 and 1929 a vigorous antiworker campaign was launched in the So viet Press, which in just a few months in the winter of 1929-1930 was transformed into a workerist campaign, glorifying the exemplary shock workers as ''enthusiastic builders of socialism''. This myth was used on the domestic as well as on the external front, and meant the ascent to power of the Stalinist elite and the definitive breakthrough of a ''national socialism''. it also marked the end of trade unionism as su ch.