Evolution in the Soviet Sociology of Work: From Ideology to Pragmatism

Abstract

This paper will examine the history of developments in the Soviet sociology of work, focusing particularly on research on attitudes toward work. The principal object of analysis will be the developments in empirical sociological research in the

USSR since 1953, with an effort to explain the origins of the concepts recently circulating in soviet literature on work. It  is also important to include a brief discussion of the views of worker attitudes dominant during the stalin era, for these have had a strong impact on the subsequent work of soviet sociologists. An examination of the stakhanovite movement of the 1930s will be used to describe these attitudes.