How Soviet people got a job
From the student bench to retirement in one place – the career of many Soviet citizens resembled this. But, how did they find a job during that era?
Graduate placement
Young specialists, who had just graduated from an institute or technical school, had no difficulty finding a job. They were already waiting for them at enterprises or organizations, where they were assigned by a special commission shortly before graduation, based on applications for specialists of a particular profile from ministries or enterprises themselves.
The first graduate placement system appeared in 1933. The decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR prohibited the employment of young specialists not in their specialty; failure to show up at the place of work or self-employment was considered a violation of the law. According to this document, young specialists had to work at the graduate placement for (at least) five years. And technical school graduates could not enroll at an institute without (at least) three years of work in production under their belt. In the 1960s, the mandatory work period was reduced to three years.
Vasily Aksyonov described the moment of placement in his novel ‘Colleagues’ as follows: “This day is remembered all their lives. It is a day of mass absences, escapes from lectures, valerian drops, laughter, tears… Dozens of students are assigned on the first day, with hundreds of fans. Parents, wives, fiancées, acquaintances and just curious people from junior courses.”
Young specialists were not always sent to work in their place of residence, but also in other regions of the country. Moreover, employers had to provide new employees with housing. In addition, travel and transportation of property were paid for, a cash allowance was issued and, if the way lay to the Far North, or, for example, to Khabarovsk Territory, the young specialists received daily allowances.
Construction engineer Veniamin Druzhkov recalled how he was sent to work at a machine-building factory: “I flew away to a life unknown to me, to an unfamiliar city of Izhevsk as a young specialist – an industrial and civil construction engineer. In my suitcase, I had things and essentials to start an independent life, in my pocket I had a job referral and ‘lifting allowance’, on the lapel of my jacket I had a technical university graduate pin badge.”
Not everyone was happy about the change of the usual life. For example, in 1959 in Leningrad, 130 people out of more than 7,000 graduates refused the distribution. However, disagreement with the decision of the commission on graduate placement did not exempt them from arriving at work as assigned. For a long time, refusal and failure to show up for a job was a criminal offense and, in the early 1960s, young specialists did not receive their diplomas until they had worked for several years as assigned.
The hero of Vasily Aksenov's book lamented: “Edka and I decided to become neighbors. Me – to Oymyakon; and he – to Orotukan. He promised to treat me to a bear shashlik! I thought I'd bring back a suitcase of poems. And, lo and behold, I was assigned to a postgraduate program in therapy. So much for poetry, so much for bear meat… A man proposes and the commission assigns.”
Of course, not everyone moved to the other side of the Soviet Union after graduating from an institute or technical school. For example, women with a small child were employed near the place of permanent residence of their husbands or parents. While spouses who graduated from university or technical school, at the same time, were given jobs in the same city or district. These tricks were used to avoid changing their place of residence and officials were outraged. “I’d even agree to marry the monument of Peter the Great, so as not to go to graduate assignment,” said an indignant Alexei Kiselev, secretary of the Lenin District Committee of the Komsomol in Leningrad.
Targeted applications for specialists
Job assignment was not a “cat in the bag” for everyone. It happened that graduates were sent personalized applications for assignment if, for example, they had successfully completed their student internship there. Some employers went further and made targeted assignments for specific applicants – after college, they began working either in the organization or in the region that sent them to study.
Work at factories
Soviet citizens with blue-collar jobs could get a job without any assignment committees. It was enough to contact the employment agency, call the company’s personnel department or cut out any ads of interest from the newspaper. They sounded something like this: “We are urgently inviting laborers, loaders, mechanics, turners and an engineer-technologist to work at the ‘Sukhumpribor’ factory.” Or like this: “A typesetter and printer are needed to work in the printing house.”
Thirty years in one place
Cases when the first place of work became the only one for life were not uncommon. Many people actually worked in the same place from their student days to their retirement. Frequent job changes were frowned upon, as was idleness – every Soviet person had to be engaged in useful activities during working hours.
