Abstract
Workers were expected not merely to fulfil the ambitious production norms set out for them in the plan, but to overfulfil them. The state had a number of ways of galvanising them into doing so, which were enthusiastically promoted by the women’s magazines. Friendly ‘socialist competition’ was one of the main themes of the magazines during the first Five-Year Plan. There were competitions between friends, husbands and wives, work collectives, factories, farms, mines, villages, even entire regions of the country. There were competitions to see who could produce the most machine tools, grain, textiles, milk, and with the least waste; who was responsible for the cleanest workers’ hostel, the best-run creche and kindergarten, the best stocked shop, the best organised delegates’ conference.1 Millions of workers, of both sexes, apparently participated in these competitions, none of which was ever marred by personal rivalry or animosity.
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