Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2018 number

The paper is devoted to studying the main aspects of the young workers’ everyday life in the Tyumen plant “Mekhanik” in the late 1940s - early 1950s. The article objective is to study the daily activities of young workers, to describe the production and housing conditions, types and forms of work activity of young men and women at the enterprise. Investigating the state of various social groups in different periods of national history makes it possible to rethink the Soviet history. During the period under study young people accounted for more than a half of the labour staff, the burden of restoring the industry after the Great Patriotic War fell on their shoulders. Research methodology is based on the theory of everyday life, an anthropological approach is used, that is, the consideration of events and phenomena through the prism of a person’s relationship to them, as well as techniques and methods of oral history. Due to the difficult economic situation in the country after the war, young people were forced to start working early and acquire a profession in the workplace. The main desire of young boys and girls was to work as quickly as possible in order to feed themselves, help the family, few thought about getting a speciality. Workers who did not have secondary education, went to study in the evening schools - schools of working young people. Recent graduates of factory training schools and vocational schools, coming to the plant, did not have sufficient knowledge for independent work, so they were often attached to the skilled staff for the full professional mastery. During the period under study the working conditions gradually improved, but continued to be heavy. Most of the plant workshops were littered, in a shabby condition and required repairs. Low earnings, unfavorable housing conditions led to the staff constant turnover, an average work experience of young people at the plant did not exceed two years.