remuneration from that of the productivity of labour. It found its 
utmost expression in the fact of a complete abolition of wages for piece- 
work, which all socialistic systems considered to be the most condemnable 
form of capitalistic exploitation. 
The result of the consequent introduction of communism was a terrible 
:conomic catastrophe unprecedented in the world’s history and a complete 
paralysis of industry which compelled the Bolshevics to repudiate, in 
order to retain the power, some communistic principles in the labour 
question and in certain others. This became apparent in the following 
relations of the Bolshevist rulers to the workmen: — 1) Wages were 
to increase, henceforward, only conformably to the growth in productivity 
of labour; in connection with this, wages for piece-work were to be 
introduced wherever it was technically possible. 2) Every Interference 
of the workmen in the technical and commercial management of the 
enterprise was to be repealed. 3) A strict labour discipline within the walls 
of the enterprise was gradually to be re-established. As far as the com- 
munistic experiments of the first years of the Bolshevic reign were being 
liquidated, the productivity of labour grew and the situation of the workmen 
improved. 
The following summary data, taken exclusively from official Soviet 
sources, are to show how far this situation has improved or grown worse 
in comparison with that of the pre-war period with regard to the following 
main factors: wages, working time, housing conditions, unemployment and 
accidents. 
Wages. 
After their unprecedented fall during the years of consequent Com- 
munism, wages begin to rise gradually owing to the declaration of the 
NEP (New Economic Policy) and to the abandonment of socialistic prin- 
ciples within the Bolshevist enterprises. Soviet statistics give the following 
data of this growth of wages compared with the average pre-war wages of 
the industrial workman and taking into consideration the purchasing power 
of the Chervonetz-rouble (real wages)*). 
Wages (monthly) in oo to the year 1913. 
100.0 
‘9.2 
I 
6 
1913 
1922/23 
023/24 
Gzl'al 
[ ‘ot. 
‘azh/27 (1 
h: 
*) Rabinovitch : Movement of wages and productivity of labour. Economicheskaja 
lisn. No. 179, August oth, 1927. 
£ 4 
~