People's Commissar of State Charity A.M. Kollontai among the homeless, 1918

“What pushed me onto the path of socialism-communism? Inequality and injustice outside my family in Tsarist Russia - that’s what outraged me from early childhood and youth and called me to fight for a better, more just world, for the disappearance of poverty, hunger, oppression and lack of rights for the working people...”

~ Alexandra Kollontai

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Vengefulness is for the weak

After intense battles on the approaches to the French capital, after Russian artillerymen occupied the commanding heights, contrary to the will of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Empire capitulated.

The capitulation of Paris was signed at 2am on March 31st in the village of Lavillette on the terms drawn up by the dashing Colonel Mikhail Orlov, who was left hostage at the French during the truce.

Thus ended a two-year war in which Napoleon’s empire could not withstand the confrontation with the Russian Empire.

At noon on March 31st cavalry squadrons led by Russian Emperor Alexander I triumphantly entered the capital of France.

“All the streets along which the allies had to pass, and all the streets adjacent to them, were filled with people who occupied even the roofs of the houses”, recalled the hero of the day, Mikhail Orlov.

Vengefulness is for the weak. True winners are characterised by generosity.

The correctness of these words was demonstrated by Russian officers in the spring of 1814. The Russian bayonet reached Paris, but did not ruin the great city.

Source - edited

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🥇 The CIA feared that the USSR would... reduce the working day

The Soviet Union proposed this measure and doubled the standard of living to solve the problems it was facing at the time, such as the lack of wage control, insufficient economic efficiency, and a shortage of urban labour. Why did it work? And why did it worry the U.S. so much?

In 1956, the USSR implemented a wage increase that, within a decade, increased from 250 rubles per month to 500 and 600 for rural and urban workers respectively. It also reduced the working week from 48 hours to 41 over four years, with a view to further reducing it to 35 by 1968.

At first, the CIA was not concerned because it believed that reducing working hours would limit Soviet production and productivity, but by 1961, it was deeply concerned (remember, we are in the midst of the Cold War) that not only had these conditions not been affected, but they had actually improved in most cases.

With the reduction in working hours, hourly output increased by 10.5% in three years and by 10% in four. Employees performed better because they arrived more rested, given their more free time. Unemployment decreased, as more labour had to be hired to fill the vacant hours.

The reduction of the workday also enabled Soviet innovation. Since managers could no longer rely on long hours, they were forced to find advanced methods and develop new and improved technology to shorten working hours. This boosted both light and heavy industry.

Source: CIA

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Source: 👁 @elOJOen
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