In 1928 the Soviet government would approve its first “Five-Year Plan,” an economic programme that mandated a massive, unprecedented 20 per cent annual increase in industrial output, the adoption of the seven-day week—workers would rest in shifts, so that factories would never have to close—and a new ethic of workplace competition. Foremen, labourers and managers alike vied with one another to fulfil, or even to over-fulfil, the plan.
