The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-06
BY S. SASLAYSKY

TIME moves rapidly in the Soviet
i Union. Was it long ago that /
sat at the window of a. factory
looking out over the Neva2 The
summer sun bathed the waters OF
the great river of Leningrad in its
golden beams, flooded the streets
and the boats. Near me we're about
80 adult workers who had just fin
1Shed their 7-hour day Of work, sit
ting In rows on the school benches
and Iwrinkling their brows over
mathematical problems. And the
disturbing question arose would
these people, no longer young, be
equal to the difficulties Of study
in school after their intense work
in the factory?
That was two and a half years
ago, but it seems like yesterday.
AT that time I wrote an article,
THE Factory as School. de-
scribed the experiment which was
being made by the Stain metal
lurgical plant, one of the biggest
enterprises in Leningrad, of manu-
featuring steam and water tur-
bines and steam boilers for electric
power stations.
The initiative for this expert
nent came from the Communist
Party Of the Soviet Union. The
Central Committee decided:
ITO instruct the Supreme Eco
nomic Council together with the
AlI-UniOn Council of Trade
Unions and the Peoples Commits
sar for Education to organize as
an experiment one or two school
factories in which constant work
in industry will be combined with
the preparation of cadres dover,
medium and highly qualified"
The experiment might be sue
cessful or it might not-that is
why it was an Experiment" A
suitable factory had to be selected
for the first experiment. The work
ers of the Stain Plant responded
warmly and proposed that their
factory should be chosen for the
experiment. In favor Of this plant
was its high technical equipment,
its experienced and highly edu-
Gated engineers, its revolutionary
BolShevik traditions, the conscien-
tiousness of the thousands of
workers in it, When the workers
voted for the Stain Plant to be
chosen for this historic experiment,
they took on themselves consider
able obligations-to work and study
simultaneously. To study so that
work would not suffer, and TO work
in such way as to speed up their
study.
THE FIRST STEPS
wns present at the first steps
taken by the school-factory. On the
first pages of their copy books,
the workers freshened up the
school knowledge which they had
long forgotten. The young workers
who had passed through the So
Wet schools with seven-year courses
gathered here at the factory, with
out leaving their machines, to train
themselves as engineers. To work
and to study =. I sat at the win
Cow, watching the waves of the
broad Neya, and inyoluntarily l
thought: Much water will flow I'M
Ger the bridges before the simple
workers who now enter the fac
tory come out of it as engineers"
That was two and half years
ago, and now the first A engineers
have come out OF the factory. The
world has never seen such engin-
GERS before. These are engineers
from the bench. For two and a
half years they did not leave their
work and they did not leave their
books and drawings, They are not
only workers by origin but work
ers by profession. The factory
was not deprived of its cadres dur
ing the time of study. Industry was
also study. Study was also indus
try. I'VE manufacture turbines and
engineers" said the director Of the
Stain Plant on the anniversary Of
the revolution.
THE EXPERIMENT
WAS SUCCESSFUL
Thus in the Soviet Union arises
q new type of educational institu-
tion-the factory as n school I'm