Latter-day serfdom

What is going on in Vitebsk [a Belarusian city near the Russian border. – Ed.] is best described as spring cleaning, with the walls of buildings and fences being painted, with all “unnecessary objects” being removed from the balconies downtown. Everything must look in keeping with architectural standard. As in good old Soviet times, employees of government-run organizations are ordered to take part in the cleaning and construction works. A schoolteacher in Vitebsk wrote on www.regnum.ru: “They are destroying two railroad branch lines leading from the meat processing and packing factory that were built under the Soviets, meant to deliver trainloads of sausages to Moscow, but the times changed for the worse. Now these tracks are abandoned, overgrown with weeds and trees. People with axes and saws – not only municipal employees, I was told – are clearing the place.”
The residents are sure that this spring cleaning has everything to do with President Alexander Lukashenka’s visit. The www.regnum.ru contributor says: “They are waiting for Lukashenka… No one knows the date and time, all this is kept top secret by the president’s security service. The local administration is in a state of panic, fearing replacements, considering his recent visit to Ivatsevichy when he fired the director of the local woodworking plant, Ivatsevichdrev. This time he will inspect our woodworking one, Vitebskdrev. He is inspecting all [Belarusian] woodworking enterprises. Most likely he will be flown in by a helicopter, having had a good view of the area. So they are scything the grass, chopping down the trees, painting [house walls and fences] and making asphalt roads.” Aleksandr Kosinets, head of the city administration, ordered to put asphalt on snow, to please the “father of the nation,” because there is no time left for the laying of the gravel bed.
Kosinets’ nervousness is understandable. Lukashenka appointed him as head of Belarus’ northern region bordering on the Russian Federation (November 2008) and made him a member of the National Assembly of Belarus in September. This was proof of Kosinets being among Lukashenka’s favorites. The man is trying hard to remain one.
What is happening in Vitebsk is part of the Soviet heritage that prevents Belarus from becoming another European country – I mean all this eyewashing, with local bureaucrats doing their utmost to please their superiors, demonstrating illusory tidy streets, law and order, you name it. In fact, Lukashenka said, when appointing Aleksandr Pereslavtsev as Chairman of the Production and Trade Timber, Woodworking and Pulp and Paper Concern, that he was going to visit similar enterprises in Mogilev and Vitebsk, to see how they were coping with the upgrading process.
Lukashenka is seriously concerned about the woodworking industry after visiting a number of woodworking plants and finding them lacking in many ways, including upgraded output. The bureaucrats in charge said the main reason was personnel turnover, with people quitting their jobs because of low pay, bad working conditions, and more often than not seeking better jobs in the Russian Federation.
He solved this problem quickly by signing Presidential Decree No. 9 “On Additional Measures to Advance the Woodworking Industry,” to the effect that no woodworking employee can quit his job without the head manager’s knowledge and consent, establishing mandatory contractual procedures for the woodworking enterprises where the government finances the upgrading process (practically the only ones doing business in that country).
Each such employment contract is to be effective for the duration of the investment project, with the employer reserving the right to allow an employee to retire. If and when an employee insists on retirement and the employer rejects it, the issue is to be resolved by the local “governor,” rather than a court of law. This governor has the final say in the matter.
The whole thing is best described as latter-day serfdom practiced the Belarusian way. These days such measures don’t suffice. Financial instruments are required, so the employees who can quit, with their employer’s knowledge and consent, must pay the employer. The Belarusian presidential decree defines the amount to be paid as “additional payment” and reads that it is not included in the payroll. If an employee doesn’t have enough money, he will have to return to his working place, being supervised by law-enforcement agencies, so he can repay the “debt” with his indefatigable work.
This financial instrument is doubtlessly effective, considering that a woodworking employee’s monthly pay averages 130 dollars. One such employee in Vitebsk said that 1.5 million rubles (about 200 dollars) is enough to buy food and clothes, and that if he had a family he would have to look for a better job in Russia, adding: “I know that the employment situation in Russia is anything but ideal, that you’ll have to work hard to earn your money.” Russia offers better employment opportunities anyway.
Employment remains a painful problem in Belarus. According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, there are ten times more employment opportunities than unemployed in Minsk. Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Rusy (in charge of the agrarian sector), spoke in parliament, saying the outflow of manpower is the biggest problem in the agro-industrial complex.
Belarusian physicians, being paid the equivalent of 200-400 dollars a month, can’t wait to find jobs in Russia, the more so that there is no language barrier. It is common knowledge that a number of Belarusian town and villages may find themselves without professional medical help before long. Certified experts – top managers, programmers, journalists, architects, especially construction specialists  – are leaving Belarus en masse. The Federation of Trade Unions had to admit that the number of the employed had decreased by 100,000 in the first half of the year, while that of the unemployed had not changed.
The personnel situation is serious in Belarus. People don’t want to work being paid peanuts (with many complaining about rude management), so Belarusians keep leaving their country. Lukashenka’s attempt to uphold the Soviet economy pattern has apparently failed. The migration process is one of the obvious indicators of this failure and mounting crisis.
One is reminded of the Soviet Union under Stalin, when the dictator simply forbade early retirement and ordered those who reported for work late tried and sent to Gulag.
What was the result? Nil. None of Stalin’s five-year plans was accomplished. The actual output statistics differed so much from those on paper, they were kept secret, with the official news bulletins telling about admirable economic growth percentage. Ditto military output statistics during WW II and the war against Japan. The Soviet Union was gripped by an epidemic of doctored records, let alone poor quality products. The collective farmers had become Soviet-type serfs, denied national passports until the 1970s, with the whole huge country suffering constant food shortages.
Lukashenka proposes to upgrade enterprises whose employees want to quit above all. Obviously the man has a vague idea about how to accomplish this project.
Also, the Customs Union has had its negative effect on the weakest link of the chain, Belarus. The latter’s commodities are uncompetitive and can attract a customer only with their low prices. Lower prices spell lower pay. A vicious circle, unless all people are denied national passports, leaving only one.