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> People in the Soviet Union, in general, took a high degree of pride in their work. Have you lived in the Soviet Union? I haven't, but have in Communist Poland which had similar work culture. In general, people were slacking off and stealing from the job to the largest extent possible (stealing because the jobs didn't pay a living wage or, if they did, you couldn't buy things you need from stores anyway, so you stole them from the job if possible). The organization of work was often a complete travesty which makes government jobs a paragon of efficiency and common sense. [1] On top of that, higher promotions required being vocal about supporting the communist party, which led to incompetent mediocrities being promoted. Overall, while I'm sure there were stil some people who took pride in their work (esp. the less smart and informed ones, who couldn't see the sad bigger picture), I can't tell if it was more common than in capitalism. [1] For example, it wasn't uncommon for people who bought a new car to take it to a mechanic to disassemble and reassemble it completely. Only then you could be sure that the car is put together properly - the workers in the factory who worked on the car just didn't care. Another story - in an apartment in a new building my parents bought in 1979, a 1m x 3m section of the wall was missing. The building company just didn't bother to build it (the same defect was present in all flats), and have put a thin wall of plaster and cardboard in place instead. Of course, that wall provided almost zero thermal insulation in severe winters that Poland had at the time, so everyone who bought these flats ended up DIY-ing the missing wall themselves (usually with stolen bricks, as you couldn't buy them either). |