[mantas]

1) Not working was illegal in USSR.

2) After graduation, you'd get an assignment for your first workplace. Technically you could choose, but in reality the choice was limited and it was more like companies headhunting students. There was no option to refuse all assignments and go on your own.

A partial opt-outs was to get married while in university. If your partner already has a job, then you'll probably get an assignment in same city. Although sometimes they'd just get your partner to move too :)

3) Hiring even for unskilled jobs was highly political. E.g. political prisoners of Stalin era, after returning, would have very hard time to get even a cleaner's job. If somebody had a specific position for you in mind, they had all tools to make it happen.

4) Changing jobs was pretty difficult. You couldn't just leave, move to another city and then look for another job. You couldn't get registration in another city without employment. You'd have to find a company that will agree to hire you first. And if you were needed at your current job... They could easily talk to that company to not hire you (after all both managers were members of the party). Unless that other company really wanted you and the manager had enough political weight to make it happen.

All in all, was it forced labor at gunpoint? No. But free will to pick employment was very limited to say the least.

[ivan_gammel]

(1) Yes (2) Yes, but that was only for university graduates, it was time-bound and came with additional job security guarantees and often with guaranteed accommodation. Not sure if it’s really different from some modern contracts. (3) I suggest to stop referencing Stalin era as something that is characteristic for the entire history of SU. It was not the longest period and it was indeed special. In other periods being forced to do a particular job was a rare thing. (4) There were restrictions on the process of changing the job, but compare that to modern world: large notice periods on contracts, non-compete agreements, visas - is it the world of forced labor or sometimes employers have stronger negotiation power than you?

[mantas]

> (2) Yes, but that was only for university graduates, it was time-bound

Time-bound forced work is still forced work.

> and came with additional job security guarantees and often with guaranteed accommodation

Serfdom and slavery also comes with job security and accommodation. It's still forced labor though.

> Not sure if it’s really different from some modern contracts.

You're free to not sign up a modern contract.

> (3) I suggest to stop referencing Stalin era as something that is characteristic for the entire history of SU. It was not the longest period and it was indeed special. In other periods being forced to do a particular job was a rare thing.

Specific example was about post-Stalin era. Many political prisoners and their kids were released from gulags after Stalin's death. Coming back home, even to full-of-anti-soviet-resistance Lithuania, was not easy. A distant relative had to live in Kazakhstan for decades since he couldn't get a registration closer to home. We're talking „lax“ Chruschiov era.

> (4) There were restrictions on the process of changing the job

And there was a lot of unwritten rules were special persons would just fall in a never ending quagmire.

> but compare that to modern world: large notice periods on contracts, non-compete agreements

Non-compete is illegal in many jurisdictions. Few weeks notice seems fair to both sides TBH. Dropping a job on the spot is not nice.

> visas

That doesn't apply to 99.9% of people. If you work in foreign country and don't have permanent residence there, it's up to you. But when you need visa equivalent to move to a city from a village in your native whereabouts...