themselves into power was precisely the abolition of the bonus system. In November, 1917, Lenin said: "The bonus system is a heritage of the capitalistic regime and we repudiate it." And now we see the bonus system not only restored but established in places where it did not exist before.
Another promise to labor by which the Bolshevists were helped into power was a shorter working day. Now they have made long hours and Sunday work compulsory:
Our workday lasts twelve hours. We are compelled to work in two shifts in the paper department of our factory, and we are forced to work both Saturdays and Sundays. No exception is made with regard to women. Since August 15, overtime work has become compulsory. (Resolution of Petrograd government printing office workers.)
No leave of absence is to be granted to the workers. Failure to do overtime work is punishable, the first time by forfeiture of food allowance, and the second time by court action. Lateness of ten minutes on the job will be fined with loss of a day's pay. (From an order of the Petrograd government printing office, signed by Manager Forst, August, 1920.)
A report at the Russian Trade Union Congress of 1920 declared that the flight to the villages was so great that the proletariat was disappearing, melting away. Surely a rather serious state of affairs under the "dictatorship of the proletariat!" The official representative of the Petrograd labor unions in one of their resolutions declared:
