Abstract
Soviet sociology reemerged during the late 1950s after a long hiatus under Stalin. Since that point, the sociology of work in the USSR had gone through a number of different periods characterized by the dominance of different theoretical and ideological orientations. Charged by the leadership with the task of uncovering the mechanisms by which workers could be made more productive and efficient, sociologists were forced gradually to move away from strongly ideological approaches to more pragmatic understandings of worker attitudes. Yet the political context of Soviet society remained a critical factor as researchers were forced to accommodate themselves to the dominant ideological themes. The division between liberal, professional sociologists and conservative, ideological sociologists also has a pervasive impact on the development of the Soviet sociology of work.
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