Counterplan

Counterplan 

a form of manifestation of worker initiative and participation by the masses in the management of production; the counterplan arose in the USSR in the course of socialist competition during the fulfillment of the first five-year plan (1929-32). The counterplan idea was proposed at the Karl Marx Factory (Leningrad) in June 1930. Discussing the factory’s plan, the workers, considering the available reserves, suggested a counterproposal aimed at overfulfilling the basic targets of the plan. In 1930-31, the counterplan took the form of a shift counterplan, and later appeared as a technical production and financial counterplan. Reflecting the growth of activity of the shock workers, the counterplan spread widely to all sectors of the national economy of the USSR. Thus, in 1933 in metallurgy alone, over 2,300 brigades (34,000 workers) participated in working out a counterplan. Counterplans furthered the improvement of the organization of production and use of material, labor, and financial resources, thereby promoting a higher productiveness of labor and the fulfillment of the first five-year plan ahead of schedule. The proposal of counterplans in the form of socialist obligations for the fulfillment of monthly, quarterly, and annual plans ahead of schedule has been widespread throughout the USSR and other socialist countries in the 1960’s and 1970’s.