Red Banners

Red Banners 

(challenge red banners), in the USSR one of the forms of rewarding winners in socialist competition.

Challenge red banners of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the ministries, and the central committees of the trade unions have been established for enterprise staffs that participate in the all-Union socialist competition. With the authorization of the State Committee on Labor and Wages of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, Soviet ministries and departments and the central committees of trade unions may establish challenge red banners for the enterprises belonging to these ministries and departments that are winners in socialist competition. With the authorization of the councils of ministers of the Union republics, the ministries and departments of the Union republics jointly with the appropriate trade union organizations establish red banners for participants in republic socialist competition (decree of Aug. 29, 1957, of the Council of Ministers of the USSR; SP SSSR, 1957, no. 10, art. 105). Economic and trade union bodies also institute red banners for the staffs of shops sections, shifts, and teams that are winners in intraplant competition. (The system for awarding these red banners is defined in the terms for socialist competition ratified by the administrative and trade union agencies.)

The principal indexes for evaluating the economic activity of enterprises in industry, construction, transportation, and communications and for determining the winners of the competition who will receive the red banners are set by the decree of Dec. 30, 1959, of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (SP SSSR, 1960, no. 1, art. 4) and by the decree of Jan. 22, 1966, of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, entitled The Further Development of Socialist Competition in Connection With the Reorganization of the Administration of Industry (SP SSSR, 1966, no. 3, art. 27). In 1966 challenge red banners were instituted for kolkhozes, sovkhozes, raions, oblasts, krais, and autonomous and Union republics that are victorious in the all-Union socialist competition in agriculture (the decree of July 28, 1966, of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, entitled The Organization of All-Union Socialist Competition in Agriculture [SP SSSR, 1966, no. 16, art. 146]).

Red banners are awarded and monetary prizes given to the winners in socialist competition according to two different principles: enterprise staffs (with the exception of seasonal sectors of industry) are judged according to quarterly results, and kolkhozes and sovkhozes and raions, oblasts, krais, and autonomous and Union republics are judged on an annual basis.

Red banners for winners in socialist competition have been instituted by many other socialist countries.