Random Remnants of the Soviet Era: the Subbotnik

On Saturday morning, we had a community service activity where many of our students spent a few hours picking up litter and doing general cleaning along the public roadway near our campus. The voluntary Saturday cleaning is something that is still done in Kyrgyzstan and throughout Central Asia. However, the Saturday morning volunteer activity is something that has its historical genesis in the Soviet era.

Our students working to clean up the public roadway this past weekend.

This voluntary clean-up time dates to 1919 and is called a Subbotnik. The first all-Russian Subbotnik appears to have taken place on May 1, 1920 when Lenin himself led a Subbotnik at the Kremlin as pictured below.  Lenin helping carry logs during the 1920 Subbotnik is a moderately famous event in Soviet history and it led to the Subbotnik becoming an institutionalized event around the USSR.

Lenin leading the Subbotnik of May 1, 1920 

Over time the Subbotniks became a little less voluntary. The Soviet people half-jokingly referred to participating in Subbotniks "in a voluntary-compulsive way." Fortunately, our little Subbotnik was voluntary and students were rewarded with a Shashlyk barbecue of lamb, chicken and beef kebabs at the end of their labors. The Shashlyk barbecue is not a traditional feature of the Subbotnik as the Kyrgyz person who was a school child during the Soviet era and who worked with me to organize the event had a little trouble grasping why I felt that there was a need to pair the work with a reward. Despite the fact that I am living in a post-Soviet nation, I guess I have been contaminated by my soft Western ideology and don't quite possess the full post-Soviet vibe.

Students cleaning up the sidewalk adjacent to their school in Bishkek during a Subbotnik I witnessed a week ago.

The Subbotnik remains a central feature of Kyrgyz culture as most schools and other civic organizations engage in voluntary work and clean up, as a stroll through many Kyrgyz communities on a Saturday morning will demonstrate. Even though the Subbotnik is a random remnant of the Soviet era, it is not surprising that it is one of the few that has endured.