SUPER RARE USSR Vintage Employment Record Book / Employment Card

Obvious wear to the item.

On 10 July 1918 the 5-th All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Constitution of Russia which declared the right and duty to work for all citizen.^[5] Pursuant to this the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTzIK) approved the Labour Code (abbr. "KZoT") and the "Regulations on employment record books" as an Appendix to the Article 80 of this Code.^[6] Containing:

• Name, surname and date of birth of the labourer

• Name and address of the trade union which the labourer belonged to

• Waging category and level assigned to a labourer by a wage-rate commission

this "trudovaya knizhka" also supposed trailing benefits received by a labourer^[6] thereby also replacing a paybook (Russian: расчётная книжка), widely used in industry before the October Revolution of 1917. In addition, a special decree was issued on 25 June 1919.^[7] Although its title mentioned only Moscow and Petrograd, its text extended the requirements to all the citizen of Russia. The presence of passport was a due prerequisite for receiving the "trudovaya knizhka" which was issued in exchange of it (art. 3).^[7] Thus becoming the main identity document for its owner (although photo was not obligatory; art. 12), this "trudovaya knizhka" reserved pages for recording minor children. It also served as a paybook (art. 5); as place for labeling stamps for social insurance contributions (art. 8) and as a register for rationing coupons (art. 10)

On 9 July 1922 a new KZoT, and on 20 June 1923 the decree "On Identity Cards"^[8] were adopted. In 1924 "trudovaya knizhka" was replaced with Russian: Трудовая карта, romanized: trudovaya karta, lit. 'Employment Card'), register of data exclusively related to employment.

On 21 September 1926 the USSR Sovnarkom (SNK) required employers to maintain employment lists (Russian: Трудовой список, romanized: trudovoy spisok). Instead of employment cards employees were now to claim for excerpts (Russian: справка, romanized: spravka) from the employment lists at a place of their work.

By the Regulation of SNK as of 20 December 1938 "On Introduction of Employment Record Books" (Russian: О введении трудовых книжек) the latter returned into use from 15 January 1939. The new design of "trudovaya knizhka" was unified for all branches of industry, governmental and public bodies. From then on they again became the primary source for the calculations of:

• accumulated period of work (Russian: стаж, "seniority", an index used as a base for the calculations of current social benefits, like for temporary disability etc.) during the period of active labor

• amounts of the pensions, set upon reaching retirement age and in other cases

The last section of was "trudovaya knizhka" was reserved for records about material and moral encouragement, gratitudes, honorary titles, orders and medals etc. Penalties were not allowed to be recorded in these books.