The article, based on archival materials of the Kentau Regional State Archive (KRSA) and documents of the South Kazakhstan regional committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RSASPH), explores the organization and use of the industrial holiday in the identification processes of workers at the Achpolimetal combine in the early 1970s. The growing processes of alienation in Soviet society during the period of late socialism were reflected in labor productivity at the plant. The practice of preparing republican and all-union records and the subsequent honoring of production teams led to a "divided consciousness" among the working people, which influenced their attitude to work. The level of labor productivity and the cost of production have tended to decrease due to the unreliable quality of new self-propelled equipment and the actual lack of a proper repair base at the enterprise. Significant downtime and breakdown of equipment, violation of technological discipline, over-planned metal losses, and a decrease in the quality of products gradually increased. One of the ways to increase labor productivity was the holding of industrial holidays.
The organization of industrial holidays, the analysis of the forms and methods of the holiday ritual for constructing a common social space that creates the conditions for a collective identity in the Soviet era were the object of study in this article, its subject is the actual ritual-participatory functions of the holiday and their influence on the construction of the professional identity of work teams of “Achpolimetal” combine.