Referring to the historical experience of trade unions in changing social environment allows us to assess more fully the opportunities that they have in the conditions of democratization of public life. Trade unions have always been part of the Soviet political system. Party organizations determined the main directions of their activities and involved them in solving national problems. The authors highlighted in the article the main directions of work of Stalingrad trade unions in the conditions of democratization of social and political life in the USSR. At the XXth Congress of the CPSU (1956) the task was set to raise the level of work of trade unions in the new conditions. The March Plenum of the AUCCTU (All-USSR Central Council of Trade Unions) in 1956 outlined the program of measures aimed at improving work of trade unions. The joint work of economic and trade union bodies to regulate and increase wages, reduce working hours, increase productivity, organize socialist competition, implement the collective agreement, and introduce advanced labor methods was of great importance. Based on the analysis of the documentary material the work of trade unions in the framework of such a new initiative as "Narodnaya stroika"(“people's construction site”) is shown: it is when industrial enterprises and economic organizations were allowed to build residential buildings with the participation of workers and employees, which significantly improved the housing conditions of workers. The importance of social and household as well as cultural and educational work of trade unions, which had significant funds and material opportunities for organizing leisure time for workers, employees and their families as well as the active implementation of the development of long - term plans for the social development of labor collectives, which contributed to the search for ways to solve complex social problems at enterprises, is noted in the article.
