Alexey Stakhanov

Alexey Grigoryevich Stakhanov (Russian: Алексе́й Григо́рьевич Стаха́нов; 3 January 1906 – 5 November 1977) was a miner in the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970), and a member of the CPSU (1936). He became a celebrity in 1935 as part of what became known as the Stakhanovite movement – a campaign intended to increase worker productivity and to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist economic system.

Biography

Stakhanov was born in Lugovaya, a village near Livny, Oryol Governorate, in 1906. He began working in a mine called "Tsentralnaya-Irmino" in Kadievka (Donbass). In 1933, Stakhanov became a jackhammer operator. In 1935, he took a local course in mining. On 31 August 1935, it was reported that he had mined a record 102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes (14 times his quota).^[2]

On 19 September, Stakhanov was reported to have set a new record by mining 227 tonnes of coal in a single shift.^[3] His example was held up in newspapers and posters as a model for others to follow, and he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in the United States.^[4][5][6]

Stakhanov on the cover of Time Magazine, 16 December 1935

In 1936–1941, Stakhanov was a student of the Industrial Academy in Moscow. In 1941–1942, he was appointed director of mine No. 31 in Karaganda. Between 1943 and 1957, Stakhanov worked in the Ministry of Coal Industry of the USSR. In 1957–1959, he was deputy director of the Chistyakovantratsit trust, and after that, assistant chief engineer at the mine management office No. 2/43 of the Torezantratsit trust until his retirement in 1974.

Stakhanov was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first convocation. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and numerous medals. The last Sunday of August was designated "Coal Miner's Day", also apparently in his honor.

The town of Kadievka in eastern Ukraine where he started his work was renamed Stakhanov in his honour in 1978, after his death.

Stakhanovite movement

Stakhanov's records set an example throughout the country and gave birth to the Stakhanovite movement where workers who exceeded production targets could become "Stakhanovites".

Record disputed

The validity of Stakhanov's record has been called into question. In 1985, The New York Times printed a story alleging that though Stakhanov had indeed succeeded in his feat, it was only because the Communist Party had arranged the event as a way of boosting public morale, with many other miners working to help Stakhanov beat the mining record.^[7]

The Times quoted the chief of the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine branch of the Party, Konstantin G. Petrov, as saying that "I suppose Stakhanov need not have been the first... It could have been anybody else. In the final analysis it was not the individual face-worker who determined whether the attempt to break the record would succeed, but the new system of coal extraction."^[8]

In 1988, Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claimed that the widely bruited achievements of Stakhanov were puffery, the paper insisted that Stakhanov had used a number of helpers on support works, while the throughput was tallied for him alone. Still, according to the newspaper, Stakhanov's approach had eventually led to the increased productivity by means of a better organization of the work, including specialization and task sequencing.^[9]

It has also been claimed that his record was beaten by Alija Sirotanović of Yugoslavia and Sergej Scemuk of Ukraine.^[10]

Personal life

Stakhanov had two wives and six children.^[11]

• first wife Yevdokia (Stakhanov met in 1929,^[11] but never married) ran away before 1936
  • Klavdia^[11]
  • Viktor^[11]
• second wife Galina (1922-?)^[11]
  • Violetta (b. 1940)^[11]
  • Alla (1943-?)^[11]
  • two more children, Vladimir and Emma, died as toddlers^[11]

Legacy

• From 1938 to 1947 the city of Zhukovsky was called Stakhanovo.
• On 15 February 1978 the city of Kadievka was renamed Stakhanov.

See also

• List of people awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour
• Frank Laskier
• Lei Feng

Notes