Alexey Stakhanov - biography, information, personal life. Literary and historical notes of a young technician

On August 31, 1935, Ukrainian miner Aleksey Stakhanov became a celebrity in the Soviet country - first with a large production circulation, and then “big” newspapers wrote about his labor feat: he produced 102 tons of coal in one shift, exceeding the usual norm by 14 times. The leader of the country, Joseph Stalin, ordered the opening of the Stakhanov movement, and invited the founder to Moscow “for a position.” Alexei Stakhanov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals.

The Stakhanov movement was a mass phenomenon when production innovators achieved records; these were workers, collective farmers, and engineers. However, dates show that the phenomenon began somewhat earlier. For example, the record-breaking, innovative miner Izotov became famous in 1932; there were even Izotov schools for advanced training of miners. In the summer of 1935, a Krivonosov movement formed on railway transport. But the name of Alexei Stakhanov thundered at the November All-Union Conference, which was reported to Stalin in advance, and he praised the idea.

Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov was born on January 3, 1906 in the village of Lugovoy, Yelets district, Oryol province (now Izmalkovsky district, Lipetsk region) into a poor peasant family. So, in his youth he had the opportunity to work as a laborer and take care of the village herd. And at the rural school he completed only three classes. In 1927, Alexey began working as a horse driver at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine in Kadievka, Lugansk region, in the Donbass. And then - a fastener, a slaughterer.

The mining technology was ineffective when all operations were performed by one miner - after working for 1-2 hours, he put the hammer down and secured the faces. At that time, the equipment was idle, and the compressor was running air idle. Stakhanov changed the technology, two fasteners worked with him, and efficiency increased sharply. This was demonstrated on the eve of International Youth Day on September 1st.

On August 30, 1935, at 10 o’clock in the evening, the head of the section, Mashurov, the party organizer of the mine, Petrov, and the editor of the mine’s circulation magazine, Mikhailov, went down into the mine with him. In 5 hours 45 minutes, Alexey’s team cut 102 tons, fulfilling 14 standards. After 10 days, Stakhanov chopped 175 tons of coal per shift, and later reached 324 tons per shift. The popularity of the new initiative gained national appreciation and widespread distribution.

In 1937, Alexey entered the Industrial Academy, from which he graduated in 1941, becoming a mining engineer. During the war, he worked in Karaganda as a mine manager, and since 1943 he became the head of the sector for summarizing the experience of innovators and production leaders at the USSR Ministry of Coal Industry. In 1970, Stakhanov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

In 1957, at the behest of the new leader of the country, Nikita Khrushchev, Stakhanov returned to the Donbass, to the city of Torez, where he worked in low-level positions in the coal industry. In 1974, he retired, and on November 5, 1977, he died in a clinic from cardiovascular failure, allegedly due to long-term problems with alcohol. Although his daughter Violetta presents a different version: in the clinic he slipped, fell, and hit his temple.

The Stakhanov movement developed powerfully in the USSR and became almost obligatory. There are statistical figures according to which up to 25% of workers joined this movement. However, history has not preserved many names of heroes; these are mainly the pioneers of the movement. These are the results they achieved in setting production records.

1. Alexander Kharitonovich Busygin, blacksmith of the Gorky Automobile Plant, Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1931, he came to the construction of the Gorky Automobile Plant, and when it was built, Alexander very quickly mastered the specialty of a blacksmith and managed to develop the methods of this production. He achieved a significant increase in labor productivity through preliminary preparation of the workplace, improvement of machines and tools, optimization of heating and metal stamping techniques. In September 1935, Busygin’s team set a record by forging 966 crankshafts per shift, then 1001 crankshafts, with the norm being 675 pieces. Then he broke his own record by making 1,146 shafts. The All-Union movement of innovators for some time bore the name Stakhanov-Busygin. The fame of the Soviet blacksmith reached the American Ford, Busygin was invited there for a decent salary, but, of course, he refused.

2. Kuban tractor driver Konstantin Borin broke record after record. From 1935 to 1950 he was a combine operator at the Shteyngart MTS Krasnodar region. During the 1935 season, he harvested 780 hectares with the Kommunar combine, at a rate of 160 hectares, in next year- 2040 hectares, in 1937 - 3240 hectares. In 1948, Borin and his team threshed 42,300 centners of grain in the clutch of two S-6 combines. The general statistics of his labor exploits are as follows: over 15 years of work at the Shteyngart MTS, he fulfilled 89 seasonal standards and threshed more than 480,000 centners of grain. Borin was the first to use night harvesting with a combine, loading the bunker and refueling the engine on the move.

3. Makar Mazay, steelmaker at the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant named after Ilyich, innovative worker. He proposed deepening the open-hearth furnace bath and at the same time raising the height of the open-hearth furnace roof - this way, much more material could be placed in the furnace for processing. In October 1936, Makar Mazai set a record for removing steel from square meter furnace feed - 15 tons in 6 hours 30 minutes. His working methods were adopted by all metallurgists.

4. Ivan Gudov, milling worker. In August 1934, he entered the Moscow Ordzhonikidze Machine Tool Plant as a laborer and there he graduated with honors from a six-month production and technical course for milling operators. Since March 1935, Ivan began working in German milling machine"Fritz Werner", meticulously analyzing process. As a result, he found a solution to increase the number of parts produced by 3-4 times without losing their quality. By processing parts simultaneously with two cutters, he increased the speed of feeding and cutting metal. At a rate of 43 parts per shift, he produced 117 parts, that is, 410%.

5. Weaver Dusya Vinogradova- a symbol of the new Soviet man. With their replacement Marusya Vinogradova, in May 1935, they set an all-Union record - they began to service 70 automatic machines instead of 16. On October 1, 1935, for the first time in world practice textile industry they were able to operate hundreds of machines simultaneously, later moving to 240. In the textile industry, the movement received a wide response from female workers.

6. Railway worker Peter Krivonos. In 1929, after graduating from college, he came to the Slavyansk locomotive depot of the Donetsk Railway. When he became a driver, he was the first to increase the boost of the steam locomotive's boiler when driving freight trains, and the technical speed doubled, to 46-47 km/h - this is a significant indicator. His followers, the Krivonosovites, appeared on the railway.

7. Train dispatcherKlavdiya Koroleva, laureate of the Stalin Prize of the third degree. In 1947, she organized work on a compressed schedule for the turnover of locomotives in railway transport. And in 1951, Koroleva came up with the idea of running heavy freight trains on a regular schedule. And this method has found wide application on the network. railways USSR.

8. Shoe retreader Nikolay Smetanin worked at the Leningrad factory "Skorokhod". Taking up the matter wisely, he fulfilled the production quota by 200%. To achieve this result, Nikolai worked out every movement to the smallest detail. The result - on September 21, 1935, he produced 1,400 pairs of shoes, by the way, this was a world record, the Soviet shoemaker overtook the famous Czechoslovak company "Bati". On October 6, Nikolai pulled even more - 1860 pairs.

9. Foreman of the women's tractor brigade Pasha Angelina. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor, a symbol of a technically educated Soviet worker, her team far exceeded the plan. Angelina is famous for her slogan “One hundred thousand friends - on a tractor!”

10. Drilling worker Bilyal Ikhlasov from 1932 he worked at the mine of the Ridder polymetallic plant. On September 29, 1935, he not only set an all-Union ore mining record, but completed the task by as much as 485%! This inspired the miners; since 1937, Ikhlasov was appointed as an instructor in the introduction of advanced methods and techniques of labor - to teach him the methods of his comrades.

In January, Alexei Stakhanov would have turned 110 years old, the Soviet miner with whose record the famous Stakhanov movement began.

Record miner Alexey Stakhanov, who set his famous record in Ukraine, was born in Russia, in the Oryol region, in the village of Lugovaya.

Alexey Stakhanov began his work at the mine as a “brake” - a worker responsible for ensuring that the trolleys with coal, which were pulled by horses, did not roll away.

On the night of August 30-31, 1935, miner Alexei Stakhanov produced 102 tons of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes, 14 times exceeding the production rate that existed at that time. On September 19, Stakhanov improved his own result by extracting 227 tons of coal.

In addition to himself, the fixers Gavrila Shchigolev and Tikhon Borisenko, as well as the site manager Nikolai Mashurov, took part in setting Alexey Stakhanov’s record.

The real name of Alexei Stakhanov is Andrey. The name Alexey arose due to an error in the material of the Pravda newspaper, which wrote an article about the miner’s fantastic record. After this, on the instructions of Joseph Stalin, within a few days Stakhanov was given a passport with a new name, known throughout the country.

In December 1935, a photograph of Alexei Stakhanov graced the cover of the American Time magazine, and in February 1936, the publication published material about the miner entitled “Ten Stakhanov Days.”

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin patronized Alexei Stakhanov. At his encouragement, the miner graduated from the Industrial Academy and became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Stakhanov's candidacy was considered for the post of People's Commissar of the coal industry.

The second wife of record-breaking miner Alexei Stakhanov, Galina Bondarenko, was only 14 years old at the time of their marriage. To avoid a scandal, the girl’s relatives gave her two extra years, passing her off as 16 years old.

Under Nikita Khrushchev, miner Alexei Stakhanov was actually expelled from Moscow to Donbass. The reason for his disgrace was Stakhanov’s reluctance to take part in the campaign to debunk Stalin’s personality cult.

Stakhanov, a man who had no diplomatic skills, did not catch the trend new era and did not brand “damned Stalinism.” Moreover, one day Khrushchev and Stakhanov, both of whom had a hot temper, had a fight over a mining issue. The head of state said: “I, like a miner...”, to which I heard Stakhanov’s sharp: “What kind of miner are you?!”

As a result, the “legend of Stalinism” was quietly exiled to the Donetsk region, to the mining town of Torez. Added to this was a conflict in the family, which led to Stakhanov’s actual break with his family.

There was no one to stop Stakhanov, and he began to drink seriously. This aggravated the incipient diseases, provoked by work in the mine. His health began to deteriorate sharply, around forgotten hero Some suspicious people began to hang around.

When is the 50th anniversary October Revolution One Moscow journalist was planning to write an essay about Stakhanov and was applying for a business trip to Torez; his boss exclaimed in surprise: “Stakhanov?! Is he really alive?

They remembered Stakhanov’s feat, he was an integral part of the history of the state, which they were proud of, but they forgot about the man himself.

When the journalists got to Stakhanov, he was in terrible condition - alcoholism and progressive illnesses were taking their toll.

We must pay tribute to the journalists: thanks to their efforts, Stakhanov was remembered. The legend was sent for treatment, and in 1970 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, which Stakhanov was not awarded in the 1930s.

Stakhanov met with young people, he was taken to plants, factories... They could not do without feasts, which was categorically unacceptable for him.

But he himself did not know how to refuse, and it turned out to be impossible to explain to everyone. As a result, the disease began to progress rapidly.

Alexei Stakhanov spent the last months of his life in the hospital. Evil tongues say that the former hero simply went crazy due to chronic alcoholism. Stakhanov's daughter Violetta argued that this was not so. Just a department for patients with cerebral vascular lesions in small town Torese was in a psychiatric clinic.

The title of Hero of Socialist Labor was awarded to miner Alexei Stakhanov in 1970 - 35 years after his record that went down in history.

Stakhanov was drawn to people. He, as a famous person, had his own room, where they tried to create the most comfortable conditions for him. However, the miner left from there to the general ward. Once in this ward he slipped on an apple skin and hit his head on the sharp corner of the table. A few hours later, on November 5, 1977, Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov passed away. He was 71 years old.

On February 15, 1978, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, the city of Kadievka, in which Alexey Stakhanov set his legendary record, was renamed Stakhanov. The city still bears this name today. They say that Stakhanov is the only city in the world named after a worker.

Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov - (December 21, 1905 (January 3, 1906), Lugovaya village (now Stakhanovo) Livensky district, Oryol province (now Izmalkovsky district, Lipetsk region) - November 5, 1977, Torez, Donetsk region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) - innovator of the coal industry, founder of the Stakhanov movement, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970).

A group of miner Stakhanov and two riggers in one shift produced 14 times more coal than prescribed for one person; the record was later broken twice more. However, the record shift was planned in advance (the condition of compressors and hammers was double-checked, coal removal was organized, and the face was illuminated); Moreover, Soviet propaganda attributed all the coal mined by the troika to Stakhanov alone. But, in any case, similar experiments (conducted at other mines) gradually led to an improvement in the organization of work - and therefore to an increase in overall productivity.

Since 1927 he worked at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine in the city of Irmino, Lugansk region, as a brakeman, horse driver, and breaker. From 1933 he worked as a jackhammer operator. In 1935 he completed a miner's course at the mine.

On the night of August 30-31, 1935, during a shift (5 hours 45 minutes) he produced 102 tons of coal at a rate of 7 tons, exceeding the rate 14 times and setting a record. According to the official version, the reason for Stakhanov’s unprecedented achievement was his skillful use of a jackhammer, which in itself was a miracle in those years modern technology. Until this day, several people worked simultaneously in the face, cutting down coal using jackhammers, and then, in order to avoid a collapse, strengthening the roof of the mine with logs. A few days before setting the record, in a conversation with miners, Stakhanov proposed radically changing the organization of labor at the face. The miner must be freed from fastening work so that he only chops coal. “If you divide the labor, you can chop not 9, but 70-80 tons of coal per shift,” noted Stakhanov. August 30, 1935 at 10 o'clock. In the evening, Stakhanov, Mashurov, Petrov, Shchigolev, Borisenko and the editor of the mine's circulation magazine Mikhailov descended into the mine. The countdown time for the start of work has been turned on.

Stakhanov confidently bit into the coal seam with the peak of a jackhammer. He chopped with exceptional energy and skill. Shchigolev and Borisenko, who were behind him, were far behind. Despite the fact that Stakhanov had to cut 8 ledges, cutting a corner in each, which took a lot of time, the work was completed in 5 hours 45 minutes. When the result was calculated, it turned out that Stakhanov cut 102 tons, fulfilling 14 standards and earning 220 rubles.

This is how I was born new technology labor, which made it possible to make maximum use of equipment, in this case a jackhammer, and increase labor productivity. Stakhanov launched an assault not only on the formation, but also on outdated norms and plans, and on the style of production management.

In 1936-1941 he studied at the Industrial Academy in Moscow. In 1941-1942, he was the head of mine No. 31 in Karaganda. From 1943 to 1957 he worked as head of the socialist competition sector at the People's Commissariat of the Coal Industry of the USSR in Moscow. In 1957 he returned to the Donetsk region, until 1959 he was deputy manager of the Chistyakovanthracite trust, and from 1959 assistant to the chief engineer of mine management No. 2/43 of the Torezanthracite trust.

Retired since 1974. He spent his last months in the hospital (progressive sclerosis due to stroke).

Stakhanov died on November 5, 1977 at the 72nd year of his life from pulmonary heart failure. He was buried in the city cemetery in Torez, Donetsk region.

Stakhanov was forced to become a miner by hunger

It often happens in history that the legend of a person completely overshadows the person himself. This is what happened with Alexei Stakhanov, whose labor record became a symbol Soviet Union period of industrialization.

Born in the Oryol region on January 3, 1906, the boy Alyosha Stakhanov never dreamed of fame and wealth. In a poor peasant family main problem it was enough to eat enough, and for this, from a young age, Alyosha hired himself out to the rural rich, taking on any kind of work: plowing the land, tending gardens, herding cattle... Stakhanov studied at school for only three winters, and went to the Donbass to escape starvation - they said that miners earn good money and do not live from hand to mouth.

Stakhanov showed up to take a job at the mine in bast shoes and linen trousers, as if he had come straight out of folklore. There was no admission to the mine, but my fellow countrymen helped, and they hired the young guy as a “braker” at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine.

The job of the “brake man” was to prevent the coal trolleys, which were pulled by horses along the rails, from rolling back. Then Stakhanov became a horse driver who drove horses pulling trolleys, and only then he was entrusted with a jackhammer and sent to cut coal seams.

What nature did not offend Stakhanov was his excellent health and excellent physical characteristics. This will play an important role in the history of the legendary record.

By the summer of 1935, the rate of coal production per miner was 7.5 tons per shift. The question of how to increase labor productivity worried many, including at the Central-Irmino mine. Stakhanov, by that time already an experienced miner who knew his job well, noted: there needs to be a division of labor between the miners - while one is cutting coal, the fixers are strengthening the roof of the mine, and the horse-drawers are taking out the coal. With this scheme, 70–80 tons of coal can be produced per shift.

Fantastic record

Party organizer Konstantin Petrov latched on to this rationalization proposal. Stakhanov’s initiative promised a real breakthrough; it was only necessary to convincingly prove it.

On the night of August 30-31, Stakhanov, party organizer Petrov, fixers Tikhon Borisenko and Gavrila Shchegolev, as well as the editor of the mine circulation descended into the mine. In addition, the horse-drawers were ready to export coal.

At the appointed time, Stakhanov began work, putting the hammer aside only after 5 hours and 45 minutes - that’s how long the shift at the mine lasted. When the coal cut by Stakhanov was counted, it turned out to be 102 tons - 14 (!) times more than the production norm that existed at that time.

Already at 6 a.m. on August 31, a plenum of the mine’s party committee was held, which decided to put Stakhanov’s name on the Board of Honor, as well as provide him with all the benefits, from a new apartment to theater tickets to the best performances.

Information about Stakhanov’s labor feat quickly spread throughout the country. For a country developing industry at an accelerated pace, the miner’s fantastic record came in handy. “Look up to Stakhanov!” - Soviet propaganda boomed.

At the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine itself, by the way, the records continued. On September 4, Miron Dyukanov cut 115 tons per shift, and on September 19, Alexey Stakhanov brought the result to an astronomical 227 tons.

Failed People's Commissar

This labor feat, which became one of the symbols Soviet era, will later be called into question. After all, Stakhanov did not work alone, but a whole team worked for him, critics say. But on the basis of his record, they began to raise production standards throughout the entire coal industry, they began to sculpt “fake” Stakhanovites, replacing real job showing off!

Indeed, Alexei Stakhanov’s record is more like a sports achievement. It needed appropriate conditions, not the most complex coal seams, and it also needed... Stakhanov himself. His excellent physical characteristics allowed him to work intensively throughout the entire shift, which not everyone can do.

However, Stakhanov himself never hid the fact that he did not work alone. Propagandists did not focus on him, but the hero himself had absolutely nothing to do with it. In addition, the division of labor in the brigade proposed by Stakhanov showed its high efficiency and soon began to be successfully used throughout the coal industry. So Stakhanov’s record objectively allowed the whole industry to move forward.

And besides, Stakhanov’s labor feat really inspired enthusiasm among the masses. His example became a clear demonstration that heroic work for the good of the Motherland can raise common man on par with the most famous people country, its leaders.

The Stakhanov movement, supported by the party, swept the entire country, and the man who stood at its origins was sent to Moscow to study at the Industrial Academy. In 1937, Alexei Stakhanov became a deputy of the Supreme Council.

For Stakhanov himself, this takeoff turned out to be a difficult test. Stalin did not hide his sympathy for the miner and even transparently hinted several times during the meeting that in the future he saw him as the People's Commissar of the coal industry.

The head of state knew how to work with personnel, but here he clearly overestimated Stakhanov’s capabilities. Three classes of education did not provide the opportunity to become a manager on a state scale, and the miner himself understood this better than anyone.

In addition, Alexey Grigorievich suffered from an addiction to alcohol. While in Moscow, he went on such a spree that one day Stalin himself asked him to take charge of the miner’s mind. After this, Stakhanov came to his senses for a while.

The hero married a 14-year-old

Not all was well with Stakhanov in his personal life. The first wife, a gypsy Evdokia, ran away from her husband, leaving him with two children. Stakhanov’s second marriage also began in a peculiar way: a 30-year-old miner fell in love with a 14-year-old schoolgirl. True, Galya Bondarenko looked much older than her years. Later, ill-wishers would attribute almost pedophilia to Stakhanov, but in fact, everything was not quite like that. Stakhanov, having learned how old his beloved was, stepped aside, but the girl’s relatives intervened, quickly passing her off as a 16-year-old. Galya's relatives decided that they couldn't find a better groom for her than the all-Union hero.

Surprisingly, this marriage of Stakhanov turned out to be quite successful. Galina turned out to be a smart girl beyond her years and not only managed to get an education herself, but also helped her eminent husband graduate from the Industrial Academy.

After graduation, Stakhanov worked as a manager at mines in Kazakhstan, then in Moscow, at the Ministry of Coal Industry.

Today they write different things about how he worked. Some claim that Alexey Grigorievich coped with his duties quite adequately, others - that in his office he only opened another bottle. To be honest, it’s hard to believe that a heavy drunkard would have been kept in a high position for more than a decade during the harsh Stalinist era.

Khrushchev's Revenge

In 1957, Stakhanov was sent from Moscow, from the ministry, back to Donbass to a low-level position in the coal trust. The hero of the Stalin era became extremely inconvenient for the new leader of the country, Nikita Khrushchev. Stakhanov, a man who did not have the skills of a diplomat, did not catch the spirit of the new era and did not brand “damned Stalinism.” Moreover, one day Khrushchev and Stakhanov, both of whom had a hot temper, had a fight over a mining issue. The head of state said: “I, like a miner...”, to which I heard Stakhanov’s sharp: “What kind of miner are you?!”

There was no one to stop Stakhanov, and he began to drink seriously. This aggravated the incipient diseases, provoked by work in the mine. His health began to deteriorate sharply, and some suspicious people began to circle around the forgotten hero.

When, for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, one Moscow journalist was going to write an essay about Stakhanov and arranged a business trip to Torez, his boss exclaimed in surprise: “Stakhanov?! Is he really alive?

They remembered Stakhanov’s feat, he was an integral part of the history of the state, which they were proud of, but they forgot about the man himself.

When the journalists got to Stakhanov, he was in terrible condition - alcoholism and progressive illnesses were taking their toll.

City named after worker

Stakhanov met with young people, he was taken to plants, factories... They could not do without feasts, which was categorically unacceptable for him.

But he himself did not know how to refuse, and it turned out to be impossible to explain to everyone. As a result, the disease began to progress rapidly.

Alexei Stakhanov spent the last months of his life in the hospital. Evil tongues say that the former hero simply went crazy due to chronic alcoholism. Stakhanov's daughter Violetta argued that this was not so. It’s just that the department for patients with cerebral vascular lesions in the small town of Torez was located in a psychiatric clinic.

Nikolai Troitsky, political commentator for RIA Novosti.

The Soviet coal miner Stakhanov was both lucky and unlucky in his life. All residents of our country knew his name. But he himself lost his name given at birth. He was extolled by official propaganda. However, at best, his compatriots treated him and his labor exploits with humor. And many despised and even hated.

He himself did not deserve such treatment. He worked honestly, mined coal in a mine in the Donbass, did not crowd into the “light” and the founders of the so-called Stakhanov movement. Who asked him? Everything was decided for him.

Andrei Stakhanov woke up famous 75 years ago, on the morning of August 31, 1935. More precisely, they artificially made him famous: they cleared and prepared the front of work, adjusted best equipment, and he didn’t mine coal alone, but his assistants were ignored. Although collectivism was declared as the basis of the state ideology, strict unity of command reigned at all levels, as in the army.

The Pravda newspaper immediately trumpeted the pre-planned feat of a worker who allegedly personally produced 102 tons of coal during a shift instead of the required seven. But the telegram from the mine did not indicate the full name of the hero, but only the initial “A”. The journalists, without thinking twice, decided that his name was Alexey. When the mistake became clear, Comrade Stalin said: “The newspaper Pravda cannot be mistaken.”

The ascetic had to change his passport and turn into Alexei. How he reacted to this remained unknown, and again no one asked him. It’s good that they didn’t replace the name with a number, like the prisoners of Stalin’s camps.

The Stakhanov movement began with that well-prepared feat. Our hero continued to break records, and his assistants still remained nameless. Then other record holders, leaders and heroes of labor appeared. They were written about in newspapers, called “beacons”, demanded to imitate them and be guided by them, and promoted their achievements, real and imaginary. They were supposed to serve as living proof of the superiority of the socialist system and the socialist way of managing. At the same time, the leading workers themselves were actively encouraged with rubles and helped to build their careers.

Stakhanov rose to chief engineer, then to manager of the coal trust. And then he retired and, simply put, drank himself to death. He spent the last months in a drug treatment clinic. Naturally, this was not reported in the official obituary. Yes, no one was following the fate of the man Stakhanov; it was of interest only to his family and friends. He himself has already turned into a symbol.

A symbol of what - that is the question. Today the very concept of “Stakhanov movement” is perceived in much the same way as the phrase “Potemkin villages”. That is, as a typical manifestation and embodiment of Soviet window dressing. If this is true, it is only partly true.
Of course, it was not possible without bullshit and show-off. But the same Stakhanov really tried to give the country as much coal as possible and actually tried to improve the organization of labor. He was a true rationalizer and innovator of production.

Another thing is that it never occurred to Stakhanov to attribute all the successes to himself alone. On the contrary, its main meaning rationalization proposal consisted of a clear division of labor between the miner and the fasteners. Everyone does their own thing: one mines or, in professional terms, chops coal with a jackhammer, others strengthen the mine arches. Previously, slaughterers had to do both in turn.

It is clear that after Stakhanov’s proposal was accepted, labor productivity increased. First at one mine, then throughout the entire industry, and then in other industries. So this is not a myth at all. After the establishment of the Stakhanovist and other similar movements, in reality there was “more iron and steel per capita in the country,” as Yuz Aleshkovsky wrote in his famous song about “Comrade Stalin.”

In general, Stakhanov, Nikita Izotov, Pasha Angelina, and other “lighthouses” were not engaged in window dressing, but worked by the sweat of their brow. Another thing is that in our country they knew how to take any good deed to the point of absurdity, or even idiocy. You gave out one hundred tons per gora, if you please, after that you give out two hundred, three hundred, and so on. This was already completely unrealistic, and shock work turned into bullshit.

But this concerns not only the Stakhanov movement. For example, there was nothing stupid or harmful about Nikita Khrushchev's initiative to sow more corn. But it is equally absurd to sow it beyond the Arctic Circle and to almost completely abandon this culture after the removal of Khrushchev. Or - already under Mikhail Gorbachev - in the frenzy of the anti-alcohol campaign, cut down the Crimean vineyards.

And one last thing. There is a lot of bad - and rightly bad - to be said about Stalin's times. But it cannot be denied that not only Stakhanov, but the majority of the Soviet people worked conscientiously in those years. Moreover, it was not only prisoners who worked. It is enough to check the strength and reliability of the so-called “Stalinist houses” in comparison with the buildings of subsequent eras.

And it is wrong to think that people worked well solely because they feared for their lives and fate. Many people were sincerely inspired by the idea of building a new world, a new country. And so that the idea did not remain abstract, it had to be personified in someone. This is why all kinds of Stakhanov movements, and a cult of production leaders was created.

One could even say that it was a cult of individuals, although these individuals themselves, paradoxically, remained voiceless, powerless “cogs” who could easily, at the wave of the Leader’s hand, have their names replaced and with whom they could do whatever they wanted. It is doubly offensive that later, as is usual with us, the child was thrown out with the bathwater. They debunked the cult, and at the same time abandoned their personalities.