Alexey Stakhanov

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.

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".[7]

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.[8]

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."[9]

Alexey Stakhanov, the student of Industrial Academy on the front page of Pravda issue 314 (7280) dated Nov 15 1937

In 1988, the Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claimed that the widely cited 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 increased productivity by means of a better work organization, including specialization and task sequencing.[10]

It has also been claimed that his record was beaten by Alija Sirotanović of Yugoslavia and Sergej Scemuk of Ukraine.[11]

At birth, Stakhanov was given the name Andrei, but the telegram reporting his record only contained his initial, and the editors of Pravda reported his name as Alexey. Rather than admit such a high-profile mistake, authorities decided to replace his passport and other official documents, changing his name to Alexei.[1]

Stakhanov had two partners and six children.[12]

• From 1938 to 1947, the city of Zhukovsky, Russia was called Stakhanovo.
• On 15 February 1978, the Ukrainian city of Kadievka was renamed Stakhanov
• George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm, represents him as the character of Boxer.

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