Alexey Stakhanov. Hero and symbol of the Soviet era
5 November 1977 of the year, forty years ago, died a man whose name became a symbol of the labor exploits of the Soviet era. Only then, in the perestroika period and in post-Soviet Russia, narrow-minded people joked about him and his followers, but the country was indebted for such heroes to the rapid industrialization, the construction of new cities, and the development of the economy.
Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov lived a life not so small for a simple working person - 71 year. He was born on December 21 1905 (January 3 1906 on a new style), at the height of the events of the First Russian Revolution, in the village of Lugovaya, Livny district, Oryol province. An ordinary simple family, a simple guy ... Young Alex was lucky enough to survive the Civil War, the hungry years. What did he not have to do to earn a living — Alyosha worked as a shepherd boy, a caretaker for wealthy neighbors. At school he managed to study only three classes.
It was in search of a better life that Alexey Stakhanov went to the Donbass. He came to the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine, in a locality called the Irminsky mine (now the city of Irmino). At first, they did not want to take the village boy to the mine, especially there were no vacancies, but countrymen shoved - people from everywhere worked in the mine, and Orlovschina was no exception. Stakhanov took the brake. It was not requiring special qualifications, but requiring work, skill and strength. The brakes had to ensure that the coal trolleys that were being dragged along the rails did not roll back. Alexey, the benefit of the guy was savvy and strong, he coped well with this work and soon he was made a konogon. He ruled the horses that dragged coal trolleys. Having passed such a kind of internship, he finally got a long-awaited jackhammer in his hands and became a miner - the hardest, but also responsible, well-paid job. So Alex began to cut coal seams.
The physically strong guy was given a job easily, rather quickly, he became one of the best miners, and in 1935, being a 29-year-old young miner, he graduated from the miners courses at the same mine. With eight years of experience at the mine, by the summer of 1935, Stakhanov had repeatedly thought about how to increase productivity. He proposed - let one miner cut coal, the lodgers strengthen the shaft of the mine, and horsemen take the coal. The division of labor, according to Stakhanov, would help each shift to produce 70-80 tons of coal.
At that time, increasing productivity in any enterprises was a major concern. Therefore, the party organizer of the mine Konstantin Petrov immediately became interested in the initiative of Stakhanov. He, too, wanted very much to increase labor productivity at the mine, knowing full well that his own career depended on it. What happened next - the whole country knows. It was decided to put the experiment on the night of 30 on 31 August 1935. Why did you choose this date? On September 1, International Youth Day was celebrated, and the party committee of the mine wanted to coincide with an unprecedented experiment. Konstantin Petrov, the Stakhanov Commissar, filed an appropriate request with the town party committee in Kadievka. They gave the go-ahead.
In 22 hours, the miner Alexei Stakhanov, Gavrila Schigolev and Tikhon Borisenko, the site chief Nikolay Mashurov, the party organizer Konstantin Petrov and the editor of the newspaper Mikhailov descended into the mine. Petrov and Mashurov spotted the start of work. Stakhanov with a jackhammer moved forward - chopping coal seams. Schigolev and Borisenko strengthened the arch, gradually lagging behind the pace of Stakhanov. Although the miner had to cut eight ledges, Stakhanov brilliantly coped with the task. The work was done in 5 hours 45 minutes. Having calculated the result, the head of the site and the party organizer were shocked - Stakhanov chopped up 102 tons of coal, following the 14 standards. In less than six hours of work, he managed to earn 220 rubles.
After the impressive success of Stakhanov and the report of the party organizer to the top, he decided to use his method in other mines. As for Stakhanov, on August 31 in 6 hours of the morning, after the completion of the work process, the plenum of the party committee of the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine decided to put the name of Stakhanov on the Hall of Fame. It was decided to allocate a hero to the slave-keeper to allocate a new apartment, to grant a subscription to the theater - for cultural development. Instantly an unknown working guy from the Lugansk mine turned into a national hero about whom the whole Soviet country spoke.
Meanwhile, the tireless Alexey continued to set records. When 4 of September 1935 of the year was another miner Miron Dyukanov chopped up tons of coal for a shift of 115, Stakhanov took a new value - September of 19 he chopped up of 227 tons of coal for a shift. Naturally, such successes could not go unnoticed by the country's top leadership. Stakhanov became a symbol, a hero of Soviet industrialization. In his honor, the whole movement of the drummers, which they began to call Stakhanovites, was called. Now Stakhanovites appeared not only in the mines, but also in any enterprises, in agriculture. The heroic miner flaunted on propaganda posters calling on Soviet workers and collective farmers to set labor records and follow the example of Alexei Stakhanov.
Stakhanov predicted a great future. At that time, such people were valued, and Stakhanov was a young guy who became famous throughout the country. Joseph Vissarionovich himself did not hide his location to Stakhanov. Apparently, he had his own views on the Lugansk miner - Stalin wanted Stakhanov, of course, after receiving appropriate training, to make a career in the coal industry and even become a people's commissar. In 1936, the miner Stakhanov was sent to Moscow to study at the Industrial Academy. Meanwhile, large-scale events also took place at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine. The director of the mine, Iosif Ivanovich Zaplavsky, was dismissed and later arrested on charges of countering the Stakhanov records. Zaplavsky was replaced by the party organizer Konstantin Petrov, who, by the way, was two years younger than Stakhanov himself. In 1936, the mine of Irmin received the status of the city of Irmino - also in honor of the Stakhanov record.
Alexei Stakhanov himself in Moscow, as they say, “has gone into all hell.” A simple working guy's attention all over the country, Stalin's flattering assessments turned his head. Instead of painstaking study at the Industrial Academy, Stakhanov preferred to meet with admirers, began to attach to the bottle. There is a version that Stalin himself had to make a suggestion to a heroic miner. The leader of the peoples reacted to Stakhanov paternally - a young matter, he understood the working guy with his "dizzy with success." But certain conclusions about Stakhanov were nevertheless made. Alexei Grigorievich failed to make a serious career.
After graduating from the Industrial Academy in 1941, Stakhanov was dispatched to Karaganda by the head of the mine. The heroic miner did not get to the front - they decided to save the symbol of the Soviet coal industry from such a risk. In Karaganda, however, Stakhanov also did not work long, until 1942. Then he was transferred by the head of the socialist competition sector to the People's Commissariat of the Coal Industry in Moscow. Position not too responsible, rather - honorable. On it, Stakhanov quietly worked until the 1957 year. Although myths are widespread that by this time Stakhanov almost completely drank themselves, it is hardly worth believing them. Who would, in Stalin's time, keep the gay alcoholic in the People's Commissariat? However, in the 1957 year, after the death of Stalin, Stakhanov was removed from the Ministry of Coal Industry - sent to the Donbass. It is said that Nikita Khrushchev himself, who was very cool towards Stakhanov, was behind this — he disliked the Stalinist hero, and envied him as a miner.
There are many legends about why Stakhanov under Khrushchev was sent to the Donbass. One by one, he was rude to Nikita Sergeevich, answering the General Secretary to the words “I am like a miner” - “What kind of ... are you a miner!” On the other hand, when the leader of the French Communists, Maurice Thorez, was going to the Soviet Union, he wanted to meet with Stakhanov and Khrushchev said: Stakhanov in the Donbas. And then he sent Alexey Grigorievich there - to meet a French comrade. But the hero, the miner, was never called back.
Lived Stakhanov after 1957 year in the city of Torez. It was here that the heroic miner's life was rolling down the slope. "Link" from Moscow, Stakhanov was suffering painfully. Of course, he understood that his fame was already in the past and he was no longer destined to make some large-scale career. Added to this and family problems - leaving his wife with children. Alexey Grigorievich really began to drink frequently. Moreover, the Soviet country somehow forgot about the heroic work of the Lugansk miner. At least, Stakhanov, whose age was already approaching retirement, did not even receive the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
The situation changed only at the end of 1960's. Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, who belonged to the symbolic component of the Soviet ideology very reverently. In the Brezhnev era, the country needed symbols more than ever. It was decided to return to the heroes of a glorious revolutionary, military and labor past. They also remembered about Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov.
Journalists went to Torez. Meeting with the legendary Stakhanov Moscow guests were amazed. The famous miner, and now the pensioner was a sick alcoholic, was in a deplorable state. The legend was reported on the radio. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was amazed that Alexey Stakhanov, whom he had heard about as an outstanding drummer as a young man, still does not have the title of Hero of Labor. Brezhnev ordered - to find Stakhanov, to bring to Moscow. Alexey Grigorievich was urgently sent for treatment to a sanatorium, put in order. Then brought to the capital.
In 1970, the year Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov through 35 years after his feat was given the well-deserved high title of Hero of Socialist Labor. The old man returned to former glory. They began to transport Alexey Stakhanov around the cities of the Soviet Union, they organized meetings with labor collectives, with young people. After the meetings, inevitably followed feasts with local party officials. Alexey Grigorievich began drinking again, but not in solitude and from melancholy as before.
In the end, everything ended very badly. Stakhanov was in a psychiatric hospital in Torez. No, according to his daughter Violetta, he did not go mad, but simply started having problems with the vessels of the brain. In the hospital, Aleksey Grigorievich was given a separate ward, tried to support as best they could. But still a misfortune happened. Sociable Stakhanov did not like to sit alone in his ward and strove to go to the common - to communicate with other patients. In one of these trips, he slipped on the apple peel and, falling, hit his temple on the corner of the table. A few hours later, Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov was gone. He died November 5 1977 of the year.
Already 15 February 1978, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR decided to rename the city of Kadievka, in which Stakhanov set his famous record (Irmino was part of the city agglomeration of Kadievka), in the city of Stakhanov. The name of Alexei Grigorievich was given to the streets, settlements, 26 scholarships were established named after Stakhanov for the best students of vocational schools.
The life of Stakhanov is heroism and tragedy at the same time. He testifies to how unfair sometimes the fate of uncommon people happens. But, nevertheless, Stakhanov made his enormous contribution not only and not so much to the development of the coal industry, as to the psychology of the Soviet people of the Stalin era. His example motivated millions of other Soviet citizens to labor exploits, and the surname Stakhanov became common and lived separately from its carrier.
In the post-Soviet years, the “yellow press” tried to blacken the look of Stakhanov in the same way as the look of other iconic figures of the Soviet era. They preferred to talk not so much about the exploits of a miner and not even about the life tragedy, but about the allegedly immoral way of life of Stakhanov, that he was constantly drinking (and this was the case with living post-Soviet leaders who were drunk in aircraft and "conducted" by orchestras), his wife was “too young,” and so on. Fortunately, time put everything in its place. Today, a respectful attitude to the people who created the Soviet era, built factories, cut coal, and fulfilled fourteen standards in five hours, wakes up in the country. Among them, a worthy place is occupied by Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov.
Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov lived a life not so small for a simple working person - 71 year. He was born on December 21 1905 (January 3 1906 on a new style), at the height of the events of the First Russian Revolution, in the village of Lugovaya, Livny district, Oryol province. An ordinary simple family, a simple guy ... Young Alex was lucky enough to survive the Civil War, the hungry years. What did he not have to do to earn a living — Alyosha worked as a shepherd boy, a caretaker for wealthy neighbors. At school he managed to study only three classes.
It was in search of a better life that Alexey Stakhanov went to the Donbass. He came to the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine, in a locality called the Irminsky mine (now the city of Irmino). At first, they did not want to take the village boy to the mine, especially there were no vacancies, but countrymen shoved - people from everywhere worked in the mine, and Orlovschina was no exception. Stakhanov took the brake. It was not requiring special qualifications, but requiring work, skill and strength. The brakes had to ensure that the coal trolleys that were being dragged along the rails did not roll back. Alexey, the benefit of the guy was savvy and strong, he coped well with this work and soon he was made a konogon. He ruled the horses that dragged coal trolleys. Having passed such a kind of internship, he finally got a long-awaited jackhammer in his hands and became a miner - the hardest, but also responsible, well-paid job. So Alex began to cut coal seams.
The physically strong guy was given a job easily, rather quickly, he became one of the best miners, and in 1935, being a 29-year-old young miner, he graduated from the miners courses at the same mine. With eight years of experience at the mine, by the summer of 1935, Stakhanov had repeatedly thought about how to increase productivity. He proposed - let one miner cut coal, the lodgers strengthen the shaft of the mine, and horsemen take the coal. The division of labor, according to Stakhanov, would help each shift to produce 70-80 tons of coal.
At that time, increasing productivity in any enterprises was a major concern. Therefore, the party organizer of the mine Konstantin Petrov immediately became interested in the initiative of Stakhanov. He, too, wanted very much to increase labor productivity at the mine, knowing full well that his own career depended on it. What happened next - the whole country knows. It was decided to put the experiment on the night of 30 on 31 August 1935. Why did you choose this date? On September 1, International Youth Day was celebrated, and the party committee of the mine wanted to coincide with an unprecedented experiment. Konstantin Petrov, the Stakhanov Commissar, filed an appropriate request with the town party committee in Kadievka. They gave the go-ahead.
In 22 hours, the miner Alexei Stakhanov, Gavrila Schigolev and Tikhon Borisenko, the site chief Nikolay Mashurov, the party organizer Konstantin Petrov and the editor of the newspaper Mikhailov descended into the mine. Petrov and Mashurov spotted the start of work. Stakhanov with a jackhammer moved forward - chopping coal seams. Schigolev and Borisenko strengthened the arch, gradually lagging behind the pace of Stakhanov. Although the miner had to cut eight ledges, Stakhanov brilliantly coped with the task. The work was done in 5 hours 45 minutes. Having calculated the result, the head of the site and the party organizer were shocked - Stakhanov chopped up 102 tons of coal, following the 14 standards. In less than six hours of work, he managed to earn 220 rubles.
After the impressive success of Stakhanov and the report of the party organizer to the top, he decided to use his method in other mines. As for Stakhanov, on August 31 in 6 hours of the morning, after the completion of the work process, the plenum of the party committee of the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine decided to put the name of Stakhanov on the Hall of Fame. It was decided to allocate a hero to the slave-keeper to allocate a new apartment, to grant a subscription to the theater - for cultural development. Instantly an unknown working guy from the Lugansk mine turned into a national hero about whom the whole Soviet country spoke.
Meanwhile, the tireless Alexey continued to set records. When 4 of September 1935 of the year was another miner Miron Dyukanov chopped up tons of coal for a shift of 115, Stakhanov took a new value - September of 19 he chopped up of 227 tons of coal for a shift. Naturally, such successes could not go unnoticed by the country's top leadership. Stakhanov became a symbol, a hero of Soviet industrialization. In his honor, the whole movement of the drummers, which they began to call Stakhanovites, was called. Now Stakhanovites appeared not only in the mines, but also in any enterprises, in agriculture. The heroic miner flaunted on propaganda posters calling on Soviet workers and collective farmers to set labor records and follow the example of Alexei Stakhanov.
Stakhanov predicted a great future. At that time, such people were valued, and Stakhanov was a young guy who became famous throughout the country. Joseph Vissarionovich himself did not hide his location to Stakhanov. Apparently, he had his own views on the Lugansk miner - Stalin wanted Stakhanov, of course, after receiving appropriate training, to make a career in the coal industry and even become a people's commissar. In 1936, the miner Stakhanov was sent to Moscow to study at the Industrial Academy. Meanwhile, large-scale events also took place at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine. The director of the mine, Iosif Ivanovich Zaplavsky, was dismissed and later arrested on charges of countering the Stakhanov records. Zaplavsky was replaced by the party organizer Konstantin Petrov, who, by the way, was two years younger than Stakhanov himself. In 1936, the mine of Irmin received the status of the city of Irmino - also in honor of the Stakhanov record.
Alexei Stakhanov himself in Moscow, as they say, “has gone into all hell.” A simple working guy's attention all over the country, Stalin's flattering assessments turned his head. Instead of painstaking study at the Industrial Academy, Stakhanov preferred to meet with admirers, began to attach to the bottle. There is a version that Stalin himself had to make a suggestion to a heroic miner. The leader of the peoples reacted to Stakhanov paternally - a young matter, he understood the working guy with his "dizzy with success." But certain conclusions about Stakhanov were nevertheless made. Alexei Grigorievich failed to make a serious career.
After graduating from the Industrial Academy in 1941, Stakhanov was dispatched to Karaganda by the head of the mine. The heroic miner did not get to the front - they decided to save the symbol of the Soviet coal industry from such a risk. In Karaganda, however, Stakhanov also did not work long, until 1942. Then he was transferred by the head of the socialist competition sector to the People's Commissariat of the Coal Industry in Moscow. Position not too responsible, rather - honorable. On it, Stakhanov quietly worked until the 1957 year. Although myths are widespread that by this time Stakhanov almost completely drank themselves, it is hardly worth believing them. Who would, in Stalin's time, keep the gay alcoholic in the People's Commissariat? However, in the 1957 year, after the death of Stalin, Stakhanov was removed from the Ministry of Coal Industry - sent to the Donbass. It is said that Nikita Khrushchev himself, who was very cool towards Stakhanov, was behind this — he disliked the Stalinist hero, and envied him as a miner.
There are many legends about why Stakhanov under Khrushchev was sent to the Donbass. One by one, he was rude to Nikita Sergeevich, answering the General Secretary to the words “I am like a miner” - “What kind of ... are you a miner!” On the other hand, when the leader of the French Communists, Maurice Thorez, was going to the Soviet Union, he wanted to meet with Stakhanov and Khrushchev said: Stakhanov in the Donbas. And then he sent Alexey Grigorievich there - to meet a French comrade. But the hero, the miner, was never called back.
Lived Stakhanov after 1957 year in the city of Torez. It was here that the heroic miner's life was rolling down the slope. "Link" from Moscow, Stakhanov was suffering painfully. Of course, he understood that his fame was already in the past and he was no longer destined to make some large-scale career. Added to this and family problems - leaving his wife with children. Alexey Grigorievich really began to drink frequently. Moreover, the Soviet country somehow forgot about the heroic work of the Lugansk miner. At least, Stakhanov, whose age was already approaching retirement, did not even receive the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
The situation changed only at the end of 1960's. Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, who belonged to the symbolic component of the Soviet ideology very reverently. In the Brezhnev era, the country needed symbols more than ever. It was decided to return to the heroes of a glorious revolutionary, military and labor past. They also remembered about Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov.
Journalists went to Torez. Meeting with the legendary Stakhanov Moscow guests were amazed. The famous miner, and now the pensioner was a sick alcoholic, was in a deplorable state. The legend was reported on the radio. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was amazed that Alexey Stakhanov, whom he had heard about as an outstanding drummer as a young man, still does not have the title of Hero of Labor. Brezhnev ordered - to find Stakhanov, to bring to Moscow. Alexey Grigorievich was urgently sent for treatment to a sanatorium, put in order. Then brought to the capital. In 1970, the year Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov through 35 years after his feat was given the well-deserved high title of Hero of Socialist Labor. The old man returned to former glory. They began to transport Alexey Stakhanov around the cities of the Soviet Union, they organized meetings with labor collectives, with young people. After the meetings, inevitably followed feasts with local party officials. Alexey Grigorievich began drinking again, but not in solitude and from melancholy as before.
In the end, everything ended very badly. Stakhanov was in a psychiatric hospital in Torez. No, according to his daughter Violetta, he did not go mad, but simply started having problems with the vessels of the brain. In the hospital, Aleksey Grigorievich was given a separate ward, tried to support as best they could. But still a misfortune happened. Sociable Stakhanov did not like to sit alone in his ward and strove to go to the common - to communicate with other patients. In one of these trips, he slipped on the apple peel and, falling, hit his temple on the corner of the table. A few hours later, Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov was gone. He died November 5 1977 of the year.
Already 15 February 1978, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR decided to rename the city of Kadievka, in which Stakhanov set his famous record (Irmino was part of the city agglomeration of Kadievka), in the city of Stakhanov. The name of Alexei Grigorievich was given to the streets, settlements, 26 scholarships were established named after Stakhanov for the best students of vocational schools.
The life of Stakhanov is heroism and tragedy at the same time. He testifies to how unfair sometimes the fate of uncommon people happens. But, nevertheless, Stakhanov made his enormous contribution not only and not so much to the development of the coal industry, as to the psychology of the Soviet people of the Stalin era. His example motivated millions of other Soviet citizens to labor exploits, and the surname Stakhanov became common and lived separately from its carrier.
In the post-Soviet years, the “yellow press” tried to blacken the look of Stakhanov in the same way as the look of other iconic figures of the Soviet era. They preferred to talk not so much about the exploits of a miner and not even about the life tragedy, but about the allegedly immoral way of life of Stakhanov, that he was constantly drinking (and this was the case with living post-Soviet leaders who were drunk in aircraft and "conducted" by orchestras), his wife was “too young,” and so on. Fortunately, time put everything in its place. Today, a respectful attitude to the people who created the Soviet era, built factories, cut coal, and fulfilled fourteen standards in five hours, wakes up in the country. Among them, a worthy place is occupied by Alexey Grigorievich Stakhanov.
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