In the 30s of the last century, the Soviet leadership paid much attention to the industrial development of the Soviet Union. It was against this background that the movement of the foremost workers of production emerged, which was named Stakhanov's after the name of its founder. The results of the work of the Stakhanovites raised the bar of labor achievements to a very high level, to which other enthusiasts also strove.
The beginning of the Stakhanov movement
On September 2, 1935, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published a sensational report. It turns out that on the night of August 31 of the same year at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine, the miner Alexei Stakhanov produced one hundred and two tons of coal per shift at the rate of seven tons that was in effect at that time.
A few days later, this achievement was surpassed by four other miners, and then the record holder himself. The press of the country of the Soviets began to publish almost daily reports on labor records that enthusiasts set not only in the coal industry, but also in other industrial sectors.
Two and a half months after the establishment of the first labor record, a meeting of the Stakhanovites was held in Moscow, in which many party leaders also took part.
The movement of the foremost workers in production, which received the name "Stakhanov's", contributed to the mobilization of labor collectives and led to an overall increase in labor productivity. All over the country, enthusiasts began to appear who exceeded the labor standard several times. The Stakhanov movement revealed the high potential of the working class and highlighted hidden production reserves.
Fighting for records
Before the development of the Stakhanov movement, the rates of industrial growth were achieved, as a rule, through extensive methods and by attracting new workers to the production sphere. Per machine, the output was very low, even if more efficient imported equipment was put into operation. Therefore, the achievements of the Stakhanovites looked fantastic against the general background.
Not without abuse, however. In one of his books, the historian and sociologist Vadim Rogovin points out that against the background of sincere enthusiasm and selfless work of the Stakhanovites, there were cases of postscripts (“Stalin's neo-ep”, VZ Rogovin, 1994). It happened that the real results of work were deliberately overestimated.
Sometimes the field reports did not feature auxiliary labor operations carried out by assistants to the record holders, without which achievements would have been impossible.
In his speech at a meeting of participants in the Stakhanov movement, I. V. Stalin stressed that the roots of the labor initiative of the working class are the improvement of its material situation. Of course, these words were at that time overt boasting: by the mid-thirties, the general standard of living of an ordinary worker was not much different from the level at which the fulfillment of the first five-year plan began.
Much more real can be considered another motive of the Stakhanovite workers: they simply sought to increase their earnings. Indeed, the wages of individual leaders in those years increased several times. Be that as it may, the Stakhanov movement really stirred up the working strata of the country's population, which made it possible to use the energy of the masses to raise Soviet industry.
