Editing Stakhanovite movement

{{Short description|Soviet work ethos equating labor with heroism}}
[[File:Stakhanov.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov]] with a fellow miner]]

The '''Stakhanovite movement'''{{efn|{{langx|ru|стаха́новское движе́ние|stakhánovskoye dvizhéniye}}}} was a [[Mass movement (politics)|mass]] [[cultural movement]] for [[Workforce|workers]] established by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] in the 1930s [[Soviet Union]]. Its promoters encouraged [[Rationalization (economics)|the rationalization]] of workplace processes—i.e., increased production goals—while promoting [[socialist emulation]].

The '''Stakhanovites'''{{efn|{{langx|ru|стаха́новцы|stakhánovtsy}}}} modeled themselves after the mythic productivity of the Russian coal miner [[Alexei Stakhanov]]. As frontline workers they took pride in their aspirations to work harder and more efficiently than was required by [[ad hoc]] norms; thereby they saw themselves as contributing to the [[common good]] and strengthening the [[socialist state]]. The Party started the 'movement' in the coal industry and then applied it to other industries across the Soviet Union. Initially popular, it eventually encountered resistance as the pressures for greater productivity placed increased and unrealistic demands on workers.

== History ==
[[File:Medal For Labour Valour Current.jpg|thumb|upright|USSR [[Medal "For Labour Valour"]]]]

The Stakhanovite movement was established and developed by the Soviet Communist Party; it was started in 1935 during the [[Five-year plans of the Soviet Union#Second plan, 1932–1937|second Soviet five-year plan]]—as a new stage of sponsored [[socialist competition|socialist competition/socialist emulation]], and as the continuation of the Party's rapid industrialization initiative and its forced collectivization  of farming begun seven years prior (1928).{{sfnp|Siegelbaum|1990|p={{page needed|date=January 2023}}}} The movement took its name from Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov, who reportedly, on August 31, 1935, mined 102 [[ton]]s of coal in less than 6 hours—some 14 times his shift quota.{{sfnp|Overy|2004|p=258}} However, "competitive" Stakhanovite followers  soon would "break" his record.{{sfnp|Overy|2004|p=258}} On February 1, 1936, it was reported that [[Nikita Izotov]] had mined 640 tons{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} of coal in a single shift.{{sfnp|VOKS|1937}}

Stakhanovite programs were quickly applied by the Party to other industries of the Soviet Union.{{sfnp|Overy|2004|p=259}} Pioneers of the movement included {{ill|Alexander Busygin|ru|Бусыгин, Александр Харитонович}} (automobile industry), {{ill|Nikolai Smetanin|ru|Сметанин, Николай Степанович}} (shoe industry), {{ill|Dusya Vinogradova|ru|Виноградова, Евдокия Викторовна}}{{efn|Namesake of the Vinogradovites ({{lang|ru|виноградовцы}}).}} and {{ill|Marusya Vinogradova|ru|Виноградова, Мария Ивановна}} (textile industry), {{ill|Ivan I. Gudov|ru|Гудов, Иван Иванович}} ([[machine tool]] industry), {{ill|Vasiliy S. Musinsky|ru|Мусинский, Василий Степанович}} (timber industry), {{ill|Pyotr Krivonos|ru|Кривонос, Пётр Фёдорович}} (railroad),{{sfnp|Krivonoss|1939}} [[Pasha Angelina]] (agriculture),{{efn|Honored as the first Soviet woman to operate a tractor.}} {{ill|Konstantin Borin|ru|Борин, Константин Александрович}} and {{ill|Maria S. Demchenko|ru|Демченко, Мария Софроновна}} (agriculture), and many others.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-08-18 |title=The Stakhanov Movement (1938) |language=en-US |work=Seventeen Moments in Soviet History |url=http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1936-2/year-of-the-stakhanovite/year-of-the-stakhanovite-video/the-stakhanov-movement-1938/ |access-date=2018-04-19}}</ref>

On November 14–17, 1935, the first All-Union Stakhanovite Conference convened in Moscow at [[the Kremlin]].{{sfnp|Stalin|1935}} The conference emphasized the "outstanding"   role of the Stakhanovite movement in the [[socialist]] reconstruction of the national economy.{{sfnp|Stalin|1935}} In December 1935 the [[plenary session|plenum]] of the Communist Party's [[Central Committee of the CPSU|Central Committee]] specifically discussed aspects of developing industry and transport systems in light of the Stakhanovite movement.{{Citation needed|date=April 2018}}

Pursuing the objectives of the recent Party plenum, the Soviets organized a wide network of industrial training, specifically creating courses for [[:wikt:foreman|foremen]] of socialist labor to initiate and support the movement in the various industry. They introduced Stakhanovite contests in many industries to find the best workers and encourage competition among them.{{sfnp|Siegelbaum|1990|p={{page needed|date=January 2023}}}} In 1936 a number of industrial and technical conferences revised the projected production capacities of different industries and increased their outputs. 
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-67140-0003, Neustrelitz, Forstarbeiterbrigade.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Near [[Neustrelitz]], [[East Germany]], September 1959, a forester (on motorcycle) congratulates a team of women for achieving 184% of a production goal during their shift—by planting 25,000 saplings against a quota of only 16,000.]]

Female Stakhanovites emerged less frequently than male, but a quarter of all [[Trade unions in the Soviet Union|trade-union]] women were designated as "norm-breaking".{{sfnp|Overy|2004|p= 259}} Women working as milkmaids, calf tenders, and fieldworkers represented the preponderance of rural Stakhanovites.{{sfnp|Siegelbaum|Sokolov|2000|p=[https://archive.org/details/stalinismaswayof00sieg /page/18/mode/2up 19]}}

Soviet authorities claimed that the Stakhanovite movement caused significant increases  in labor productivity. It was reported that during the [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|first five-year plan]] (1928–32) industrial labor productivity increased by 41%.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} During the second five-year plan (1933–1937) it reportedly increased by 82%. Discussions of the draft constitution in the 1930s were  used to encourage a "second wind" for the movement.{{sfnp|Siegelbaum|Sokolov|2000|p=[https://archive.org/details/stalinismaswayof00sieg/page/160/mode/2up 161]}}

During [[World War II]], the Stakhanovites deployed different methods to increase productivity, such as working several machine-tools at a time and by combining professions. The Stakhanovites organized the {{Interlanguage link|two-hundreders movement|ru|3=Движение двухсотников}} ({{lang|ru|двухсотники}}, or {{Transliteration|ru|dvukhsotniki}}; 200% or more of quota in a single shift).{{sfnp|Williamson|2013|p={{page needed|date=January 2023}}}}

== Opposition and termination ==
Not all workers were pleased with the pressures created by the Stakhanovites and the bureaucratic demands for increased productivity. Some groups held Stakhanov responsible for making their lives harder and threatened him for it.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Poster Boy for the Communist System |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03bbvg7 |access-date=2018-04-19 |website=Witness – BBC World Service |language=en-GB}}</ref> Opponents of the movement risked invoking the label of "[[wrecking (Soviet Union)|wrecker]]" being charged against them by Soviet authorities.{{sfnp|Service|2005|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernr00robe/page/217 217]}}

In 1988, the Soviet newspaper ''[[Komsomolskaya Pravda]]'' stated that the widely propagandized personal achievements of Stakhanov actually were puffery. The paper insisted that Stakhanov had used a number of helpers on support work, while the output was tallied for him alone. According to the Soviet state media, the Stakhanov movement had eventually led to increased productivity by means of a better organization of workflow processes, including more specialization and better task sequencing.<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 October 1988 |work=[[Komsomolskaya Pravda]]}}{{title?|date=January 2023}}</ref>

== In fiction ==
* [[Yuri Krymov]]'s 1938 novel ''[[Yuri Krymov#Tanker "Derbent"|Tanker "Derbent"]]'', and the 1941 feature film based on it, are about Stakhanovitism in oil transport across the [[Caspian Sea]].{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
* [[Andrzej Wajda]]'s film ''[[Man of Marble]]'' explores the myth-making process behind a fictional Polish Stakhanovite, telling the story of his rise and eventual fall from grace.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
* [[George Orwell]]'s novel ''[[Animal Farm]]'' has a representation of the Stakhanovites in the character of Boxer the Horse,{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} whose motto is "I will work harder!". 
* [[Harry Turtledove]]'s novel ''Fallout'', from the Hot War trilogy, includes a character in eastern Russia who gets into trouble with local townspeople because he works hard like a Stakhanovite.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}
* [[Grigori Aleksandrov]]'s film [[Tanya (1940 film)|''Tanya'']] centered on a female character who becomes a member of the Stakhanovite movement.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

== See also ==
{{columnslist|colwidth=28em|
* [[996 working hour system]]
* [[Model worker]]
* [[Cherkasova movement]]
* [[Chollima movement]]
* [[Family in the Soviet Union]]
* {{ill|Gaganova movement|ru|Гагановское движение}}
* {{ill|Izotovite movement|ru|Изотовское движение}}
* [[Learn from Dazhai in agriculture]]
* {{ill|Lunin movement|ru|Лунинское движение}}
* ''[[Shturmovshchina]]''
* ''[[Udarnik]]''
* {{ill|Vinogradova movement|ru|Виноградовское движение}}
}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Works cited ==
{{Refbegin|2|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite book |last=Krivonoss |first=P. |title=The Stakhanov Movement on Soviet Railroads |date=1939 |publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House}}
* {{Cite book |last=Overy |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/dictators00rich |title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company|W.W. Norton]] |date=2004 |isbn=0-393-02030-4 |location=New York |author-link=Richard Overy}}
* {{Cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |title=A History of Modern Russia, from Nicholas II to Putin |date=2005 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=0-674-01801-X |location=Cambridge, MA |author-link=Robert Service (historian)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Siegelbaum |first=Lewis H. |authorlink=Lewis Siegelbaum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFO2JAuI1WkC |title=Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935–1941 |date=1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-52139556-4 |orig-date=1988}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Siegelbaum |first1=Lewis |url=https://archive.org/details/stalinismaswayof00sieg |title=Stalinism as a Way of Life |last2=Sokolov |first2=Andrei |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |date=2000 |isbn=0-300-08480-3 |location=New Haven, CT}}
* {{Cite speech |last=Stalin |first=J. V. |location=London |date=17 November 1935 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1935/11/17.htm |title=Speech at the First All-Union Conference of Stakhanovites |via=Marxists Internet Archive |publisher=Red Star Press Ltd. |publication-date=1978}}
* {{Cite journal |author=VOKS |author-link=VOKS |title=The System of Training in the USSR |journal=Slavonic and East European Review |date=1937 |volume=15 |issue=45 |pages=623–628 |jstor=4203280}}
* {{Cite book |last=Williamson |first=David G. |title=Age of the Dictators: a Study of the European Dictatorships, 1918–53 |date=2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-31787014-2 |location=White Plains |oclc=956644191}}
{{Refend}}

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[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
[[Category:Economic history of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Labor history]]
[[Category:Propaganda in the Soviet Union]]