The Russian Bolsheviks cemented their power after the October revolution and the civil
war that followed, thanks to bloody repression and conscienceless crackdowns.
But it was all in name of a greater good, according to the movement’s leaders, and
eventually, an ideal egalitarian society would take shape.
This equalization, however, never really happened, and it didn’t take long for the Bolsheviks
to backtrack on this ideal of an egalitarian society: due to their policies and propaganda
a new class began to take shape, the so-called labour aristocracy, also known as the Stakhanovite
movement.
-intro-
During the night of the thirtieth of August nineteen-thirty-five Alexey Stachanov, a twenty-nine-year-old
unknown coal miner, like so many, in the Soviet Union, started his shift in the Donbass.
He voluntarily offered to honour the International Day of the youth in a special way: he would
mine an extraordinary amount of coal.
Five hours and forty-five minutes later he had mined one-hundred-and-two tonnes of coal,
over fourteen times his quota.
He was aided by two other miners, in the presence of the director of the mine, a party representative
and the local press.
Stakhanov managed to earn more than a month’s worth of wages... in a single night.
His ‘tour the force’, which was thanks to the simplification of his working method.
There is no consensus over exactly what happened, but it is near certain Stakhanov was helped
by many other miners.
So it wasn’t due to great physical effort.
Stakhanov’s “achievement” gave the incentive for a massive national publicity campaign
and the creation of a theory and its application, known as ‘Stakhanovism’.
This Stakhanovism dominated the Soviet newspapers for months, pushing other news articles further
down.
Stakhanov became a national hero and the last Sunday of August was from now on the “Day
of the Coal Miner”.
The government used his ‘achievement’ in order to launch a propaganda campaign and
push other workers to greater effort in the construction of the new socialist ‘paradise’.
Stakhanov’s fame wasn’t just limited to the Soviet Union, however.
Time magazine, in the United States, printed his photo on the cover of their December edition
in nineteen-thirty-five.
Stakhanov’s achievement was used as an example to workers from every branch whether it be
agriculture, factories or the heavy industry.
By reforming their labour processes and using unskilled workers these ‘reformers’ managed
to achieve similar production levels in textile, steel, shoe and other industries.
These so-called Stakhanovites could earn up to twenty times as much as the lowest paid
workers in their industries.
The egalitarianism that was supposed to characterize the communism of Soviet Russia during its
early years now made place for a system of carefully selected variation in rewards and
rights.
From the masses, a new class of men emerged, though it obviously wasn’t referred to as
such, nor was it acknowledged.
The Stakhanovites received the best housing and had a claim to expensive and luxury goods
that were scarce in the Soviet Union.
This new class was, later on, referred to as the ‘labour aristocracy’ and they were
envied and hated by the other working-class citizens.
People thought, and rightly so, the new Soviet heroes earned money at the expense of their
fellow working-class colleagues.
It got so bad that Stakhanovites being murdered wasn’t unheard of.
But then again, in the Soviet Union murder was considered’ a capitalist disease that
didn’t occur there.
As for Stakhanov, he stayed on as a coal miner until nineteen-thirty-six and afterwards he
was given an administrative function and gave lectures.
During his lifetime, thanks to the de-Stalinization policy of Khrushchev, Stakhanovism had already
disappeared from public life.
The Stakhanovite movement was declared Stalinist propaganda and Alexey Stakhanov himself died
in nineteen-seventy-eight, with the Ukrainian city of Kadievka being renamed after him in
his honour.
Furthermore, George Orwell immortalized him as the character Boxer in his novel ‘Animal
Farm’.
And that’s the story of the man that was the embodiment of a form of aristocracy in
the supposedly most egalitarian society ever created.
Thank you for watching this video and what is a person or event from the Soviet Union
that you would like to know more about, and perhaps see a video of?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you enjoyed the video, consider subscribing
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See you next time.