Stakhanovite movement
The Stakhanovite movementTemplate:Efn was a mass cultural movement for workers established by the Communist Party in the 1930s Soviet Union. Its promoters encouraged the rationalization of workplace processes—i.e., increased production goals—while promoting socialist emulation.
The StakhanovitesTemplate:Efn 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.
HistoryEdit
The Stakhanovite movement was established and developed by the Soviet Communist Party; it was started in 1935 during the second Soviet five-year plan—as a new stage of sponsored 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).Template:Sfnp The movement took its name from Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov, who reportedly, on August 31, 1935, mined 102 tons of coal in less than 6 hours—some 14 times his shift quota.Template:Sfnp However, "competitive" Stakhanovite followers soon would "break" his record.Template:Sfnp On February 1, 1936, it was reported that Nikita Izotov had mined 640 tonsTemplate:Citation needed of coal in a single shift.Template:Sfnp
Stakhanovite programs were quickly applied by the Party to other industries of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfnp Pioneers of the movement included Template:Ill (automobile industry), Template:Ill (shoe industry), Template:IllTemplate:Efn and Template:Ill (textile industry), Template:Ill (machine tool industry), Template:Ill (timber industry), Template:Ill (railroad),Template:Sfnp Pasha Angelina (agriculture),Template:Efn Template:Ill and Template:Ill (agriculture), and many others.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On November 14–17, 1935, the first All-Union Stakhanovite Conference convened in Moscow at the Kremlin.Template:Sfnp The conference emphasized the "outstanding" role of the Stakhanovite movement in the socialist reconstruction of the national economy.Template:Sfnp In December 1935 the plenum of the Communist Party's Central Committee specifically discussed aspects of developing industry and transport systems in light of the Stakhanovite movement.Template:Citation needed
Pursuing the objectives of the recent Party plenum, the Soviets organized a wide network of industrial training, specifically creating courses for 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.Template:Sfnp In 1936 a number of industrial and technical conferences revised the projected production capacities of different industries and increased their outputs.
Female Stakhanovites emerged less frequently than male, but a quarter of all trade-union women were designated as "norm-breaking".Template:Sfnp Women working as milkmaids, calf tenders, and fieldworkers represented the preponderance of rural Stakhanovites.Template:Sfnp
Soviet authorities claimed that the Stakhanovite movement caused significant increases in labor productivity. It was reported that during the first five-year plan (1928–32) industrial labor productivity increased by 41%.Template:Citation needed 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.Template:Sfnp
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 Template:Interlanguage link ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, or Template:Transliteration; 200% or more of quota in a single shift).Template:Sfnp
Opposition and terminationEdit
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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Opponents of the movement risked invoking the label of "wrecker" being charged against them by Soviet authorities.Template:Sfnp
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>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Title?</ref>
In fictionEdit
- Yuri Krymov's 1938 novel Tanker "Derbent", and the 1941 feature film based on it, are about Stakhanovitism in oil transport across the Caspian Sea.Template:Citation needed
- 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.Template:Citation needed
- George Orwell's novel Animal Farm has a representation of the Stakhanovites in the character of Boxer the Horse,Template:Citation needed 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.Template:Citation needed
- Grigori Aleksandrov's film Tanya centered on a female character who becomes a member of the Stakhanovite movement.Template:Citation needed
See alsoEdit
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Works citedEdit
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