Famous miner Stakhanovite. Alexey Stakhanov

This January marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of a man whose surname has long become a household name. Modern miners consider Aleksey Stakhanov a noble metro builder, teenagers - a kind of mythological hero. However, few people know that the famous Stakhanov, having gone out into the world, ended his days in a psychiatric hospital.

In Ukraine, in the city of Torez, where the miner is buried, a memorial plaque was opened for his anniversary. In Donetsk, in honor of this event, a small exhibition was opened, in the Lipetsk region, pupils at home children's creativity"Oktyabrsky" staged a performance about Stakhanov's childhood. That, in fact, is the whole tribute that the descendants paid to the legendary man, in whose life there are still many mysteries. The newspaper Versiya tried to sort them out.

Alexei Stakhanov worked as a laborer from an early age, was a shepherd. He studied for three years at a rural school, for some time he worked as a roofer in Tambov. The work as a high-altitude worker did not work out: at times he was seized by excruciating bouts of dizziness. And he could not get rid of agoraphobia (fear of heights) until the end of his life.

In 1927, Stakhanov decided to change his field of activity and arrived in the city of Kadievka, where he began working at the Central Irmino mine, dreaming of earning a horse. For some time he was a digger, then a horse-racer under the ground. The long miner's ruble beckoned the guy, and he forgot about returning to the village. At that time, the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine was an ordinary enterprise that had never been among the leaders in production. And for high performance, fellow miners could be beaten to death.

This stage of Stakhanov's biography does not raise any special questions, except for one. Stakhanov's name was not Alexei at all. In fact, he was either Andrei or Alexander - there is no consensus among researchers on this matter. According to one version, when the Pravda newspaper, praising the record, printed "Aleksey Stakhanov", the miner was indignant and wrote a letter to Stalin, asking him to correct the mistake. But Stalin replied: "There are no misprints in Pravda." According to another, when Stalin's secretary Poskrebyshev reported to the leader about an unfortunate mistake, he said: "Alexey ... A beautiful Russian name ... I like it ...". So Stakhanov was given a passport with a new name.

Then the mysteries begin. The mine "Central-Irmino" worked without enthusiasm, and its party organizer Konstantin Petrov was already labeled "pest". Only the labor feat of the team or at least one, but a charismatic hero, could save him from the NKVD investigators.

However, experienced miners were well aware that an increase in productivity would automatically lead to an increase in the production rate and a decrease in prices. As a result, especially zealous for records, their fellow miners in a dark alley could break their arms and legs. This is exactly what happened more than once to the followers of Stakhanov. Sometimes they were even beaten to death.

However, in August 1935, Petrov nevertheless "decided on a record", and appointed Stakhanov to it. In addition to the desire to avoid the prospect of labor camps, this is also due to trivial commercialism. The party organizer clarified with his superiors the amount of remuneration due to him for the record and bought into the rich promise: a three-room engineer's apartment, vouchers to a sanatorium and a free pass to the cinema for life.

Best of the day

On the night of August 30-31, 1935, as it is written in all Russian and foreign reference books, in 5 hours and 45 minutes, Alexei Stakhanov chopped 102 tons of coal with a jackhammer, exceeding the norm by 14 times. And on September 19, he set a new world record - 207 tons of coal per shift, earning, by the way, 200 rubles instead of the usual miners' 25-30.

According to the researcher of the Stakhanov movement and his economic consequences Igor Avramenko, the fact that Stakhanov gave out hundreds of tons of coal with his jackhammer is beyond doubt, but his fulfillment of 14 shift norms is a lie. Before launching Stakhanov into the mine, the management of Tsentralnaya-Irmino did a great job: they brought timber for fasteners, prepared trolleys for coal removal, in general, they completely adjusted the work. It is curious that the party organizer himself covered the site for Stakhanov. In addition, Stakhanov was assisted by two experienced workers, whose duties included fixing the face. Their names are known: Borisenko and Shchigolev, so the Stakhanov norm should be divided into at least three. But then it would no longer be a feat, and the mine administration decided not to name extra names, but to attribute the record to Stakhanov alone.

Stakhanomania: "Life has become better, life has become more fun"

A small note about the Stakhanov record accidentally caught the eye of the People's Commissar Ordzhonikidze. And the record-breaking began in the country. New heroes were not long in coming. By mid-November, almost every enterprise had its own Stakhanovites, and not only in industry. Dentists undertook to triple the norm for the removal of teeth, ballerinas twirled fouettes in Stakhanov's style, 12 premieres were released in theaters instead of two premieres, and professors took upon themselves the obligation to increase the number of scientific discoveries. Record mania affected all spheres of the country's life.

An example of this is the order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Kirghiz SSR "On the results of the social competition of the 3rd and 4th departments of the UGB NKVD of the republic for February 1938", which, in particular, stated: "The 3rd department transferred 20 cases to the Military Collegium and 11 cases for the special collegium, which the 4th department does not have, but the 4th department exceeded the number of cases completed by its apparatus, considered by the troika, by almost 100 people. Thus, the measure of work was the number, in this case, arrested, convicted, shot. Note that this approach in law enforcement has taken root and is still in effect.

In the Stakhanov style, they boiled steel, wove, drove trains, harvested bread, shod horses, and even produced vodka. So, in September 1935, the Tyumen vodka plant reported on the release alcoholic drink"reinforced proletarian fortress". The strength of the "Tyumenskaya bitter" was not 40, but 45 degrees. By the decision of the Glavspirt of the RSFSR, the plant was declared an exemplary enterprise of the head office, and the factory newspaper called the Tyumen bitter "a drink of the Stakhanovists."

On November 14, the All-Union Conference of the Stakhanovites opened in Moscow. It was on it that the famous words of Stalin sounded: "Life has become better, life has become more fun." The wits immediately added: "... the neck has become thinner, but longer."

Stakhanov married a 14-year-old, became a party member and began to drink

Stakhanov's career at that time was on the rise, farther and farther from the mines and coal dust and closer to Moscow. Here, too, there were some mysteries: Stakhanov's wife Evdokia disappeared, from whom Alexei had two children, daughter Klava and son Vitya. According to one version, the woman died of blood poisoning as a result of an underground abortion, according to another, she left with a gypsy camp. It was rumored that the NKVD authorities liquidated her for not letting her husband into the slaughter on the eve of the record.

Be that as it may, Aleksey Stakhanov is moving to Moscow with his new wife, 14-year-old Kharkovite Galina Bondarenko. Reduced their case. According to Violetta Alekseevna Stakhanova, the daughter of a legendary miner from a ninth grader, her parents met at a school concert.

“Schoolchildren often gave concerts in front of my father,” says Violetta Alekseevna. “At one of these rallies, he noticed my mother, Galya Bondarenko. And she was 14 years old at that time. From the stage, my mother sang the song “My Nightingale, Nightingale,” and her voice was simply captivating.

Stakhanov was sitting in the hall with the guards and suddenly asked: "Whose girl is this?" The girl was with already formed forms, as they say, blood and milk. When Stakhanov found out that she was in the eighth grade, he was very depressed - he was already thirty. However, the schoolgirl’s dad, realizing that Stakhanov’s daughter would live like Christ in his bosom, contributed to the “blood” being credited in the birth certificate for two years.

In Moscow, Beria stole his pregnant wife from Stakhanov right on the street, and only by a miracle did they manage to recapture the young beauty, his daughter told MK in 2003. According to Violetta, the official biography of my father, described in his book "The Story of My Life", was composed for propaganda purposes.

In 1936, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Stakhanov was accepted as a party member, enrolled to study at the Industrial Academy, and elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He lived in a luxurious apartment in the Government House on the Embankment, had at his disposal two company cars. From the side it seemed that everything in life was wonderful for the miner: Sergo Ordzhonikidze, People's Commissar for Heavy Machinery, spoke confidentially with the naive and narrow-minded Alexei, and Stalin himself often invited him to dinner. And Vasily Stalin did become Alexei's bosom friend and faithful drinking companion.

Stakhanov recalled that once in the restaurant of the Metropol Hotel, he and Vasily Stalin thoroughly went over, broke an expensive mirror, then tried to catch fish in an aquarium. Finally, they smashed the Stakhanov "emka". The leader looked through his fingers at these pranks. However, he once warned: "Tell this good fellow that he will have to change his famous surname to a more modest one, if he does not stop his spree."

Once Alexei even complained to Stalin that his apartment had not been renovated for a long time. The problems of the heroic miner were entrusted to deal with a whole commission headed by Georgy Malenkov. Thanks to his efforts, Stakhanov received a trophy car, a piece of land and materials for building a dacha, and a little later, money to buy a new Pobeda. At that time, Stakhanov served as head of the socialist competition sector in the People's Commissariat coal industry.

“Stakhanov was simple-minded, like many Russians,” says the psychotherapist, psychoanalyst Nikolai Naritsyn. “As a result, he went through what is called “fire, water and copper pipes” and, unfortunately, experienced the fourth component of the proverb, oh which is usually forgotten - "damn teeth". If a person survived the peak of fame and did not die, then he will definitely fall into a deep depression, and sometimes even worse. "

The miner's star went down in 1957, when Khrushchev expelled Alexei from Moscow to the Donbass city of Torez. Stakhanov's family flatly refused to go into "exile" with him. There, the disgraced hero was appointed to the position of assistant to the chief engineer of the mine administration. Abandoned by everyone, he more and more often applied to the bottle. Fellow miners even called him Stakanov. Alexei sank more and more, he even drank away the furniture. In 1970, Brezhnev remembered Stakhanov and awarded him the Order of the Hero of Socialist Labor, but this, as it turned out, only accelerated the denouement - Alexei suffered a nervous breakdown. He ended his life in a psychiatric hospital. Stakhanov died in November 1977, having slipped and hit his head on the bed.

In January, Alexei Stakhanov would have turned 110 years old, the Soviet miner, with whose record the famous Stakhanov movement began.

Miner-record holder Alexei Stakhanov, who set his famous record in Ukraine, was born in Russia, in the Oryol region, in the village of Lugovaya.

Aleksey Stakhanov began his work at the mine from the position of "brake" - a worker who was responsible for ensuring that coal carts pulled by horses did not roll off.

On the night of August 30-31, 1935, miner Alexei Stakhanov mined 102 tons of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes, 14 times exceeding the production rate that existed at that time. On September 19, Stakhanov improved his own result by extracting 227 tons of coal.

In setting the record for Alexei Stakhanov, in addition to himself, the fasteners Gavrila Shchigolev and Tikhon Borisenko, as well as the head of the section Nikolai Mashurov, participated.

The real name of Alexei Stakhanov is Andrey. The name Alexei arose due to an error in the material of the Pravda newspaper, which wrote an article about the miner's fantastic record. After that, at the direction of Joseph Stalin, Stakhanov was given a passport with a new name known throughout the country within a few days.

In December 1935, a photograph of Alexei Stakhanov graced the cover of the American Time magazine, and in February 1936, the publication published an article about a miner called Ten Stakhanov Days.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin patronized Alexei Stakhanov. With his filing, the miner graduated from the Industrial Academy and became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Stakhanov's candidacy was considered for the post of people's commissar of the coal industry.

The second wife of record-breaking miner Alexei Stakhanov, Galina Bondarenko, was only 14 years old at the time of their marriage. To avoid a scandal, the native girls attributed two extra years to her, passing her off as a 16-year-old.

Under Nikita Khrushchev, the miner Alexei Stakhanov was actually expelled from Moscow to the Donbass. The reason for the disgrace was Stakhanov's unwillingness to take part in the campaign to debunk Stalin's personality cult.

In 1957, Stakhanov was sent from Moscow, from the ministry, back to the Donbass to a low position in a coal trust. The hero of the Stalin era became extremely inconvenient for the new leader of the country, Nikita Khrushchev.

Stakhanov, a man who did not have the skills of a diplomat, did not catch the trends of the new era and did not stigmatize "damned Stalinism." Moreover, one day Khrushchev and Stakhanov, both of whom were hot-tempered, quarreled over a mining theme. The head of state said was: "I, like a miner ...", to which he heard a sharp Stakhanovite: "What kind of miner are you ?!"

As a result, the “legend of Stalinism” was quietly exiled to the Donetsk region, to the mining town of Torez. To this was added a conflict in the family, which led to the actual break of Stakhanov with his family.

There was already no one to stop Stakhanov, and he began to drink in earnest. This exacerbated the beginning diseases, provoked by work in the mine. His health began to deteriorate sharply, some suspicious persons began to revolve around the forgotten hero.

When, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, a Moscow journalist was going to write an essay about Stakhanov and arranged a business trip to Torez, his boss exclaimed in surprise: “Stakhanov?! Is he alive?"

They remembered about the feat of Stakhanov, he was an integral part of the history of the state, which they were proud of, but they forgot about the man himself.

When the journalists got to Stakhanov, he was in a terrible state - alcoholism and progressive diseases were doing their job.

We must pay tribute to journalists: thanks to their efforts, Stakhanov was remembered. The legend was sent for treatment, in 1970 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, which Stakhanov was not awarded in the 1930s.

Stakhanov met with young people, he was taken to factories, factories ... It could not do without feasts, which was categorically unacceptable for him.

But he himself did not know how to refuse, and it turned out to be impossible to explain to everyone. As a result, the disease began to progress rapidly.

Alexey Stakhanov spent the last months of his life in the hospital. Evil tongues say that the former hero simply went crazy because of chronic alcoholism. Stakhanov's daughter Violetta claimed that this was not so. Just a department for patients with cerebrovascular disease in small town Torese was in a psychiatric clinic.

The title of Hero of Socialist Labor was awarded to miner Alexei Stakhanov in 1970 - 35 years after his record that went down in history.

Stakhanov was drawn to people. He, as a famous person, had his own ward, where they tried to create the most comfortable conditions for him. However, the miner left from there to the general ward. Once in this room, he slipped on an apple skin and hit his head on the sharp corner of the table. A few hours later, on November 5, 1977, Alexei Grigoryevich Stakhanov passed away. He was 71 years old.

On February 15, 1978, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, the city of Kadievka, in which Alexei Stakhanov set his legendary record, was renamed Stakhanov. The city still bears this name today. Stakhanov is said to be the only city in the world named after a worker.

In history, it often happens that the legend of a person completely overshadows the person himself. So it happened with Alexey Stakhanov, whose labor record has become a symbol Soviet Union period of industrialization.

The boy Alyosha Stakhanov, who was born in the Oryol region on January 3, 1906, did not even dream of fame and fortune. In a poor peasant family, the main problem was to eat enough, and for this, from a young age, Alyosha was hired by the rural rich, taking on any job: he plowed the land, guarded gardens, herded cattle ... Stakhanov studied at school for only three winters, and went to the Donbass, escaping from starvation - they said that miners make good money and do not live from hand to mouth.

Stakhanov came to work at the mine in bast shoes and linen pants, as if he had come straight out of folklore. There was no admission to the mine, but fellow countrymen helped, who nevertheless arranged a young guy as a “brake” at the Central Irmino mine.

The job of the "brake" was to prevent the trolleys with coal, which were dragged along the rails by horses, from rolling back. Then Stakhanov became a konogonon who controlled the horses that pulled the trolleys, and only then he was entrusted with a jackhammer and sent to cut coal seams.

What Stakhanov's nature did not offend was his excellent health and excellent physical data. This will play an important role in the history of the legendary record.

By the summer of 1935, the rate of coal production per miner was 7.5 tons per shift. The question of how to increase labor productivity was of concern to many, including those at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine. Stakhanov, by that time already an experienced miner and well-versed in his work, noticed: a division of labor between miners is necessary - while one cuts coal, the fixers strengthen the roof of the mine, and the horse-drawn horses take out the coal. With this scheme, it is possible to issue 70-80 tons of coal per shift.

fantastic record

The party organizer clung to this rationalization proposal Konstantin Petrov. Stakhanov's initiative promised a real breakthrough, it was only necessary to convincingly prove it.

On the night of August 30-31, Stakhanov, party organizer Petrov, fixers went down into the mine Tikhon Borisenko and Gavrila Schegolev, as well as the editor of the mine newspaper. In addition, the konogons were ready to export coal.

At the appointed time, Stakhanov set to work, putting the hammer aside only after 5 hours and 45 minutes - that was how long the shift at the mine lasted. When the coal cut by Stakhanov was calculated, it turned out to be 102 tons - 14 (!) Times more than the production rate that existed at that time.

Photofact AiF

Already at 6 am on August 31, a plenum of the party committee of the mine was held, which decided to put the name of Stakhanov on the Board of Honor, and also provide him with all the benefits, from a new apartment to tickets to the theater for the best performances.

Information about the labor feat of Stakhanov quickly spread throughout the country. For a country developing industry at an accelerated pace, the miner's fantastic record turned out to be just in time. “Look up to Stakhanov!” boomed Soviet propaganda.

By the way, records continued at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine itself. 4 September Miron Dyukanov chopped 115 tons per shift, and on September 19, Alexei Stakhanov completely brought the result to an astronomical 227 tons.

Failed People's Commissar

This labor feat, which has become one of the symbols of the Soviet era, will subsequently be called into question. After all, Stakhanov did not work alone, but a whole team worked for him, critics say. But on the basis of his record, they began to raise production rates in the entire coal industry, they began to sculpt "fake" Stakhanovites, replacing real job window dressing!

Indeed, Alexei Stakhanov's record is more like a sporting achievement. For him, appropriate conditions were needed, not the most complex coal seams, and he also needed ... Stakhanov himself. His excellent physical data allowed him to work intensively throughout the entire shift, which not everyone can do.

However, after all, Stakhanov himself never hid the fact that he did not work alone. Propagandists did not focus on him, but the hero himself had absolutely nothing to do with it. In addition, the division of labor in the brigade proposed by Stakhanov showed its high efficiency and soon began to be successfully used throughout the coal industry. So Stakhanov's record objectively made it possible to move the whole industry forward.

And besides, the labor feat of Stakhanov really breathed enthusiasm into the masses. His example has become a clear demonstration of the fact that heroic work for the good of the Motherland is able to raise the common man to the same level with the most famous people of the country, its leaders.

The Stakhanovist movement, supported by the party, swept the whole country, and the man who stood at its origins was sent to Moscow to study at the Industrial Academy. In 1937, Alexei Stakhanov became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet.

For Stakhanov himself, this rise turned out to be a difficult test. Stalin did not hide his sympathy for the miner and even several times during the meeting he transparently hinted that in the future he sees him as the people's commissar of the coal industry.

The head of state knew how to work with personnel, but here he clearly overestimated Stakhanov's capabilities. Three classes of education did not make it possible to turn into a leading worker on a national scale, and the miner himself understood this best of all.

In addition, Alexei Grigorievich suffered from an addiction to alcohol. While in Moscow, he went on a spree in such a way that one day Stalin himself asked to take over the mind of a miner. After that, Stakhanov came to his senses for a while.

The hero married a 14-year-old

Not everything was fine with Stakhanov in his personal life. First wife, gypsy Evdokia ran away from her husband, leaving him with two children. Stakhanov's second marriage also began in a peculiar way: a 30-year-old miner fell in love with a 14-year-old schoolgirl. Truth, Galya Bondarenko looked much older than her years. Later, ill-wishers will attribute to Stakhanov almost pedophilia, but in fact it was not quite so. Stakhanov, having learned how old his beloved was, stepped aside, but the girl's relatives intervened, promptly passing her off as a 16-year-old. Galya's relatives decided that it was impossible to find a better groom than an all-Union hero.

Photofact AiF

Surprisingly, this marriage of Stakhanov turned out to be quite successful. Galina turned out to be a smart girl beyond her years and not only managed to get an education herself, but also helped her eminent husband to finish the Industrial Academy.

After graduation, Stakhanov worked as a manager at mines in Kazakhstan, then in Moscow, at the Ministry of Coal Industry.

About how he worked, today they write different things. Some assure that Aleksey Grigorievich coped with his duties quite worthily, others - that in his office he opened only another bottle. To be honest, it's hard to believe that an unrestrained drunkard would have been kept in a high position for more than a decade in the harsh Stalinist era.

Khrushchev's revenge

In 1957, Stakhanov was sent from Moscow, from the ministry, back to the Donbass to a low position in a coal trust. The hero of the Stalin era became extremely inconvenient for the new leader of the country Nikita Khrushchev. Stakhanov, a man who did not have the skills of a diplomat, did not catch the trends of the new era and did not stigmatize "damned Stalinism." Moreover, one day Khrushchev and Stakhanov, both of whom were hot-tempered, quarreled over a mining theme. The head of state said was: "I, like a miner ...", to which he heard a sharp Stakhanovite: "What kind of miner are you ?!"

As a result, the “legend of Stalinism” was quietly exiled to the Donetsk region, to the mining town of Torez. To this was added a conflict in the family, which led to the actual break of Stakhanov with his family.

There was already no one to stop Stakhanov, and he began to drink in earnest. This exacerbated the beginning diseases, provoked by work in the mine. His health began to deteriorate sharply, some suspicious persons began to revolve around the forgotten hero.

When, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, a Moscow journalist was going to write an essay about Stakhanov and arranged a business trip to Torez, his boss exclaimed in surprise: “Stakhanov?! Is he alive?"

They remembered about the feat of Stakhanov, he was an integral part of the history of the state, which they were proud of, but they forgot about the man himself.

When the journalists got to Stakhanov, he was in a terrible state - alcoholism and progressive diseases were doing their job.

Worker's name city

We must pay tribute to journalists: thanks to their efforts, Stakhanov was remembered. The legend was sent for treatment, in 1970 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, which Stakhanov was not awarded in the 1930s.

Photofact AiF

Stakhanov met with young people, he was taken to factories, factories ... It could not do without feasts, which was categorically unacceptable for him.

But he himself did not know how to refuse, and it turned out to be impossible to explain to everyone. As a result, the disease began to progress rapidly.

Alexey Stakhanov spent the last months of his life in the hospital. Evil tongues say that the former hero simply went crazy because of chronic alcoholism. Stakhanov's daughter Violet argued that it was not. It's just that the department for patients with cerebrovascular disease in the small town of Torez was located in a psychiatric clinic.

Photofact AiF

Stakhanov was drawn to people. He, as a famous person, had his own ward, where they tried to create the most comfortable conditions for him. However, the miner left from there to the general ward. Once in this room, he slipped on an apple skin and hit his head on the sharp corner of the table. A few hours later, on November 5, 1977, Alexei Grigoryevich Stakhanov passed away. He was 71 years old.

On February 15, 1978, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, the city of Kadievka, in which Alexei Stakhanov set his legendary record, was renamed Stakhanov. The city still bears this name today. Stakhanov is said to be the only city in the world named after a worker.

Name: Alexey Stakhanov

Place of Birth: Lugovaya, Oryol Province.

A place of death: Torez, Donetsk region, Ukraine

Activity: miner, slaughterer

Family status: was married

Alexey Stakhanov - biography

Aleksey Stakhanov, a miner in the Donbass mine, accomplished what official Soviet propaganda called a "labor feat." But this feat not only deprived him of his real name, but also crushed the man in him.

Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov (real name Andrey) - the future innovator and leader of the coal industry, Hero of Socialist Labor was born in the village of Lugovaya, Livensky district, Oryol province, on January 3, 1906.

The merciless 1920s devastated the bins of the Russian peasants. That is why the 22-year-old native of the Oryol village Lugovaya Andrey Stakhanov decided to go to work in the city. The fellow countrymen said that the best pay was in the mines, although the work there was hellish. The difficulties of the young man did not frighten him, and God did not offend him with his health.

With difficulty, Andrei got a job as a brakeman at a run-down mine in Imrino. The work was primitive: to stop the trolleys with coal, which were dragged by horses. Then Stakhanov was promoted to konogony, and only after that - to slaughterers. A savvy guy quickly mastered the wisdom of the profession. Coal was then mined differently: the slaughterer cut the seam and fastened the logs himself so that the rock would not fall on his head. It was then that Stakhanov had the idea of ​​a division of labor. While one cuts the layer, the second fastens the logs, and the work goes on.

Andrei shared his thoughts with the party organizer of the mine. Despite the opposition of the director, he immediately appreciated the rationalization proposal. By that time, the Imrino mine was listed as a lagging behind, and the party organizer decided: if Stakhanov burns out, Imrino will become an advanced mine, no - an attempt is not torture.

On the evening of August 30, 1935, the slaughterer Stakhanov, the fasteners Tikhon Borisenko and Gavrila Shchegolev, the Party organizer Petrov, and the editor of the miner's newspaper descended into the face. The results exceeded the wildest expectations - 102 tons in less than 6 hours, which is 14 times more than the norm!

Stakhanov was taken directly from the mine to a party meeting. There they decided: to hang his portrait on the Board of Honor and reward him with an apartment and other benefits. A miner's large-circulation newspaper immediately wrote about the labor feat. The information was picked up by the central press, and Pravda published an article about a hero from Donbass. True, his name was distorted - instead of Andrei, they wrote Aleksey. Stalin read the note, and when the mistake was found out, he calmly said: "Aleksey ... A beautiful Russian name ... I like it ...". Stakhanov had to get a new name and a new passport.

Star disease Alexei Stakhanov

Stakhanov became a symbol of the progressive movement. With a light filing by the press, they began to be called "Stakhanovists." And Alexey himself got into the elite Soviet society. He traveled around the country with speeches, talking about his record, and about the leading role of the party and Comrade Stalin personally. It is no coincidence that Stakhanov probationary period accepted into the communists.

Now he was forgiven even for things that others would never have been allowed to do. For example, marriage to a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Galya Bondarenko. Alexei's first wife, a gypsy Evdokia, ran away from him to a policeman, leaving two children. That is why, between shifts, Stakhanov kept an eye on the new mistress of the house. And the girl looked and thought much older than her years, and she was flattered by the attention of a famous person.

When Alexei found out the true age of the girl, he wanted to disappear, but Galya's parents intervened: they don't scatter such a son-in-law. With the help of connections, they straightened out their daughter's new documents, and the young people got married.

Galina, together with Alexei, moved to Moscow and entered the Industrial Academy with him. And if Stakhanov "did not pull", then his wife studied for two.

Alexey himself did not see the point in studying, he already received more than he could dream of. In Moscow, he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, given a luxurious apartment in the House on the embankment, and endowed with privileges. Stakhanov's friends now were generals, artists, writers, and even Vasily Stalin himself ... And soon Moscow came up with a new name for the miner - Lech Stakanov.

Once, getting drunk at a banquet, he lost his jacket with the Order of Lenin and his party card. In the midst of repressions, they could have been shot for this, but the next day Stakhanov was corrected both with a new order and a copy of the party card.

On another occasion, when NKVD officers came for him to take him to a performance in the Kremlin, Stakhanov lay “passed out” with wet pants. One of the officers gave him dry boots, and he himself went to the guardhouse for violating the uniform.

And only Stalin’s words: “Tell this good fellow that if he doesn’t stop spree, he will have to change his famous surname to a more modest one,” the drunkard reasoned slightly. Stakhanov bought a dacha in the Moscow region and from now on tried to drink only there.

Great Patriotic War found Stakhanov as director of a mine in Karaganda, but already in 1943 he returned to Moscow. Different things were said about the leading work of the former leader. Someone thought that they wouldn’t keep an idler, others assured: “Stakhanov starts his working day with a bottle of cognac.”

Whatever it was, but the "star disease" only progressed. In 1945, he wrote a letter to Stalin: “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich! I am writing to you and I hope that my letter will fall into your hands. The fact is that in 1944 Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich allowed me to get a captured car ...

At present, the People's Commissariat of Defense is receiving Chevrolet cars, and I would very much ask you to give me one good car. Here's more about the apartment. I have been living in the Government House for 9 years and neither before the war nor during the war can I be interrogated to make repairs ... ". Surprisingly, Stakhanov received both the car and the repair.

Hard times for the leader began after the death of Stalin. Khrushchev, who came to power, had no illusions about the hero-miner. In addition, Stakhanov condemned his policy of exposing Stalin's personality cult. Stakhanov was summoned to the Kremlin, where Khrushchev announced to him that within 48 hours he should leave for the Donbass: “The party knows better where you are needed.

As a miner of a miner, you will understand me.” Indignant at such impudence, Stakhanov flared up: “What the hell are you, a miner ?!” Don't be Alex famous person, for such words he could go much further than the Donbass.

But even there he had to sip dashingly. The family refused to leave Moscow, and Aleksey arrived alone in the Donetsk town of Chistyakovo. For past merits, he was taken to the position of assistant to the chief engineer of the mine, but he was no engineer. Stakhanov drank almost daily, gradually losing his human appearance.

Alexey Stakhanov - from slaughter to hard drinking

In the 1960s, one of the capital's journalists decided to go to the Donbass and interview him. “We approached, and Stakhanov was lying there, under the fence, and the boys were rummaging through his pockets, and then one of them unbuttoned his pants and began to urinate on him,” the journalist recalled those moments. - We drove them away, lifted Alexei Grigorievich and dragged him into the house ... We go into the room, and there is almost nothing there - a rusty bed without a mattress with a dirty sweatshirt lying right on the net, an empty wardrobe with cardboard instead of a mirror, and empty bottles everywhere. There is nothing else - I drank it all away.

In 1970, the new General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev remembered the leader and awarded him the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Stakhanov was given new apartment in the Donbass, and he was immediately married to a local cook. But the days of the Hero were numbered.

In the fall of 1977, the elderly Hero of Labor Alexei Stakhanov was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital with a suspected stroke and delirium tremens.

The treatment gave results, but on November 5, Alexei Grigorievich slipped on the skin of an apple and, hitting his head, died without regaining consciousness. After his death, the Ukrainian city of Kadievka, as well as dozens of Soviet streets, schools and towns, were renamed in his honor. The feat of Stakhanov and his name turned out to be needed by the country much more than the life of this man.

Nikolai Troitsky, political observer for RIA Novosti.

The Soviet coal miner Stakhanov was both lucky in life and very unlucky. His name was known to all the inhabitants of our country. But he himself lost his name, given at birth. He was praised by official propaganda. However, compatriots best case treated him and his labor exploits with humor. And many despised and even hated.

He himself did not deserve such treatment. He worked honestly, mined coal at a mine in the Donbass, and the founders of the so-called Stakhanov movement did not fill up. Who asked him? Everything was decided for him.

Andrei Stakhanov woke up famous 75 years ago, on the morning of August 31, 1935. More precisely, he was artificially made famous: they cleared and prepared the scope of work, fitted the best equipment, and he did not mine coal alone, but his assistants were ignored. Although collectivism was declared as the basis of the state ideology, strict unity of command prevailed at all levels, as in the army.

The pre-planned feat of a worker, who allegedly personally mined 102 tons of coal instead of the prescribed seven, was immediately trumpeted by the Pravda newspaper. But the telegram from the mine did not indicate the full name of the hero, but only the initial "A". Journalists, without thinking twice, decided that his name was Alexei. When the error became clear, Comrade Stalin said: "The newspaper Pravda cannot be mistaken."

The ascetic had to change his passport and turn into Alexei. How he reacted to this remained unknown, and again, no one asked him. Well, at least they didn’t replace the name with a number, like the prisoners of Stalin’s camps.

From that well-prepared feat, the Stakhanov movement began. Our hero continued to break records, and his assistants still remained nameless. Then other champions, leaders and heroes of labor appeared. They were written about in the newspapers, called them "lighthouses", demanded to imitate them and focus on them, promoted their achievements, real and imaginary. They were supposed to serve as living proof of the superiority of the socialist system and the socialist way of managing. At the same time, the leaders themselves were actively encouraged by the ruble and helped them make a career.

Stakhanov rose to the rank of chief engineer, then to the manager of a coal trust. And then he retired and, simply put, drank himself. He spent the last months in a narcological dispensary. In the official obituary, this, of course, was not reported. Yes, no one followed the fate of the man Stakhanov, she was only interested in his relatives and friends. He himself has already become a symbol.

The symbol of what - that is the question. Today, the very concept of "Stakhanov movement" is perceived in much the same way as the phrase "Potemkin villages". That is, as a typical manifestation and embodiment of Soviet window dressing. If this is true, then only in part.
Without bullshit and window dressing, of course, it could not do. But the same Stakhanov really tried to give the country as much as possible more coal and actually tried to improve the organization of work. He was a true innovator and innovator of production.

Another thing is that Stakhanov could not even think of attributing all the successes to himself alone. On the contrary, the main point of his rationalization proposal consisted in a clear division of labor between the slaughterer and the lumbermen. Everyone does his own thing: one extracts or, professionally speaking, cuts coal with a jackhammer, others strengthen the vaults of the mine. Previously, miners had to deal with both in turn.

It is clear that after Stakhanov's proposal was accepted, labor productivity increased. First, in one mine, then in the entire industry, and then in other industries. So it's not a myth at all. After the establishment of the Stakhanovite and other similar movements, in reality there was "more iron and steel per capita in the country," as Yuz Aleshkovsky wrote in his famous song about "Comrade Stalin."

In general, Stakhanov, and Nikita Izotov, and Pasha Angelina, and other "lighthouses" were not engaged in window dressing at all, but worked in the sweat of their brow. Another thing is that in our country they knew how to bring any good deed to the point of absurdity, and even to idiocy. I gave out a hundred tons to the mountain, if you please, then give out two hundred, three hundred and so on. It was already completely unrealistic, and shock work turned into bullshit.

But this concerns by no means only the Stakhanovite movement. For example, there was nothing stupid or harmful about Nikita Khrushchev's initiative to sow more corn. But it is equally absurd both to sow it beyond the Arctic Circle and to abandon this crop almost completely after the removal of Khrushchev. Or - already under Mikhail Gorbachev - in the heat of the anti-alcohol campaign, cut down the Crimean vineyards.

And the last. You can say a lot of bad - and rightly bad - about Stalin's times. But it cannot be denied that not only Stakhanov, but the majority of the Soviet people in those years worked conscientiously. Moreover, it was by no means only convicts who worked. It is enough to check the strength and reliability of the so-called "Stalinist houses" in comparison with the buildings of subsequent eras.

And it is wrong to think that people worked well solely out of fear for their lives and fate. Many were sincerely inspired by the idea of ​​building a new world, new country. And in order for the idea not to remain abstract, it had to be embodied in someone. It was for this reason that all sorts of Stakhanovite movements were invented, and a cult of production leaders was created.

You can even say that it was a cult of personalities, although these personalities themselves, paradoxically, remained voiceless, disenfranchised "cogs" who could easily, at the wave of the Leader's hand, replace the name and with whom they could do anything. It is doubly insulting that later, as is usual with us, the child was thrown out with the water. They debunked the cult, and at the same time they abandoned personalities.