REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

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Remembrance in Time
After publishing his benefits many miners applied for the possibility to break
Stakhanov’s record. By the 11 th of September there were four other records executed, by
October 40 Stakhanovists got flat, and in a short period the miners bought 100 record
players, 6 pianinos, 70 radios and 200 bicycles. Centralnaja Irmino became a centre of
financial improvements: a plenty of money was spent on the infrastructure and the
culture.
According to Stalin “the movement spread as a hurricane”. On the 1 st of December,
1935 the 15% of the miners of Donbass were Stakhanovists, while the 11% of the
workers of Leningrad became “top-workers”.
The main topic of the plenum of the All-Union Communist Party between the 21 st and
25 th of December, 1935 was the work competition. According to the decree of the Central
Commission “The Stakhanovite movement means organizing labor in a new fashion,
rationalizing technologic processes, correct division of labor, liberating qualified workers
from secondary spadework, improving work place, providing rapid growth for labor
productivity and securing significant increase of workers' salarie” 3 . Everybody being
against the movement is the “enemy of the people” (vrag naroda).
However, due to the increase of the amount of the distributed wages many company
leaders had conflicts with the Stakhanovists, who thought that the leaders were the
traitors of the people. As a result many of the leaders were deported to the GULAG, and
many Stakhanovists got higher and higher. Another result of the process – and the fear of
the company leaders – was that the rate of the Stakhanovists significantly increased.
There were even factories where the 60% of the workers were Stakhanovists.
It is worth to look at Stakhanov’s later life: he had a marvellous career, he studied at the
Industrial Academy of Moscow, and from 1942 he became the Director of mine no. 31 in
Karaganda. Later he worked in the Ministry of coal Industry of the USSR, and from 1957
– for 2 years he was the deputy director of Chistyakovantratsit. Then he was a chief
engineer for 17 years, up to his death. Despite his bright career he was alcoholic and
neurotic, and his private life also went wrong.
Stakhanovite movement in Hungary
For the 70 th birthday of Stalin the Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party
announced a “work-dedication” starting from the 28 th of October to the 21 st of December,
1949. That was the beginning of the Hungarian Stakhanovist movement. The whole
program was advertised as being the result of individual initiations.
From 1950 not “top-worker”, but “Stakhanovist”- medals were given to the workers
who broke the norms. Between 1948 and 1950, they gave 16200 “top-worker” medals
(Kiváló dolgozó), and between 1950 and 1953 they distributed 115 thousand
Stakhanovist-diplomas.
More than 100 thousand Hungarian workers received medals for being a “top-worker”.
During the years the value of the award became lower. In the beginning only politicians
of the highest level were entitled to give it to the workers, but later, when the quantity of
the distributed medals/diplomas increased, even factory leaders had the right to decide,
who could be a Stakhanovist.
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement - dd. the 11th of November, 2012.