January 22, 2024 • 34 mins
In 1935, miner Alexei Stakhanov became a hero of labor in the Soviet Union, and the Stakhanovite movement began. But what was touted as an organic step forward to greater productivity by Stalin was truly a carefully planned PR effort.
Research:
- Applebaum, Anne. "Holodomor". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Jan. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "kulak". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/kulak
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Stakhanov". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Jun. 2008, https://www.britannica.com/place/Stakhanov
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Industrialization, 1929-34.” https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union/Industrialization-1929-34
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Lavrenty Beria". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Dec. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lavrenty-Beria
- Kotkin, Stephen. “Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941.” Penguin. 2017.
- “Soviet leaders' gifts go on show.” BBC News. Nov. 15, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6150746.stm
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Khrushchev’s secret speech". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Feb. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Khrushchevs-secret-speech
- Costea, Bogdan and Peter Watt. “How a Soviet miner from the 1930s helped create today’s intense corporate workplace culture.” The Conversation. June 29, 2021. https://theconversation.com/how-a-soviet-miner-from-the-1930s-helped-create-todays-intense-corporate-workplace-culture-155814
- “Heroes of Labor.” Time. Dec. 16, 1935. https://web.archive.org/web/20071016224729/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755449,00.html
- “Khrushchev and the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, ” U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/khrushchev-20th-congress
- Knight, Amy. “Beria: Stalin’s First Lieutenant.” Princeton University Press. 1995.
- Newman, Dina. “Alexei Stakhanov: The USSR's superstar miner.” https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35161610
- Overy, Richard. “The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia.” Norton. 2006.
- Remnick, David. “Soviets Chronicle Demise of Beria.” The Washington Post. Feb. 29, 1988. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/02/29/soviets-chronicle-demise-of-beria/f3793536-d798-44a1-943c-287b99f88340/
- Schmemann, Serge. “In Soviet, Eager Beaver’s Legend Works Overtime.” New York Times. Augst 31, 1985. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/31/world/in-soviet-eager-beaver-s-legend-works-overtime.html
- SIEGELBAUM, LEWIS H. “Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935-1941.” Cambridge University Press. 1988.
- SIEGELBAUM, LEWIS H. “THE MAKING OF STAKHANOVITES, 1935-36.” Russian History, vol. 13, no. 2/3, 1986, pp. 259–92. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24655836
- “Stalin at the Conference of Stakhanovites.” Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. Michigan State University. https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1936-2/year-of-the-stakhanovite/year-of-the-stakhanovite-texts/stalin-at-the-conference-of-stakhanovites/
- Davies, R. W., and Oleg Khlevnyuk. “Stakhanovism and the Soviet Economy.” Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 54, no. 6, 2002, pp. 867–903. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/826287
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This accidentally turned out to be kind of a well
timed episode just in terms of what inspired it and
what's been going on with that inspiration. The show Succession
just won a kajillion awards.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we originally tried to record this episode the day
after that happened.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, that was the day after one of the awards shows. Yes,
there have been seven. They have really been sweeping and
in my opinion, well deserved. I can talk more about
Succession on behind the scenes. But this is not a spoiler,
but in season four, there is a moment where one
of the characters, Logan Roy, is observing one of his
(00:53):
low level employees and the employee is understandably nervous because
this is not normal for this person who runs the
company to be walking the floor. And he is very
carefully typing out some stuff, and the Logan Roy characters
you've typed one email and he calls him a Stakhanovite,
and I'm like, ah, why didn't Why haven't we ever
(01:14):
talked about the Siiconfites because this is a really interesting,
strange orchestrated moment in labor history in the USSR, and it,
you know, kind of exemplifies some problems in propaganda that
we're going on. So we are going to talk about
Alexi Stakhanov and his achievement and how that was parlayed
(01:38):
into a big moment for Stalin and for his plans. Yeah,
so it is at.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The stage of Alexi Stakhanov's achievements and a rise to fame,
we have to talk about Stalin's five year Plans. In
nineteen twenty eight, Stalin rolled out a policy to overhaul
the economics of the Soviet Union. His the regime's assessment
was that the Soviet Union had become too entwined with capitalism.
There needed to be a plan to break that. So
(02:08):
the five year plan cycle was announced, and this game's
pretty self explanatory in terms of the structure. Every five
years would focus on a set of goals that was
intended to achieve what Stalin envisioned was a more perfect
Soviet Union. We talked about some of this in our
episode on the Holladamor Famine.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So just to recap. The first five Year Plan included
programs to expand industry, generate more energy, and collectivize agriculture.
And that may sound kind of benign, but it was not.
The collectivisation of agriculture point was particularly brutal. The Kuluks
were a class of farmer in the Soviet Union and
(02:48):
Russia before it who were considered it's often called wealthy peasants,
meaning that they operated well above a subsistence farming level.
Kuluks owned their own land and usually livestock, and they
had the means to employ other people on those farms
and enough landholdings to lease some out. Kulos became cornerstones
(03:08):
in a lot of communities because they also conducted financial
and administrative support in their villages. Sometimes they would even
issue mortgages, and to Stalin's government, this was capitalist and
inherently wrong. So part of the First Five Year Plan
was eliminating the kulos. Prior to the introduction of the
Five Year Plan, Stalin's regime had already tried to make
(03:30):
life harder for the Kulox. They did that through things
like heavy taxation and new laws that restricted their land usage.
But starting in nineteen twenty nine as part of the
first five year plan, what has come to be known
as de Koulokization began with a call to quote liquidate
the Kulus as a class. This included violent attacks on
(03:52):
kulock farms as well as deportation, arrest, and property seizure
by the government, and all of this was done under
that goal of collectivizing agriculture. Literally, they wanted to put
all farmers to work under one collective umbrella for the government,
rather than any of them working for themselves. This was
all framed in propaganda as necessary to achieve non capitalist industrialization.
(04:19):
But one of the direct results of this was a
massive famine that was the Holladamoor. As we mentioned in
our episode on the Holadamor, the loss of farming expertise
that came from this decoop acuzation plus bad weather and
poorly run state farms all meant that the grain industry collapsed.
Talked in that episode how a lot of this was
(04:42):
like in what's now Ukraine because growing grain was such
an enormous part of the Ukrainian economy. As the country
started to recover in nineteen thirty three after having experienced
millions of deaths. The Soviet government tried to cover things up,
and time was ripe for some sort of story that
could be used to bolster morale and boast to the
(05:05):
globe of Soviet superiority. As this disastrous first five year
Plan came to an end in nineteen thirty two, being
claimed as a success in spite of all the serious
problems that had created, heavy industry became the main focus
for the second five year Plan. This is where a
man named Alexi Stakhanov became famous. So Alexei Grigorovitch Stakhanov
(05:28):
was born on January third, nineteen oh six, in the
town of Lugova, which was in the administrative division municipality
known as Levinsky Uyezd, which in turn was part of
the Oriol Governorate. Less than a decade before he was born,
the Levinsky Uyezd census talied a population of just under
three hundred thousand people.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
In his early twenties, Alexei met a woman named Yevdokiya
who was possibly Roma, and the two of them started
a romantic relationship. They never formally got married, but they
lived as has wife and they had two children, Claudia
and Victor. Together Sakanoff became a coal miner working in
the state run Central Ermino mine in the Donbas region
(06:10):
and what was at the time Soviet Ukraine. The entire
coal mining industry had been reorganized from the top down
in nineteen thirty three, when the leadership within the system
was assessed as being inefficient and unable to meet the
goals that had been set by the Communist Party in
the five Year Plan. New targets were set for all
(06:32):
mines as part of this reorg. Don Bas was considered
a poorly performing mine area. It rarely met the production
goals that had been set for it, and the work
there was unsurprisingly grueling.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So the system for this mining was set up as
sort of an everyman for him self affair, with financial
incentives to produce the most coal. But that meant that
each miner was picking at the tunnels on his own,
lying down, propping up the tunnel himself with laws cut
to various lengths for that purpose, and then once enough
coal had been picked out, he loaded it onto a
(07:06):
cart and then he would hitch that cart to a
pony and walk the pony out of the mind for
drop off of the product, and then back in and
according to the official story, Alexi Stakhanov thought this was
a really foolish way to run a mine. He had
a plan to reset the workflow with four man teams.
So one man did the picking, one man did the
(07:27):
needed bracing as the coal tunnels were picked out, one
loaded the coal, and then one managed the ponies and
walking them back and forth. But he also thought it
would be better to upgrade from a pick to a drill,
so he trained to use one. According to the official story,
Stakhanoff approached the mind's leadership with this plan, and initially
(07:48):
their reception was lukewarm, but he persisted and he got
the local party leader involved. The idea was.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That there would be a test shift using this method
to see if it was worthwhile. If it failed, Stakhanoff
would be the one that would take the heat. Initially,
Stakhanov was not the one intended to actually be the
miner on this test shift. The Communist party leaders wanted
somebody to do it who was a member of the party,
and he was not. Of course, they also wanted that
(08:17):
person to be strong and skilled. There just weren't any
other candidates who were as well suited to it as
Stakhanoff himself was. On August thirty first, nineteen thirty five,
Alexi Stakhanoff went into the mine for a six hour shift.
The local Communist Party leader and a journalist were on
site to report what happened, and when it was over
(08:38):
he had mined a mind boggling one hundred to two
tons of coal.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That is not a typo. It is reportedly fourteen times
the amount that he would normally produce in a shift,
all purportedly because of his new method of dividing the
labor in the minds. So if you're thinking division of
labor wasn't really a new concert in nineteen thirty five,
you're right. It wasn't new globally. The assembly line popularized
(09:06):
by Henry Ford, for example, had been in operation since
nineteen thirteen. It wasn't new to the Soviet Union either,
and this form of mining had been championed in Soviet
mines on and off since the nineteen twenties, but had
never really gained wide support. Additionally, this situation was set
up where it was a test, so Stakhanov was the.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Only miner working in the area during the test. This
was a situation where he physically didn't have to move
far from one mining ledge to another. He wasn't sharing
space with other miners, not having to keep out of
each other's way. Things like that. We will loop back
to a discussion about the real nature of that historic
night in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Publicly, this was a banner pr moment for the Communist Party.
At last, the idea of a super efficient Soviet Union
had a touchstone, and in every man who could be
modeled as a hero. His achievement was first written about
in the papers of don Bos and soon caught the
attention of sergo Orzani Kidzie, who was the Minister of Industry. He,
(10:10):
in turn, according to the official story, brought this story
of Stakhanov to Stalin, and Stakhanov quickly went from local
hero to national star. He was also given an instant
membership in the Communist Party.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Pravda wrote about Alexi, and the Communist press started touting
the benefits of the Stakhanov system. Alexi Stakhanov, who was
the sudden darling of Stalin's government, was moved to a
nice furnished apartment and given a horse and a buggy.
This was a luxurious upgrade from the life he had
been living. Later, his daughter Violetta shared with the BBC
(10:45):
quote Dad was particularly proud.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Of the horse.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
A tour was also planned, part lecture tour and part
training tour, so Alexi could share his knowledge with the
rest of the country.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Coming up, we will talk about additional ways that alexistakhanov
life changed, but first we will pause for a sponsor break.
As Takano's fame grew, his partnery of Dokia grew increasingly
(11:17):
more uncomfortable with the situation. She eventually left, and her
exit from his life is described sometimes as running away
with a group of Rominy travelers, possibly running away with
another man. The two children stayed with Alexi, but Alexi
had women writing him letters all the time, so he
probably did not take ye of Dokia's exit too hard.
(11:39):
He could, not, however, read those letters. He openly told
journalists that he didn't know how to read or write,
and that party leaders read his letters for him.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
While he was touring the country, Alexi was honored with
a performance by a school choir in the town of Kharkov,
and in the choir was a girl named Galita Bondarenko,
who Alexi was immediately interested in she was only fourteen.
Modern versions of this story say that he fell instantly
in love with her. That is obviously romanticizing a very
(12:10):
unbalanced power dynamic between an adult and a child. He
wanted to marry her, and he did very quickly. Her
family was poor and likely thought this match would secure
a good future for her. After the marriage ceremony, it
seems like they lived mostly apart for two years, though
while she finished school. Accounts are pretty fuzzy on this detail.
(12:33):
Translations are ambiguous in the language that they used to
talk about it. Their daughter, Filetta, described this relationship as
one where Galina respected Alexei like an elder more than
having loving feelings toward him. He was described by family
as possessive and jealous with his wife, although this couple
did seem to develop something of a real partnership over
(12:55):
the years. Yeah, it's really weird that age gap thing
is talked about in very KG language where it's not
clear if they were really living as a married couple
for a couple of years at all or not. And
I think that is purposely KG because nobody wants to
discuss how yucky it is Alexi continued to travel the
country while Gallina returned to life as a student. His
(13:17):
fame had been instant and the so called Stacanovite movement
had begun, But while many were cheering him as an
example of a hero worker, there were other people who
did not share that enthusiasm. He later claimed that he
had been attacked on the street by workers who didn't
appreciate him promoting the idea that everyone should be exceeding
their work goals by a factor of ten. Anti Stacanovites,
(13:41):
Stalin would later say, met with violence and loss of
jobs for their attitude. In the years immediately following the
fervor of Stacanovism, the movement's detractors were branded as sabaturs.
Some were punished for this with hard labor. On November seventeenth,
nineteen thirty five, after several months of campaigning for the
(14:02):
adoption of Stakhanov's intense work ethic for the benefit of
the country, Stalin spoke at the first conference of the
Stakhanov Movement, gathered in Moscow. It was a rousing speech
that appealed to the assembled attendees as being the most
progressive and advanced members of the workforce as evidence of
the superiority of a socialist society. Quote. It has already
(14:24):
been said here that the Stakhanov movement, as an expression
of new and higher technical standards, is a model of
that high productivity of labor which only socialism can give
and which capitalism cannot give. That is absolutely true. There
were other points made in Stalin's speech, including the importance
(14:44):
of Stacanovism for the next step of the Soviet government.
He said, quote its significance lies also in the fact
that it is preparing the conditions for the transition from
socialism to communism. And when Stalin described the workers who
had embraced Daconivism, those words painted them as follows.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Quote. They are mostly young or middle aged working men
and women, people with cultural and technical knowledge, who show
examples of precision and accuracy in work, who are able
to appreciate the time factor in work, and who have
learned to count not only the minutes but also the seconds.
The majority of them have taken the technical minimum courses
and are continuing their technical education. They are free of
(15:26):
the conservatism and stagnation of certain engineers, technicians and business executives.
They are marching boldly forward, smashing the antiquated technical standards
and creating new and higher standards. They are introducing amendments
into the designed capacities and economic plans drawn up by
the leaders of our industry. They often supplement and correct
(15:47):
what the engineers and technicians have to say. They often
teach them and impel them forward, for they are people
who have completely mastered the technique of their job, and
who are able to squeeze out of technique the maximum
that can be squeezed out of it.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But the part of Stalin's speech that's most quoted and
most written about was the propagandist way he painted Staconovism
as something that organically grew out of the bedrock that
the Soviet government had laid. Quote. What first of all
strikes the eye is the fact that this movement began
somehow of itself, almost spontaneously, from below, without any pressure
(16:24):
whatsoever from the administrators of our enterprises. More than that
this movement, in a way arose and began to develop
in spite of the administrators of our enterprises, even in
opposition to them. The basis for the Stakhanoff movement was,
first and foremost the radical improvement in the material welfare
of the workers. Life has improved comrades, life has become
(16:47):
more joyous, and when life is joyous, work goes well.
Hence the high rates of output, hence the heroes and
heroines of labor that primarily is the root of the
Stakhanoff movement. Aside from being propaganda, this was all a
flat out lie. The country had just been through a famine,
(17:08):
a series of purges at Stalin's order as well. This
was not a time of joy or prosperity for most
of the population. Far from it. And this Stakandamit movement,
as we'll discuss in just a moment, was really orchestrated.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
At the conclusion of this speech, Stalin said quote finally
two words about how it would be fitting to mark
this conference. We here in the Presidium have conferred and
have decided that this conference between the leaders of the
government and the leaders of this Stakhanov movement must be
marked in some way. Well. We have come to the
decision that one hundred or one hundred and twenty of
(17:44):
you will have to be recommended for the highest distinction.
The implication here, of course, was that Alexi Stakhanov himself
would of course receive such a distinction, but he would
wait a really long time for it. On December sixteenth,
nineteen thirty five, I've Time magazine ran a cover story
titled Heroes of Labor. To be clear, this was not
(18:06):
a piece praising the Stacanobite movement. That opens by mentioning
a number of new words that the world had learned
thanks to Stalin and describing some of Stalin's horrific moves,
including the eradication of the kulux. Then it pivoted to Stacanovism, stating,
quote the great new addition to vocabulary's Stacanovism. Today, a
(18:27):
fresh battle has opened over Staconovism, and thus far enraged
workers have done most of the shooting in coal mines, factories, railways,
and even on the Dictator's favorite collective farms. In recent weeks,
desperate Russian workers have slain stakanovitees pride and sabotage. Six
months ago, the most violent of Dictator Stalin's henchman, big nosed,
(18:51):
hot eyed Commissar for Heavy Industry Grigory or Zona Gizzi,
demanded that Russian workmen pitch in and really learned to
use the machine tools their government was buying from the
capitalistic world at drastic sacrifices of food and other Russian goods.
The Time article frames the Takanov story as one in
which the Communist Party had found a good story and
(19:13):
flag bearer in the minor equipping. Quote One Alexis Takanov,
a skilled pneumatic drill operator in the don Bos coal
trust sector, was discovered by the Soviet press this year
to be performing prodigies. Soon was raised by Bolshevik puffs
to the status of a hero of labor. This write
up goes on to mention that there's a contradiction in
(19:34):
this whole campaign, since Communist leaders had been criticizing capitalism
for its constant efforts to speed up production. It also
points out that while a handful of workers like Stakhanov
were being given lavish gifts by the government for what
they had done, those outside that small group wondered what
would happen if more workers did start to produce at
(19:54):
such extreme levels. There was surely no way everyone could
get the same incentive and be given new apartments and
carts and more.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Alexi was moved to Moscow in nineteen thirty seven, where
he was given an executive position in the coal ministry
in a luxury apartment, as well as cars and other amenities.
For a man likes to Khanoff, who had grown up
poor and found himself suddenly surrounded by the party elite,
it was a big adjustment. The way of life in
Moscow working in political circles was challenging. He was introduced
(20:26):
to someone at a party by Stalin as a future
government minister, and according to family accounts, he was terrified. Galina,
who had also grown up poor but had a much
better education than her husband, is described as the person
who helped him through this adjustment by having more savvy
regarding the commingling of social and professional aspects of their
(20:47):
new lives. Alexi and Galina had two daughters while they
were living in Moscow. Violetta was born in nineteen forty
and Allah in nineteen forty three. They also had two
other children who died in infancy. Alexei and Gallina's daughter, Violetta,
told the BBC a terrifying story about an experience that
Galina had while they were living in Moscow. To set
(21:09):
the stage, we have to talk for a moment about
Laverenti Barria, who was a terrifying figure in Stalinist Russia.
Barria joined the Communist Party in nineteen seventeen and was
eventually assigned to intelligence, leading to his appointment as head
of the Georgian Secret Police. His rise through the party
ranks continued, and in nineteen thirty eight he became head
(21:29):
of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, and also part
of Stalin's inner circle.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
He was a callous and violent man known for casually
ordering mass executions. He became known by the nickname the
Kremlin Monster, and he was a serial sexual predator who
raped an unknown number of women.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
One of his predatory activities has been described as something
of an open secret in the Communist Party. He would
have his driver take him around Moscow at night, and
when he saw a woman or girl that he thought
was attractive, he'd stop the car. They would pick her up,
usually by invitation. Sometimes he would send his staff out
to search for prey, and then they would be taken
(22:12):
back to Barria's home. Some left at the end of
the night, but the discovery of remains of numerous women
on the site later during a construction project indicates that
a lot of them did not survive their time with him.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, his whole story is so upsetting and there are
so many horrifying details. But to circle back to Alexei
Stakhanov's wife, Galina and how this all ties to her.
One day, as she was out shopping, a car that
had been slowly following her pulled up next to her
and asked her to get in, and she did. Laventi
(22:46):
Barria was not in the car, but she was driven
to his home. Galina in this story is clearly a
very cool headed woman because when she was brought into
the house and kind of realized the danger she was in,
she told the officer there that she was married to
Alexei's Takhanov and that she was pregnant, and that put
an end to things. After that, she was escorted back
out to the car and she was taken home, But
(23:09):
Alexi was angry with Galina for having gotten into the
car because Barry's practice of looking for victims was so
well known. It seems like she thought, this is somebody
in the government who knows my husband and they need
me for something. But despite this incident, the Dakhanov stayed
in Moscow, and Alexi continued to work for the coal
mining industry into the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Takanov didn't stay in Moscow forever, though, and we'll talk
about what precipitated his move after we hear from the
sponsors that supports Stuffy missed in history class. On March fifth,
nineteen fifty three, Joseph Stalin had a stroke and died,
(23:54):
and once the ensuing power struggle over his successor was complete,
which included the Erast trial and execution of Lverenti Barria
for treason, Nikita Khrushchev was the new Premiere of the
Soviet Union, and Khrushchev made a point to shift the
Communist Party and the government away from the structure that
it had become under Stalin. During a closed session of
(24:16):
the twentieth Congress of the Communist Party held in February
nineteen fifty six, Krisjeff gave what was called his Secret
Speech about the problems of the Stalin government and the
reforms that were needed. In it, he noted, and I
will say we are quoting an English translation that was released,
so this may have been heavily edited for English speaking audiences,
(24:42):
but this is what we have in it, He noted,
quote at present, we are concerned with a question which
has immense importance for the party now and for the future,
with how the cult of the person of Stalin has
been gradually growing, the cult which became, at certain specific stages,
the source of a whole of exceedingly serious and grave
perversions of party principles, a party democracy of revolutionary legality.
(25:08):
Under kruz Jeff there were, as promised, big changes which
got the nickname de Stalinization. A lot of Stalin's programs
and decisions were overturned or eliminated, and eventually those reforms
impacted Alexi Stakhanoff. It was determined that there was no
reason to keep him in Moscow, and in nineteen fifty
seven he was given orders to go back to where
(25:29):
it had all started, which was don Bass. He was
made chief manager of the mine at theres, which was
definitely a step down from the cushy job he'd had
in the capitol, although he continued to give talks to
students and consult with other minds. He had been in
Moscow for twenty years at that point, and to be
shuttled eleven hundred kilometers away felt to him like he
(25:51):
was being discarded. Saconovism as a movement had been lauded
and credited for achieving goals than Stalin's five year plan,
and it just kind of sputtered out.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Stakhanov's family stayed in Moscow so Violetta and Allah could
finish school there. Feeling isolated and as though he had
been exiled by the Khrushchov government, Alexi began drinking heavily.
He was often asked to come to Moscow by his
family to visit, but he pretty frequently declined. Despite the
falloff and enthusiasm for Staconovism after its initial surge and
(26:25):
its relegation to history once Stalin was gone, Stakhanoff continued
to be a heroic figure throughout the time of the
Soviet Union. In nineteen seventy he finally received the accolade
that he thought he had been promised in Stalin's speech.
In November of nineteen thirty five, he was given the
honorific hero of Socialist Labor. His drinking became so problematic
(26:47):
that he got into trouble at various times. He is
alleged to have been in a brawl at the restaurant
in the Metropolis Hotel that resulted in the loss of
his accolade and of his Communist Party card. November of
nineteen seventy seven, in don Bas, Alexistikanoff had a stroke
and he died shortly thereafter. Nineteen seventy eight to the
(27:08):
city of Kadyevka was renamed Stakhanoff. This was a coal
mining city in what is modern day eastern Ukraine. Though
his reputation may have tarnished, he did still hold an
iconic status, particularly in the coal industry. In two thousand
and six, to Khanov's pneumatic hammer was included in a
display at the Kremlin Museum as part of an exhibit
(27:29):
about gifts given to Soviet leaders in the twentieth century.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
There are historians who break down the flaws and improbabilities
in the entire Stakhanov achievement story, who say that that
famous night when he produced such an enormous amount of
coal was staged by the Communist government. In a nineteen
eighty five New York Times article discussing the fiftieth anniversary
of Stakhanov's record shift, journalist Sergei Schmemen writes, quote konstantinji Petrov,
(27:57):
the chief of the Mines party organization, recalled that Stakhanov's
wife strenuously resisted his attempt to make her husband a
hero until she was silenced with.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
The gift of a cow.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That wife was his partner, yef Dokia, was not as
actually married to him. This suggests that Stakhanov knew ahead
of time that he would be successful, and that this
so called test was mostly for publicity. Yeah, yev Dokia
was like, I don't I don't want everybody looking at
our family. This article also notes that the entire shift
was meticulously planned, and that Stakhanov had two men propping
(28:33):
in his tunnel, and that Petrov was also in the
mind holding a light for him through most of the shift.
There were also additional people on hand to expedite the
entire process, not just a four man crew as was
often reported. The article quotes an interview that Petrov gave
in the early nineteen eighties, saying quote, I suppose to
Khanov need not have been the first. It could have
(28:56):
been anybody else. In the final analysis, it was not
the individual face worker who determined whether the attempt to
break The record would succeed but the new system of
coal extraction. But Alexi was the first. Why then, well,
because before a record can be set, a man has
to believe in its feasibility and in his own powers.
(29:18):
We had been looking for just such a stalwart fellow.
In twenty fifteen, Alexi's daughter Violetta, gave an interview in
which she talked about her father, their life, and his legacy.
She simultaneously spoke very highly of her father and alluded
to some of the less ideal aspects of the story,
including her mother's very young age when Alexi chose her
(29:39):
to be his wife. Stakhanov emerges from her interview as
almost a cautionary tale, a man who was suddenly intensely
famous because it served the people in power, and then,
in losing it, couldn't handle the fall back out of favor.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
In twenty twenty one, an article in the periodical The
Conversation points to to com of as the harbinger of
modern workplace culture of overachieving at the expense of employee
well being. And to be clear, there is absolutely a
problem of workplace culture and management that can negatively impact
employees and lead to both physical and mental burnout at best.
(30:17):
But that's a complex issue. You can't really lay it
at the feet of one person, or even attribute it
to one moment or cause. It was not as though
worker exploitation was invented with the Communist Party's handling of
Alexis Stakhanov's story. The Industrial Revolution had already led to
plenty of exploitation and abuse of workers, and even then
it wasn't new. Additionally, the adoption of the idea of
(30:40):
a sort of super worker who routinely overperforms is a
choice that a lot of companies have opted to adopt
and use to goose performance output in the twentieth and
twenty first centuries. So we can't really say it's this
moment that caused this problem.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
And it's worth noting that even with the staging that's
now recognized as having happened in that August nineteen thirty
five test shift that made Alexista Khanoff famous, it was
still a pretty remarkable feat. The pneumatic drills at the
time were just beasts that were hard to control and
exhausting to handle, and Stakhanoff did run it for six hours,
(31:17):
So although his effort was exploited by Stalin, and though
he didn't really come up with the whole idea of
a division of labor, even if he had help, the
accomplishment itself was still pretty impressive. Yeah. I mean, I
feel so bad for him in all of this story
because they clearly were like, we want an uneducated person
that we can exploit who is also a.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Very strong part. Like he ran a drill for six hours,
which is a lot. And I think that's why his
status as kind of a hero in the coal mining
industry in particular has sustained a little bit more, even
though there are obviously problems with his life and some
of his decisions, Right, that's all. I just wanted to
make that note at the end, so nobody goes, do
(32:02):
you not know how hard it is to do?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'm like, I do know how hard physical labor is,
and I don't want to take that away from him
while we can also talk critically about the rest of it.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
But I have a really fun listener mail that made
me smile and smile. It is from our listener Ashley,
who writes Dear Tracy and Holly, longtime listener, first time writer.
I am an actuary fully credentialed Fellow of the Society
of Actuaries, and January eighth was my birthday, so imagine
my surprise when you accidentally gave me one of my
(32:33):
best birthday presents ever. I really enjoyed both episodes and
the behind the scenes. I laughed a bit when you
talked about technological advancement. When I was a baby actuary
about twenty years ago, I had forecast models that would
take a week to run. Now that same model would
probably take an hour. So does our work go faster Nope,
not at all. We just make the models more complicated.
(32:55):
I really appreciate your careful and consider it approach to
sharing history. Thank you so much for all you do.
I listen to the podcast a lot while running, and
it certainly makes the miles go faster. I do not
have pets, so no pet tax, but my family and
I love to travel when we can. Attached as a
photo of Sue the Dinosaur from the Chicago Field Museum.
Best wishes to you both for a wonderful twenty twenty
(33:15):
four Listen. I will always take a picture of Sue.
The Field is one of my favorite museums in the world.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I know I've said on the show before I love
it also like this is one of those emails that
was a gift to me because anytime we talk about
a profession, I'm always worried that people in that profession
will be like you, Dang goong, you know what you're
talking about. You can read all the books you want,
but the reality maybe very Really, Ashley, you gave me
the gift, so I thank you. If you would like
(33:41):
to email us, you can do so at History Podcast
at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us on
social media as Missed in History and if you have
not subscribed yet, you can do that. We are easy
to find on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen
to your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class
(34:03):
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This accidentally turned out to be kind of a well
timed episode just in terms of what inspired it and
what's been going on with that inspiration. The show Succession
just won a kajillion awards.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, we originally tried to record this episode the day
after that happened.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well, that was the day after one of the awards shows. Yes,
there have been seven. They have really been sweeping and
in my opinion, well deserved. I can talk more about
Succession on behind the scenes. But this is not a spoiler,
but in season four, there is a moment where one
of the characters, Logan Roy, is observing one of his
(00:53):
low level employees and the employee is understandably nervous because
this is not normal for this person who runs the
company to be walking the floor. And he is very
carefully typing out some stuff, and the Logan Roy characters
you've typed one email and he calls him a Stakhanovite,
and I'm like, ah, why didn't Why haven't we ever
(01:14):
talked about the Siiconfites because this is a really interesting,
strange orchestrated moment in labor history in the USSR, and it,
you know, kind of exemplifies some problems in propaganda that
we're going on. So we are going to talk about
Alexi Stakhanov and his achievement and how that was parlayed
(01:38):
into a big moment for Stalin and for his plans. Yeah,
so it is at.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The stage of Alexi Stakhanov's achievements and a rise to fame,
we have to talk about Stalin's five year Plans. In
nineteen twenty eight, Stalin rolled out a policy to overhaul
the economics of the Soviet Union. His the regime's assessment
was that the Soviet Union had become too entwined with capitalism.
There needed to be a plan to break that. So
(02:08):
the five year plan cycle was announced, and this game's
pretty self explanatory in terms of the structure. Every five
years would focus on a set of goals that was
intended to achieve what Stalin envisioned was a more perfect
Soviet Union. We talked about some of this in our
episode on the Holladamor Famine.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
So just to recap. The first five Year Plan included
programs to expand industry, generate more energy, and collectivize agriculture.
And that may sound kind of benign, but it was not.
The collectivisation of agriculture point was particularly brutal. The Kuluks
were a class of farmer in the Soviet Union and
(02:48):
Russia before it who were considered it's often called wealthy peasants,
meaning that they operated well above a subsistence farming level.
Kuluks owned their own land and usually livestock, and they
had the means to employ other people on those farms
and enough landholdings to lease some out. Kulos became cornerstones
(03:08):
in a lot of communities because they also conducted financial
and administrative support in their villages. Sometimes they would even
issue mortgages, and to Stalin's government, this was capitalist and
inherently wrong. So part of the First Five Year Plan
was eliminating the kulos. Prior to the introduction of the
Five Year Plan, Stalin's regime had already tried to make
(03:30):
life harder for the Kulox. They did that through things
like heavy taxation and new laws that restricted their land usage.
But starting in nineteen twenty nine as part of the
first five year plan, what has come to be known
as de Koulokization began with a call to quote liquidate
the Kulus as a class. This included violent attacks on
(03:52):
kulock farms as well as deportation, arrest, and property seizure
by the government, and all of this was done under
that goal of collectivizing agriculture. Literally, they wanted to put
all farmers to work under one collective umbrella for the government,
rather than any of them working for themselves. This was
all framed in propaganda as necessary to achieve non capitalist industrialization.
(04:19):
But one of the direct results of this was a
massive famine that was the Holladamoor. As we mentioned in
our episode on the Holadamor, the loss of farming expertise
that came from this decoop acuzation plus bad weather and
poorly run state farms all meant that the grain industry collapsed.
Talked in that episode how a lot of this was
(04:42):
like in what's now Ukraine because growing grain was such
an enormous part of the Ukrainian economy. As the country
started to recover in nineteen thirty three after having experienced
millions of deaths. The Soviet government tried to cover things up,
and time was ripe for some sort of story that
could be used to bolster morale and boast to the
(05:05):
globe of Soviet superiority. As this disastrous first five year
Plan came to an end in nineteen thirty two, being
claimed as a success in spite of all the serious
problems that had created, heavy industry became the main focus
for the second five year Plan. This is where a
man named Alexi Stakhanov became famous. So Alexei Grigorovitch Stakhanov
(05:28):
was born on January third, nineteen oh six, in the
town of Lugova, which was in the administrative division municipality
known as Levinsky Uyezd, which in turn was part of
the Oriol Governorate. Less than a decade before he was born,
the Levinsky Uyezd census talied a population of just under
three hundred thousand people.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
In his early twenties, Alexei met a woman named Yevdokiya
who was possibly Roma, and the two of them started
a romantic relationship. They never formally got married, but they
lived as has wife and they had two children, Claudia
and Victor. Together Sakanoff became a coal miner working in
the state run Central Ermino mine in the Donbas region
(06:10):
and what was at the time Soviet Ukraine. The entire
coal mining industry had been reorganized from the top down
in nineteen thirty three, when the leadership within the system
was assessed as being inefficient and unable to meet the
goals that had been set by the Communist Party in
the five Year Plan. New targets were set for all
(06:32):
mines as part of this reorg. Don Bas was considered
a poorly performing mine area. It rarely met the production
goals that had been set for it, and the work
there was unsurprisingly grueling.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So the system for this mining was set up as
sort of an everyman for him self affair, with financial
incentives to produce the most coal. But that meant that
each miner was picking at the tunnels on his own,
lying down, propping up the tunnel himself with laws cut
to various lengths for that purpose, and then once enough
coal had been picked out, he loaded it onto a
(07:06):
cart and then he would hitch that cart to a
pony and walk the pony out of the mind for
drop off of the product, and then back in and
according to the official story, Alexi Stakhanov thought this was
a really foolish way to run a mine. He had
a plan to reset the workflow with four man teams.
So one man did the picking, one man did the
(07:27):
needed bracing as the coal tunnels were picked out, one
loaded the coal, and then one managed the ponies and
walking them back and forth. But he also thought it
would be better to upgrade from a pick to a drill,
so he trained to use one. According to the official story,
Stakhanoff approached the mind's leadership with this plan, and initially
(07:48):
their reception was lukewarm, but he persisted and he got
the local party leader involved. The idea was.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That there would be a test shift using this method
to see if it was worthwhile. If it failed, Stakhanoff
would be the one that would take the heat. Initially,
Stakhanov was not the one intended to actually be the
miner on this test shift. The Communist party leaders wanted
somebody to do it who was a member of the party,
and he was not. Of course, they also wanted that
(08:17):
person to be strong and skilled. There just weren't any
other candidates who were as well suited to it as
Stakhanoff himself was. On August thirty first, nineteen thirty five,
Alexi Stakhanoff went into the mine for a six hour shift.
The local Communist Party leader and a journalist were on
site to report what happened, and when it was over
(08:38):
he had mined a mind boggling one hundred to two
tons of coal.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
That is not a typo. It is reportedly fourteen times
the amount that he would normally produce in a shift,
all purportedly because of his new method of dividing the
labor in the minds. So if you're thinking division of
labor wasn't really a new concert in nineteen thirty five,
you're right. It wasn't new globally. The assembly line popularized
(09:06):
by Henry Ford, for example, had been in operation since
nineteen thirteen. It wasn't new to the Soviet Union either,
and this form of mining had been championed in Soviet
mines on and off since the nineteen twenties, but had
never really gained wide support. Additionally, this situation was set
up where it was a test, so Stakhanov was the.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Only miner working in the area during the test. This
was a situation where he physically didn't have to move
far from one mining ledge to another. He wasn't sharing
space with other miners, not having to keep out of
each other's way. Things like that. We will loop back
to a discussion about the real nature of that historic
night in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Publicly, this was a banner pr moment for the Communist Party.
At last, the idea of a super efficient Soviet Union
had a touchstone, and in every man who could be
modeled as a hero. His achievement was first written about
in the papers of don Bos and soon caught the
attention of sergo Orzani Kidzie, who was the Minister of Industry. He,
(10:10):
in turn, according to the official story, brought this story
of Stakhanov to Stalin, and Stakhanov quickly went from local
hero to national star. He was also given an instant
membership in the Communist Party.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Pravda wrote about Alexi, and the Communist press started touting
the benefits of the Stakhanov system. Alexi Stakhanov, who was
the sudden darling of Stalin's government, was moved to a
nice furnished apartment and given a horse and a buggy.
This was a luxurious upgrade from the life he had
been living. Later, his daughter Violetta shared with the BBC
(10:45):
quote Dad was particularly proud.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Of the horse.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
A tour was also planned, part lecture tour and part
training tour, so Alexi could share his knowledge with the
rest of the country.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Coming up, we will talk about additional ways that alexistakhanov
life changed, but first we will pause for a sponsor break.
As Takano's fame grew, his partnery of Dokia grew increasingly
(11:17):
more uncomfortable with the situation. She eventually left, and her
exit from his life is described sometimes as running away
with a group of Rominy travelers, possibly running away with
another man. The two children stayed with Alexi, but Alexi
had women writing him letters all the time, so he
probably did not take ye of Dokia's exit too hard.
(11:39):
He could, not, however, read those letters. He openly told
journalists that he didn't know how to read or write,
and that party leaders read his letters for him.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
While he was touring the country, Alexi was honored with
a performance by a school choir in the town of Kharkov,
and in the choir was a girl named Galita Bondarenko,
who Alexi was immediately interested in she was only fourteen.
Modern versions of this story say that he fell instantly
in love with her. That is obviously romanticizing a very
(12:10):
unbalanced power dynamic between an adult and a child. He
wanted to marry her, and he did very quickly. Her
family was poor and likely thought this match would secure
a good future for her. After the marriage ceremony, it
seems like they lived mostly apart for two years, though
while she finished school. Accounts are pretty fuzzy on this detail.
(12:33):
Translations are ambiguous in the language that they used to
talk about it. Their daughter, Filetta, described this relationship as
one where Galina respected Alexei like an elder more than
having loving feelings toward him. He was described by family
as possessive and jealous with his wife, although this couple
did seem to develop something of a real partnership over
(12:55):
the years. Yeah, it's really weird that age gap thing
is talked about in very KG language where it's not
clear if they were really living as a married couple
for a couple of years at all or not. And
I think that is purposely KG because nobody wants to
discuss how yucky it is Alexi continued to travel the
country while Gallina returned to life as a student. His
(13:17):
fame had been instant and the so called Stacanovite movement
had begun, But while many were cheering him as an
example of a hero worker, there were other people who
did not share that enthusiasm. He later claimed that he
had been attacked on the street by workers who didn't
appreciate him promoting the idea that everyone should be exceeding
their work goals by a factor of ten. Anti Stacanovites,
(13:41):
Stalin would later say, met with violence and loss of
jobs for their attitude. In the years immediately following the
fervor of Stacanovism, the movement's detractors were branded as sabaturs.
Some were punished for this with hard labor. On November seventeenth,
nineteen thirty five, after several months of campaigning for the
(14:02):
adoption of Stakhanov's intense work ethic for the benefit of
the country, Stalin spoke at the first conference of the
Stakhanov Movement, gathered in Moscow. It was a rousing speech
that appealed to the assembled attendees as being the most
progressive and advanced members of the workforce as evidence of
the superiority of a socialist society. Quote. It has already
(14:24):
been said here that the Stakhanov movement, as an expression
of new and higher technical standards, is a model of
that high productivity of labor which only socialism can give
and which capitalism cannot give. That is absolutely true. There
were other points made in Stalin's speech, including the importance
(14:44):
of Stacanovism for the next step of the Soviet government.
He said, quote its significance lies also in the fact
that it is preparing the conditions for the transition from
socialism to communism. And when Stalin described the workers who
had embraced Daconivism, those words painted them as follows.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Quote. They are mostly young or middle aged working men
and women, people with cultural and technical knowledge, who show
examples of precision and accuracy in work, who are able
to appreciate the time factor in work, and who have
learned to count not only the minutes but also the seconds.
The majority of them have taken the technical minimum courses
and are continuing their technical education. They are free of
(15:26):
the conservatism and stagnation of certain engineers, technicians and business executives.
They are marching boldly forward, smashing the antiquated technical standards
and creating new and higher standards. They are introducing amendments
into the designed capacities and economic plans drawn up by
the leaders of our industry. They often supplement and correct
(15:47):
what the engineers and technicians have to say. They often
teach them and impel them forward, for they are people
who have completely mastered the technique of their job, and
who are able to squeeze out of technique the maximum
that can be squeezed out of it.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But the part of Stalin's speech that's most quoted and
most written about was the propagandist way he painted Staconovism
as something that organically grew out of the bedrock that
the Soviet government had laid. Quote. What first of all
strikes the eye is the fact that this movement began
somehow of itself, almost spontaneously, from below, without any pressure
(16:24):
whatsoever from the administrators of our enterprises. More than that
this movement, in a way arose and began to develop
in spite of the administrators of our enterprises, even in
opposition to them. The basis for the Stakhanoff movement was,
first and foremost the radical improvement in the material welfare
of the workers. Life has improved comrades, life has become
(16:47):
more joyous, and when life is joyous, work goes well.
Hence the high rates of output, hence the heroes and
heroines of labor that primarily is the root of the
Stakhanoff movement. Aside from being propaganda, this was all a
flat out lie. The country had just been through a famine,
(17:08):
a series of purges at Stalin's order as well. This
was not a time of joy or prosperity for most
of the population. Far from it. And this Stakandamit movement,
as we'll discuss in just a moment, was really orchestrated.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
At the conclusion of this speech, Stalin said quote finally
two words about how it would be fitting to mark
this conference. We here in the Presidium have conferred and
have decided that this conference between the leaders of the
government and the leaders of this Stakhanov movement must be
marked in some way. Well. We have come to the
decision that one hundred or one hundred and twenty of
(17:44):
you will have to be recommended for the highest distinction.
The implication here, of course, was that Alexi Stakhanov himself
would of course receive such a distinction, but he would
wait a really long time for it. On December sixteenth,
nineteen thirty five, I've Time magazine ran a cover story
titled Heroes of Labor. To be clear, this was not
(18:06):
a piece praising the Stacanobite movement. That opens by mentioning
a number of new words that the world had learned
thanks to Stalin and describing some of Stalin's horrific moves,
including the eradication of the kulux. Then it pivoted to Stacanovism, stating,
quote the great new addition to vocabulary's Stacanovism. Today, a
(18:27):
fresh battle has opened over Staconovism, and thus far enraged
workers have done most of the shooting in coal mines, factories, railways,
and even on the Dictator's favorite collective farms. In recent weeks,
desperate Russian workers have slain stakanovitees pride and sabotage. Six
months ago, the most violent of Dictator Stalin's henchman, big nosed,
(18:51):
hot eyed Commissar for Heavy Industry Grigory or Zona Gizzi,
demanded that Russian workmen pitch in and really learned to
use the machine tools their government was buying from the
capitalistic world at drastic sacrifices of food and other Russian goods.
The Time article frames the Takanov story as one in
which the Communist Party had found a good story and
(19:13):
flag bearer in the minor equipping. Quote One Alexis Takanov,
a skilled pneumatic drill operator in the don Bos coal
trust sector, was discovered by the Soviet press this year
to be performing prodigies. Soon was raised by Bolshevik puffs
to the status of a hero of labor. This write
up goes on to mention that there's a contradiction in
(19:34):
this whole campaign, since Communist leaders had been criticizing capitalism
for its constant efforts to speed up production. It also
points out that while a handful of workers like Stakhanov
were being given lavish gifts by the government for what
they had done, those outside that small group wondered what
would happen if more workers did start to produce at
(19:54):
such extreme levels. There was surely no way everyone could
get the same incentive and be given new apartments and
carts and more.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Alexi was moved to Moscow in nineteen thirty seven, where
he was given an executive position in the coal ministry
in a luxury apartment, as well as cars and other amenities.
For a man likes to Khanoff, who had grown up
poor and found himself suddenly surrounded by the party elite,
it was a big adjustment. The way of life in
Moscow working in political circles was challenging. He was introduced
(20:26):
to someone at a party by Stalin as a future
government minister, and according to family accounts, he was terrified. Galina,
who had also grown up poor but had a much
better education than her husband, is described as the person
who helped him through this adjustment by having more savvy
regarding the commingling of social and professional aspects of their
(20:47):
new lives. Alexi and Galina had two daughters while they
were living in Moscow. Violetta was born in nineteen forty
and Allah in nineteen forty three. They also had two
other children who died in infancy. Alexei and Gallina's daughter, Violetta,
told the BBC a terrifying story about an experience that
Galina had while they were living in Moscow. To set
(21:09):
the stage, we have to talk for a moment about
Laverenti Barria, who was a terrifying figure in Stalinist Russia.
Barria joined the Communist Party in nineteen seventeen and was
eventually assigned to intelligence, leading to his appointment as head
of the Georgian Secret Police. His rise through the party
ranks continued, and in nineteen thirty eight he became head
(21:29):
of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, and also part
of Stalin's inner circle.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
He was a callous and violent man known for casually
ordering mass executions. He became known by the nickname the
Kremlin Monster, and he was a serial sexual predator who
raped an unknown number of women.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
One of his predatory activities has been described as something
of an open secret in the Communist Party. He would
have his driver take him around Moscow at night, and
when he saw a woman or girl that he thought
was attractive, he'd stop the car. They would pick her up,
usually by invitation. Sometimes he would send his staff out
to search for prey, and then they would be taken
(22:12):
back to Barria's home. Some left at the end of
the night, but the discovery of remains of numerous women
on the site later during a construction project indicates that
a lot of them did not survive their time with him.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, his whole story is so upsetting and there are
so many horrifying details. But to circle back to Alexei
Stakhanov's wife, Galina and how this all ties to her.
One day, as she was out shopping, a car that
had been slowly following her pulled up next to her
and asked her to get in, and she did. Laventi
(22:46):
Barria was not in the car, but she was driven
to his home. Galina in this story is clearly a
very cool headed woman because when she was brought into
the house and kind of realized the danger she was in,
she told the officer there that she was married to
Alexei's Takhanov and that she was pregnant, and that put
an end to things. After that, she was escorted back
out to the car and she was taken home, But
(23:09):
Alexi was angry with Galina for having gotten into the
car because Barry's practice of looking for victims was so
well known. It seems like she thought, this is somebody
in the government who knows my husband and they need
me for something. But despite this incident, the Dakhanov stayed
in Moscow, and Alexi continued to work for the coal
mining industry into the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Takanov didn't stay in Moscow forever, though, and we'll talk
about what precipitated his move after we hear from the
sponsors that supports Stuffy missed in history class. On March fifth,
nineteen fifty three, Joseph Stalin had a stroke and died,
(23:54):
and once the ensuing power struggle over his successor was complete,
which included the Erast trial and execution of Lverenti Barria
for treason, Nikita Khrushchev was the new Premiere of the
Soviet Union, and Khrushchev made a point to shift the
Communist Party and the government away from the structure that
it had become under Stalin. During a closed session of
(24:16):
the twentieth Congress of the Communist Party held in February
nineteen fifty six, Krisjeff gave what was called his Secret
Speech about the problems of the Stalin government and the
reforms that were needed. In it, he noted, and I
will say we are quoting an English translation that was released,
so this may have been heavily edited for English speaking audiences,
(24:42):
but this is what we have in it, He noted,
quote at present, we are concerned with a question which
has immense importance for the party now and for the future,
with how the cult of the person of Stalin has
been gradually growing, the cult which became, at certain specific stages,
the source of a whole of exceedingly serious and grave
perversions of party principles, a party democracy of revolutionary legality.
(25:08):
Under kruz Jeff there were, as promised, big changes which
got the nickname de Stalinization. A lot of Stalin's programs
and decisions were overturned or eliminated, and eventually those reforms
impacted Alexi Stakhanoff. It was determined that there was no
reason to keep him in Moscow, and in nineteen fifty
seven he was given orders to go back to where
(25:29):
it had all started, which was don Bass. He was
made chief manager of the mine at theres, which was
definitely a step down from the cushy job he'd had
in the capitol, although he continued to give talks to
students and consult with other minds. He had been in
Moscow for twenty years at that point, and to be
shuttled eleven hundred kilometers away felt to him like he
(25:51):
was being discarded. Saconovism as a movement had been lauded
and credited for achieving goals than Stalin's five year plan,
and it just kind of sputtered out.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Stakhanov's family stayed in Moscow so Violetta and Allah could
finish school there. Feeling isolated and as though he had
been exiled by the Khrushchov government, Alexi began drinking heavily.
He was often asked to come to Moscow by his
family to visit, but he pretty frequently declined. Despite the
falloff and enthusiasm for Staconovism after its initial surge and
(26:25):
its relegation to history once Stalin was gone, Stakhanoff continued
to be a heroic figure throughout the time of the
Soviet Union. In nineteen seventy he finally received the accolade
that he thought he had been promised in Stalin's speech.
In November of nineteen thirty five, he was given the
honorific hero of Socialist Labor. His drinking became so problematic
(26:47):
that he got into trouble at various times. He is
alleged to have been in a brawl at the restaurant
in the Metropolis Hotel that resulted in the loss of
his accolade and of his Communist Party card. November of
nineteen seventy seven, in don Bas, Alexistikanoff had a stroke
and he died shortly thereafter. Nineteen seventy eight to the
(27:08):
city of Kadyevka was renamed Stakhanoff. This was a coal
mining city in what is modern day eastern Ukraine. Though
his reputation may have tarnished, he did still hold an
iconic status, particularly in the coal industry. In two thousand
and six, to Khanov's pneumatic hammer was included in a
display at the Kremlin Museum as part of an exhibit
(27:29):
about gifts given to Soviet leaders in the twentieth century.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
There are historians who break down the flaws and improbabilities
in the entire Stakhanov achievement story, who say that that
famous night when he produced such an enormous amount of
coal was staged by the Communist government. In a nineteen
eighty five New York Times article discussing the fiftieth anniversary
of Stakhanov's record shift, journalist Sergei Schmemen writes, quote konstantinji Petrov,
(27:57):
the chief of the Mines party organization, recalled that Stakhanov's
wife strenuously resisted his attempt to make her husband a
hero until she was silenced with.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
The gift of a cow.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That wife was his partner, yef Dokia, was not as
actually married to him. This suggests that Stakhanov knew ahead
of time that he would be successful, and that this
so called test was mostly for publicity. Yeah, yev Dokia
was like, I don't I don't want everybody looking at
our family. This article also notes that the entire shift
was meticulously planned, and that Stakhanov had two men propping
(28:33):
in his tunnel, and that Petrov was also in the
mind holding a light for him through most of the shift.
There were also additional people on hand to expedite the
entire process, not just a four man crew as was
often reported. The article quotes an interview that Petrov gave
in the early nineteen eighties, saying quote, I suppose to
Khanov need not have been the first. It could have
(28:56):
been anybody else. In the final analysis, it was not
the individual face worker who determined whether the attempt to
break The record would succeed but the new system of
coal extraction. But Alexi was the first. Why then, well,
because before a record can be set, a man has
to believe in its feasibility and in his own powers.
(29:18):
We had been looking for just such a stalwart fellow.
In twenty fifteen, Alexi's daughter Violetta, gave an interview in
which she talked about her father, their life, and his legacy.
She simultaneously spoke very highly of her father and alluded
to some of the less ideal aspects of the story,
including her mother's very young age when Alexi chose her
(29:39):
to be his wife. Stakhanov emerges from her interview as
almost a cautionary tale, a man who was suddenly intensely
famous because it served the people in power, and then,
in losing it, couldn't handle the fall back out of favor.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
In twenty twenty one, an article in the periodical The
Conversation points to to com of as the harbinger of
modern workplace culture of overachieving at the expense of employee
well being. And to be clear, there is absolutely a
problem of workplace culture and management that can negatively impact
employees and lead to both physical and mental burnout at best.
(30:17):
But that's a complex issue. You can't really lay it
at the feet of one person, or even attribute it
to one moment or cause. It was not as though
worker exploitation was invented with the Communist Party's handling of
Alexis Stakhanov's story. The Industrial Revolution had already led to
plenty of exploitation and abuse of workers, and even then
it wasn't new. Additionally, the adoption of the idea of
(30:40):
a sort of super worker who routinely overperforms is a
choice that a lot of companies have opted to adopt
and use to goose performance output in the twentieth and
twenty first centuries. So we can't really say it's this
moment that caused this problem.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
And it's worth noting that even with the staging that's
now recognized as having happened in that August nineteen thirty
five test shift that made Alexista Khanoff famous, it was
still a pretty remarkable feat. The pneumatic drills at the
time were just beasts that were hard to control and
exhausting to handle, and Stakhanoff did run it for six hours,
(31:17):
So although his effort was exploited by Stalin, and though
he didn't really come up with the whole idea of
a division of labor, even if he had help, the
accomplishment itself was still pretty impressive. Yeah. I mean, I
feel so bad for him in all of this story
because they clearly were like, we want an uneducated person
that we can exploit who is also a.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Very strong part. Like he ran a drill for six hours,
which is a lot. And I think that's why his
status as kind of a hero in the coal mining
industry in particular has sustained a little bit more, even
though there are obviously problems with his life and some
of his decisions, Right, that's all. I just wanted to
make that note at the end, so nobody goes, do
(32:02):
you not know how hard it is to do?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'm like, I do know how hard physical labor is,
and I don't want to take that away from him
while we can also talk critically about the rest of it.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
But I have a really fun listener mail that made
me smile and smile. It is from our listener Ashley,
who writes Dear Tracy and Holly, longtime listener, first time writer.
I am an actuary fully credentialed Fellow of the Society
of Actuaries, and January eighth was my birthday, so imagine
my surprise when you accidentally gave me one of my
(32:33):
best birthday presents ever. I really enjoyed both episodes and
the behind the scenes. I laughed a bit when you
talked about technological advancement. When I was a baby actuary
about twenty years ago, I had forecast models that would
take a week to run. Now that same model would
probably take an hour. So does our work go faster Nope,
not at all. We just make the models more complicated.
(32:55):
I really appreciate your careful and consider it approach to
sharing history. Thank you so much for all you do.
I listen to the podcast a lot while running, and
it certainly makes the miles go faster. I do not
have pets, so no pet tax, but my family and
I love to travel when we can. Attached as a
photo of Sue the Dinosaur from the Chicago Field Museum.
Best wishes to you both for a wonderful twenty twenty
(33:15):
four Listen. I will always take a picture of Sue.
The Field is one of my favorite museums in the world.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I know I've said on the show before I love
it also like this is one of those emails that
was a gift to me because anytime we talk about
a profession, I'm always worried that people in that profession
will be like you, Dang goong, you know what you're
talking about. You can read all the books you want,
but the reality maybe very Really, Ashley, you gave me
the gift, so I thank you. If you would like
(33:41):
to email us, you can do so at History Podcast
at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us on
social media as Missed in History and if you have
not subscribed yet, you can do that. We are easy
to find on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen
to your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class
(34:03):
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Tracy V. Wilson
Holly Frey
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