Poster from 1939 about Alexey Stakhanov.
Alexsei Grigoryevich Stakhanov (1906-1977) was a Russian Soviet miner.
He became a celebrity in 1935 as part of what became known as the Stakhanovite movement. A campaign intended to increase worker productivity and to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist economic system.
On 31 August 1935, it was reported that he had mined a record 102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes (14 times his quota).
On 19 September, Stakhanov was reported to have set a new record by mining 227 tonnes of coal in a single shift. His example was held up in newspapers and posters as a model for others to follow, and he appeared on the cover of Time magazine in the United States. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and numerous medals.
The town of Kadievka in eastern Ukraine where he started his work was renamed Stakhanov in his honour in 1978, after his death in 1977.
Stakhanov’s records set an example throughout the country and gave birth to the Stakhanovite movement, where workers who exceeded production targets could become “Stakhanovites”.