Soviet ‘Hero’ Worker’s Life Reported Ruined by Chiefs

MOSCOW — Josef Stalin and his successor, Nikita S. Khrushchev, drove the nation’s showcase hard worker to drink and ruined his family life by promoting him to paper-shuffling jobs, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Alexei Stakhanov became a hero in the Soviet Union for setting a world production record for coal. On Aug. 31, 1935, he drilled 102 tons of coal in six hours--14 times the norm for one shift.

Stakhanov received many awards, a better apartment and was wined and dined by Soviet officials, including Stalin. He did not, however, fare well in the long term, the labor newspaper Trud said in an article Wednesday.

The newspaper said that in 1936, Stakhanov was torn away from his favorite work and brought to Moscow to become a bureaucrat. He was made section chief in charge of socialist competitions and awards.

“For 25 whole years after that, his name disappeared from newspaper and magazine pages, from documentary films. His voice wasn’t heard from a speaker’s stand,” Trud said.

The new job turned Stakhanov into an alcoholic, the newspaper said. “He didn’t do anything in particular. With the strong hands that were created for a man’s real work, he was shuffling paper and in the evening not infrequently poured himself vodka of bitterness.”

His lot did not improve under Khrushchev, who came to power in 1953. When a foreign visitor asked the Soviet leader in 1957 what had become of Stakhanov, he said the hero worker was still in Donbass, the area where he set the production record, according to Trud.

But Stakhanov actually was in Moscow, and when Khrushchev learned of this later, he had the miner sent back to the region. Stakhanov only had 24 hours’ notice of the move and left his wife and children behind in the capital. Local officials ignored Stakhanov.

He died a lonely and depressed man in 1977, Trud said.

Stakhanov still serves as an example for Soviet workers, Trud said, and for that “will remain in the people’s memory as an outstanding worker and patriot.”