Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935–1941

The Stakhanovite movement in the Soviet Union commemorated the mining of 102 tons of coal by Aleksei Stakhanov on August 30-1, 1935, and it was an important symbol by which the state urged workers to achieve greater productivity. As Lewis Siegelbaum demonstrates, Stakhanovism can be used to explore the social relations within Soviet industry at a critical stage in its development.