Gleb Kosorukov

On 31 August 1935, Alexej Stakhanov, a jackhammer operator at Central-Irmino coal mine, mined a record 102 tons of coal in five hours and forty-five minutes (fourteen times his daily quota). The launch of an unprecedented state-run campaign for popularizing extraordinary labour achievements made Stakhanov a Soviet preeminent hero. Soon after, his portrait appeared on the cover of Time. For...