Stakhanovite

English

Etymology

Stakhanov + -ite, named after Russian coal miner Алексе́й Григо́рьевич Стаха́нов (Aleksei Grigor’evich Stakhanov) whose prodigious output was publicised by Stalin as part of a 1935 campaign.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /stəˈkɑːnəvaɪt/

Noun

Stakhanovite (plural Stakhanovites)

  1. (historical) An extremely productive or hard-working worker, especially in the former USSR, who may earn special rewards; a workaholic.
    • 1990, Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935-1941, page 183:
      Nevertheless, few outstanding Stakhanovites remained at the bench for very long. Even if they stayed on the enterprise payroll, they ceased to be workers, becoming instead living icons.
    • 1993, Stephan Merl, III: Social Mobility in the Countryside, William G. Rosenberg, Lewis H. Siegelbaum (editors), Social Dimensions of Soviet Industrialization, page 56,
      Kolkhozniki were soon attacking the Stakhanovites with abandon, beating them up, destroying their animals, even killing them.40 For obvious reasons, collective farm management and even village authorities were often also not eager to see labor norms increased and colluded in these attacks.
    • 1997, Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism As a Civilization, page 500:
      In mid-1936, the steel plant's deputy director, Khazanov, revealed that according to factory administration data there were 3,663 Stackhanovites at the steel plant, but according to the records of the trade union committee, there were 4,441. “In our shops,” he commented, “there are insufficiently precise criteria for determining Stakhanovites.”

Translations

Adjective

Stakhanovite (comparative more Stakhanovite, superlative most Stakhanovite)

  1. Pertaining to a Stakhanovite; heroically hard-working.
    • 1982, David A. Reisman, State and welfare: Tawney, Galbraith and Adam Smith, page 115:
      Perhaps he was convinced that a more Stakhanovite nation would, simply because of its absolute ethical commitment to community and service, in some way decide to take from the rich and give to the poor; []
    • 1993, Will Self, My Idea of Fun:
      The great galvanised iron shed where the valves were made was a cacophonous and tumultuous place, full of Stakhanovite workers torturing plugs of super-heavy metal with screaming drill bits.
    • 2005, Adam Russ, 101 Places Not to Visit, page 110:
      You've got to work hard to be considered the most miserable part of Russia, which makes Murmansk the most Stakhanovite city in Russia.
    • 2013, Bill Yenne, The White Rose of Stalingrad, unnumbered page,
      There was nothing more Stakhanovite than the slogan “We can do a lot! Let's complete the Five Year Plan in four!”

Translations

See also

Further reading

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