“WE ALL ARE SELFLESS HEROES...”: HEROIC DISCOURSE AND THE CULT OF CELEBRITY IN THE 1930s

Abstract

The article attempts to interpret the nature of the heroic discourse in Soviet culture of the 1930s. Based on published and archival sources, the hypothesis is offered, according to which the cult of heroes was associated with the search for an identity of the Soviet society adequate to the tasks of the power. The idea of a classless society, put forward by the 17th Conference of the VKP(b) in 1932, was supplemented by the image of a friendly family of Soviet peoples, in another version a country of heroes. Of all types of heroism, labor heroism came to the fore. All Soviet people, in accordance with this ideologeme, possess this dignity. A situation was needed in which a Soviet man could become a hero in labor, in aeronautics, in polar expeditions, and the fight against the enemies of the people. Such a situation was to be provided by the Stakhanovite movement. The victorious record-breakers were given the status of “noblemen” with the privileges attributed to them, including the right to fame. Thus, a new hierarchy was to emerge – a hierarchy of achievements, instead of a hierarchy of origin. The Stakhanovite movement developed under the rules of a political campaign with powerful ideological accompaniment. Each branch of the economy was represented by one or two record-breakers who became all-Union celebrities. Texts about their successes abounded in hyperbole; their personal stories were constructed along the same lines. The social outcome of the campaign was the creation of a workers' aristocracy as an additional pillar of the regime. The ideological outcome was the creation of a culture of success in society, a hope for attainable personal well-being. The images of Alexei Stakhanov and Dusya Vinogradova remained in the collective memory.