Hero of Socialist Labor
Encyclopedia : H : HE : HER : Hero of Socialist Labor
Hero of Socialist Labor (Russian: Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture. It provided a similar in status to the title Hero of the Soviet Union that was awarded for heroic deeds. But unlike the later was not awarded to foreign citizens.
The title was introduced by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on December 27, 1938. It was awarded by the Presidium to people, who had contributed their innovative ideas to the development of the Soviet industry, agriculture, transportation, trade, science and technology and promoted the might and the glory of the Soviet Union.
The Heroes of Socialist Labour were awarded the highest decoration of the Soviet Union - the Order of Lenin - and given the certificate of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In order to specially distinguish the recipients of the award, they introduced the "Hammer and Sickle" gold medal by the decree of the Presidium on May 22, 1940. This medal was awarded together with the Order of Lenin and the certificate. The medal is always worn in full, just like with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal.
Those Heroes of Socialist Labour, who had managed to attain new exceptional achievements, were awarded the second "Hammer and Sickle" medal. Accordingly to the status of the award, a bronze bust of the Double Hero should be constructed at his home town to mark this occasion. The triple Heroes of Socialist Labour should have their busts near the planned Palace of Soviets. The third provision was never implemented as the Palace of Soviets was never built.
The medal was designed by the artist A. Pomansky. The size of the medal was chosen by Joseph Stalin who invited actors costumed as typical workers, peasants, etc and wearing models of the medal of different size. Eventually he chose the diameter of the star of 33.5 mm.
The first recipient of the award was Joseph Stalin himself (20 December 1939). The second recipient of the award was designer of machine guns Vasily Degtyarev (2 January 1940. The third (and the last before the onset of the Great Patriotic War) time the award was issued to nine weapon designers including Fedor Tokarev, A. Shpitalny, Nikolai Polikarpov, Alexander Yakovlev, Vladimir Klimov.
By September 1, 1971, 16,245 people had been awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labour (among them - 4,497 women), 105 people (among them - 25 women) have been awarded two or more "Hammer and Sickle" medals.
Only the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union could deprive a person of this title.
External links
- () [History of the award]
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