In September 1935, a brigade of smiths at <2_note>GAZ led by Busygin, working against a quota of 675 crankshafts per shift, forged first 966, then 1,001, and eventually pushed output to 1,146 shafts per shift, for which Busygin was awarded the Order of Lenin. The Stakhanovite-Busygin movement gained widespread fame: word of the blacksmith reached the United States, and representatives of Henry Ford passed Busygin an invitation to the plant in Detroit, promising to pay in gold, to which Busygin replied with what became a celebrated phrase: "Tell Ford that for us the Motherland is worth more than gold."[1] Even before the <4_note>Great Patriotic War began, Busygin had graduated from the Moscow Industrial Academy; during the war years he continued to work at <5_note>GAZ, leading key shops under conditions of regular German bombing raids on the plant.[2] The records rested on meticulous production preparation: Busygin's brigade, among other things, rebuilt an American heating furnace that by design could not produce more than a hundred shafts per hour; in the final years of his life Busygin engaged in public activities and mentored young workers.[1]

Busygin, Alexander Kharitonovich (1907–1985) — personal pensioner of all-Union significance, Hero of Socialist Labor, initiator of the Stakhanovite movement in mechanical engineering. From 1931 he worked in construction and then as a blacksmith at the Gorky Automobile Plant. Busygin was born in 1907 in the village of Kolevatovskoye, which at the time was part of Kostroma Governorate (now the <1_note>Vetluzhskiy District of <2_note>Nizhny Novgorod Region), into a large peasant family; after finishing school he worked on a collective farm and served as a brigade leader of stable hands.[2] He was elected a delegate to the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and twice a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Achievements

Awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.

The title of "Honorary Citizen of the City of Gorky" was conferred by a resolution of the Gorky City Soviet of Workers' Deputies on June 17, 1976.

See also

Sources

  1. pspt.ru — Gorky Stakhanovite (the "Rosatom Production System" project) (archive)
  2. lib-avt.ru — Busygin was born in 1907 in the village of Kolevatovskoye, which at the time was part of Kostroma Governorate; today these lands are part of the Vetluzhskiy District of Nizhny Novgorod Regio (archive)