Original sentence: "But Aleksei was the first."I suppose Stakhanov need not have been the first," said Mr."It could have been anybody else.30 was, in fact, carefully planned and prepared by the Communist Party organization of the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine in the Donest basin.August 30 was designated "Coal Miner's Day", also apparently in his honor.Contemporaries described the big miner wrestling his hammer for hours, coal dust choking his throat and nose and grinding between his teeth.For example, in 1985, the New York Times reported that:.In the context of the Cold War, however, these skeptical stories may themselves be forms of propaganda.In the final analysis it was not the individual face-worker who determined whether the attempt to break the record would succeed, but the new system of coal extraction.Instead, two timberers followed after him, and Mr.Konstantin G.Other sources have questioned whether the event occurred at all.Petrov himself held a light to the coal-face.Petrov in an interview several years ago.Petrov, the chief of the mine's party organization, recalled that Stakhanov's wife strenuously resisted his attempt to make her husband a hero until she was silenced with the gift of a cow.Serge Schmemann, "In Soviet, Eager Beaver's Legend Works Overtime," New York Times (31 Aug 1985), p.Stakhanov's story has often been reported in the United States as an example of Soviet propaganda.The history of Stakhanov's feat, however, tells a somewhat different story.The mines, short of skilled workers and machinery, were failing to produce their quotas of coal.The party tapped Stakhanov, a little-educated, hard-working peasant-turned-miner, to set a record that would become an inspiration and example.The push for a record on the night of Aug.To increase Stakhanov's chances, the pattern of work was changed to free him from his usual tassk of shoring up the tunnel as he dug into the seam.We had been looking for just such a stalwart fellow.Well, because before a record can be set a man has to beleive in its feasibility and in his own powers.What Stakhanov did, to be sure, was still impressive, especially with the unreliable jackhammers of those days.Why then
Edited sentence: See also: Stakhanovite