The man who won Stalin by shovel Alija Sirotanović , born in 1914 in Orahovo near the town of Breza, was a Yugoslav miner whose popularity came to be right after his new first record in coal extracting on 24 July 1949. He digged 152 tons of coal in 8 hours of work, ~40 tonnes more than Soviet Union's most popular hard-worker whose record had been a strong mean of propaganda for decades. What could have been worse for Stalin 's rift with Yugoslavia than a symbolic Yugoslav victory over his own promulgation? Thousands of tanks could not fight this defeat, not this time. Sirotanović became the new hero of the Southern Slavs and of the local workers. His record, just like Stahanov 's one, convinced people to work harder, faster and better; competitions were held in the nearby mines in the following days and months, miners were doing their best to surpass Sirotanović , the next day he reached his record another mining crew led by Nikola Škobić surpassed the coal amount by 14 tons for a total of 166. Two records in two days? That's impressive, but that's not it yet.

CATEGORY: HISTORY 21/3/2019 at 23:24