Who is a hero?

As every society the Soviet Union needed its heros and role models. They came in different form and shapes. The photo above is taken in the 1950s and show L. M. Kartauzov, Hero of the Socialist Work, sitting at the steering wheel of a tractor during the development of the Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan.

Another type of Soviet hero was Daniil Nesterenko, even though he also was driving a tractor at the Sovchoz Daljnij in Tselinograd district. As the winter went to its end that year and the tractor brigade that Nesterenko was a part of, was temporarily cut off from the rest of the Sovchoz and therefore lacking fuel. The small river Zjanyspajka threatened to rise over its riverbeds. As the river still was covered by ice, the trick was to get the tractors to the other side, while the ice still was holding together. Nesterenko helped his workmates to pull this risky project off, but waited last in the row with his tractor. The smelting ice was covered by water and suddenly gave away under the weight of Nesterenko's tractor... As his workmates got Nesterenko's dead body out of the water, an identity card fell out of his pocket, showing that he was the "Hero of the Soviet Union". Nobody at the Sovchoz had known that Nesterenko was decorated for his bravery at the crossing of the Dnjepr, during the WW II. Nesterenko was thereby a double hero; decorated for bravery in action and for his work efforts.

A hero of quite another character was Pavlik Morozov (1918-1932), who denounced his father to the authorities during the forced collectivization of Ukraine. His next of kin did not like his actions and killed him and his younger brother. The authorities rounded the guilty ones up and put them in front of a firing squad. The Soviet propaganda machine then made Morozov a hero for all young people in the Soviet Union.

We thereby see and recognize at least three distinct types of heros. First, there is the hero of socialist work, who is supposed to inspire people to work hard in building the socialist society. Second, there is the war hero, who defends the socialist motherland against the fascist aggressors. Finally, we have the ideological or political hero, who puts the party and the revolution before the wellfare of his own family. A true hero.

We may smile at the Soviet propaganda, but we should realize that also our societies have our heroes, and also they are basically social and cultural constructs... comnstructed for our needs and use...

Source: Leonid Iljitj Brezhnev (1978) The New Cultivations. Publishers of political literature, Moscow.