Alexander Deineka. Stakhanovites, Sketch for a Mosaic

This 1938 sketch by Alexander Deineka shows a festive procession of labour heroes. A column of marchers moves towards the viewer: in front are five girls wearing Young Pioneer neckerchiefs and carrying flowers, followed by Stakhanovites in white suits with decorations on their chests. Red flags fly above the column, and the whole scene is painted in white, red and green tones.

The Stakhanovite movement arose in 1935, after the coal miner Alexei Stakhanov cut 102 tonnes of coal in a single shift against a quota of 7 tonnes. Leading workers who exceeded their quotas many times over became heroes of the era and regular subjects of Soviet art.

Alexander Deineka (1899–1969) was not only a painter and graphic artist but also a master of monumental art: in 1938 his mosaics for the Mayakovskaya metro station were created. The sketch is painted in oil on canvas in Moscow.