Nikita Izotov

Born Feb. 8 (21), 1902, in Malaia Dragunka, in present-day Kromy Raion, Orel Oblast; died Jan. 14, 1951, in Enakievo, Donetsk Oblast. A mineworker who initiated the mass training of new workers by experienced workers, one of the initiators of the Stakhanovite movement. Became a member of the CPSU in 1936.

While working as a coal cutter in the No. 1 (Kochegarka) minepit at Gorlovka, Izotov achieved a high level of productivity. On May 11, 1932, his work experience was described in an article in Pravda, laying the basis for the Izotovite movement. In 1933 he organized an on-the-job school for improving the skills of new coal cutters. The so-called Izotov school became very widespread. During the first days of the Stakhanovite movement, Izotov exceeded his production norm by over 30 times, extracting 240 tons of coal on Sept. 11, 1935. On Feb. 1, 1936, he set a new world record of 607 tons of coal in a six-hour workshift. In 1935–37 he studied at the Industrial Academy in Moscow. Beginning in late 1937 he worked in managerial positions in the coal industry. At the Eighteenth Congress of the CPSU (1939), he was elected a member of the Central Auditing Commission. He was a deputy to the first convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.