Praskovya Angelina

Praskovya Angelina
Прасковья Ангелина
Angelina in 1936
Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
In office
12 December 1937 – 21 January 1959
Personal details
Born30 December [O.S. 17 December] 1912
Starobesheve, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire
Died21 January 1959
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
PartyCommunist Party of the Soviet Union
Awards
Hero of Socialist Labour (2)
Stalin Prize
Order of Lenin (2)
Order of the Red Banner of Labour

Praskovya "Pasha" Nikitichna Angelina (Russian: Прасковья Никитична Ангелина; 30 December [O.S. 17 December] 1912 – 21 January 1959) was a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, udarnik and Stakhanovite at the time of the first Five-Year-Plans. She was recognized as one of the first female tractor-operators in the USSR and became a celebrity as a symbol of the technically educated female Soviet worker.

Early life

Angelina was born in Starobesheve, into a Greek family of peasants. Her father was a farmhand and her mother whitewashed huts. In 1929, she started attending tractor-driving courses in her native oblast while also working at a dairy farm.

Career

In 1933, she organized an all-female tractor team that was reported to have achieved 129% of the quota and thus to have ranked first among the tractor teams of the region. She was made a celebrity, placed prominently in the media and depicted on propaganda posters. Pasha’s rallying speeches at the February 1935 conferences of shock workers and Kolkhoz Shock Workers, along with his address at the Conference of Advanced Agricultural Workers in December 1935. In the same year, she was among the "Champions of Agricultural Labour" selected to hold a conference with the leaders of the Party and state in the Kremlin. At that conference, she officially promised to organize 10 more female tractor teams in her raion. In 1938 she signed an appeal entitled "One hundred thousand (female) friends - onto the tractor!" (Russian: "Сто тысяч подруг - на трактор!"). Women shouldering work with tractors made it possible for more men to be drafted into the Soviet Army before and during World War II. During the Second World War, Angelina studied agriculture in Moscow for two years and then worked as a brigade leader in the Kazakh SSR until the end of hostilities. After the war, she returned to work in the same function in Starobeshevo.

She was elected into the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1937, 1946 and 1950.

In 1948, Angelina authored an autobiographical book, The People of the Kolkhoz Fields.

Death

She died of cirrhosis in Moscow in 1959. Angelina was buried in her hometown of Starobesheve. Her grave is now listed as a historic monument of national significance of Ukraine.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ Галактионова, Вероника (2021). "Трактористка Паша Ангелина: неизвестная история любовницы Сталина" (in Russian). marieclaire.ru.
  2. ↑ Макаренков, Никита (2021-02-19). "Самая известная трактористка Советского Союза - Паша Ангелина: Что погубило прославленную на весь мир колхозницу?" (in Russian). donetsk.kp.ru.
  3. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1994). Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivization. Oxford University Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-19-510459-2.
  4. ↑ Sergei Tretyakov, «Девять девушек», Вчера и сегодня: очерки русских советских писателей, Vol. 1, p. 306; tr. as "Nine Girls," in James Von Geldern and Richard Stites (eds.), Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays, and Folklore, 1917-1953 (Indiana University Press, 1995: ISBN 0-253-32893-4), p. 218.
  5. ↑ Erickson, John; Erickson, Ljubica; Erickson, Mark, eds. (2005). Russia: war, peace and diplomacy: essays in honour of John Erickson. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-84913-1. OCLC 56805979.
  6. ↑ Казахстан в период Великой Отечественной войны Советского Союза, 1941-1945: Июнь 1941-1943 гг (in Russian). Наука. 1964.
  7. ↑ Nurbekova, Gulzhamilya (1988). Женщины Казахстана-фронту: трудовой подвиг женщин Казахстана в промышленности и сельском хозяйстве республики в годы Великой Отечественной войны (in Russian). Kazakhstan. ISBN 978-5-615-00025-6.
  8. 1 2 3 Ангелина, Праск. Никитична // Большой энциклопедический словарь (в 2-х тт.). / редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. том 1. М., Советская энциклопедия, 1991. стр.52
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Ангелина, Прасковья Никитична // Большая Советская Энциклопедия / под ред. А. М. Прохорова. 3-е изд. Т.1. М., «Советская энциклопедия», 1969
  10. 1 2 Ангелина, Прасковья Никитична // Большая Российская Энциклопедия / редколл., гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов. том 1. М., научное издательство "Большая Российская Энциклопедия", 2005. стр.680
  11. ↑ Трактор и судьба (in Russian)
  12. ↑ "Pasha Angelina of Russia Dies; Pioneer Woman Tractor Driver". The New York Times. January 23, 1959. p. 25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-03-14.
  13. ↑ Про занесення об'єктів культурної спадщини національного значення до Державного реєстру нерухомих пам'яток України [On Inclusion of Cultural Heritage Objects of National Significance in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine]. Official Website of the Parliament of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 3 September 2009. Archived from the original on 7 September 2025. Retrieved 22 February 2026.

Sources