Hero of Socialist Labour (USSR)

Honorary Title Hero of Socialist Labour
Medal "Sickle and Hammer" of the Hero of Socialist Labour
Awarded by the  Soviet Union
Type	Honorary title
Eligibility	Soviet citizens
Awarded for	Exceptional achievements in national economy and culture
Status	Reintroduced as "Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation"
Statistics
Established	December 27, 1938
First awarded	December 20, 1939
Last awarded	December 24, 1991
Total awarded	20,812 105 people with two awards
Related	Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation

20,812

Hero of the Soviet Union

Hero of Socialist Labour (Russian: Герой Социалистического Труда) was an honorary title of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture. It provided a similar status to the title Hero of the Soviet Union that was awarded for heroic deeds, but unlike the latter, was not awarded to foreign citizens.

The Honorary Title "Hero of Socialist Labour" was introduced by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on December 27, 1938.

Originally, Heroes of Socialist Labour were awarded the highest decoration of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and a from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In order to distinguish the Heroes of Socialist Labour from other Order of Lenin recipients, the "Hammer and Sickle" gold medal was introduced by decree of the Presidium on May 22, 1940, to accompany the Order of Lenin and the certificate.

The first recipient of the award was Joseph Stalin, awarded by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in December 20, 1939. The second recipient of the award was the designer of machine guns Vasily Degtyaryov (2 January 1940). The third time (and the last before the onset of Operation Barbarossa) the award was issued to nine weapons designers, including Fedor Tokarev, Boris Shpitalny, Nikolai Polikarpov, Alexander Yakovlev and Vladimir Klimov. Post 1945 recipients include Mikhail Kalashnikov, Emilian Bukov, Alexander Tselikov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nikolai Afanasiev, German Korobov, Peter Andreevich Tkachev, and Andrei Tupolev.