A TALE OF A LEGENDARY MINER: He was a symbol of the working class, could have had anything, but asked Tito only for a bigger shovel!

It certainly wasn’t easy to be the best worker in a country of workers and a symbol of the hard work of a class that “moved mountains” in the construction of a new, socialist society. However, this honor fell to this man—the miner Alija Sirotanović.

Sirotanović, born in Trtorići near Breza in Bosnia and Herzegovina, became a hero of socialism after he broke the world record in coal mining on July 24, 1949, digging 152 tons with his brigade in eight hours, surpassing the previous Soviet record by a whopping 50 tons.

Namely, after World War II, in socialist countries, at the initiative of the USSR, actions were launched to break production records – mining coal, building houses, mowing grass… The idea of the action was to motivate workers in the reconstruction of the country. Propaganda images that went with it, both domestically and abroad, were a secondary but non-negligible detail.

The Russians and Poles already had their record holders, so Yugoslavia also started to address this “issue.”

At a meeting with the mine’s experts and miners, it was allegedly the miner Alija Sirotanović who suggested that his brigade be allowed to work at three sites and promised to surpass the record of the famous Soviet miner Alexei Stakhanov. The proposal was accepted, and Alija’s brigade broke the record the very next day. Yugoslavia was in ecstasy.

The pit where the record was broken is known as the Rov vojvode Putnika.

For this feat, Alija was awarded the fourth most important order in the FPRY/SFRY – Hero of Socialist Labor. The press wrote extensively about this feat, and Alija became the hero of legends that are still told today.

SAZNAJTE VIŠE:

He only asked for a bigger shovel.

There are all sorts of stories about this hardworking man, and today, it is difficult to separate fact from myth. Alija allegedly refused an apartment and insisted that it be given to workers who did not have a home. Similarly, when Tito gave him a choice of “any car he wanted,” he asked for a “Fića.”

However, one of the most famous myths about this man is certainly the one about the shovel. Allegedly, Comrade Tito, possibly when awarding Alija the Order of Hero of Socialist Labor, asked the miner if he needed anything. The modest Sirotanović replied: “A bigger shovel.”

The story goes that a special, larger shovel was later made for him so that he could scoop more!

In reality, Alija Sirotanović did not work with a shovel at all. He was a digger and his tool was a pneumatic drill, and he worked with two at the same time. However, legend or not, they still say “Sirotanovićka” for a big shovel in Bosnia.

Alija received the greatest recognition in 1987 when his likeness appeared on a 20,000 dinar note. The honor did not last long because the banknote was soon withdrawn in Ante Marković’s monetary reform.

A street in his native village is named after Sirotanović, and a bust was erected in the grounds of the Breza brown coal mine where he spent his working life. The band “Zabranjeno pušenje” dedicated the song “Srce, ruke i lopata” (Heart, Hands, and Shovel) to him.

In addition to Alija Sirotanović, all six of his brothers, as well as most of his cousins, were also engaged in mining. One of them, Arif Sirotanović, founded the Alija Sirotanović and his Comrades Citizens’ Association a few years ago in memory of his uncle and all the dedicated miners.

Alija spent his entire working life in the same status – miner-brigadier. He retired in the mid-seventies and spent the rest of his life on his modest pension, they say, in poverty.

Alija Sirotanović closed his honest, working hands-on May 13, 1990, symbolically, just before the breakup of the country of which he was a symbol.