Heroism

Heroism is distinguished as [individual]

when a person carries out an individual act of great courage; or as [of the masses]

when not just the moral strength of one individual but the combined courage of whole communities lies behind single acts or continued day-to-day heroic existence. Traditionally, the "Age of Heroes" of mythology denotes a phase in human development when the qualities of courage, endurance, self-sacrifice and firmness were taken as those of exemplary behaviour. Such behaviour in the struggle against oppression gaven rise, for example, to the titles "Hero of the Soviet Union" and "Hero of Socialist Labour" in the USSR.