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Abstract
This article analyses letters sent by Soviet citizens to newspapers and authorities during the Brezhnev era, supposedly a period of political stagnation. Citizens wrote critical letters, individually and collectively, signed and anonymously, to have problems solved. Authorities responded to citizen concerns, which were mostly very specific and non-systemic, and also used the letters to monitor public opinion. The practice of letter writing in the Soviet Union in this period enabled citizens to hold authorities to account while also providing leaders with the opportunity to legitimise their authority by taking action.
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Notes
1 For example, White (Citation1983), Lampert (Citation1985).
2 For examples of deliberative structures, see Baiocchi and Ganuza (Citation2017).
3 For a similar use of ‘repertoire’ as a metaphor for a set of cultural practices, see Tilly (Citation2003).
4 For example, Bogdanov (Citation2011).
5 For a variation on this observation about state socialism, see Kuran (Citation1991).
6 For example, Sigov and Chernysheva (Citation1970).
7 Tsentralno-gosudarstvennyi arkhiv istorichesko-politicheskikh dokumentov (hereafter TsGAIPD SPb), f. 24, op. 210, d. 7, ll. 159–71.
8 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 19, ll. 1–7.
9 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 3, ll. 33–7.
10 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 23–6.
11 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 74–83.
12 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 19–21.
13 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 15, ll. 1–4.
14 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 1–3.
15 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 19, ll. 51–81.
16 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 16, ll. 34–6.
17 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 7, ll. 3–9.
18 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 17, ll. 1–18.
19 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 8, ll. 9–18.
20 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 19, ll. 28–31.
21 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 7, ll. 86–8.
22 See especially the dossiers devoted entirely to anonymous letters in my sample, TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, dd. 6, 11, 14, 15.
23 See Chernyshova (Citation2013), Gatejel (Citation2016).
24 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 8, ll. 71–5.
25 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 8, ll. 19–20.
26 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 23, ll. 33–43.
27 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 19, ll. 132–42.
28 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 17, ll. 19–21.
29 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 21–2.
30 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 23, ll. 174–76.
31 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 23–6.
32 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 17, ll. 1–64.
33 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 16, ll. 1–27.
34 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 23, ll. 104–15.
35 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 14, ll. 57–61.
36 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 8, ll. 76–7.
37 TsGAIPD SPb, f. 24, op. 210, d. 7, ll. 66–73.
38 ‘Nasha pochta’, Tambovskaya pravda, No. 3, 4 January 1980.
39 ‘Khotya pis’mo ne opublikovano’, Tambovskaya pravda, No. 253, 2 November 1979.
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Andrew Buck
Andrew Buck, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Blvd, Evansville, IN 47715, USA. Email: [email protected]