Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Jun 2021)
Representation of the Authorities in Letters to the Kirovskaya Pravda Newspaper in the Late 1960s
Abstract
This article examines the regional peculiarities underlying the representation of Soviet power in letters to a newspaper which are viewed as a means of communication between the public and the authorities and as an example of the political activity of the population of Kirov Region. The author refers to previously unpublished letters sent to the Kirovskaya Pravda newspaper by its readers between 1964 and 1970. The information potential of the population’s letters makes it possible to single out and interpret typical and specific forms of representation of Soviet power in the transforming socio-political conditions of the USSR in the second half of the 1960s. Historiographers consider citizens’ letters an integral part of Soviet political culture. An analysis of the population’s letters to a local newspaper suggests a characteristic of the system and structure of Kirov Region’s inhabitants’ idea of the capital, regional, and local authorities in a wide socio-political context. While interpreting the assessments of the local authorities present in the letters, the author pays attention to the socio-political conditions in the USSR in the second half of the 1960s. In the article, special attention is paid to the Kirov Region’s population’s response to Khrushchev’s resignation, which, according to the author, determined the evaluation of the local authorities. Referring to particular examples, the author proves that when characterising the authorities in their letters, the population appealed to official discourse. The article provides a comparative characteristic of forms in which the authorities of different levels were represented — from their reproduction in symbolic images (revolutionary and ideological) to the definition of their utilitarian meanings. Turning to the authorities in order to resolve their personal everyday problems and common social problems, the inhabitants of Kirov Region determined the usefulness of the authorities. The author concludes that in their letters, the citizens reproduced the paternalistic model of relationships with the Soviet authorities pointing to the fact that the characteristic of the authorities depended on the regional socio-political situation.
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