The image of the “new Soviet” person and non-Soviet behavior: the “gray niches” of everyday (by the example of the city of Krasnoyarsk in 1917-1920)

The purpose of the study is to identify and represent non-Soviet behavior in the first years of Soviet power using regional material through the prism of contrasting what the “new Soviet man” was supposed to be and what he actually was. This historical and anthropological approach allows us to study Soviet everyday life through the norm/anomaly dichotomy proposed by N. Lebina, expanding and detailing our ideas about Soviet everyday life in the 1920s. The idea of what a new person should be was based on the philosophical tradition of the Enlightenment and implied not only the rejection of the old, but also the education and cultivation of the new. It is emphasized that the advent of a new era and the formation of a new man seemed then not only inevitable, but also very soon. Ideas about what a Soviet person should be like were dynamic, they changed, but such qualities as service to the common cause, loyalty to political ideals, independence, collectivism, respect for work were fully consistent with the ideal. It is noted that the Bolsheviks were characterized by the idealization of the working class, which was supposed to become the creator of a new life, and the utopian ideas about its moral character. The object of attention in the study is the “gray niches” of everyday life (drunkenness, hooliganism, etc.), which do not correspond to the Soviet idea of proper behavior, but are common in everyday life. Some of them became a real social scourge and required close attention from the authorities. The study is based on materials from newspapers and regional archives and is dedicated to the city of Krasnoyarsk in the 1917-1920s.