Letters to the authorities as a historical source of studies on students' Social problems in Soviet Russia in the 1920s

The paper investigates students' written communication with the authorities in Soviet Russia of the 1920s from the perspective of archeography and source study. Students' letters to the authorities reflected a wide range of their moods, feelings and ideas about the country, the government and the higher education. Besides, such letters gave them an opportunity to directly address the leaders of the country, the heads of universities, party and government officials. This fact determines the scientific relevance and significance of the study. There has been little discussion about this issue which is still novel today. The authors describe the personal experience in preparing the annotated collection of documents containing letters from the 1920s students. Based on the records from 11 Russian archives, they examine students' social problems by thematic content analysis of 118 letters to the authorities. The analysis reveals a number of social challenges faced by young people because of large-scale social changes in the country and education. The most frequently mentioned social problems include the difficulties related to university admission, readmission after the expulsion, the accusation of alien social origins during the purges as well as severe financial and housing conditions. The research findings are important in terms of source studies for the examination of early Soviet society and social processes in higher education.