Letters to authorities as specific form of Soviet citizens’ political adaptation in 1930s

This article is based on archive documents, which were not available to the audience earlier. In the paper, the role of letters, addressed to authorities in the process of political co-adaptation of society and Stalin’s regime in 1930s, is analyzed. Main types of appeals were analyzed (complaints, petitions, reports, «initiative» letters, denunciations), as well as adoption of Power’s language by the society. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of power personalization and the formation of patronage and clientele systems during social cataclysms of 1930s and in scarce supply of democratic institutions. It is shown that Stalin’s regime consciously instrumentalized long-standing paternalistic tradition, which was rooted deep into Russian history. Boundaries and objects of acceptable criticism were limited to in-place bursts and demands for punishment of local power’s agents. This is also true concerning appeals of people, aggrieved by mass-collectivization, dekulakization and victims of the Great Purge. Since the mid-1930s, main types of letters addressed to authorities were appeals of factory workers, kolkhozes and sovkhozes workforce, written in «Bolshevik» style. In contrast to the complaints and requests, they were not appeals of individuals, but those of «organized» population. Stylistically, this particular type of letters addressed to authorities was composed of ideological clichés that have been found in Soviet newspapers, which assured the political reliability of the letters. The skill of communicating with power using the same language became the major way for forming soviet identity. The author concludes that the letters, addressed to authorities, played a significant role in the political co-adaptation of power and society, but the extent of this co-adaptation severely varied, depending on the extent to which the society’s interests coincided with intentions of the government, how effective was the «feedback», and how successful could both sides build emotional connections of patronage and clientele.