Zapiski from district party conferences as a reflection of the political moods of leningrad communists in 1925

The paper examines how political moods were expressed in zapiski that were submitted during district party conferences in Leningrad in 1925. In those zapiski, one can see what themes and questions were important for the delegates of the conferences. Delegates posed questions which they considered important for themselves regardless of what themes were discussed by the speakers from the regional party leadership. For example, delegates were not very inte rested in the question of “deviations” in the party politics in the village in contrast to the Leningrad party leadership. The analysis of zapiski reveals the lack of information on the issues of intra-party debates and the ignorance of causes of some decisions of the party leadership concerning Leningrad. The lack of information reflected in zapiski was a factor generating rumors. Delegates of district party conferences were sensible to those decisions of the Party’s Central Committee that could symbolize the changing of Leningrad’s status in the intra -party hierarchy. The article argues that, in 1925, the Leningrad party leadership sought to hide the existence of intra-party controversies; the Leningrad leadership was forced to self-censorship and to avoid discussions during such official party gatherings as district party conferences