"Hassle" as a way of regional elite’ self-control in the 1920s

The article is devoted to the analysis of such an understudied phenomenon of the party life in the 1920s as hassles which meant the conflicts with no ideological basis. It distinguishes those conflicts from the fight between political fractions. They were declared as a type of inadmissible behavior for the Bolsheviks, but they still occurred in many cases. The collisions between individuals are not considered in the article as it is devoted to the conflicts between informal groups of the Soviet and party officials. The Ural region cases of collisions between officials are reconstructed on the basis of archival materials. The analysis allows to describe some fight technologies applied by the participants of the hassles and to reveal their functions. Through the hassles the informal groups of the Soviet and party officials expelled their rivals from the area to keep their power and influence. They also resisted the strengthening of the state control over the province and used various mechanisms such as psychological pressure and institutional influence. In general the history of the hassles in the 1920s may be useful in expanding the vision of the “nomenclature” and its early history.