Labor daily life of the Soviet elite in Leningrad in the era of late Stalinism

The article presents the research of the working norms and practices of the Soviet elite in the 1945-1950. The main attention is paid to the political biographies of the chairmen of Leningrad local government (Soviets). The research is based on methods of the oral history and the history of emotions; its source base includes documents from the archives of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Crimea. The studied generation of Leningrad leading cadres came to government positions in the late 1930s, after the repressions of the “Great Terror”. The members of the Soviet elite passed the testing of their professional skills during World War II and the Blockade of Leningrad, and directed the forced postwar reconstruction of the national economy. In the late 1940s, they became victims of the so-called “Leningrad affair”.