The disabled rural population social status in the Soviet state in the 1920-1930s

The disabled population of rural areas is a social group that has not been sufficiently studied in historical science. Meanwhile, since the end of the 1930s Soviet society had not yet become fully industrialized, and only a third of the population lived in cities, people with disabilities and elderly citizens predominated in rural areas. However, "invalid peasant labor" in accordance with the "proletarian" differentiation remained an unprivileged group of disabled citizens. Based on this, the present research is a study of the characteristics of the social status of the disabled population in rural areas in Soviet Russia in the 1920s-1930s, including both official socio-demographic indicators and a description of the subjective perception of Soviet reality by disabled people through a study of the attitude of the population to the disabled and the elderly in the countryside in the conditions of their daily lives. As a methodological basis, the historical-anthropological approach and the concept of social exclusion are used, which make it possible to study the social situation of the disabled rural population, as well as the degree of their exclusion from Soviet society through the eyes of the disabled and the elderly themselves. According to the results of the study, disabled people remained in the village in the 1920s-1930s one of the most vulnerable social groups of the population. They tried to survive on their own, however, throughout the entire study period, their unsatisfactory social and financial situation was observed. Among them, a loyal attitude towards the Soviet authorities prevailed, but the authorities themselves contributed to their social exclusion, for example, by depriving them of the right to vote, including because of their advanced age. Rural society as a whole disdainfully treated disabled fellow citizens; they were often subjected to physical violence. As a result, disabled peasants became victims of exclusion from political, social and economic life, and this social situation of the disabled and old people from the countryside persisted over the next decades.