Remembering in the Soviet Way: Workers’ Memoirs of the 1930s

Abstract

Propaganda and censorship were integral components of the Soviet society. Furthermore, such government programs as the industrialization significantly affected memory of the past and shaped the style and rhetoric of autobiographical narratives. The aim of this paper is to analyze the memoirs of Soviet workers published as a part of the 1930s campaign for writing histories of industrial facilities. For this, a particular case has been chosen: the memoirs of the miner Nikita Izotov, published in Kharkiv in 1934. They provide an illustrative example of a «proper» worker’s autobiography, including such obligatory elements as poor origins, the life before the October Revolution and the one after it, and, last but not least, education and miner’s work. The memoirs show how Izotov’s life story was used for constructing his image as a «new person» and a model for others — how one ought to speak about oneself, the country, and such crucial events as the February Revolution, «the Proletarian revolution», «the revolutionary movement». A strong emphasis was placed on the idea that an exemplary worker should not only work and study but also teach others. At the same time, the image of «the proper worker» was contrasted with the image of the enemy — «the counterrevolutionary», «the class enemy», etc. An analysis of these memoirs allows to draw parallels with memoirs of other workers, e.g. Alexei Stakhanov and Frédéric Legrand, published in the 1930s as well. Critical source analysis, historical-anthropological method, and historical-comparative method are employed. The novelty lies in the examination of 1930s memoirs as a tool of Soviet propaganda and fostering the Soviet identity. The conclusions demonstrate what it meant to “remember in the Soviet way», what had to be included in workers’ memoirs. In addition, the article names the reasons for which Izotov’s text was later criticized in another workers’ periodical. Placing the memoirs in the context of the campaign for writing histories of industrial facilities enables the author to reveal the purpose of such publications in the interwar period.