ABSTRACT

One of the assumptions most deeply ingrained in the Western imagination of the Stalinist regime is that, in their core, members of Soviet society resided externally to state policies and Bolshevik ideology.1 Though the ‘system’ succeeded, through a combination of propaganda and coercion, in enforcing a degree of outward popular compliance, individuals were able to mitigate these pressures by retreating into private spheres unaffected by ‘official’ ideology. In search of Soviet citizens’ concealed or repressed selves, scholars have placed high hopes on the newly available ‘hidden transcripts’ (James Scott)2 of Soviet society: secret NKVD reports and interrogations, unpublished correspondence and diaries. It is in this body of unofficial sources that the authentic scripts of individual selfhood, the essence of their subjectivity, are expected to be uncovered. Subjectivity in the Stalinist context is thus regarded as a quality that manifests itself in opposition to, and in spite of, the policies of the Soviet state.3