ABSTRACT
Soviet citizens had strongly developed opinions about the role of the state. J. Arch Getty views the popularity of "bread and butter" suggestions as pragmatic citizens addressing the aspects of the Constitution that affected their everyday lives while ignoring such topics as freedom of speech, which they regarded as irrelevant. In Kirov, the participants in the discussion focused on including or excluding certain groups of people from citizenship rights and/or the corresponding benefits. Article 132 lauded service in the Red Army as the honorable duty of every citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but the Party and state remained ambiguous about the role of women in the armed services. Education, military service, vacation time, pensions, land usage, and property ownership were the primary spheres where people from various sectors of society struggled to define citizenship and who was entitled to the rights and benefits of citizenship.
