Being a good citizen under Stalin meant taking an active part in political rituals, such as elections, parades, festive meetings, political information sessions, and subscriptions to state bonds. In Stalin's Citizens, Serhy Yekelchyk examines how ordinary citizens came to embrace some parts of this everyday Stalinist politics and resist others.
The first study of the everyday political life under Stalin, this book examines citizenship through common practices of expressing Soviet identity in the public space. The Stalinist state understood citizenship as practice, with participation in a set of political rituals and public display of certain "civic emotions" serving as the marker of a person's inclusion in the political world. The state's relations with its citizens were structured by rituals of celebration, thanking, and hatred-rites that required both political awareness and a demonstrable emotional response. Soviet functionaries transmitted this obligation to ordinary citizens through the mechanisms of communal authority, including workplace committees, volunteer agitators, and other forms of peer pressure, as much as through brutal state coercion. Yet, the populace also often imbued these ceremonies with different meanings: as a popular fete, an occasion to get together after work, a chance to purchase goods not available
on other days, and an opportunity to indulge in some drinking. The people also understood these political rituals as moments of negotiation whereby they would fulfill their "patriotic duty" but expected the state to reciprocate by providing essential services and basic social welfare. Nearly-universal passive resistance to required attendance challenges theories about the mass internalization of communist ideology.
Focusing on the last years of World War II and immediate postwar years, Yekelchyk shows how formulaic rituals under Stalin could create space for the people to express their concerns, fears, and prejudices, as well as their eagerness to be viewed as citizens in good standing.
Industry Reviews
"In this imaginative and meticulously documented study, Serhy Yekelchyk describes the world of 'civic emotions' in postwar Kyiv, in the process opening a window onto the lived experience of ordinary citizens. Written by one of North America's premier historians of modern Ukraine and the Soviet Union, this book makes a signal contribution to the historiography on late Stalinism as well as serving as a pioneering work on Soviet citizenship and the often
all-encompassing world of public space and ritual within the Soviet Union."--Lynne Viola, author of The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements
"Stalin's Citizens presents a fascinating analysis of the public lives of ordinary men and women under Stalin. Serhy Yekelchyk's close examination of government ceremonies and public events reveals the communal fabric of Soviet society which amalgamated the political and the personal."--Hiroaki Kuromiya, author of Voices of the Dead: Stalin's Great Terror in Ukraine
"Using postwar Kyiv as his setting and privileging everyday practices of expressing Soviet identity rather than state policies, Serhy Yekelchyk makes discriminating use of the archival and published sources to detail and thereby reveal the performative essence and symbolic meaning of Stalinist citizenship. A work of profound insight and sophistication, yet accessible and always engaging, Stalin's Citizens is certain to generate spirited discussion and
become required reading for anyone interested in understanding the Soviet way of life in the wake of total war."--Donald J. Raleigh, author of Soviet Baby Boomers: An Oral History of Russia's Cold War
Generation
"Stalin's Citizens reaffirms Serhy Yekelchyk's reputation as one of the leading specialists on Ukraine under Stalin. His study of Soviet elections, holiday celebrations, Communist Party agitators and their campaigns joins a growing literature that explores the practice of politics and citizenship in authoritarian states, and highlights the role of public participation in rituals and the articulation of 'civic emotions.' It also challenges the emerging
scholarship on 'Soviet subjectivities.' Stalin's Citizens is based on extensive work in still little researched archives in Ukraine."--Mark von Hagen, Arizona State University
"Both these very successful and enjoyable books deserve a wide readership among specialists in Soviet and post-1945 European history. Their fluent and accessible presentation, combined with the interesting questions they raise and the engaging material they deploy, make them very suitable too for students on higher-level courses."--Mark B. Smith, Slavonic and East European Review.
