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"Maybe some people are shy about writing, but I will write the real truth. . . . Is it really possible that people at the newspaper haven't heard this. . . that we don't want to be on the kolkhoz [collective farm], we work and work, and there's nothing to eat. Really, how can we live?"-a farmer's letter, 1936, from Stalinism as a Way of Life What was life like for ordinary Russian citizens in the 1930's? How did they feel about socialism and the acts committed in its name? This unique book provides English-speaking readers with the responses of those who experienced firsthand the events of the middle-Stalinist period. The book contains 157 documents-mostly letters to authorities from Soviet citizens, but also reports compiled by the secret police and Communist Party functionaries, internal government and party memoranda, and correspondence among party officials. Selected from recently opened Soviet archives, these previously unknown documents illuminate in new ways both the complex social roots of Stalinism and the texture of daily life during a highly traumatic decade of Soviet history. Accompanied by introductory and linking commentary, the documents are organized around such themes as the impact of terror on the citizenry, the childhood experience, the countryside after collectivization, and the role of cadres that were directed to "decide everything." In their own words, peasants and workers, intellectuals and the uneducated, adults and children, men and women, Russians and people from other national groups tell their stories. Their writings reveal how individual lives influenced-and were affected by-the larger events of Soviet history.

HISTORY / Russia & the Former Soviet Union. --- Stalin, Joseph, --- Djougatchvili, Iossif Vissarionovitch, --- Джугашвили, Иосиф Виссарионович, --- Dzhugashvili, Iosif Vissarionovich, --- Koba, --- Shih-tʻai-lin, --- Sidalin, --- Ssu-ta-lin, --- Stalin, Giuseppe, --- Сталин, И. В. --- Stalin, I. V. --- Сталин, Иосиф, --- Stalin, Iosif, --- Сталин, К., --- Stalin, K., --- Staline, --- Staline, Joseph, --- Staljin, J. V., --- Sutārin, --- Soselo, --- Stalini, Ioseb Besarionis że, --- Sṭalin, Y. Ṿ., --- Sṭalin, Y., --- Stalin, Josef, --- Stalin, Josef Vissarionovich, --- סטאלין, יאסיף, --- סטאלין, י. --- סטאלין, י. וו --- סטאלין, י. װ. --- סטאלין, י., --- סטלין, יוסיף ויסאריונוביץ׳, --- סטלין, יוסף --- 斯大林, --- Stalin, Jossif Vissarionovitš, --- Sztálin, Joszif, --- Istālīn, Yūsīf Vīsāryūnūvīch, --- استالين، يوسيف ويساريونووتج, --- Soviet Union --- Советский Союз --- Ber. ha-M. --- Zwia̦zek Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich --- Szovjetunió --- TSRS --- Tarybų Socialistinių Respublikų Sąjunga --- SRSR --- Soi︠u︡z Radi︠a︡nsʹkykh Sot︠s︡ialistychnykh Respublik --- SSSR --- Soi︠u︡z Sovetskikh Sot︠s︡ialisticheskikh Respublik --- UdSSR --- Shūravī --- Ittiḥād-i Jamāhīr-i Ishtirākīyah-i Shūrāʼīyah --- Russia (1923- U.S.S.R.) --- Sovetskiy Soyuz --- Soyuz SSR --- Sovetskiĭ Soi︠u︡z --- Soi︠u︡z SSR --- Uni Sovjet --- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics --- USSR --- SSṚM --- Sovetakan Sotsʻialistakan Ṛespublikaneri Miutʻyun --- SSHM --- Sovetakan Sotsʻialistakan Hanrapetutʻyunneri Miutʻyun --- URSS --- Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas --- Berit ha-Moʻatsot --- Rusyah --- Ittiḥād al-Sūfiyītī --- Rusiyah --- Rusland --- Soṿet-Rusland --- Uni Soviet --- Union soviétique --- Zȯvlȯlt Kholboot Uls --- Związek Radziecki --- ESSD --- Sahaphāp Sōwīat --- KhSHM --- SSR Kavširi --- Russland --- SNTL --- PSRS --- Su-lien --- Sobhieṭ Ẏuniẏana --- FSSR --- Unione Sovietica --- Ittiḥād-i Shūravī --- Soviyat Yūniyan --- Russian S.F.S.R. --- History --- Związek Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich --- ZSRR --- Związek Socjalistycznych Republik Sowieckich --- ZSRS