Believers of the Kama Region at the crossroads of discourses: Appeals to the authorities in the era of the “early Thaw”

Abstract

Epistolary sources are among the most important texts for research in the field of Soviet history. They provide insights into individual and mass moods of religious believers. Letters to the authorities during the rule of Nikita Khrushchev are particularly important for understanding attitudes in this sphere. They reflect the situation of vernacular religiosity in the Soviet Union and are conditioned by the state’s religious policy during this period. The object of this study is a letter written at the beginning of 1954 in the Kama region (West Ural). The letter discusses the closing of an Orthodox church as a result of construction of a hydroelectric power plant. This text is very interesting for its combination of mythological, religious and secular (Soviet) features of believer’s consciousness. The goal of the article is to specify the social and individual factors that have played the lead role in the construction of Soviet and post-Soviet religious space. The research field of this paper includes both discursive strategies which took place in Soviet society and the portrait of the letter’s author which can be reconstructed trough analysis of the text. The article contains an archaeographic description of the text of the letter which allows us to clarity and restore the circumstances of its writing and the appearance of the author. The Soviet believer appears as a bearer of traditions, ready to defend them even in the face of a possible deterioration in personal life. This research case illustrates clearly the traumatic experience of the Soviet believer which was caused by the destruction of usual lifestyle. A new religiosity was transformed by ideological language but continued to exist as a base for personal and group identity and to determine the principles of adaptation to the regime and the social system.