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Other Comments and Recommendations

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Mass Political Culture Under Stalinism

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Abstract

This chapter discusses two topics of popular discourse. First, the welfare provisions were highest on the list of popular concerns because of the exclusion of peasants from state social benefits. Second, skepticism and disbelief accompanied almost every theme of the discussion: the talk about democratic elections, religious freedom, the right to free speech, and other subjects. This distrust resulted from unrealized promises, the zigzags of state policy, insecurity, and the gaps between official declarations and Soviet reality. Together with vertical distrust in relations between society and the rulers, horizontal mistrust weakened the cohesiveness of society from within.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Getty reviewed 2,627 and 474 letters from Leningrad oblast’ and Smolensk oblast’.

  2. 2.

    Decree, 28 April 1919, Dekrety (1957, pp. 118–22).

  3. 3.

    Information from I. A. Nagovitsyn to Secretary of Leningrad Gubernia party committee, N. K. Antipov, 6 August 1927.

  4. 4.

    The funds of the peasant committee of mutual aid (KKOV) comprised kolkhoz shares and individual fees.

  5. 5.

    Letter from I. A. Tushin, Yaroslav oblast’.

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  1. Department of History, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Olga Velikanova

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  1. Olga Velikanova
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Correspondence to Olga Velikanova .

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Velikanova, O. (2018). Other Comments and Recommendations. In: Mass Political Culture Under Stalinism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78443-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78443-4_11

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78442-7

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