Abstract
The chapter explores the significance of ego-documents in Stalinist Russia in the wake of the archival revolution of the 1990s. Focusing on the historical link between writing and power, the chapter identifies three dominant practices of self-fashioning in writing: (1) use as a tool of self-empowerment and self-Sovietization, which the writer was using in his/her struggle to further personal interests or needs (including sheer survival); (2) use as an instrument of (inner) resistance; and (3) use as a way of making sense of life under Stalinist rule. Writing practices enabled people to personalize ideology and integrate it into their lives as individuals: this was how they could become political subjects and experience the feeling of belonging to ideologically mandated truth in its entirety.
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Tikhomirov, A. (2022). Private Handwriting (1): Diaries. In: Postoutenko, K., Tikhomirov, A., Zakharine, D. (eds) Media and Communication in the Soviet Union (1917–1953). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6_13
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