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Stalin’s Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution Upon its adoption in December 1936, Soviet leaders hailed the new so-called Stalin Constitution as the most democratic in the world. Scholars have long scoffed at this claim, noting that the mass repression of 1937–1938 that followed rendered it a hollow document. This study does not address these competing claims, but rather focuses on the six-month-long popular dis- cussion of the draft Constitution, which preceded its formal adoption in December 1936. Drawing on rich archival sources, this book uses the dis- cussion of the draft 1936 Constitution to examine discourse between the central state leadership and citizens about the new Soviet social contract, which delineated the roles the state and citizens should play in developing socialism. For the central leadership, mobilizing its citizenry in a variety of state-building campaigns was the main goal of the discussion of the draft Constitution. However, the goals of the central leadership at times stood in stark contrast with the people’s expressed interpretation of that social con- tract. Citizens of the USSR focused on securing rights and privileges, often related to improving their daily lives, from the central government. Samantha Lomb is a Dotsent (Assistant Professor) in the Foreign Language Department at Vyatka State University, Kirov, Russia. Routledge Studies in Modern European History https://www.routledge.com/history/series/SE0246 42 German Reunification Unfinished Business Joyce E. Bromley 43 Oil Exploration, Diplomacy, and Security in the Early Cold War The Enemy Underground Roberto Cantoni 44 Divided Village The Cold War in the German Borderlands Jason B. Johnson 45 Propaganda, Persuasion and the Great War Heredity in the Modern Sale of Products and Political Ideas Pier Paolo Pedrini 46 The Age of Anniversaries The Cult of Commemoration, 1895–1925 Edited by T. G. Otte 47 The History of the European Migration Regime Germany’s Strategic Hegemony Emmanuel Comte 48 Governing the Rural in Interwar Europe Edited by Liesbeth van de Grift and Amalia Ribi Forclaz 49 Stalin’s Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution Samantha Lomb Stalin’s Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution Samantha Lomb First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Samantha Lomb The right of Samantha Lomb to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN: 978-1-138-72184-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-19400-4 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India For Tiffany Jean Fleet, You were the Louise to my Thelma, my best friend, and I miss your love and support This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments viii Archival abbreviations x List of Russian terms xi Introduction 1 1 Citizenship and a social contract: The drafting of the 1936 Constitution 12 2 Daily life in Kirov in the 1930s 40 3 Local realities: The implementation of the discussion of the draft Constitution 62 4 Validators of socialist victory: The discussion in the local press 84 5 Popular voices: Interpreting citizens’ rights and duties 92 6 Integration, exclusion, and accountability 110 7 The Constitution, the 1937 elections, and repression 123 Conclusion 139 Notes on sources 142 The draft Constitution of the USSR 146 Bibliography 164 Index 169 Acknowledgments Without the support of many people, this book, the work of over a decade of research, reconceptualization, and revision, would not have been pos- sible. At the top of this list is Bill Chase, my former academic adviser at the University of Pittsburgh. He took a big chance accepting a graduate student who knew no Russian, was incredibly patient and supportive throughout my time as a graduate student, and has continued to give me indispensable advice and guidance. I would also like to thank him for reading the manu- script for this book in various forms many, many times and for always offer- ing in-depth, constructive commentary. Larry Holmes, Professor Emeritus at South Alabama University, also deserves my deepest gratitude for intro- ducing me to Kirov and its amazing archives, helping me establish a life in this wonderful city, and reading many drafts of my work and always provid- ing thoughtful commentary even though I keep making the same mistakes in my writing. Additionally, I would like to thank Aaron Retish, professor at Wayne State University and part time Kirovite, for reading the final version of this manuscript. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the wonderful staff at the Kirov archives, particularly the staff of the State Archive of Social and Political History of the Kirov Region (GASPI KO), where I have become a regular visitor. I would like to thank the director, Elena Nikolaeva Chudinovskykh, and the deputy director, Olga Anatolevna Malina, for being very welcom- ing and accommodating. I would also like to thank the reading room staff: Vladimir Sergeevich Zhuravin and Liubov Gennad’evna Poptsova. And a very special thanks to Galina Vasilevna Nagornichnykh for helping me on many occasions to read peasant handwriting. Additionally, I would like to thank my colleagues and students at Vyatka State University for support and help on this project, particularly Andrei Kibishev, Aleksandra Kasimova, and Olga Perevalova for help understanding and translating documents, and a very special thanks to Svetlana Pavlovna (SP) Lebedeva for many wonder- ful Sunday afternoons at her kitchen table, which helped keep me sane. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family, without whose sup- port none of this would have been possible. I would like to thank my mom, Debbie Lomb, who may not initially have understood why I love Russia or Acknowledgments ix the point of writing this book, but who has always encouraged me to follow my dreams. My father, Ray Lomb, who did not live to see this project com- pleted, but was always very supportive and proud of me. My cats, Squirtle, Milo, Merida, and Owen, who listened to me reading and rewriting this manuscript, who kept me company through many long hours reading or typing, and who occasionally added their own text. And finally, my best friend, Tiffany Jean Fleet, who spent hours listening to me complain about grad school and Russia, who ordered books for me that I couldn’t get in Russia so I could finish this manuscript, who bought me a new laptop so I could keep writing, and who always had faith that I could bring this project to fruition. I dedicate this book to her memory. Archival abbreviations GARF The State Archive of the Russian Federation GAKO The State Archive of the Kirov Region GASPI KO The State Archive of Social and Political History of the Kirov Region List of Russian terms Aktiv those who actively engaged in political or agitational work but may not be party members Artel’ workmen’s cooperative association; a type of collective farm with collectivized means of production but private household property Krai Administrative region/province Kraiispolkom Regional Executive Committee Kraikom Regional Party Committee Lishentsy people who were deprived of voting rights due to social class Oblast’ Administrative region/province Raion District (of a city or a rural district) Raiispolkom District Executive Committee Raikom District Party Committee Sovnarkom USSR Council of Peoples Commissars (equivalent of a cabinet) TsIK Central Executive Committee of the Soviet government Zemstvo a form of local government that was instituted during Alexander II’s reforms in Imperial Russia This page intentionally left blank Introduction We, the workers of the Regional Forest Administration, noted during the discussion of the draft Constitution that the very fact the draft Constitution was handed over for popular discussion is evidence of our union’s power- fully developed might. The historically unprecedented fact that the people developed the Constitution for themselves speaks to the people’s energy and [to] our government’s strength and stability.1 from the Kirov Regional Forest Administration’s report on the discussion Soviet leaders reached out to their citizens from what they believed to be a position of strength, seeking to harness popular enthusiasm and participa- tion to further strengthen and stabilize the Soviet state. In 1935, in response to changing socioeconomic conditions in the USSR, the Party and state elite formed a Constitutional Drafting Commission to revise and then later rewrite the Constitution of the USSR. The committee worked on the new Constitution through June 12, 1936, when a finished draft was submitted to the public for discussion. The discussion of the draft Constitution took place over a period of six months, from June to December 1936. In this six- month span, an estimated 42,372,990 people participated in meetings and discussions across the whole USSR,2 during which Soviet citizens made over 43,000 suggested changes to the draft Constitution.3 While the six-month-long public discussion did not result in substantive changes to the draft Constitution, it did involve Soviet citizens in a public dialogue unlike any since the revolution.
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