DOI: 10.22281/2413-9912-2021-05-03-83-98

RURAL TEACHER SERAFIMA KILINA: RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
BIOGRAPHY OF «THE DEPRIVED WOMAN» OF THE 1930S.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the social situation of disenfranchised citizens. The object of the study is an ordinary citizen of the USSR: a former rural teacher and the wife of a priest Serafima Aleksandrovna Kilina (born in 1888), the subject of the article is the reconstruction of her biography. The methodological basis of the research is the anthropological approach and the synthesis of macro- and micro-history. The main source of the study is the personal file of a citizen who filed a petition before the election commission to restore their electoral rights. The personal file is a complex and multi-component source, which contains documents reflecting the quasi-judicial procedure for considering the applicant’s appeal, as well as necessary and sufficient materials for making a decision, received at the initiative of the applicant or members of the election commission. The source base is supplemented by legal acts regulating the deprivation and restoration of voting rights. Materials of S. A. Kilina’s personal file contain significant factual data that allow us to reconstruct her biography; they describe the bureaucratic procedures figuratively and in detail; they contain fragments of direct speech of the participants of the events, which makes this historical source very valuable. S. A. Kilina’s biography includes both typical and unique facts that allow us to expand our understanding of the procedure for disenfranchisement and employment practices in early Soviet society. The fate of the citizen in the transition era allows us to reflect the process of social construction of the «new person», which, contrary to the declared goals, not only provoked downward social mobility and negative social selection, but could have more tragic consequences.

Keywords: USSR, NEP, early Soviet society, «lishenets», disenfranchisement, restoration of electoral rights, social construction, social selection, Kilina Serafima Aleksandrovna, clergy, teacher.

Ural Federal University (Russia)

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