Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Note on the text
- Introduction
- 1 Women and Soviet power
- 2 “Where steel cracks like glass”
- 3 “Our famous Valia”: the rise of a Soviet notable
- 4 “Envy for everything heroic”: women volunteering for the frontier
- 5 “Bol'shevichki were never ascetics!”: female morale and Communist morality
- 6 Snivelers and patriots
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Selected bibliography
- Index
6 - Snivelers and patriots
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Note on the text
- Introduction
- 1 Women and Soviet power
- 2 “Where steel cracks like glass”
- 3 “Our famous Valia”: the rise of a Soviet notable
- 4 “Envy for everything heroic”: women volunteering for the frontier
- 5 “Bol'shevichki were never ascetics!”: female morale and Communist morality
- 6 Snivelers and patriots
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Selected bibliography
- Index
Summary
One resident of Komsomol'sk-na-Amure, fed up with conditions in the town, wrote directly to Stalin to “inform him” about life at Aviation Factory No. 126. He wanted Stalin to answer “several” questions. Tsvetkov thought comrade Stalin could at least explain, “Why housing conditions are so bad? Why is there a problem with regular salary payments? Why are there no goods or produce in the stores?” Tsvetkov sought answers for the perpetual shortages of toys, clothing, linens, and other merchandise despite the fact that a railroad link was in operation between Komsomol'sk and Khabarovsk. “I don't know why things are this way. If it is wrecking in retail then it must be investigated and measures should be taken … In this way they are creating class tensions among the working masses and all the laboring population of the city.” Moreover, Tsvetkov was upset that having come to the city as a free employee and having married a Khetagurovite, he was still forced to share a room with two other young women. “I don't know what to do, as they say it is ‘disgraceful’ to run from here or [should I have] to live in inhuman conditions, but I did not come here to run … I'm asking you, comrade Stalin, to help the workers of Project 126, and me in particular.” Tsvetkov probably suspected what many officials knew very well. Many of the products sent to Komsomol'sk never made it because they were stolen from the train carriages.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Stalinism on the Frontier of EmpireWomen and State Formation in the Soviet Far East, pp. 187 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008