Which reveal diaries written by boys during the USSR of Stalin

Ivan followed a model made by the maximum Russian writer Gorki. Young man recorded difficulties in the same way as Gorki He had described his pre-revolutionary struggles: he wrote about the period of hunger that the family experienced between 1932 and 1933; The exile of his father and the public humiliation suffered by his mother and older sisters due to the label of “kulak“.

“Ivan didn’t realize that he was doing something potentially dangerous.” When imitating GorkiIvan followed established literary conventions, explains the researcher. “But in doing so, he broke the rules of a Stalinist public autobiography by discussing taboo themes. It was not an expression of conscious political dissent, but a shock of cultural models.”

In Russia of the 1930s, writing was a key strategy for teenagers to process their arrival in adulthood and find their place in society. Even if the diary remained a private document, writing to these boys seemed very risky, even existential. Ekaterina Zadirko, in a statement issued by the University of Cambridge

One of the last excerpts written by Ivan was before going to war in 1941. Less than a year later, he was missed. The exact date of his death is unknown.

See some excerpts from Ivan’s Diary

Hunger came not because of a bad harvest, but because all the crops were taken. Kulaks were exiled on Solovki. Many innocents suffered. By not delivering the grains that were taken us, our father was sent to Siberia … No bread … and our Father, we were hungry … we picked ears (it was forbidden to collect ears, and often the forefront carried the ears and our bags); We took the straw home and made cakes with her. (1932/1933)