Olokhova O.P., Kirillov V.M. The Identity of Socialist Town Builders in the Urals, Based on Memoirs (1930s)

Abstract: The authors state the relevance of a case study of identification processes in Russian history, particularly the inhabitant of a socialist town in the Urals. This article presents individual identity as a concept adopting different types of identification. Based on the memoirs (memoirs of L. M. Mar’yasin, Director of Uralvagonstroi, and D. Scott, American worker), the article analyzes individual identity of socialist town builders during the forced modernization of the 1930s. Approaches: concept of urban anthropology, theory of identity, concept of social stratification, content analysis method (symbolic, thematic, modal). The authors define the “sotsgorod” (English – “social city”) concept and create classification for identity markers (6 analysis blocks). The authors discovered the prevalence of positive modality in elite representative self-identification and negative – in foreign specialist’s. The authors also discovered the meaning of ideological and political attitudes that influenced the living conditions in the “sotsgorod” and encouraged the creation of a new “soviet identity”.

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