“The Little Nothings Make Life as It Is” (Soviet Everyday Life in the Zinaida Lyikovi’s Diaries 1962—1963)

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of the different aspects of Soviet everyday life represented in diary notes (1962—1963) of ordinary student Zinaida Lykova. She was born in 1945, lived in the suburbs of Cherepovetz, and during the mentioned period studied in the School of the Working Youth (Shkola Rabochey Molodezhi). The author approaches diary notes as a source for microhistory because of their capacity to unintentionally capture the moment of everyday life. Moreover, the person who writes the diary becomes a subject of everyday life history themselves. They not only capture the everyday reality, but also create and maintain it through the practices of writing. Descriptions of the Soviet ideology, relations with people, spare time practices, and everyday life are presented in Zinaida’s diaries. In there the strategies of the “weak” which becomes the source of the power could be observed: to hide which is not allowed, to improve yourself, to adapt, to search for hidden sources, to believe in yourself, and to hope for friends, relatives, and communal support but not for the government.