Cambridge research of teenage diaries reveal love, hunger and exile in 1930s Russia
Newly uncovered diaries show how boys across Russia wrote about romance, survival and the fear of war under Stalin’s rule
New research at the University of Cambridge has uncovered the private diaries of teenage boys in 1930s Russia, revealing how they wrote about everyday emotions like love and anxiety, alongside descriptions of famine, exile and forced military service.
One diary, written by Ivan Khripunov, is the focus of a new article published today in Slavic Review. Ivan was just 14 when he started recording his life in 1937. He was the son of a peasant who had been exiled by Soviet authorities, and his writing continues up to his conscription into the Red Army in 1941.
“Our father was sent to Siberia … we were famished. We started going out to the field and luring out gophers to eat them,” Ivan wrote in September 1941.
The diaries were discovered and studied by Ekaterina Zadirko, a researcher at Trinity College, Cambridge, who says they provide rare insight into the private lives of Soviet teenagers under Stalin.
“I don’t think Ivan realised that he was doing something potentially dangerous,” said Zadirko. “He pointed directly to the state for causing famine and described his family collecting wheat heads, known as ‘spikes’, which was criminalised by the Law of Three Spikelets.”
Ivan wrote: “The famine broke out not because of a bad harvest but because all crops were taken away. Kulaks were exiled to Solovki. Many innocent people suffered … we collected spikes (it was forbidden to collect spikes, and many times, the overseers took the spikes and our bags); we brought home the chaff and made cakes from it.”
Zadirko is studying 25 diaries in total for her PhD. Most have never been analysed before. The boys came from a wide range of backgrounds, from rural peasants to families of schoolteachers in Leningrad.
In one entry from 1939, 18-year-old Vasilii Trushkin described a romantic encounter: “I drew her near and smooched her on the cheek. Having recovered from the initial embarrassment, I greedily bit into her lips.”
Another boy, Sergei Argirovskii, wrote about pressure to succeed: “Tests and exams should not define life, right?! … But what is true life? Take my parents: they live and work by the sweat of their brow. Maybe, this is ‘life’? If so, God forbid.”
Zadirko said the boys often used diary-writing to explore their identity and place in Soviet society. “Even if their diary remained private, writing for these boys felt very high-stakes, even existential.”