Klymenko O. Constructing the Memoiry of the New Man in the 1920s –1930s (Based on the Materials of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic)

The paper analyzes the techniques used by the Soviet authorities to mold the memory of the October 1917 and the socialist building of the interwar era. The main ways of gathering memories were evenings of memories, writing memoirs in accordance with the list of questions, filling in questionnaires, conducting individual conversations and writing autobiographies. A “correct” perception and understanding of the past and present was also influenced by Soviet propaganda. The analysis of the campaign on the DniproHES history writing illustrates general tendencies of constructing the memory of the New Man in the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic and generally in the USSR. Using the unpublished memoirs of the DniproHES builders, the dissertation presents not only the theory of an acceptable memory writing, but also the practice: how, when, and why the workers told and wrote and what were the features of the stories of women.