The Regime of Forced Trust: Making and Breaking Emotional Bonds between People and State in Soviet Russia, 1917–1941

The main sources of this article are letters from 'ordinary people to Soviet leaders. Counterbalancing current theories about trust and distrust, it analyses correspondence between people and state to explore for the first time the phenomenon of 'forced trust as a central feature of Communist modernity. Forced trust represents a paradox that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet state: an illiberal system was promoting a liberal subject who was forced to trust in the state and the party but, at the same time, experienced his/her limited autonomy by generating personal meanings, interests and needs as a part of life under the dictatorship.