Mass and power in totalitarian culture: The Soviet Molotov in the perception of a worker

In this article, the author shows how cultural life was organized in the Soviet city Molotov in 1941- 1944. The aim of the study is to analyze the diary of a young Soviet worker in terms of his susceptibility to the cultural and political situation prevailing at that time in the USSR, as well as his connection with the Soviet ideological context on behalf of which culture is speaking. The objectives of the study are: to analyze the technology of political legitimization of the ruling regime, consisting in the use of cultural tools; to determine the specifics of the cultural layer of the Soviet Molotov and the specifics of its design; to explore the cultural repertoire of the Soviet province for its conditionality by the Soviet ideological context. In the study, the author used theoretical texts that reveal the nature of power and the specifics of its communication practices; fundamental works by N. Luhmann, E. Canetti, and I. Isaev. The study is based on the texts of well-known memory culture theorists, among which are H. Arendt and P. Bourdieu. The author also pays attention to the texts of contemporary theorists who have studied the cultural context of the political space of the past. These texts include research by H. Lubbe and J. Hellbeck. The existing discourse of the ego-documents of the Stalin era is represented by the studies of A. Kabatskov and O. Leybovich, whose observations largely correlate with the author's conception of the study of the ego- document of A. Dmitriev. The author also takes into account his already published observations on the diary of the Soviet worker. Based on the material of A. Dmitriev's ego diaries, the author shows how the Soviet ruling class adjusts the management of the masses with the help of cultural instruments. The form of the mass becomes obedient to the ruling elite. The stability and effectiveness of such communication seem obvious. Along with this, the government gets additional opportunities for political legitimization, allowing to vary the forms of coercion, among which culture is the most elegant and intellectual. Culture occupies an important place in the daily practice of the Soviet man. It is with the help of culture that positive impressions are made about oneself; it is culture that acts as an instrument of one's self-legitimation, actualization in the new Soviet reality. The author of the diary discusses his impressions connected with the consumption of cultural products - cinema, theater, ballet, literature, his meetings with Soviet celebrities. Soviet culture is in a clear ideological framework and follows the political course of the state and the party. Along with this, it becomes obvious that Soviet culture, acting as an important instrument of pressure on the consciousness of a Soviet person, also manifests itself as a conductor of political meanings.