state bonds

The article examines the letters of Soviet citizens to the state authorities on the subject of changing the practice of state compulsory bonds. These letters had a specific nature of content, so their addressees designated them as “rationalization proposals”. Among the documents considered there were both letters from ordinary employees of financial bodies (mainly savings banks and financial departments of districts and regions) and letters from people in no way connected with financial structures. All of these letters were aimed at solving the problems that were of concern to citizens in connection with the implementation of Soviet internal mass bonds. They included both organizational and operational nuances, as well as the issue of bonds and the payment of winnings. Among the documents studied were proposals for additional bonds or for reformatting the existing procedure for selling and circulating government bonds. Citizens did not propose any options to stop these campaigns because they had already become part of the usual order of things, but attempts to propose any changes to the current financial policy were also unsuccessful. Writing rationalization proposals provided citizens with an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the government. They could try to pay attention to the actual problems of the Soviet people and try to solve them not with emotional statements, but with some concrete actions. People were able to enter into a dialogue with the state, but it did not develop further. The only thing that changed during the 12 years of massive loan campaigns was the ratio and amount of winnings, but despite the existence of such proposals, their influence on the decisions taken was not decisive. The materials studied in this paper allow us to take a broader look at the practice of mass bonds and the attitude of the population of the Soviet Union to these campaigns.