A terrible questionnaire? Historiographic perspectives on the Communist Party’s autobiography

Abstract

This article examines various historiographic perspectives focusing on an analysis of the Communist Party’s autobiography. This bio first emerged in the Soviet Union and was consolidated from the 1930s onwards as an essential component of the organisational structures of the Communist International and numerous national parties. Its cautious nature and connection with other Stalinist practices invite a reading that interprets it as a standardised record produced for the purposes of control and coercion. However, other perspectives have highlighted the flexibility of its uses and intentions and its centrality in the experiential ecosystem of Communist subjectivity.