Collective action in Soviet society: The case of war veterans

Abstract

On November 10, 1978, a landmark decision of Party and government made "war participant" (uchastnik voiny) a category of positive legal discrimination. A few months later, in March 1979, Leonid Aleksandrovich K. received a temporary document indicating his membership in this new status group. Once this paper expired, the former war correspondent set about, in October 1980, to visit the military registration office of Kiev raion in Moscow in order to exchange the temporary certificate into a permanent one. Leonid Aleksandrovich was in for a bad surprise. The military authorities told him, politely but sternly, that he could not obtain the certificate that would make his status as war veteran ..