About the project

“Former people” or simply “the former” are the people who lost their social status after the October Revolution of 1917: aristocracy, officers of the tsarist army, civil servants, clergy, merchants, prosperous peasants or ‘kulaks’ by another name. According to various estimates in 1913 in Russia there were from 22 to 35 million relatively well-off people among both urban and rural population. (see wikipedia)

The project “Former People. Penza” will tell about the residents of Penza region, families whose lives were crippled by the coup of 1917. Representatives of old Russia, who did not share a new ideology, were doomed to life in constant fear and eventually to extermination. Our project aims to display what was lost, to call for reflection on the events of the past century and to make learn from people who were the honour to Russia.

The contents of this work do not belong to any particular genre. Each life description makes a separate chapter, consisting of memories, archival materials and rare documentary photographs.