HSE Historian Examines the Soviet State’s Attempt to Manage Personal Happiness
In the 1970s–80s, the Soviet Union made an unexpected discovery: in a society built on collectivist ideals, loneliness had become a significant social problem. In his study, Mikhail Kulagin, a postgraduate researcher at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, shows that the state not only acknowledged this paradox but also attempted to solve it through special ‘social technologies’ —including dating clubs, newspaper personal advertisements, and even early computer matchmaking systems. The study was published in the social research journal Laboratorium.
Loneliness was long considered a misfortune of capitalist countries, associated with individualism and the erosion of traditional values. In Soviet discourse, the issue was either ignored or presented as alien to socialist society. By the 1970s–80s, however, experts and journalists increasingly noted a rise in the number of people unable to start families or build stable close relationships. This realisation necessitated a re-evaluation of the Soviet way of life and its social organisation.
In his article ‘“Two Lonelinesses Just Met”: Late Soviet Loneliness and the Management of Contacts’, Mikhail Kulagin analyses newspaper publications, expert debates, archival documents, and cultural texts from the era. He demonstrates that public discourse attributed loneliness not to personal ‘shortcomings’ but to the structure of everyday life. The fast pace of large cities, limited social circles defined by the ‘home–work’ routine, factory towns with severe gender imbalances (known as ‘cities of brides’ and ‘grooms’), frequent business trips, and chronic time constraints all undermined the potential of lasting connections. Thus, loneliness in the Soviet Union was framed as a problem of space and schedules rather than psychology.
The prevailing belief was that escaping loneliness required two people’s time and place to coincide. But in an era of scientific and technological revolution, leaving this to chance seemed insufficient. As a result, social evenings ‘For Those Over 30’ emerged. These were not mere dances but socially approved spaces for meeting potential partners. Houses of Culture were transformed into a kind of ‘relationship workshop,’ where the search for a partner became a legitimate goal.
Marriage advertisements in newspapers played a crucial role by overcoming geographical barriers and connecting people from different cities and regions. The press acted as an intermediary between strangers, with correspondence serving as the first step towards a possible meeting. A more technological approach emerged with the first matchmaking services, where individuals completed detailed questionnaires to create ‘lonely hearts’ catalogues. In some cases, Electronic Computing Machines (ECMs) —early computers—were even used to pair couples, reflecting a drive to find an ‘optimal solution’ to a demographic challenge.
According to Kulagin, the Soviet state sought not merely to facilitate meetings but to rationally organise the very process of encounter. These mechanisms functioned as coordination machines, using navigation, timetables, and a deliberate slowing of social life to enhance the significance of personal contact.
Mikhail Kulagin
‘By creating institutions to combat loneliness, the Soviet authorities subtly shifted the focus from the individual as part of a mass to the individual as a distinct person. The state began to coordinate not only labour and daily life but also the private sphere: feelings, sympathies, and family expectations. This became a sign of the growing complexity and individualisation of late Soviet society,’ noted Mikhail Kulagin.
In a broader context, the research reveals that the USSR faced the same ‘disease of modernity’ as Western nations. Urbanisation, mobility, and an accelerated pace of life bred loneliness on both sides of the ideological curtain. The response, too, proved similar: employing technology to engineer relationships. In the Soviet Union, however, this initiative came explicitly from the state.
Ultimately, loneliness in the USSR ceased to be viewed as a shameful personal failure and was redefined as a social problem requiring collective solutions. Attempts to ‘bring two lonelinesses together’ illustrate how late Soviet society entered a new developmental phase—one in which the state, while pursuing demographic goals, inadvertently began to manage something it had previously scarcely touched: the organisation of its citizens’ personal happiness.
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