Search

The publication analyzes Soviet-era questionnaires filled out for the purpose of dating in Riga from 1979 to 1982 that are related to the activities of the then Leningrad district culture club Let's Get to Know Each Other. The research uses prosopography, which is one of the research methods or approaches of life-writing. Unlike life-writing potentialities offered by, for example, autobiography, in dating club questionnaires people had a minimal opportunity to tell about themselves or develop automythology, which on the one hand made the texts less engaging for the reader, but, on the other, gave more credibility to the data provided. It was relatively difficult in these limited opportunities to reveal the details of one's life story in a way that would personally interest a potential partner. It can be seen from the questionnaires that many people who were looking for a partner did not have a separate apartment. It was not accepted to ask or talk about sex in public. In general, the material of dating questionnaires quite organically fits into that section of life-writing, which is often called contextual biography. Namely, the questions and answers of the questionnaires are not really understandable, nor can they be evaluated outside the social context of the 1970-80s. The data included in more than 100 questionnaires of Let's Get to Know Each Other dating club provide relatively good additional material for the collective social portrait of average Riga resident in the 1970s and 1980s, the data also help to characterize the living conditions in Soviet Latvia during its decline, and vividly mark the threshold or transitional situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]