Socialism Survival Podcast # 024: Survival of Soviet Woman
In podcast # 13 on Socialism and Religious Holidays I already introduced you to March 8th International Women’s Day. You can listen to it or read podcast transcript in this blog. Most of former soviet men know nothing about socialistic roots of this holiday, they just use it as opportunity to give flowers to women and girls they love. And I have nothing against that, actually I bought beautiful roses for my wife. I wish we, men could do that every day for our women, they deserve it. For now I’ll leave the holiday alone.
While Soviet regime removed religious holidays, they realized that new Soviet man needs new Soviet holidays. In the beginning of Soviet Era, talking about new Soviet man or “Soviet people” system often referred to both male and female, although mostly it considered only a man, another incarnation of the “Soviet man” was constantly overlooked. With the development of women’s history and gender studies the situation began to change somewhat, now there are a number of major works, providing a picture of what it meant to be a woman in the Soviet Union.
I include some links in my blog post. Many women of Soviet era, brainwashed by propaganda even didn’t want to be referred to as woman, but rather as “tovarishch” which means “comrade” in Russian. Female comrades played important role in Soviet socialist revolution, in building soviet industry and agriculture, in Civil War and in country’s defense during WWII. First woman in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
She orbited the earth in Vostok 6 between June 16 and 19, year 1963. Later, she was president of the Committee of Soviet Women and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Soviet regime used literature as one of the methods of social engineering through indoctrination and was building the image of a new soviet woman. And Tereshkova was one of their models.
The first ideal of the new Soviet woman, who quite naturally became the heroine, was born in the flames of revolution and civil war. The Soviet heroic woman first appeared in the pages of periodicals as a nurse, army commissar, and even as a fighter. She was modest, firm, loyal, brave, dare, hardworking, energetic and often young. She didn’t think about her personal welfare. If she was needed at the battlefront, she could, though with regret, to leave her children, she could put up with physical difficulties, without flinching engage the battle, and in case of capture – withstand torture and even death, believing that her sacrifice was the contribution to the construction of a better world. Ideal Soviet woman had to sacrifice everything for the ideals of communism.
That’s what soviet regime expected from her. But in fact soviet woman had a double burden, because regime also wanted her to reproduce, as it needed vast human resources for Army, for GULAG or simply as cheap, underpaid general workers.
Soviet men mostly wanted to see their women as lovers, wives, mothers, keepers of the family and it didn’t fit the line of Communist Party and Soviet government. Even the International Women’s Day was introduced primarily to celebrate woman as a worker rather than the traditional woman. Gender as a category that helps structure society was not considered important in the Soviet Union. A notion that was more important in the USSR was class; belonging to the working class was clearly an advantage.
So called soviet family obviously had a different role than, for example, traditional Jewish family, or Christian family. Because our family was traditional and faith-based, we were viewed as enemies. And our women were seen as enemies too. Because we refused to be identified with Soviet class structure, we were hated stumbling stones on the happy road to communism. And we were persecuted for that. My grandma had to stay alone with her younger children while her husband and older son, my dad, were in GULAG camps. Many stories can be told of soviet woman’s fate, especially those who opposed socialism. I recommend you listen to podcast # 2, where I told the story of my mom. She, along with my unborn sister, didn’t survive. Soviet regime’s assault on traditional woman and family existence. As a revenge for their death, so-called “soviet woman” didn’t survive too. She collapsed and died with the death of Soviet Union. But it left millions of damaged and wounded woman’s souls and lives. As a spiritual counselor I’ve spent my best years helping both women and men to recover and heal from soviet contagion. Those who are healed from that contagion aren’t soviet women anymore, but free women, known as loving moms and grandmas, wives, daughters and sisters. Unfortunately right here in America are many of those who miss the idea of soviet woman as class unit. Good thing is that most of Americans are sick and tired of that socialistic attack on women and traditional woman becomes popular again.
On this special day I have a couple of Russian anecdotes for you.
March 8.
Husband is reading the newspaper and watching TV, wife is cleaning dishes.
Suddenly he remembers that today is March 8th and he didn’t buy a gift. Husband (while keeps reading) says:
- Stop washing dishes, honey, it’s eight pm, you can finish tomorrow!
Another anecdote.
Husband and wife wake up in the morning of March 8.
Wife says sweetly stretching:
- Oh what a wonderful dream I saw! As if on the March 8th you gave me a diamond necklace! What could it mean?
Her husband kissing her:
-Wait till the evening to find out!
In the evening his wife rushed home from work early, prepared the table with the bottle of wine, lit candles … Husband hands her a beautiful box.
She opens it and sees the book “Interpreter of Dreams.”
Soviet Women 1942-1945 (Click to watch on YouTube)
For recommended read, click this link http://bit.ly/9lAJ1k
or buy from Amazon, the book by Lynn Atwood
