Complex ‘Realities’ of ‘New’ Women of the 1930s: Assertive, Superior, Belittled and Beaten

Abstract

‘Reality’ is an elusive term for complex phenomena. Many of us find it indispensable to our discourse on Soviet life, indeed on life in general, as we contrast propaganda and ‘reality,’ ideology and ‘reality,’ official discourse and ‘reality,’ images and ‘reality’ and icons and ‘reality’. In these dualities, ‘reality’ is invariably distorted, masked or reconstructed by propaganda about it. Citizens are informed by rulers about the meanings of the worlds in which they find themselves. Reality is thus consumed by a targeted audience, internalized and variously filtered. Reactions are various, not identical.