Abstract
As we saw earlier, Kollontai had envisaged the creation of a new type of woman under socialism, one who challenged the traditional model of femininity; she would be independent, full of confidence, aware of her own worth, a person in her own right. With Stalin in power, however, the ‘new woman’ was a more complex and contradictory creature. On the one hand she was still hailed as a new, improved being, with Stalin himself proclaiming that: ‘We did not have such women in the past… These are completely new people.’1 Yet she was now expected to combine her new qualities and functions with many of the old norms of female behaviour. This chapter will highlight the contradictory image of women which emerged in the women’s magazines in the 1930s.
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Notes
Stalin’s pronouncement on female ‘heroes of labour’ appears (with no heading) in Rabotnitsa, no. 4, 1938, p. 22.
V. Vasil’ev (1938), ‘Zadachl zhenshin v oborone strany’, Rabotnitsa, no. 24, p.9.
E.I. Ozerova (1939), ‘Razvit’ vraga granatoi’, Rabotnitsa, no. 4, p. 8.
Petukhov (1935), ‘Gotov k trudu i oborone’, Krest’yanka, no. 15, p. 8.
Photograph and caption appear in Rabotnitsa 1933, no. 16, p. 12.
E. Filippova (1934), ‘Devushka snaiper’, Rabotnitsa, no. 2, p. 18.
K.K. Vorob’eva (1935), ‘Voroshilovskii strelok no. 226459’, Rabotnitsa, no. 4, p. 7.
T. Nekrasov (1938), ‘Letchitsy, vsadnitsy, pulemetchitsy’, Rabotnitsa, no. 21, pp. 10–11.
V.I. Fedorova (1935), ‘Kak ya ustanovila mirovoi rekord’, Rabotnitsa, no. 12, pp. 8–9.
A. Vavilova (1934), ‘Eto ne tol’ko sport — eto boevaya podgotovka’, Rabotnitsa, no. 30, pp. 8–9.
Polina Osipenko (1938), ‘Vo imya mogushchestva rodiny’, Rabotnitsa, no. 21, pp. 5–6.
E. Filippova (1935), ‘Otvazhnye al’pinistki’, Rabotnitsa, no. 18, pp. 607.
M. Shchelkanova (1935), ‘Kavaleristy-otlichnitsy’, Rabotnitsa, no. 25, pp. 6–7.
Bushin (1930), ‘Svoiparen’, Rabotnitsa, no. 15, pp. 10–11.
M. Angarova (1930), ‘V pokhod za den’ otdikha’, Rabotnitsa, no. 6, pp. 8–9.
K. Ryazhenova (1938), ‘Mat’ i deti’, Rabotnitsa, no. 25, pp. 10–11.
B.Evans Clements (1985), ‘The Birth of the New Soviet Woman’, in A. Gleason, P. Kenez and R. Stites (eds), Bolshevik Culture, p. 227.
Zinaida Chalaya, ‘Zhena geroya’, about the actress Valentina Vasil’evna Serova, wife of Anatolii Servo (1940), Rabotnitsa, no. 12, pp. 13–14.
M. Sergeeva, ‘Trudnosti menya ne pugayut’ (1933), Rabotnitsa, no. 1, p. 9.
M. Shchelkanova (1935), ‘My sozdali nashe zamechatel’noe metro’, Rabotnitsa, no. 7, pp. 10–11.
N. Leshchinskii (1938), ‘Strazhnaya bolezn’, Rabotnitsa, no. 20, pp. 17–18.
F. Panferov (1937), ‘Tat’yana Khrebtova’, Krest’yanka, no. 20, pp. 11–13.
E. Yakub-Kitaevich (1934), ‘Udarno rabotaem, kul’tumo zhevem’, Rabotnitsa, no. 3, pp. 8–9.
Tikh. Kholodnyi (1934), ‘Drugaya zhizn’, Rabotnitsa, no. 6, p. 27.
See C. Kelly and V. Volkov (1998), ‘Directed Desires: Kul’turnost’ and Consumption’, in C. Kelly and D. Shepherd (eds) Constructing Russian Culture in the Age of Revolution 1881–1940, p. 295.
Siegelbaum (1990), Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity, pp. 230–1.
A. Ash-na (1935), ‘Vystavka tkanei’, Rabotnitsa, no. 11, p. 13.
B. Azarnova (1935), ‘Krasivo odevat’sya!’, Krest’yanka, no. 20, pp. 14–15.
Anna Zemnaya (1934), ‘Zamshevye perchatki’, Rabotnitsa, nos 11–12, pp. 15–16.
T. Vasil’eva (1935), ‘Zadachi raboty sredi zhenskoi molodezhi’, Rabotnitsa, no. 21, p. 3.
C. Kelly and V. Volkov (1998), ‘Directed Desires: Kul’turnost’ and Consumption’, p. 295.
M. Yurina (1937), ‘Malen’komy grazhdaninu trebuetsya parikmakher’, Rabotnitsa, no. 4, p. 17.
Mariya Yurina (1937), ‘Plat’ev mnogo, a vybrat’ nechego’, Rabotnitsa, no. 3, pp. 14–15.
A. Ashmarina (1937), ‘Pochemy takoi skudnyi assortiment golovnykh uborov?’, Rabotnitsa, no. 3, p. 14.
Mariya Yurina (1937), ‘Plat’ev mnogo, a vybrat’ nechego’, Rabotnitsa, no. 3, pp. 14–15.
A. Ashmarina (1937), ‘Pochemy takoi skudnyi assortiment golovnykh uborov?’, Rabotnitsa, no. 3, p. 14.
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© 1999 Lynne Attwood
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Attwood, L. (1999). Gender Confusion in the Stalin Era: ‘Completely New People’, or Traditional Wives and Mothers?. In: Creating the New Soviet Woman. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333981825_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333981825_11
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