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The Postwar Era

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Creating the New Soviet Woman

Part of the book series: Studies in Russian and East European History and Society ((SREEHS))

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Abstract

In May 1945 the war in Europe came to an end. The women’s magazines adopted a tone of celebration and optimism. A new era was beginning, they proclaimed, which would be marked by pleasure and plenitude. Duty and self-sacrifice would no longer be the order of the day; for those left alive, life was to be enjoyed. The magazines’ covers showed happy couples strolling along river banks arm in arm.1 There were pages devoted to fashion, and articles about improvements in housing and amenities. Short stories described sumptuous family feasts held in smart new apartments. There were tales of romance, the protagonists of which were not always young people but sometimes mature men and women whose previous spouses had died in the war and who were now granted a second chance of happiness.2 The new postwar good life had even knocked years off people’s ages. In one short story a middle-aged woman’s adult children told her that she was growing exceptionally pretty, and when she protested that this was impossible they explained: ‘Life has become better, and so people have got more beautiful.’3

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Notes

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Manchester, UK

    Lynne Attwood (Senior Lecturer in Russian Studies)

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  1. Lynne Attwood
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© 1999 Lynne Attwood

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Attwood, L. (1999). The Postwar Era. In: Creating the New Soviet Woman. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333981825_13

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