Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Note on the text
- Introduction
- 1 Women and Soviet power
- 2 “Where steel cracks like glass”
- 3 “Our famous Valia”: the rise of a Soviet notable
- 4 “Envy for everything heroic”: women volunteering for the frontier
- 5 “Bol'shevichki were never ascetics!”: female morale and Communist morality
- 6 Snivelers and patriots
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Selected bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Note on the text
- Introduction
- 1 Women and Soviet power
- 2 “Where steel cracks like glass”
- 3 “Our famous Valia”: the rise of a Soviet notable
- 4 “Envy for everything heroic”: women volunteering for the frontier
- 5 “Bol'shevichki were never ascetics!”: female morale and Communist morality
- 6 Snivelers and patriots
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Selected bibliography
- Index
Summary
On February 5, 1937 Komsomol'skaia pravda, the national newspaper of the Soviet Communist Youth League, published a lengthy article formulated as a letter to the readership. It was ostensibly penned by Valentina Khetagurova, a youth league activist and wife of an army officer living on a far-flung frontier. Her tone sparkled with an odd aura of optimism and lighthearted adventure. It was peculiar. This was, after all, 1937, the nadir of Stalinist terror. The letter had to jostle for attention amid that day's ominous news stories and proclamations decrying the machinations of “enemies of the people” and announcing the arrests of formerly prominent Communist party chiefs and industrial bosses. Nevertheless, diligent readers digesting reports of forthcoming trials and militarist predations in Europe and Asia would also eventually find, at the bottom of page 2, “Join Us in the Far East! Letter of Valentina Khetagurova to the Young Women of the Soviet Union” where Khetagurova beckoned:
Young women! Sisters-Komsomolki! Far in the east, in the Primor'e and Priamurskaia taiga, we women, together with our husbands and brothers, are reconstructing a marvelous land … Millions of brave people struggle there, in the east, with the impenetrable taiga. They are taming the mountains, the forests, and the rivers. But we have few capable hands. Every person, every specialist is on call. And we need many more people to pacify nature, so that all of the region's riches can be exploited for socialism … We just need people – brave, decisive, and selfless … Wonderful work, wonderful people, and a wonderful future await … We are waiting for you, our girlfriends!
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- Stalinism on the Frontier of EmpireWomen and State Formation in the Soviet Far East, pp. 1 - 26Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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