Almost 1 million Soviet women were involved in the “Great Patriotic War” (as Red Army soldiers or as members of partisan units) – that it is on an unprecedented scale in comparison to women’s role in the First World War or the Civil War, but also compared with the involvement ...
(Show more)Almost 1 million Soviet women were involved in the “Great Patriotic War” (as Red Army soldiers or as members of partisan units) – that it is on an unprecedented scale in comparison to women’s role in the First World War or the Civil War, but also compared with the involvement of women in the military forces of other countries participating in WWII. It is true, the majority of military women officially held civic functions or fulfilled supporting roles (nurses, doctors, cooks, washing women, radio operators, signallers, clerks etc.), but during the course of the war, the boundaries between noncombatant and combatant duties of female soldiers and partisans more and more blurred. Moreover, there were tens of thousands of women who were especially trained as combatants and served in the Red Army as – for example –, snipers, machine gunners, tank drivers, rifle-women or bomber pilots. Women contributed to partisan warfare also in functions that required exerting violence.
The paper will discuss the ideological, political and military context in which the recruitment and deployment of women (all female and mixed units) took place, when and how it was introduced and how it was dealt with in the Soviet press and propaganda during and after the war. Since women wanted to join the Red Army and partisan units as volunteers already before official mobilisation policy was introduced, their motivations will be analysed as well as the attitude of the political leadership and the military with regard to military involvement of women on a mass scale. Finally the paper will focus on the postwar status of Soviet women veterans. It will address their own view in contrast to official and popular attitudes to female combat participation, perceived as actively transgressing traditional gender lines.
The paper is based on memories and interviews with female soldiers/partisans and on articles from the Soviet press.
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