«Работницам — боевую подготовку»: милитаризация образа советской женщины в 1930-е гг. (на материале журнала «Работница»)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the image of the woman constructed in the women’s magazines in the 1930s. The author describes the transformation of the Soviet woman’s model in the context of mobilization. The content of this militarized image and the means of its presentation in print media were studied by content analysis. The sources were texts representing the editorial board’s position and readers’ letters published in the “Rabotnitsa” magazine from 1930 to 1940. The propaganda of the second half of the 1930s enriched the Soviet woman’s image with the category of patriotism. In view of this, military and sports training was of particular importance. Against the background of the militarization of the USSR, magazine discourse formed a hardy, brave and persistent woman’s image, equal to a man not only in work, but also in military affairs. Women were assigned a special role in the event of war: to replace men in factories and be able to protect civilians from air chemical attacks by the enemy. The editorial board of the magazine persuaded its female readers that every Soviet woman should learn how to use a gas mask to protect herself and teach others to do so. In addition, over time, it was recommended that women master rifle shooting, the profession of a nurse, and, of course, start or continue working at a factory. The Soviet propaganda presented the women’s initiative to learn the profession of a pilot or enroll in the Soviet army as the highest manifestation of love for the Motherland. Thus, in the second half of the 1930s, the Soviet government discourse formed the fourth – military – line of women's mobilization, along with the labor, maternal and disciplinary (control) ones.