Communist Armenian Women’s History

Abstract

A most fascinating chapter of Armenian women’s history unfolded in France during and immediately after WWII. In 1942, led by the novelist and poet LAS (Louise Aslanian), Armenian women participants of the French Resistance founded the Fransahay Ganants Miutyun (“Union des femmes arméniennes”) in Paris. In the first two years of its existence the Union was an underground organization. While LAS was arrested a month before the liberation of Paris and died in the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp soon afterwards, her comrades decided to continue the fight though on a different platform. In November 1944 they came out of the underground and openly organized their first Central Committee. They began working on various “national” (azkayin) agendas such as the preservation of the Armenian language and culture, organization of summer camps for the children of the Armenian poor, financially assisting the families of the fallen resistance fighters, and commemorating the life of LAS, in particular by publishing her unpublished pieces. From early on the Union kept correspondence with Soviet Armenia but its ties became much firmer after Soviet Armenia’s repatriation (hayrenatartsutyun) calls in 1946. In March 1947 the Union began publishing a journal titled Hai Guine (“Armenian Woman”) which continued until 1949 and worked somewhat like a propaganda tool for what they usually called nerkaght (“in-migration”) or azkahavak (“in-gathering of the nation”). Yet dismissing this women’s journal as the mouthpiece of Stalin’s calls would not do justice to its feminist aim and content. This paper analyzes Hai Guine as a socialist feminist journal that was trans-historical and trans-national in its content and in terms of the background of its contributors.