FEMININITY MODELS IN GENDER POLICY OF STALIN’S REGIME

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the study is to identify models of femininity in the gender policy of the Stalinist regime in relation to the rural part of Western Ukrainian women in the first postwar decade; to analyze the ways and methods of their construction by instruments of party propaganda. The work is based on socio-cultural and feminist methodology, which requires the study of society taking into account its multicomponent nature, including such an important stratification parameter as "gender". In addition, the methodological guidelines of the study are the principles of historicism, systematization, scientificity, verification, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (comparative, chronological and historical-systemic) methods. The scientific novelty is that for the first time in the historiography of the gender policy of the Stalinist regime in the western regions of Ukraine during the period of late Stalinism, the authors consider models of femininity constructed by Soviet propaganda in the context of forming the concept of "Soviet woman". Conclusions. The gender policy of the Stalinist regime towards the rural part of Western Ukrainian women in the first postwar decade was directed primarily to involve women to the process of Sovietization of the region. It was clearly mobilizing and ethocratic in nature. The narrative of an emancipated Soviet woman, equal to a man in the Soviet Union opposed to the "oppressed mercenary of Polish lords" of the "lordly Poland" period was imposed on society with the help of party propaganda. Using the traditional set of tools from the propaganda arsenal, the authorities methodically and purposefully worked on forming the image of the "Soviet woman". As a result, several basic models of femininity with their inherent inverse of gender roles – "woman-activist", "woman-collective farmer", "woman-leader" were constructed.