GENDER ORIENTATION OF THE PROPAGANDA OF THE BOLSHEVIK-SOVIET GOVERNMENT AND THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST UNDERGROUND IN THE PERIOD 1944–1947

Abstract

The gender component of the political propaganda of the Bolshevik-Soviet government and the Ukrainian nationalist underground during their armed confrontation in Western Ukraine is analyzed. The semantic content of the agitation-propaganda «image of a woman» by both warring parties and the forms and methods of presentation of the created construct to a certain target audience in accordance with the set political goals and objectives are investigated. It is concluded that the political propaganda of the Bolshevik-Soviet government and the Ukrainian nationalist underground in the western regions of Ukraine in 1944–1947 had signs of gender coloring. In Soviet propaganda, they were more pronounced than in the propaganda materials of the Ukrainian nationalist underground. Both antagonistic forces constructed the image of women based on their needs: «the Soviet woman is a toiler» as opposed to «the Ukrainian woman is a keeper, a mother». The Soviet party authorities mobilized the female resource, on the one hand, as an auxiliary labor force for the reconstruction of economic facilities, and on the other hand, as a repeater of communist ideas and slogans. The image of the Soviet emancipated woman worker was actively exploited by Bolshevik ideologists in public propaganda discourse and used by them as one of the tools of Sovietization of the region. Instead, the political and ideological narrative of the Ukrainian insurgent underground and the UPA was dominated by the image of a woman-mother whose vocation was to raise her sons and daughters as fi ghters for an independent Ukrainian state. Emphasize that it was specifi cally entrusted to her the mission of preserving the Ukrainian nation through the birth and upbringing of children. It is determined that the Bolshevik propaganda arsenal is fi lled with a more diverse set of forms and methods than the arsenal of the insurgent underground. In addition to various mass media: newspapers, radio, cinema, etc. party officials widely used public events: meetings, rallies etc. as platforms for direct and indirect propaganda. The main method of nationalist propaganda was the distribution of printed materials. It was inferred that a common characteristic of gender-biased propaganda narratives from antagonistic sides was the presence of an imbalance in the feminine and masculine dimensions, favoring the latter. Keywords propaganda, women, Soviet government, UPA, Western Ukraine.