Operation Friendship: Soviet and British Pen‐Pals Discuss War, Work, and Womanhood

Abstract

AbstractDuring World War II, the British and Soviet governments permitted more personal contact between their citizens in hope that they would develop feelings of goodwill and become more supportive of their Alliance. This article examines the wartime correspondence exchanged between women of Britain and the Soviet Union as well as between two organizations, which facilitated their interactions. Participants from both countries used personal and gendered language to frame the Alliance and their contributions to it. Despite their ideological and political differences, the participants found common ground by focusing on their shared experiences as mothers, wives, and workers as well as by stressing a model of womanhood, which contained both radical and traditional elements. They combined essentializing concepts of femininity, which emphasized women’s maternalism and vulnerability, with arguments for women’s empowerment, based on their ability to change state policies and overcome gender inequities. The two committees that facilitated the exchanges wielded this feminine ideal to bolster the Alliance as well as to advance their own institutional agendas. Ultimately, these conversations shed light on: popular participation in the Anglo‐Soviet alliance, the power of emotion to forge political ties, and how womanhood was conceptualized and put in service of military and political goals.