Where are all the Mother-Heroines? Images of Maternity in Soviet Films of the 1930s

Abstract

This article challenges accepted interpretations of Soviet women’s history, particularly the notion that the Soviet government engaged in a pro-natalist campaign in the 1930s. It undertakes an examination of the depiction of mothers in Soviet films, arguing that, given the close Party supervision of the film industry, these figures represent the official Soviet view of motherhood. The content of the films reveals that maternity was secondary in importance to labour outside of the home, and that the Soviet Union rejected the kind of pro-natalist campaigns found in the rest of Europe, especially the racially inspired one in Nazi Germany. The article concludes that the 1936 Soviet family legislation, in fact, had no effect on the depiction of mothers on Soviet screens.