Peasant Women of Tomsk Region under Conditions of Social Changes in the1920s and1930s

The article deals with an important issue of social history that is the research into historical processes of female socialization, the results and social consequences of women’s socializing into traditional male roles. Little knowledge about the topic accounts for the territorial and chronological scope of the study. The study of peasant women of Tomsk-Narym region in the first post-revolutionary decades allows us to specify female experience during social changes. The integrated methodology and new historical sources constituted a good basis for this work. An essential factor in female socialization was the Revolution of 1917 and the postrevolutionary transformation. A statutory framework for women's equality was formed, and there were severe restrictions of civil rights of rural women as well. The first spontaneous experience of male roles peasant women acquired in the revolutionary period, when they were forced to do men's housework. Rural women were purposefully made involved in public affairs based on the decisions by the Communist Party and the Soviet leadership. Peasant women were elected to Soviets (councils); they became Chairwomen of village Soviets. On an equal footing with men peasant women worked in kolkhozes (collective farms), and so they were limited in their ability to care for their families, children, and households. ‘Mechanisms of encouragement and punishment’ were put in place for them to adopt men's roles. Women activists would often get harassed by their family, village or district leaders. At the same time the promotion of rural labor achievements was reinforced. Even the daughters of kulaks, exiled peasants of Narym, were involved in political campaigns. One of them, Nadezhda Stupak, was admitted to the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) and was placed in charge of a livestock farm. The cultural and psychological profile of female activists (vydvizhenki) aspiring to leadership and of leading collective farmers was being formed at the time. New social roles helped rural women establish themselves and get prepared for the hardships of the Great Patriotic War. However, the double burden bothat home and at work led to increased physical exhaustion of women and had a negative impact on demographic behaviour. Tomsk peasant women were still inferior to men in terms of literacy and social activity.

Keywords

Authors

References