Dissertation Information for Elena Shulman NAME: - Elena Shulman
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2004)
ADVISORS: - J. Arch Getty
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Mariko Tamanoi - Stephen P. Frank
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: 'Pacifying a marvelous land': Gender and settlement in the Soviet Far East
Abstract: This dissertation examines Soviet Union's Communist Party program in the late 1930s known as the "Khetagurovite" campaign. The Khetagurovite campaign adroitly and successfully deployed ideals of patriotism and self-sacrifice to encourage Slavic, urban young women to settle in the so-called "socialist frontiers" of the Soviet Far East. The original impetus was an attempt at ameliorating skewed gender ratios in a strategically important border region debilitated by labor shortages, high labor turnover and underdevelopment. The voluntary resettlement campaign began in the winter of 1937 and lasted through 1939. Over 20,000 women ultimately migrated and were officially known as Khetagurovites. Hundreds of thousands of others volunteered.
This is not exclusively an inquiry into the workings of a Communist party endeavor to expedite settlement or an exploration of social dynamics on a Soviet frontier. Using materials from regional and central government archives, along with products of official public culture, I approach the settlement history of the Russian Far East through the lens of women's experiences. Women's own aspirations are discernible and central to this study. Letters, conference proceedings and memoirs illuminate how women negotiated the difficult process of acculturation in a region associated with rugged masculinity and awash in the worst excesses of Stalinism.
Female migrants were expected to simultaneously transform themselves from urban working girls into hardy frontier builders, directly contribute to border defenses in the event of invasion, follow in the footsteps of revolutionaries and eventually become patriotic wives and mothers. Women were most concerned with gaining recognition for their efforts and of displaying their worth as national patriots. Their experiences encapsulate both the positive potentials inherent in the state's professed commitment to female emancipation and the simultaneous dangers and disappointments of conformity under a regime deformed by paranoia and ruthless exploitation of its own people.
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calculated 2008-08-10 22:34:30
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