The Arrests of NKVD Officers’ Wives during the Great Terror and Their Rehabilitation in the Second Half of the 1950s
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2025.05.098Keywords:
repressions, women’s history, NKVD, “wife of a traitor to the Motherland”, rehabilitation.Abstract
The study aims to analyze the experiences of women — spouses of Chekists — who were arrested after their husbands’ incarceration in 1937—1938, as well as those wives who successfully evaded arrest. The article highlights the peculiarities of repressed Chekist spouses’ rehabilitation throughout the second part of the 1950s. The research methodology is founded on the concept of the diversity of women’s experiences. The research adopts methodologies from social anthropology. Conclusions. The experiences of the detained spouses of Chekists are analyzed within the framework of Bolshevik repressive policies and as part of the history of repressed women. The “purge” of the NKVD in 1937—1938 was accompanied by arrests of the wives of detained employees of this Commissariat. The reason for the women’s detention was family ties. Women were also accused of espionage and participation in anti-Soviet organizations, all of which had some connection to their husbands’ activities. The charges characterized these women as “accomplices,” “spies,” and “wives of an enemy of the people,” stigmatizing them in Soviet discourse. The article also looks at the experiences of women who were successful in avoiding arrests despite their husbands’ detentions. They used a variety of behavioural strategies, such as acceptance, submission, and attempts to alter the situation, etc. All of these women were stigmatized as the wives of enemies of the people. Eliminating this stigma was made feasible by the rehabilitation process that started in the USSR in the mid-1950s. Repressed women and their family members were not the only ones who sought rehabilitation. It seemed reasonable to the wives of the executed Chekists to pursue rehabilitation for their husbands who had participated in the repressions.
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