The Soviet and British Governments’ Policies Concerning Participation of Women in Paramilitary Organizations of the Interwar Period
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2022.01.127Keywords:
women, paramilitary organizations, civil defence, Great Britain, USSRAbstract
The aim of this article is to compare the policies of the British and Soviet governments regarding the participation of women in paramilitary organizations of the interwar period.
The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and consistency. Both general scientific (analysis and synthesis, abstraction, system analysis, generalization) and special-historical (critical analysis of sources, retrospective, historical-comparative) methods, as well as the gender approach were used.
The scientific novelty. The article compares for the first time the peculiarities of the participation of Soviet and British women in paramilitary organizations of the interwar period in the context of state policy in this area.
Conclusions. The author concludes that the approaches of the authorities to the involvement of British and Soviet women in paramilitary organizations differed significantly and directly depended on the foreign policies of these countries. In the USSR, which despite its pacifist statements during the interwar period gradually prepared for war, its government in the 1920s began to take specific steps for organization of military training of its population without any distinction based on sex. In Great Britain, against the background of economic crisis and peculiarities of foreign policy, women have long been out of such training. In addition, both countries significantly differed in the patterns of behaviour of women imposed by their governments and societies. In particular, in the British public discourse, women were represented as a noncombat, auxiliary force during the future war, the femininity of members of women’s paramilitary organizations was emphasized. Instead, the imposed pattern of women’s behaviour in the Soviet Union was the opposite. They were strongly encouraged to follow the male example; the possibility of their participation in the war as soldiers was often emphasized. At the same time, they shared common arguments in campaigning for women to join paramilitary organizations and held public events to promote such organizations.
References
Bell, P. (2013). ‘Thank God for the French Army’: Churchill, France and an Alternative to Appeasement in the 1930s. Britain in Global Politics, 1, 175–189. London. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367822_8
Brayley, M., Bujeiro, R. (2001). World War II Allied Women’s Services. Oxford.
Broad, R. (2006). Conscription in Britain, 1939–1964: The Militarisation of a Generation. London.
Campbell, D. (1993). Women in Combat: The World War II Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The Journal of Military History, 57 (2), 301. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2944060
Churchill, W. S. (2012). Women in War (1938). The Churchillian, 3 (1), 14–20.
Crang, J. A. (2010). The revival of the British women’s auxiliary services in the late nineteen-thirties. Historical Research, 83 (220), 343–357. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2008.00478.x
DeGroot, G. J. (1997). Whose Finger on the Trigger? Mixed Anti-Aircraft Batteries and the Female Combat Taboo. War in History, 4, 434–453. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/096834459700400404
Derevjanko, P (Ed.). (1974). Istorija Vtoroj mirovoj vojny, 3. Moskva. [in Russian].
Gould, J. M. (1988). The Women’s Corps: The establishment of women’s military services in Britain. London.
Harris, C. (2003). Women at war: In uniform, 1939–1945. Stroud.
Kobchenko, K. (2015). Zhinky yak viiskovyi resurs totalitarnoi vlady: radianski henderni stratehii peredvoiennoho chasu (H.Hrinchenko, K. Kobchenko, O. Kis, Eds.). Zhinky Tsentralnoi ta Skhidnoi Yevropy u Druhii Svitovii viini: henderna spetsyfika dosvidu v chasy ekstremalnoho nasylstva, 61–78. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
Kulabukhov, N., Isaev, A., Fedirko, O. (2017). Dobrovolnye oboronnye organizatsii na Dalnem Vostoke SSSR kak forma organizatsii politiko-ideologicheskoj raboty sredi naselenija v 1920–1930-e gg. Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i juridicheskie nauki, kulturologija i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, 6-1 (80), 94–98. [in Russian].
Maartens, B. (2015). ‘To encourage, inspire and guide’: National Service, the People’s War, and the promotion of Civil Defence in interwar Britain, 1938–1939. Media History, 21 (3), 328-341. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2015.1053386
Marasanova, V., Sozinov, I. (2016). Ispytatelnye probegi jaroslavskikh predprijatij v period industrializatsii: opyt reshenija tekhnicheskikh i ideologicheskikh zadach. Ekonomicheskaja istorija, 3 (34), 73–82. [in Russian].
"Nikonova, O. (2011). Kak iz krestjanki Gajdinoj sdelat Marinu Raskovu, ili O teorii i praktike vospitanija sovetskikh patriotok. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 112 (6). [in Russian].
Nikonova, O. (2013) Osoaviakhim i voenno-patrioticheskoe vospitanie naselenija v Uralskom regione (1927–1939 gg.) (Extended abstract of PhD diss.). Cheljabinsk. [in Russian].
Ramazanov, Sh. (2017). Zovnishnia polityka Radianskoho Soiuzu u mizhvoiennyi period (1930-ti – pochatok 1940-kh rr.). Storinky istorii, 44, 106–123. [in Ukrainian].
Razhev, A. (2014) Sukhoputnaja armija Velikobritanii v 1935–1939 gg.: modernizatsija strategii i politika umirotvorenija (Extended abstract of PhD diss.). Ekaterinburg. [in Russian].
