Soviet Politics of Emancipation of Ethnic Minority Woman: Natsionalka

by Yulia Gradskova

Overview

This book provides a new perspective through a closer look on “Other”, i.e. ethnic minority women defined by the Soviet documents as natsionalka. Applying decolonial theory and critical race and whiteness studies, the book analyzes archive documents, early Soviet films and mass publications in order to explore  how the “emancipation” and “culturalization” of women of “culturally backward nations” was practiced and presented for the mass Soviet audience. Whilst the special focus of the book lies in the region between the Volga and the Urals (and Muslim women of the Central Eurasia), the Soviet emancipation practices are presented in the broader context of gendered politics of modernization in the beginning of the 20^th century. The analysis of the Soviet documents of the 1920s-1930s not only subverts the Soviet story on “generous help” with emancipation of natsionalka through uncovering its imperial/colonial aspects, but also makes an important contribution to the studies of imperial domination and colonial politics. This book is addressed to all interested in Russian and Eurasian studies and in decolonial approach to gender history. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319991993
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	588 KB

About the Author

Yulia Gradskova is Associate Professor in History and works at the Department of Gender Studies and the Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden. Her research interests include Soviet and post-Soviet social history, gender equality politics and decolonial perspective on history of Soviet emancipation of non-Russian women and racism. Gradskova is the author of more than 40 articles and co-author and co-editor of several books, including Gender Equality on a Grand Tour. Politics and Institutions – the Nordic Council,  Sweden, Lithuania and Russia (Brill, 2017 – with E. Blomberg, Y. Waldemarson and A. Zvinkliene); Institutionalizing gender equality – Global and Historical Perspective (Lexington books, 2015 – with S. Sanders); And They Lived Happily Ever After? Norms and Everyday Practices of Family and Parenthood in Russia and Eastern Europe (Budapest: CEU Press, 2012 – with H. Carlbäck and Zh.Kravchenko).

Table of Contents

Soviet Emancipation and Modernization: The “Secondhand Time”.- Imperial politics and the women’s question in the beginning of the 20th century (the Volga-Ural region, Muslim women and beyond).- Revolutions of 1917 and the Bolshevik Reforms of the status of woman.- Informing change: “Total Hopelessness” of the Past and the “Bright Future” of the “Woman of the East” in Soviet Pamphlets.- Everyday Work for Emancipation of Natsionalka :The VTsIK Commission.- Managing the Change.- Documenting” and Visualizing  Change in Soviet Silent Films.- Bolshevik emancipation of natsionalka between “East” and “West”.- Soviet Politics of Emancipation in Post-Soviet Present.