Guilting Private Ivan: ‘Guilt’ and ‘Shame’ in Soviet Popular Media of the Second World War

Victoria Paige, The Ohio State University

Throughout the Soviet period, state-controlled media, such as film and literature, prioritized the male perspective in war narratives. Soviet leadership and popular media aligned World War II (WWII) with masculinity, resulting in women’s service to be misrepresented and consequently misunderstood by the greater public. The purpose of this project is to examine how Soviet popular media utilized the concepts of ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ in images of WWII. In 1942, military officials recruited women to guilt male soldiers into greater efforts. During the war, Soviet media portrayed women on the frontlines as martyrs. These representations framed women’s service as an unfortunate consequence of men’s inadequacy. Unless promoting recruitment, magazines and newspapers rarely featured capable female soldiers. After the war, Soviet media infantilized female soldiers and presented them as romantic interests for their male counterparts. The prioritization of the male gaze perpetuated a common misconception that women served to seduce men. As Soviet media continuously produced images of love-obsessed women, women’s service was presented as shameful. The association of ‘shame’ with women’s service was likely deliberate, as popular media also shamed women on the home front. If a woman ended relations with a lover on the frontlines, she was criticized as a traitor. Despite the Soviet state officially promoting gender equality, these representations of women in war persisted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 172. Gender Crises in Past and Present: Grappling with Shame and Identity during Times of Upheaval