Pitfalls of Bolshevik / Soviet Ideologization in Womanhood of Oleksandrivskyi County (Zaporizhzhia) in the 1900–1920

Статтю присвячено вивченню гендерної ситуації, що склалася в 1900–1920-х рр. на Запоріжжі. Використання теорій гендеру та ментальності дозволило виявити приховані й непередбачені перепони в процесах спочатку більшовизації, а потім радянізації жіноцтва Олександрівського повіту. Доведено, що історично сформовані гендеровані нормативи краю вплинули на його мляву «включеність» в інституційну логіку більшовицької/радянської гендерної політикиIn this article, the authors juxtapose the attempts to «create» the national construct of average Ukrainian man and woman with the gender/mental peculiarities of various regions of Ukraine, in this specific case — of Zaporizhzhia. It is known that a powerful Anarchist movement was active in Huliai-Pole, but little is known about women in it. Studies about women’s activities in the events of revolutions in the early 20th century are also few. There are several works by local historians, O. Kryvishyi and I. Savchenko, about the Bolshevik women. So, the authors set out to identify these «missing» women and to describe the country’s gender and mental landscape as well as to understand how gender relations changed in Zaporizhzhia region with introduction of the Soviet gender policy. In this article, we combine elements from two interdisciplinary theories — gender and mentality. This enables us to identify the gender norms of Zaporizhzhia in the first twenty years of the 20th century. We especially focused on the analysis of the phenomenon of «Marusia the Rioter» along with Nestor Makhno’s anarchist movement and the fact of opening one of the first Ukrainian women’s departments in 1919 (under the influence of Alexandra Kollontai’s speech) that was discovered by historians. Consideration of «coexistence» of the Bolsheviks and «the women’s issue» in Zaporizhzhia before and after the Soviet authorities came to power helps us understand the logics of implementing the gender policy from 1923 to 1930, when a broad-scale proletarianization of the land started after the building of the Dnipro Water Power Plant. We established that the diversity of political ideologies and practices of their peaceful coexistence and the, domination of anti-state peasant riot automatisms allowed for some free movement space for gender opportunities. Our opinion is that the borders between the normal and the marginal in gender manifestations became more vague (not necessarily being more or less patriarchal at that). Instead, we understand «Soviet feminism» of the 1920s as a challenge for gender-related and mental changes in the land that had to manifest themselves. It was proven that different actors understood gender policy differently (actors being central and local authorities, women’s departments, delegates, women). This caused a kind of «quiet», or hidden, sabotage, just a decorum of following directives. Women did not openly petition against their previous discriminatory practices, but, rather, adapted to the new conditions trying to minimize their osses, created new practices of survival. So we can use Michael Kimmel’s term about «lasting discreetness of masculinity» to describe the Bolsheviks’ emancipation project, rather than collective emancipatory self-expression of Zaporizhzhia female residents. It is especially noticeable when analyzing proletarianization/ masculinization of women’s labor. The materials of the article can be used in the further studies of gender issues, historical country study and histories of mentalitie