WOMEN IN SOVIET GEORGIAN LITERATURE DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR (1941-1945).

Abstract

During the Great Patriotic War, the Eastern Front of World War II, fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the role of women in Soviet society underwent important changes. The paper seeks to explore the nature and essence of these changes and provides an in-depth discussion of their causes based on the analysis of literary sources from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. The paper demonstrates that three main causes triggered women’s changing roles during the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union: the State’s desire to increase the public’s participation or engagement in the War, the use of women’s resources for war-related objectives, and strengthening the fighting spirit of the nation. With these objectives in mind, Soviet propaganda tried to create new models of women. Literature, namely poetry and short stories,were seen as important sources for delivering these changes to the wider public. The major finding of the paper is that while Soviet propaganda tried to link these changes with the emancipation of women in the Soviet Union, the real causes and objectives of these policies were the state’s desire to instrumentalize all segments of its society for fulfilling war-related objectives. By analyzing original archival data from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia, the paper contributes to an enhanced understanding of the transformation of the status and role of Soviet women during the Great Patriotic War.

  Keywords

Second World War; Soviet Women; Great Patriotic War; Soviet Georgia; Soviet Literature;