What were the roles of Russian women during World War 2?

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World War One was a period in which all countries involved felt a strain on the economy and problems as to what was going to happen when its men went to go to War. In most countries, women were left to pick up the pieces following the departure of their men. This was not just in the field of work, but in many areas. In Russia, however, the situation was different. From the outset Russia was at a disadvantage, in that they were one of the most unstable countries. The period that preceded the Great War saw civil war, revolution and famine as well as hundreds of thousands of people dying which left millions of lives disrupted1. In Russia, thirty six per cent of the population or fifteen million men mobilised for the War. This undoubtedly shows that women in Russia would have to pick up where they left off and continue doing the jobs that their men were doing before they were called to combat. Historian Alfred Meyer has shown that the First World War affected Russian women in many different ways looking at class, status, and geographical location 2. Women in Russia had long since been involved in work outside the home but in 1914 they were required to work in areas that had never before been widely available to them. Historian Linda Edmondson has argued that feminists at the time believed that this was not just a mere opportunity to keep the jobs of men open for them, but to make people realise that women were an integral part of making the country function3. This essay will look at women and work between 1914 and 1916 before the revolution that was to see the overturn of the government. It will cover women in the military, women in the industrial areas and women in the professions.

In the period to be looked at in Russia, the conscription involved only men. Women were never meant to be in the army what so ever. However, there were many thousands female soldiers who fought in the War and also out of all the countries involved in the Great War, Russia had the most women fighting in her armies. In looking at the period 1914 to 1916 the majority of female soldiers were integrated into all male batallions. All female batallions were not introduced until 1917 and afterwards. They managed to procure their entry into the army by cutting their hair, using male clothing and generally acting like men in order for no one to suspect that they were female. In looking into the fact that the procedural efforts were not always carried out, it seems feasible that the women who intended to join the army under false pretences would be able to. There was also the issue that the statute stopping women from entering into service was not always held up and that officers were glad of the help.

Women also had their own means to try and gain entry into the army. They wrote petitions to anyone they thought would listen including military authorities, high ranking officials, and Military Commanders. Even the Tsar was not free from their insessent appeals. One womans, Elena Iost, invoked the historical figure of Nadezhda Durova in her appeals to the Tsar:

"I pray to your Imperial Majesty to allow me to join the ranks of the troops with the same kind of noble and radient outburst for the Motherland, with which the heart of Durova was filled and with my own soul, filled with courage and fearlessness and unwomanly boldness, burns ... When I hear soldiers' song or see troops (the cavalry, I so, so, love horses), I am transformed, everything inside tightens and rejoices, and at the sight of the dashing soldiers my soul wants to leap out of my body, and I want to be among them and also be a defender of the Motherland, the sacred, dear, and increasing loved Motherland."4

This shows the extent to which women would go to in order for their dreams to be answered. It has also been noted that a sense of patriotism shines through in the women who contacted anyone who they thought would have helped them. Another possible reason for the surge in women wanting to fight in the war was the fact that War propeganda made the enemy look evil and something which needed to be demolished. Many historians focus on the writings of Maria Bochkareva. She was a peasant who wanted to join the War effort. This quote comes from 1914 after the declaration of War:

"There was something sublime about the nation's response. Old men, who had fought in the Crimean war (and they would indeed have been old), in the Turkish campaign of 1877-78, and the Russo-Japanese War, declared that they never saw such exaltation of spirit. It was a glorious, inspiring, unforgettable moment in one's life. My soul was deeply stirred, and I had a dim realisation of a new world coming to life, a purer, a happier and a holier world..."Go to War to help save the country!" a voice within me called...My heart yearned to be there in the seething cauldron of War, to be baptised in its fire and scorched in its lava".5

Reports of female soldiers began in the early stages of the War. Many major Russian and Western Newspapers printed many stories about women in the military. For example, the Journal Voina(The War) dedicated a whole issue to "Womens Heroes" in 1915. The New York Times and the London Times also features accounts on women in Russia in the military.6

Nursing was quite popular before the Great War but in 1914, its popularity soared. The nurses in Russia were called the Sisters of Mercy and peasants were not the only women involved with it. Almost eighteen thousand women served as nurses during this period. the idea to become a nurse attracted ideas from a high station. The Empress Alexandra, her daughters, nieces and cousins all became nurses looking to help the War effort. Many high profile women had to be turned away, such as journalists, writers, students, in fact, many people had to be turned away as there was too much for the demands of them. To be able to enter the Red Cross, the women had to be literate and at least, in some way, have gone to secondary school.

Most of the women who wanted to be in the army were able to hold down positions that were not on the front line. They would be cooks, supply clerks, drivers and scouts, both behind the lines and in the advanced positions. These were meant to be in the less dangerous quadrant of the military spectrum, however these women were still risking their lives as many had still to go to the front lines with the men and even had to be stretcher carriers for the wounded, dodging bullets. As it was men making the decisions to put women in these 'less' dangerous jobs, it may have been the case that men believed women fighting on the front line would show that they were more than capable to fight to the standard of men.

In 1915 there was the introduction of a special automobile department to coordinate the War efforts automobile services. In May of the same year there was the introduction of a school to train people in the special automobile service. Four hundred and thirty women applied for the courses while only fifty eight people were accepted. Obviously the physically unfit, underage and illiterate were removed from the programme and all the female students were accepted.

E.P Samsonova was the first Russian female pilot to qualify. She had a high aptitude for all things mechanical, normally seen as a mans job. In 1914 she tried to become a Sister of Mercy nurse and also requested the Minister of War to allow her to become a pilot in the army. It was no surprise that she was rejected in the latter due to her sex. Nursing quickly became boring for her and she changed her job to a driver in the front line, often under heavy fire. Not much else is known about the rest of her life as it was not documented.7

After 1915, stories about women fighting and taking part in the War effort on the military side of things fizzled out so to speak. This could be due to a number of factors, including the fact that by then, women were accepted as being part of the military, not on an authoritative scale, but rather one that had become common enough not to draw a great amount of attention anymore. The sensationalism having gone from the story of women fighting in the War could have meant that reporting it would have been pointless as there would have been more interesting things to document.

Women also had to keep the home fires burning, so to speak, and take on jobs in both the rural and the urban areas in order for things to be done. As there was a vast shortage of male workers, there were job opportunities opening up for women that were not previously available for them. Indeed by 1916, women occupied seventy two per cent of the workforce on peasant farms and fifty eight per cent of the workforce on landowner estates8. Similarly, in urban areas, women occupied eleven per cent of the workforce in metal works in 1915 and there was an increase of seventy four per cent in the technical industries just eighteen months after the outbreak of war9. In more general terms, they encompassed twenty seven per cent of the industrial workforce in 1914 and by 1917 the percentage was forty four per cent.

The rural areas became dependant on female labour as there was such a shortage of male bodies. Some girls and women simply moved out of domestic service, unskilled and seasonal work, and trades which had been hit by the war, to take on factory jobs; some female peasants who worked in rural manufacturing moved to the cities for higher wages.

rural craft indistries were cut off form urban markets, peasant outworkers form urban employers, towns from rural supplies.10

In the urban areas especially, there was a need for skilled workers, so women had to take on those roles as well. They became messengers, mechanics, chimney sweeps, streetcar conductors, mail carriers, police, janitors, carters, foresters and truck drivers and many more.11 The need for women workers was so bad that the Russian authorities let the legislation protecting women and children while at work was allowed to be more lax.

Despite their efforts to carry on the jobs their men had to leave behind, women were persecuted by the very people they were trying to help. In looking at the wages they were paid, almost thirty five percent of what their male counterparts were, it is easy to see that they were under valued as workers. Employers welcomed them as they were getting the work done for a much cheaper wage. There were no Trade Unions available for women. There was, however, Trade Unions set up for men in order for them to secure their jobs when they returned from the War. It was widely thought that women would either return to the more feminine jobs, such as domestic service, when the men returned or else give up work altogether.