CONTENT AND DIRECTIONS OF WOMEN ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVITIES IN VOLYN (the second half of the 1940s - beginning of the 1950s)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058X.18.226545Abstract
The purpose of the research is to reveal the specifics of women's organizations formation in the form of "women departments", "women delegate meetings", "women councils" in Volyn region during the first postwar years; to elucidate the content of their activities through the prism of political and propaganda work and participation in the process of the collective farm system formation in the region. The methodological basis of the research is the principles of historicism, scientificity, a combination of systemic and regional approaches, an authorial objectivity, a moderate narrative constructivism, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special historical (historical genetic, historical typological, historical systemic) methods. The scientific novelty consists in the fact for the first time in the historiography of the Ukrainian women movement on the basis of previously unknown archival documents there has been elucidated the topic of women's participation in the Sovietization of the western regions of Ukraine during the first postwar decade, in particular, in Volyn; there has been highlighted the policy of the Bolshevik government's use of women as an effective tool for forming the collective farm system in the region; the dynamics of the quantitative growth of members of women's organizations has been elucidated. The construction of the image of a woman activist by Stalinist propaganda has been illustrated; controllability of the process of women activation by the party structures; the scale of work of "women departments" and "women councils" through the organization of women forums, meetings; rhetoric of speeches of women delegates. The Conclusions. After the liberation of Volyn region from the German occupiers, the campaign was launched there to restore the institutions of the Soviet power. In 1945, women department was established in the structure of the CP(b)Ukr regional committee, and women organizers were appointed in the district committees. These bodies coordinated and supervised the work of women's organizations, which were necessarily created en masse in institutions, organizations, villages, and later – in the collective farms of the region. Their main task was to mobilize women's resources for the process of economic life reconstruction and development in the region. In addition, they partially took care of the social problems of the region – the elimination of illiteracy and poor literacy of women, guardianship of orphans, the disabled, mothers with many children, the improvement and landscaping of villages and towns, and etc.
Key words: women, women departments, women councils, Volyn, Sovietization.
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