(Un)lost Femininity: Efforts by the Ukrainian Women Political Prisoners aimed to Preserve their Gender Identity in the GULAG

Abstract

In the 1940-1950s tens of thousands of Ukrainian women have been charged for political accusations andsentenced for long-term imprisonment in the GULAG. Their daily lives and gendered experiences in the Soviet detainment have notbeen studied yet. Historians of the GULAG claimed that to efficiently suppress the opponents of the communist regime in prisons andcamps, their major social identities (national, religious, political etc.) had to be destroyed. Women’s gender identities have beenwashed out, among others, through elimination of some major attributes of femininity from their appearance. This article is based onthe analysis of women’s personal testimonies (written memoirs, oral interviews, letter etc.) as well as some official documents of theGULAG (rules and regulations of confinement, administration reports, etc.). The former GULAG prisoners unanimously complain aboutbeing deprived of regular women’s cloth in confinement and being forced to wear ugly uniform (dark, shabby, baggy, oversized, etc.) inthe camps. The author examines a special role of clothing as an important marker of femininity and explores a variety of methodsapplied by the Ukrainian women remain women, to look and to feel like women (namely, sewing, refurbishment, altering anddecorating cloths, making hairdress etc.). The former female detainees’ testimonies reveal that Ukrainian women have demonstratedimpressive resourcefulness and enormous persistence in maintaining their feminine look, they showed a mother wit and appliedgendered knowledge and skills to furnish their appearance with recognizable markers of femininity. Certain softening of the campregime after Stalin’s death in the mid 1950-s made it possible for imprisoned women to purchase some fabric and to  sew dresses,blouses and skirts, and they have used this opportunity to restore their femininity to the fullest extent. The author claims that takingcare of appearance allowed women to preserve some elements of their gender identity and thus more efficiently resist thedehumanizing effects of the GULAG regime. That is why these practices of femininity maintenance in camps should be understood asa form of passive (non-violent) resistance to the totalitarian order.

Key words: Ukrainian female political prisoners, Gulag, everyday life, gender identity, markers of femininity, women’shistory