The Untold Story of Russian Women in the Soviet Union

[@solokalnesaltam3015]

Fascinating video as always!

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for watching!

[@johngorentz6409]

I have long paid attention to these issues (from a distance, of course) and to the parallels (and unparallels) in the United States. You discussed several factors that nobody else had brought to my attention.

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for your support!

[@1964corvair1]

Interesting video Elvira. Thanks for sharing.

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for your support!

[@tedhazlett]

I enjoyed this video.

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for watching!

[@GerFarrell-tm2ee]

History is truly shocking, sometimes I think that society is only hanging by a thread, even today. For most if history there was terrible hardship and worse. That's why peace should be treasured and prayed for and we shouldn't be wasteful and appreciate everything we have. Another great video Elvira, thank you.

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for watching and your support!

[@beritsvensson5647]

Very interesting content with focus on womens history, please continue! Also, thank you for moderating "the paus tone", this piano is so much softer och very nice to listen to😊❤

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for watching and your support! I'm still very new at this "KZbin" thing, so any advice from my audience is invaluable. Glad you like these transitions better. :)

[@Matt_from_Florida]

I worked in IT and made many friends among the Russians who came to the USA in the 1990s & 2000s.

[@elvirabary]

Thanks for watching! I know that many Russians tend to gravitate towards STEM jobs (such as IT) due to their strong math educational foundation.

[@blanchjoe1481]

Dear Elvira, Thank you for another well developed and informative piece. What I found interesting was how the traditional familial based cultures became changed by the "artificial" nature of both the CCCP and the USA. America is not a true culture per se, meaning that traditional and historical cultures were always familial based and supporting the tribe, the village, and the kingdom, the core unit of the sociocultural environment was ( and is in many, many places in the world ), the family. In the CCCP the state defined or applied a patina of demands upon the familial norms, but in the America it was something else. In the CCCP the center of social focus was an artificial Cult Of the Soviet Man, in America it became a Cult Of The Individual. Families who immigrated to America saw their traditional norms, beliefs, habits, and patterns slowly taken apart with each succeeding generation, and not by any state apparatus, it was by something much stronger and more insidious. The center of focus in the CCCP may have been "...the workers world revolution....", but in the US the center of focus became "....the every man as individual...". America created its own "artificial" society, it was designed to never again force an individual to be under the control of any King, Despot, Potentate, Decree, or Religion. This artificial creation allowed the individual to be freed ( by law ) from religious, social, political, and cultural norms, and even familial constraints or expectations. From the position of the traditional families, this refocusing was in some ways as destructive ( or more so ) than any demands of the CCCP State. While America is considered a nation of religions and churches, what it represents is greatly feared in other nations comprised of more ancient societies more so than the godless CCCP ever was.

[@elvirabary]

Thanks for watching and your comment. You bring up a very interesting point about the who or what defined culture in USSR vs USA. What effect did Protestantism have on creating the individualistic American culture you mentioned? I always considered Protestants as having more private relationship with God, vs the Catholics, thus contributing to this individualistic effect you mentioned.

[@R005t3r]

The Soviet system produced some truly impressive women. For starters, the welders in the shipyards were predominantly women; welding steel plates from swings high in the air. They had the dexterity to produce superior welds. Then there is Lyudmila Pavlichenko, Natalya Kovshova, Mariya Polivanova and Rosa Shanina who retired more than 650 men. Pavlichenko went to Washington as a model of what the system could produce. The fighter Ace Lydia Litvyak.

[@elvirabary]

Thanks for watching and your comment.

[@Seinean]

"The USSR begun to resemble a budget version of the Russian Empire" - well said. Catchy. I wonder how nowadays Russia compares both with the USSR and the Russian Empire in your view.

[@jmespoo]

Ljudmila Ulitskaja, Politkovskaja, Jelena Tsizova- best modern novelists from Russia with wonderful male Sentsin!

[@elvirabary]

@@jmespoo All of them bloomed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[@jmespoo]

@ Great video again!

[@ane-louisestampe7939]

Elvira, you're improving my life quality 🥰 - and I'm Danish 😂

[@elvirabary]

That's a hard thing to do! I always read about how Nordic countries score highest on happiness index! :)

[@ane-louisestampe7939]

@@elvirabary Yep! You can be proud 🤩

[@free2dialogue]

You mentioned how abortion was forbidden and then allowed. But how was the situation around the contraception pill in the USSR? Was it available and what impact did it have? Thanks for many fascinating historic details, these inspire me and give depth to the real and untold situation of women in the USSR.

[@elvirabary]

There were no contraception pills at all, they only appeared after the break up of the Soviet Union. Condoms were made in the Soviet Union, but there were a few and between with poor quality. The majority of people used the pull-out method and when that didn't work - abortions were the last resort.

[@Kartoffelsuppe_m_Wursteinlage]

Dear Elvira, Thank you for insights of womans life in soviet union. I still missed the point: why do russian woman allow their sons and husbands to join this war? Why on earth they allow to leave for money? I would give my son a passport, all the money I have and all i can borrow on earth and tell him not to come back, never. Where are the the memories of starvation, hunger, the loss of husbands, sons in the wars of last century? 20 mio. Deads by Hitler another 20 mio. by Stalin and there's no conclusion? Why do they back this insanity? Disappointed greetings from Germany.

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for your question. I don't think there is a clear cut answer to it for every situation. Every situation is different. What I can say however is the anyone who volunteers to fight in Ukraine signs a contract, gets a lot of money upfront, a large salary, and a payout upon death, or a payout if the person gets injured. For a typical Russian man outside of big cities (and that's where primarily where recruitment happens), this opportunity represents a lot of money, probably more than he can make at his job. So, now imagine an unhappy unloving family life, where the wife is talking care of the kids, the household and the husband who's half-drunk all of the time and barely makes any money. I can totally see why the wife would not only let, but encourage her husband to sign up and fight. He is pretty worthless to her now, this way, there is a good salary and if he dies, there is a big payout to set her and her children up for a long time, so no big loss. In some cases - that's the unfortunate truth. But again, I'm generalizing quite a bit, I'm sure there are other cases where wives are totally against this idea, but the husband wants to fight, or the cases where both agree because they have been so patriotically inspired.

[@Kartoffelsuppe_m_Wursteinlage]

​@@elvirabary Divorce - next level. ;) It may also be seen as a way to get out of debt, just as many have used it as a way to get out of prison? Along with the Russian: "What could possibly go wrong?" We don't know and at the moment I won't make a judgement.

[@gregorschoner9682]

Regrettably, the acoustics on your videos is bad, making them difficult to understand. There is echo and the high frequencies are too dominant. Maybe look at more sound absorbing materials and get a better microphone.

[@elvirabary]

Thanks for your comment, I'm playing around with my audio, I believe this audio is an improvement over my previous ones. Sound absorption might be the culprit, but I will into different microphones as well.

[@ane-louisestampe7939]

Thank you! It was a pleasure to hear you "talking the men's case". Sometimes women forget that men also are victims of supressors. I've never given drunken Russian men much thought before - except for from the women's view 😒 Somehow I never got to the question: Why do Russian men drink so much? And this despite "Why does Jeppe drink?" being a very commen saying in Denmark. It references to a play from 1772 by Holberg. Thank you for "awakening me". Peace and love from Denmark.

[@elvirabary]

Thanks for watching!

[@_PlusUltra]

You mentioned that female authors were looked down upon, but in modern day, most of the popular Young Adult and Fantasy authors are women, like JK Rowling, Sarah j Mass, Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyer, Madeline Miller, Suzanne Clarke and many others. Male authors tend to write epic fantasy with many battles, and Science fiction.

[@elvirabary]

Thanks for your comment. You're absolutely correct, female authors have come a long way in our modern times. In the video, I was talking about Soviet female authors specifically. Soviet era ended around 1991.

[@bens4446]

Did you say that rural soviet mothers would simply stop feeding their babies if they felt they couldn't afford it? So they would just watch their babies slowly starve to death?

[@elvirabary]

This practice wasn’t unique to Russia; it was common across all cultures. Take, for example, Charles Perrault’s Hop-o’-My-Thumb en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-o%27-My-Thumb For much of history, hunger was a constant companion. Adults frequently prioritized teenagers over babies, as infant mortality rates were extraordinarily high - up to 50% of babies died due to disease and injury.

[@bens4446]

@elvirabary I have seen some very poor parts of the world and very bad family planning. Except in cases of famine, even very large poor families seem to find a way to feed themselves at least enough to survive, albeit stunted. I guess you may have been referring to situations of famine.

[@elvirabary]

Yes, the situation would have to extreme for this to happen. Life-or-Death kind of a thing.

[@moggadah]

In an environment with less abundance survival is less taken for granted. I would guess this is the reason for the current stability of the Russian leadership. People in the countryside doesn't necessarily have the means to support themselves. They won't bite the hand that feeds them.

[@technoverse101]

I think that so many Russian and Eastern European are so beautiful is because beautiful women were largely spared during Stalin's purges..

[@elvirabary]

Thank you for your comment. Women generally were less repressed by the Stalin's regime than men, but it still happened quite a lot. For example few of the wives of the prominent Soviet leaders got arrested, while their husbands did not. Also, if the woman's powerful benefactor (lover) got arrested, she could get swept up as well.

[@KalCana]

You are such a nice lady