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Women made great strides toward equality in the first twenty four years of the Soviet regime. They gained the right to divorce, to own property, and to work outside of the home. However, these gains did not mean instant equality. Beginning in 1941, the nation began mobilizing for war.

The country had not been at war since before the October Revolution, and so the basis for the war effort was heavily influenced by old ideas. The old call went out: “For the Motherland!” This image of Russia was a symptom of the general return to pre-revolution gender roles that happened during the war. Men were fighting for not just the image of Mother Russia, but more concretely the women in their lives: wives, mothers, and daughters who could not defend themselves. And women were expected for the most part to passively rely on their men to defend them (Love and Romance). These ideas were seen in popular culture in such places as the songs of Klavdiia Shulzhenko.

Her song, “Blue Scarf” is a good example of a song that deals with women’s role waiting for their lovers to return from the front.

However, this was not the only story of the war for women. Much like the situation for American women in World War Two, women in the USSR found many benefits to the absence of men from society. The labor shortage allowed women to take over men’s jobs in the factories, and while a number of women had already joined the work force, the amount of jobs opened by the mass conscription of men let women work than ever before.

“We’ll take your place!”

Some movies also dealt with the increased presence of women on the front lines, such as “Frontline Girlfriend”, pictured below.

Movie poster for “Front-line Girlfriends” from 1941

While some of the old stereotypes of women came back during the war, there was not a total reversion to the pre-revolution state of women. They made great strides to join the work force during this period of time.