Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War Wehrmacht frontlines: June 1941–November 1942 Also by Roger D. Markwick REWRITING HISTORY IN SOVIET RUSSIA: THE POLITICS OF REVISIONIST HISTORIOGRAPHY, 1956–1974 RUSSIA’S STILLBORN DEMOCRACY? FROM GORBACHEV TO YELTSIN (with Graeme Gill) This page intentionally left blank Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War Roger D. Markwick Associate Professor of Modern European History The University of Newcastle, Australia and Euridice Charon Cardona Australian Research Council Senior Research Associate The University of Newcastle, Australia © Roger D. Markwick and Euridice Charon Cardona 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-57952-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-36816-7 ISBN 978-0-230-36254-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230362543 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 To all those women who resisted fascism No it’s not the huts that are burning It is my youth in the fire. Young women are going off to war Looking like young fellows. Yulya Drunina (1973), Ne Byvaet Lyubvi Neschastlivy (Moskva), p. 177. Even at war, love is all you think about! That’s women for you! Soldier Ivan. And what would you have done without us, Ivan! Marya. Frontline graffiti, East Prussia, January 1945, in L. N. Pushkarev (1995), ‘Pismennaya forma bytovaniya frontovo folklora’, Etnograficheskoe obozreniye, 4 (7–8), 29. Contents List of Plates xii List of Maps xiii List of Tables xiv Preface and Acknowledgements xv List of Acronyms and Russian Terms xvii Transliteration, Archival References and Pseudonyms xxi Chronology of Soviet Women at War xxii Introduction 1 1 The Making of the frontovichki 7 A passion for education 9 Komsomol mentality 11 Osoaviakhim 14 Commanders’ wives 17 Heroines and heroes 19 How the Steel was Tempered 20 Civil war legacy 21 A ‘new type’ of woman 23 Curtailing the heroine cult 27 2 ‘Not Women’s Business’: Volunteers 32 ‘To the home front!’ 37 Civil and anti- aircraft defence 38 The Labour Front 39 Secret training 43 Levée en masse 46 Baptism of fire 47 The first women snipers 51 3 Sisters of Mercy: Nurses 56 Raw recruits 57 Combative femininity 61 Casualties 66 Medsanbat sisters 68 Fighting field nurses 69 Sanitizing war 74 ix x Contents Frontline vengeance 75 Civilizing men 77 ‘Forbidden’ relations 78 Stalingrad inferno 80 4 ‘Falcons’ and ‘Witches’: Flyers 84 Formation of the regiments 86 Vydvizhenki 89 Daughters of the civil war 90 Military discipline 91 Active service 96 A ‘women’s world’ 100 Frontline intimacy 104 A Komsomol ‘family’ 106 Politruk mother 107 Entertainment and social life 109 Death of an icon 110 Death of a ‘little falcon’ 111 Radiant happiness 113 Final offensive 115 5 Behind Enemy Lines: Partisans 117 ‘Joan of Arc’ 120 Saboteurs, scouts and spies 125 Female underground 127 Assassination 129 All-people’s war 131 Komsomol network 132 Medical and radio personnel 136 Sexual harassment 138 Affirmative action 140 Women under occupation 145 6 Mass Mobilization 149 Covert mobilization 151 Women in other militaries 152 Bolshevik riflewomen 153 Anti- air Defence 154 Barrage balloons 162 Desperate circumstances 163 Naval recruits 165 ‘I can excel …’ 167 Social and political problems 169 Political propaganda 170 Second navy intake 172 Mobilizing mothers 173 Contents xi ‘Second-front’ recruitment 174 ‘Gentle and cultural service’ 176 Women officers 178 7 The Women’s Volunteer Rifle Brigade 181 Recruitment 184 Living conditions 187 ‘Desertions’ to the front 189 Desertion and punishment 191 Suicides 194 Gender relations 196 Sexual relations 199 Patriotism betrayed 201 8 The Sniper Movement 203 The sniper as celebrity 204 Sniper school 209 Recollections of a young woman sniper 213 Becoming a sniper 215 The frontline 220 Hunting Hitlerites 221 On the offensive 223 Battlefield gothic 226 Forbidden relations 228 9 Epilogue: Half- hidden from history 230 Women invalids 236 Mobile field wives 239 Prisoners of war 241 An indelible stain 243 Forgetting and remembering 245 Notes 249 Sources and Bibliography 286 Index 297 List of Plates 1.1 Hero of the Soviet Union, Major Marina Raskova 24 3.1 ‘Join the ranks of fighting companions’ 62 3.2 Paramedic dragging a wounded soldier from the battlefield, Western Front, 1942 67 3.3 Paramedic bandaging a wounded soldier, East Prussia, November 1944 76 4.1 Chief of staff, Major Irina Rakobolskaya 85 4.2 Arming the Po-2 bi- plane with a bomb 98 4.3 A sacred duty: Commander Yevdokiya Bershanskaya receives the Guards’ banner 99 4.4 Hero of the Soviet Union, Yevgeniya Rudneva 100 4.5 ‘Night witches’ dancing 109 4.6 Funeral of Hero of the Soviet Union, Yevdokiya Nosal 112 4.7 Night-bomber navigator, Galina Dokutovich 113 5.1 Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya being led to the gallows 121 5.2 Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s mutilated corpse 122 5.3 Pocket sized portrait of ‘Zoya’ on wood veneer by a soldier 124 5.4 Masha Bruskina on her way to the gallows, Minsk, October 1941 126 5.5 Partisan radio operator, Leningrad region, 1943 137 5.6 Women’s partisan platoon being inspected, Bryansk region, 1942 140 6.1 Battlefield radio operator, 2nd Belarus front, June 1944 156 6.2 Woman anti-aircraft gunner, 1st Baltic Front, 14 May 1944 164 6.3 Censors in a field post office checking soldiers’ letters, 1943 175 8.1 Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, July 1942 205 8.2 Lt. Lyudmila Pavlichenko aiming a Home Guard rifle, London, November 1942 208 9.1 Captured Red Army nurse, Smolensk, October 1941 241 xii List of Maps 1 The battle for Moscow: September–December 1941 41 2 Nurses and the Women’s Rifle Brigade: principal locales 70 3 ‘Night Witches’ regiment: flight paths, October 1941–May 1945 95 4 Partizanka warfare: principal locales, 1941–3 119 5 Mobilization campaigns: principal locales, 1942–4 157 6 Red Army frontlines 1945: sniper and concentration camp locales 224 xiii List of Tables 3.1 Women as a percentage of Red Army medical personnel, 1941–5 58 4.1 Profile of 30 female Heroes of the Soviet Union in the air regiments (per cent) 114 6.1 Mobilization targets for Soviet women, August 1941–October 1944 150 6.2 Number of servicewomen actually recruited by specialization, 1941–5 156 6.3 Number of women officers to be recruited from serving women soldiers, by front, October 1942 178 6.4 Number of women to be trained as middle- level commanders, by military school, October 1942 178 6.5 Number of servicewomen actually recruited year by year, 1941–5 180 7.1 Number of Rifle Brigades desertions, November 1942–March 1944 193 xiv Preface and Acknowledgements Researching and writing this book has been a challenge. It could not have been undertaken without the generous assistance and support from numerous institutions and individuals. A 2004–6 Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant, ‘Women, War and the Soviet State, 1941–45’ provided the wherewithal to conduct extended research in Russia, Belarus and Germany. Archivists and librarians in these countries, the too little recognized and often too little remunerated adjutants of historical research, guided us through a labyrinth of sources. Particular gratitude in this regard is due to Nina Mikhailovna Tokareva, whose Komsomol archive in Moscow became almost a second home for Roger Markwick. In Moscow, the extraordinarily generous support and advice of Professor Yelena Senyavskaya, Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, was vital to the success of this enterprise. Likewise, Lenya Vaintraub and Yelena Drozdova, Moscow representatives of the research foundation Praxis International, provided not only invaluable research assistance and advice but ensured that all the vagaries of research in Russia, not least accommoda- tion and visas, were dealt with expeditiously and with goodwill. Dr Artem Drabkin, coordinator of the Iremember.ru website, undertook numerous interviews with women veterans on our behalf, only a few of which are reflected here. In Tambov, Professor Pavel Shcherbinin and Dr Vladimir Dyachkov of Tambov State University were wonderful hosts and conversa- tionalists, providing a wealth of insights, document collections and archival sources on the Soviet Union at war.