‘Red Evas.’ Soviet emancipation in the interwar Polish press

Abstract

The article dwells on portrayals of Russian women in the interwar discourse of the Polish press. The study attempts to reinterpret them and deconstruct the gender stereotypes responsible for inaccuracies in the depictions. Analysis of the assessments offered for the phenomenon of post-1917 Soviet emancipation by the interwar Polish press (national-Catholic, leftist, and feminist publications) centres on discussions of emancipation in the labour market and Russian women taking over typically masculine roles. Among the ‘female’ topics directly related to the perception of the new Soviet culture was the ‘Soviet experiment:’ women gained access to what used to be exclusively male professions. Sadly, reports of Soviet emancipation in the selected titles often boil down to a few suggestions about changes in the Soviet woman’s life described as Bolshevik manipulations. It appears, therefore, that Polish-Russian cultural contacts were compromised by the Polish disorientating gender role models and related ideas of the Polish identity, distorted by the misogyny, nationalism, patriarchalism, and Catholic traditions of Polish culture.