Memory of “Green Construction” in Omsk in the 1950s–1960s: Gender Aspect

Abstract

This article analyses the features of women’s social memory about the everyday life of a non-capital Soviet city of the late 1950s — early 1960s. The authors consider the event of the Khrushchev Thaw period, which now exists, rather, as part of the oral tradition, i.e. one about the history of the competition between Omsk and Leningrad for the best solution to the problem of their landscaping. In the 1950s–1960s, such a competition was disguised by ideologists as a game in order to increase the pace of work of the competing parties, so that the participants of such a “game” would not feel increased control over the degree of labour productivity and how consciously they used material resources. The empirical material the authors refer to consists of records of oral stories of female Omsk old-timers, who participated in the improvement and creating green spaces in their city more than half a century ago. Also, the authors employ regulatory documents, periodicals, materials from film and photographic archives, and industrial literature. The interdisciplinary research is carried out using traditional historical methods developed by gender anthropology, oral and female history approaches, and ethnology of everyday practices. An analysis of the sequences of oral texts makes it necessary to raise the question of the causes and nature of a stable positive reaction to an event half a century ago and to conclude about the special nature of “nostalgia for the Soviet”, about the sense of collectivism lost over time or the emotions of youth re-experienced. The gender factor (the perception of life at home and the street as a private space, which women traditionally cared for) provided an optimistic colouring of the events remembered, which have not been previously analysed in studies of urban non-capital Soviet everyday life.