What is the Gulag, and why are the stories of Ukrainian women political prisoners important? The penitentiary and repressive institution existed from 1930 to 1956, covering a network of 30,000 different units (prisons, camps, zones, etc.) throughout the USSR, including Siberia, the Far East, the North, and Central Asia, which needed economic development. In total, about 25-30 million people went through the Gulag camps and prisons, and about 6-12 million of them died. In the 1940s and 1950s, the proportion of political prisoners, Ukrainians, and women among the Gulag's prisoners increased rapidly, which prompted a closer look at the specifics of the daily experience of Ukrainian women political prisoners. This study analyzes 150 personal memoirs of women who survived the Gulag and shares their stories through memoirs, autobiographies, oral histories, letters, etc.
Conditions of detention of political prisoners. The purpose of the Gulag punitive system towards political prisoners was threefold: to isolate the ‘dangerous element’ from society, to punish political opponents, and to re-educate them, turning them into loyal Soviet people. To break the will of political prisoners to resist, to subdue them, the camp regime resorted to the following methods: total control and regulation of all aspects of prisoners' lives - living conditions, food, clothing, recreation, hygiene, work, communication, etc., were strictly defined by norms and regulations. Housing was provided in overcrowded and unsuitable barracks, tents, or dugouts (without proper heating, lighting, or ventilation), where unsanitary conditions prevailed and diseases spread rapidly. The food was scarce, of poor quality, nutritionally inadequate, and poor in protein and vitamins, leading to starvation and rapid exhaustion. The strenuous 10-12-hour days of hard labour, in dangerous conditions, with 2-3 days off per month, and in an extremely harsh climate, undermined the health of the enslaved people and led to injuries. Women did not have the opportunity to maintain body and clothing hygiene, which led to widespread parasites and infectious epidemics. Information isolation (denial of access to newspapers or radio) and radical restrictions on communication with relatives (1 letter per year) were intended to cause women to feel alienated from the world, disoriented, divided, and atomised. The ban on any personal belongings, women's usual occupations, and the compulsion to wear shapeless, dark, and coarse slave clothes were intended to deprive women of their identity. Depersonalisation was also achieved by depriving slave women of their names and giving them numbers instead.
Women's strategies of survival and resistance.
National solidarity - through creating communities of mutual support nationally - was the most effective strategy for survival in the Gulag. Since women and men were kept separately, Ukrainian women created a gender-homogeneous community in which quasi-familial relationships (sisterly and mother-daughter) were formed and dominated by an ethic of care. Ukrainian women supported each other physically and materially (helping to meet production targets, sharing food and clothing), took care of health and safety (folk medicine, hospitalisation, protection from abuse and harassment), and provided emotional support (through conversations, consolation, etc.).
Women compensated for the brutality of the regime and the dehumanisation they experienced as prisoners by treating each other humanely. Ukrainians in the camps were united by the illegal ‘camp mail’ - a secret exchange of messages left by men and women in public places or at work.
Methods of preserving social identities in captivity.
Since the Gulag was aimed at destroying the personality of political prisoners, the task of the captives was not only to preserve their somatic health and survive physically, but also to preserve their selves and mental health, to remain women, Ukrainians, Christians, and convinced nationalists. Practices of normative femininity - activities based on gendered knowledge, skills, abilities, and perceptions - allowed women to maintain key social identities. By arranging their living space, keeping home and body hygiene, altering and mending clothes, and caring for their health, the women practised traditional female roles of housewife and woman-guardian.
Creative activities based on folk art (singing folk songs, embroidery) helped women maintain a connection with their local culture and had a therapeutic effect. Singing and embroidery also contributed to the consolidation of the Ukrainian community by defining a circle of ‘their own’. Religious practices (individual and group prayers, impromptu worship, celebration of Christian holidays, etc.) helped women maintain their faith and emotional, moral, and psychological state. Amateur poetry also had a similar effect: poems provided an outlet for complex thoughts and feelings and served as an oral diary, testifying to the experience of captivity. Despite the highly controversial nature of motherhood in captivity, separation from children proved to be a powerful stimulus to life, encouraging women to find the strength to go on living.
The translation from Ukrainian was created with the help of DeepL.
ВИЖИТИ ЗНАЧИТЬ ПЕРЕМОГТИ:ДЖЕРЕЛА СИЛИ УКРАЇНОК-ПОЛІТВ’ЯЗНІВ ГУЛАГУ - Genderculture Space
Watch on YouTube
