Women's Magazine "Rabotnitsa" in the Soviet Propaganda System (1941–1945)

The role of press in the Soviet experience was significant, women’s magazines did not just educate workers, peasants, housewives, they also maintained a dialogue between women and government, which was often unilateral and dictatorial. Currently the Soviet press can be studied as an illustration of the party requirements encoded in photos, narrative, news and advertisement. The first legal Bolshevik magazine «Rabotnitsa» was created in 1914 with purpose to spread their ideas among women, enlighten them in political and social issues. Due to an extensive source base and great diversity of the thematic magazines in cultural circulation of that time, female print of 1920-1930-s is explored sufficiently. However, the period of the Great Patriotic War and its influence on the formation of women life values is still a white spot in the history of Soviet culture. This study applies to the magazine «Rabotnitsa» as a representative source for the analysis of the Party’s policy in relation to women wherethrough circulation of this periodical issue in wartime fluctuated from 75 thousand to 400 thousand copies. These figures are impressive in comparison with magazine «Krestyanka» which seldom exceeded a mark of 100 thousand copies. The general purpose of this study is to present the contextual analysis of wartime issues of the magazine «Rabotnitsa» and reconstruct the process of creation with editorial drafts, circular letters, manuscripts of literary circle and critical reviews of party members and professional writers.