“Our brigade will not be sent to the front”: Soviet Women under Arms in the Great Fatherland War, 1941–45

Millions of male soldiers fought and died in World War II. Among all the combatant nations, however, the Soviet Union was unique, not only because of the five hundred thousand women soldiers who served in the Red Army but also because of its formation of all-female military units. Some of these women’s military formations have become the stuff of Soviet legend, woven into the hegemonic heroic narrative of the Red Army’s vanquishing of fascism. Most renowned, and best documented, are the three predominantly female aviation regiments, particularly the famous all-women’s “night witches” 46th Guards Women’s Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, recruited in October 1941.1 Much less well known, however, are the all-women’s infantry units formed in 1942, at a time when the Red Army was hemorrhaging male soldiers, notably the 1st Women’s Reserve Rifle Regiment and the 1st Separate Women’s Volunteer Rifle Brigade. This article traces the origins, development, and demise of the Rifle Brigade. In doing so it casts light on Red Army recruitment of women; their military induction and preparation; the conditions of daily life for women recruits; and gender relations in a male dominated military. The story it tells is in many respects a tragic one, exposing the dark underbelly of life for young women soldiers in Stalin’s under-resourced, brutal and patriarchal, military machine