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Girls in Combat: Zoia Kosmodem'ianskaia and the Image of Young Soviet Wartime Heroines
Author(s) -
TIPPNER ANJA
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the russian review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9434
pISSN - 0036-0341
DOI - 10.1111/russ.10736
Subject(s) - girl , curiosity , innocence , emancipation , gender studies , literature , sociology , art , psychology , political science , psychoanalysis , law , social psychology , developmental psychology , politics
This article explores the literary stylization of adolescent girls as wartime heroes and martyrs. The most famous Soviet adolescent girl heroes of World War II were Zoia Kosmodem'ianskaia, Liza Chaikina, or Zinaida Portnova, but Zoia's short life more than any was transformed into an inspirational story for young Soviet readers. She was presented as the perfect female embodiment of the Stalinist values of innocence, youth, altruism, impatience, intellectual curiosity, modesty, and above of all, strong willpower. I demonstrate how the stories about Zoia and other girl fighters became iconic in Soviet culture, and how the following generations of Soviet girls were expected to emulate them. Zoia's story conceptualized life experiences of girls who were both exceptional and ordinary and projected a vivid picture of the Soviet understanding of emancipation, gender equality and progress.