Private Matters Become Public: Western European Communist Exiles and Emigrants in Stalinist Russia in the 1930s

International Review of Social History

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 2003, Pages

  Studer, Brigitte ^a   Unfried, Berthold ^b,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BERN   (Switzerland)

^b ITH   (Austria)

^c NONE   (Austria)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0042378806     PISSN: 00208590     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0020859003001019     Document Type: Review

References (94)

1. 1. Margarete Steffin to Bertolt Brecht, Moscow, 23 June 1932, Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Archiv Literatury i Iskusstva (Russian State Archive for Literature and Art), Moscow: Fond 631, Soiuz pisatelei SSSR, opis 14: Inostrannaia komissiia, delo 392; recently published in Stefan Hauck (ed.), Margarete Steffin. Briefe an berühmte Männer, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Zweig (Hamburg, 1999), pp. 56-57.
2. 2. Further examples are given by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930S (New York [etc.], 1990), pp. 143-147.
3. Ibid., p. 143.
4. Robert Maier, "Von Pilotinnen, Melkerinnen und Heldenmüttern", in Matthias Vetter (ed.) Terroristische Diktaturen im 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt a. M., 1996), p. 69; cf. Igor Kon, The Sexual Revolution in Russia: From the Age of the Czars to Today (New York, 1995), p. 79.
5. Robert Maier, "Von Pilotinnen, Melkerinnen und Heldenmüttern", in Matthias Vetter (ed.) Terroristische Diktaturen im 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt a. M., 1996), p. 69; cf. Igor Kon, The Sexual Revolution in Russia: From the Age of the Czars to Today (New York, 1995), p. 79.
6. The decree "In Defence of Mother and Child" was published in Pravda on 26 May 1936. See Janet Evans, "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Women's Question: The Case of the 1936 Decree 'In Defence of Mother and Child'", Journal of Contemporary History, 16 (1981), pp. 757-775; Wendy Z. Goldman, "Women, the Family and the New Revolutionary Order in the Soviet Union", in Sonia Kruks et al (eds), Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism (New York, 1989), pp. 59-81; Wendy Z. Goldman, Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936 (Cambridge, 1993). On the history of the Zhenotdel, see Barbara Evans Clements, "The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel", Slavic Review, 51 (1992), pp. 485-496.
7. The decree "In Defence of Mother and Child" was published in Pravda on 26 May 1936. See Janet Evans, "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Women's Question: The Case of the 1936 Decree 'In Defence of Mother and Child'", Journal of Contemporary History, 16 (1981), pp. 757-775; Wendy Z. Goldman, "Women, the Family and the New Revolutionary Order in the Soviet Union", in Sonia Kruks et al (eds), Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism (New York, 1989), pp. 59-81; Wendy Z. Goldman, Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936 (Cambridge, 1993). On the history of the Zhenotdel, see Barbara Evans Clements, "The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel", Slavic Review, 51 (1992), pp. 485-496.
8. The decree "In Defence of Mother and Child" was published in Pravda on 26 May 1936. See Janet Evans, "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Women's Question: The Case of the 1936 Decree 'In Defence of Mother and Child'", Journal of Contemporary History, 16 (1981), pp. 757-775; Wendy Z. Goldman, "Women, the Family and the New Revolutionary Order in the Soviet Union", in Sonia Kruks et al (eds), Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism (New York, 1989), pp. 59-81; Wendy Z. Goldman, Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936 (Cambridge, 1993). On the history of the Zhenotdel, see Barbara Evans Clements, "The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel", Slavic Review, 51 (1992), pp. 485-496.
9. The decree "In Defence of Mother and Child" was published in Pravda on 26 May 1936. See Janet Evans, "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Women's Question: The Case of the 1936 Decree 'In Defence of Mother and Child'", Journal of Contemporary History, 16 (1981), pp. 757-775; Wendy Z. Goldman, "Women, the Family and the New Revolutionary Order in the Soviet Union", in Sonia Kruks et al (eds), Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism (New York, 1989), pp. 59-81; Wendy Z. Goldman, Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936 (Cambridge, 1993). On the history of the Zhenotdel, see Barbara Evans Clements, "The Utopianism of the Zhenotdel", Slavic Review, 51 (1992), pp. 485-496.
10. On this official line of argument see Anna Köbberling, Das Klischee der Sowjetfrau: Stereotyp und Selbstverständnis Moskauer Frauen zwischen Stalinismus und Perestroika (Frankfurt a. M., 1997). P. 42.
11. 7. Susanne Conze, Sowjetische Industriearbeiterinnen in den vierziger Jahren. Die Auswirkungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges auf die Erwerbstätigkeit von Frauen in der UdSSR, 1941-1950 (Stuttgart, 2001), p. 17; Marcelline Hutton, Russian and Soviet Women, 1897-1939: Dreams, Struggles and Nightmares (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1986), pp. 5-6; Manfred Hildermeier, Geschickte der Sowjetunion 1917-1991, Entstehung und Niedergang des ersten sozialistischen Staates (Munich, 1998), p. 513, gives a higher percentage (43.3 per cent for 1939), presumably because Hildermeier includes more professions and activities in his category of "workers".
12. 7. Susanne Conze, Sowjetische Industriearbeiterinnen in den vierziger Jahren. Die Auswirkungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges auf die Erwerbstätigkeit von Frauen in der UdSSR, 1941-1950 (Stuttgart, 2001), p. 17; Marcelline Hutton, Russian and Soviet Women, 1897-1939: Dreams, Struggles and Nightmares (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1986), pp. 5-6; Manfred Hildermeier, Geschickte der Sowjetunion 1917-1991, Entstehung und Niedergang des ersten sozialistischen Staates (Munich, 1998), p. 513, gives a higher percentage (43.3 per cent for 1939), presumably because Hildermeier includes more professions and activities in his category of "workers".
13. 7. Susanne Conze, Sowjetische Industriearbeiterinnen in den vierziger Jahren. Die Auswirkungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges auf die Erwerbstätigkeit von Frauen in der UdSSR, 1941-1950 (Stuttgart, 2001), p. 17; Marcelline Hutton, Russian and Soviet Women, 1897-1939: Dreams, Struggles and Nightmares (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1986), pp. 5-6; Manfred Hildermeier, Geschickte der Sowjetunion 1917-1991, Entstehung und Niedergang des ersten sozialistischen Staates (Munich, 1998), p. 513, gives a higher percentage (43.3 per cent for 1939), presumably because Hildermeier includes more professions and activities in his category of "workers".
14. Citations from Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, p. 143.
15. Reinhard Müller (ed.), Die Säuberung. Moskau 1936: Stenogramm einer geschlossenen Parteiversammlung (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1991), p. 404.
16. On the German and Austrian emigration to the Soviet Union see Carola Tischler, Flucht in die Verfolgung. Deutsche Emigranten im sowjetischen Exil 1933-1945 (Munster, 1996); Reinhard Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau. Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung (Hamburg, 2001); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek (eds), Österreicher im Exil Sowjetunion 1934-1945. Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1999); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek, "Die österreichische Emigration in die UdSSR bis 1938", in Traude Horvath and Gerda Neyer (eds), Auswanderungen aus Österreich. Von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna [etc.], 1996), pp. 163-185; Barry McLoughlin, Hans Schafranek, and Walter Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation. Österreicherinnen und Österreicher in der Sowjetunion 1925-1945 (Vienna, 1997).
17. On the German and Austrian emigration to the Soviet Union see Carola Tischler, Flucht in die Verfolgung. Deutsche Emigranten im sowjetischen Exil 1933-1945 (Munster, 1996); Reinhard Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau. Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung (Hamburg, 2001); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek (eds), Österreicher im Exil Sowjetunion 1934-1945. Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1999); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek, "Die österreichische Emigration in die UdSSR bis 1938", in Traude Horvath and Gerda Neyer (eds), Auswanderungen aus Österreich. Von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna [etc.], 1996), pp. 163-185; Barry McLoughlin, Hans Schafranek, and Walter Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation. Österreicherinnen und Österreicher in der Sowjetunion 1925-1945 (Vienna, 1997).
18. On the German and Austrian emigration to the Soviet Union see Carola Tischler, Flucht in die Verfolgung. Deutsche Emigranten im sowjetischen Exil 1933-1945 (Munster, 1996); Reinhard Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau. Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung (Hamburg, 2001); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek (eds), Österreicher im Exil Sowjetunion 1934-1945. Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1999); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek, "Die österreichische Emigration in die UdSSR bis 1938", in Traude Horvath and Gerda Neyer (eds), Auswanderungen aus Österreich. Von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna [etc.], 1996), pp. 163-185; Barry McLoughlin, Hans Schafranek, and Walter Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation. Österreicherinnen und Österreicher in der Sowjetunion 1925-1945 (Vienna, 1997).
19. On the German and Austrian emigration to the Soviet Union see Carola Tischler, Flucht in die Verfolgung. Deutsche Emigranten im sowjetischen Exil 1933-1945 (Munster, 1996); Reinhard Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau. Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung (Hamburg, 2001); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek (eds), Österreicher im Exil Sowjetunion 1934-1945. Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1999); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek, "Die österreichische Emigration in die UdSSR bis 1938", in Traude Horvath and Gerda Neyer (eds), Auswanderungen aus Österreich. Von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna [etc.], 1996), pp. 163-185; Barry McLoughlin, Hans Schafranek, and Walter Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation. Österreicherinnen und Österreicher in der Sowjetunion 1925-1945 (Vienna, 1997).
20. On the German and Austrian emigration to the Soviet Union see Carola Tischler, Flucht in die Verfolgung. Deutsche Emigranten im sowjetischen Exil 1933-1945 (Munster, 1996); Reinhard Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau. Exil und stalinistische Verfolgung (Hamburg, 2001); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek (eds), Österreicher im Exil Sowjetunion 1934-1945. Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1999); Barry McLoughlin and Hans Schafranek, "Die österreichische Emigration in die UdSSR bis 1938", in Traude Horvath and Gerda Neyer (eds), Auswanderungen aus Österreich. Von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna [etc.], 1996), pp. 163-185; Barry McLoughlin, Hans Schafranek, and Walter Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation. Österreicherinnen und Österreicher in der Sowjetunion 1925-1945 (Vienna, 1997).
21. For a wider discussion of the political communist emigration from western and central Europe to the Soviet Union in the 1930S, and its experiences of cultural practices in the Soviet Communist Party, see Brigitte Studer and Berthold Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader. Identitätsstiftende Praktiken und Diskurse in der Sowjetunion der dreißiger Jahre (Cologne [etc.], 2001).
22. See e.g. the collective letter from the women of Dnepropetrovsk Oblast to the Central Committee of the Party on "alimony and libertinism", 1936, in Lewis Siegelbaum and Andrei Sokolov, Stalinism as a Way of Life: A Narrative in Documents (New Haven, CT, 2000), p. 199. Wendy Goldman also stresses this point in Women, the State, and Revolution, pp. 327-331.
23. See e.g. the collective letter from the women of Dnepropetrovsk Oblast to the Central Committee of the Party on "alimony and libertinism", 1936, in Lewis Siegelbaum and Andrei Sokolov, Stalinism as a Way of Life: A Narrative in Documents (New Haven, CT, 2000), p. 199. Wendy Goldman also stresses this point in Women, the State, and Revolution, pp. 327-331.
24. "Kameradschaft in der proletarischen Ehe. Durch sozialistische Produktionsverhältnisse zur sozialistischen Lebensweise. Zehn Frauen antworten", DZZ, 3 July 1935.
25. "Die Frau als Kamerad. Meine Ehe im Lande des Sozialismus", DZZ, 21 June 1935.
26. "Ein guter Kamerad", DZZ, 1 April 1936.
27. McLoughlin, Schafranek, and Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation, p. 181.
28. Rosa Puhm, Eine Trennung in Gorki (Vienna, 1990), p. 76.
29. McLoughlin, Schafranek, and Szevera, Aufbruch-Hoffnung-Endstation, p. 171, quoting the Schutzbündler, Alois B.
30. "Menschen, die nicht umgelernt haben. Schutzbündler-Ehen, wie sie nicht sein sollen", DZZ, 21 June 1935; DZZ, 3 July 1935; McLoughlin, Schafranek and Szevera, AufbruchHoffnung-Endstation, p. 272.
31. "Menschen, die nicht umgelernt haben. Schutzbündler-Ehen, wie sie nicht sein sollen", DZZ, 21 June 1935; DZZ, 3 July 1935; McLoughlin, Schafranek and Szevera, AufbruchHoffnung-Endstation, p. 272.
32. "Menschen, die nicht umgelernt haben. Schutzbündler-Ehen, wie sie nicht sein sollen", DZZ, 21 June 1935; DZZ, 3 July 1935; McLoughlin, Schafranek and Szevera, AufbruchHoffnung-Endstation, p. 272.
33. Cited in ibid., p. 270.
34. "Menschen, die nicht umgelernt haben. Schutzbündler-Ehen, wie sie nicht sein sollen", DZZ, 21 June 1935.
35. On the importance of this metaphor see Katerina Clark, The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual (Chicago, IL [etc.], 1981), pp. 115-124. Despite the unity suggested by this family image of the Party, this was far from being the case. Cf. J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov (eds), The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939 (New Haven, CT [etc.], 1999).
36. On the importance of this metaphor see Katerina Clark, The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual (Chicago, IL [etc.], 1981), pp. 115-124. Despite the unity suggested by this family image of the Party, this was far from being the case. Cf. J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov (eds), The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939 (New Haven, CT [etc.], 1999).
37. More specifically on the various aspects of "criticism, and self-criticism", see Berthold Unfried, "Die Konstituierung des stalinistischen Kaders in 'Kritik und Selbstkritik'", Traverse, 3 (1995), pp. 71-88; Studer and Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader, pp. 149-191; Berthold Unfried, "Selbstkritik im Stalinismus. Erziehungsmittel und Form des Terrors", in Wladislaw Hedeier (ed.), Stalinischer Terror 1934-41 (Berlin, 2002), pp. 159-178.
38. More specifically on the various aspects of "criticism, and self-criticism", see Berthold Unfried, "Die Konstituierung des stalinistischen Kaders in 'Kritik und Selbstkritik'", Traverse, 3 (1995), pp. 71-88; Studer and Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader, pp. 149-191; Berthold Unfried, "Selbstkritik im Stalinismus. Erziehungsmittel und Form des Terrors", in Wladislaw Hedeier (ed.), Stalinischer Terror 1934-41 (Berlin, 2002), pp. 159-178.
39. More specifically on the various aspects of "criticism, and self-criticism", see Berthold Unfried, "Die Konstituierung des stalinistischen Kaders in 'Kritik und Selbstkritik'", Traverse, 3 (1995), pp. 71-88; Studer and Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader, pp. 149-191; Berthold Unfried, "Selbstkritik im Stalinismus. Erziehungsmittel und Form des Terrors", in Wladislaw Hedeier (ed.), Stalinischer Terror 1934-41 (Berlin, 2002), pp. 159-178.
40. This aspect of the "purges" is analysed for the Russian province by Sheila Fitzpatrick, "How the Mice Buried the Cat: Scenes from the Great Purges of 1937 in the Russian Provinces", The Russian Review, 52 (1993), pp. 299-320. Fitzpatrick's interpretation of 1937 rural "purges" as upside-down "carnivals" that gave peasant "mice" the opportunity to attack local bureaucratic "cats", has been firmly questioned by Michael Ellman in "The Soviet 1937 Provincial Show Trials: Carnival or Terror?", Europe-Asia Studies, 8 (2001), pp. 1221-1233. Among other things, he argues that "the peasants were merely minor characters in a play written by someone else" (p. 1226). This is not the place to give an appraisal of this debate, although we agree that recent evidence shows the central planning and organization of the Great Terror. However, Ellman's critique does not touch the core of our argumentation, situated on micro-levels: that Party practices like "criticism and self-criticism" opened a margin to criticize abuses of superiors and, in certain circumstances, have them toppled. Examples of such hierarchy-toppling effects are found in Berthold Unfried, "L'autocritique dans les milieux kominterniens des années 1930", in Claude Pennetier and Bernard Pudal (eds), Autobiographie, autocritique, aveux dans le monde communiste (Paris, 2002), pp. 58-61. Evidence on the use of centrally initiated terror to reverse hierarchies in local power conflicts is given by Alexandr Vatiin in "Stalinscher Terror im Rayonmaßstab. Das Beispiel Kunzewo", in Hedeier, Stalinscher Terror, pp. 51-68.
41. This aspect of the "purges" is analysed for the Russian province by Sheila Fitzpatrick, "How the Mice Buried the Cat: Scenes from the Great Purges of 1937 in the Russian Provinces", The Russian Review, 52 (1993), pp. 299-320. Fitzpatrick's interpretation of 1937 rural "purges" as upside-down "carnivals" that gave peasant "mice" the opportunity to attack local bureaucratic "cats", has been firmly questioned by Michael Ellman in "The Soviet 1937 Provincial Show Trials: Carnival or Terror?", Europe-Asia Studies, 8 (2001), pp. 1221-1233. Among other things, he argues that "the peasants were merely minor characters in a play written by someone else" (p. 1226). This is not the place to give an appraisal of this debate, although we agree that recent evidence shows the central planning and organization of the Great Terror. However, Ellman's critique does not touch the core of our argumentation, situated on micro-levels: that Party practices like "criticism and self-criticism" opened a margin to criticize abuses of superiors and, in certain circumstances, have them toppled. Examples of such hierarchy-toppling effects are found in Berthold Unfried, "L'autocritique dans les milieux kominterniens des années 1930", in Claude Pennetier and Bernard Pudal (eds), Autobiographie, autocritique, aveux dans le monde communiste (Paris, 2002), pp. 58-61. Evidence on the use of centrally initiated terror to reverse hierarchies in local power conflicts is given by Alexandr Vatiin in "Stalinscher Terror im Rayonmaßstab. Das Beispiel Kunzewo", in Hedeier, Stalinscher Terror, pp. 51-68.
42. This aspect of the "purges" is analysed for the Russian province by Sheila Fitzpatrick, "How the Mice Buried the Cat: Scenes from the Great Purges of 1937 in the Russian Provinces", The Russian Review, 52 (1993), pp. 299-320. Fitzpatrick's interpretation of 1937 rural "purges" as upside-down "carnivals" that gave peasant "mice" the opportunity to attack local bureaucratic "cats", has been firmly questioned by Michael Ellman in "The Soviet 1937 Provincial Show Trials: Carnival or Terror?", Europe-Asia Studies, 8 (2001), pp. 1221-1233. Among other things, he argues that "the peasants were merely minor characters in a play written by someone else" (p. 1226). This is not the place to give an appraisal of this debate, although we agree that recent evidence shows the central planning and organization of the Great Terror. However, Ellman's critique does not touch the core of our argumentation, situated on micro-levels: that Party practices like "criticism and self-criticism" opened a margin to criticize abuses of superiors and, in certain circumstances, have them toppled. Examples of such hierarchy-toppling effects are found in Berthold Unfried, "L'autocritique dans les milieux kominterniens des années 1930", in Claude Pennetier and Bernard Pudal (eds), Autobiographie, autocritique, aveux dans le monde communiste (Paris, 2002), pp. 58-61. Evidence on the use of centrally initiated terror to reverse hierarchies in local power conflicts is given by Alexandr Vatiin in "Stalinscher Terror im Rayonmaßstab. Das Beispiel Kunzewo", in Hedeier, Stalinscher Terror, pp. 51-68.
43. This aspect of the "purges" is analysed for the Russian province by Sheila Fitzpatrick, "How the Mice Buried the Cat: Scenes from the Great Purges of 1937 in the Russian Provinces", The Russian Review, 52 (1993), pp. 299-320. Fitzpatrick's interpretation of 1937 rural "purges" as upside-down "carnivals" that gave peasant "mice" the opportunity to attack local bureaucratic "cats", has been firmly questioned by Michael Ellman in "The Soviet 1937 Provincial Show Trials: Carnival or Terror?", Europe-Asia Studies, 8 (2001), pp. 1221-1233. Among other things, he argues that "the peasants were merely minor characters in a play written by someone else" (p. 1226). This is not the place to give an appraisal of this debate, although we agree that recent evidence shows the central planning and organization of the Great Terror. However, Ellman's critique does not touch the core of our argumentation, situated on micro-levels: that Party practices like "criticism and self-criticism" opened a margin to criticize abuses of superiors and, in certain circumstances, have them toppled. Examples of such hierarchy-toppling effects are found in Berthold Unfried, "L'autocritique dans les milieux kominterniens des années 1930", in Claude Pennetier and Bernard Pudal (eds), Autobiographie, autocritique, aveux dans le monde communiste (Paris, 2002), pp. 58-61. Evidence on the use of centrally initiated terror to reverse hierarchies in local power conflicts is given by Alexandr Vatiin in "Stalinscher Terror im Rayonmaßstab. Das Beispiel Kunzewo", in Hedeier, Stalinscher Terror, pp. 51-68.
44. Purge October 1933, RGASPI (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi archiv social'noi i politicheskoi istorii), 546/1/228.
45. Complaint of 24 June 1932, RGASPI, 546/1/252; other colourful cases in Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, pp. 144-146.
46. Complaint of 24 June 1932, RGASPI, 546/1/252; other colourful cases in Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism, pp. 144-146.
47. Protocol no. 15 of the purge commission of Mezhrabpom Film, September 1933, RGASPI, 538/3/156.
48. Other cases in Lisa Granik, "The Trials of the Proletarka: Sexual Harassment Claims in the 19205", in Peter Solomon (ed.), Reforming Justice in Russia, 1864-1996: Power, Culture, and the Limits of Legal Order (Armonk, NY [etc.], 1997, pp. 144-150. Granik concludes, however, that such women's complaints generally had weak tangible results.
49. The tribunal in the above cited letter of Steffin to Brecht may have been a factory (or comrades')-court. Those lay courts had been established in 1928 in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, and in order to relieve ordinary courts of minor disputes. See Peter Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice Under Stalin (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 66-67; cf. also Oleg Kharkhordin, The Collective and the Individual in Soviet Russia: A Study of Background Practices (Cambridge, MA, 1999), pp. 282-285.
50. The tribunal in the above cited letter of Steffin to Brecht may have been a factory (or comrades')-court. Those lay courts had been established in 1928 in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, and in order to relieve ordinary courts of minor disputes. See Peter Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice Under Stalin (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 66-67; cf. also Oleg Kharkhordin, The Collective and the Individual in Soviet Russia: A Study of Background Practices (Cambridge, MA, 1999), pp. 282-285.
51. Examples in Unfried, "Die Konstituierung"; Studer and Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader, pp. 149-167.
52. Examples in Unfried, "Die Konstituierung"; Studer and Unfried, Der stalinistische Parteikader, pp. 149-167.
53. Cf. Brigitte Studer and Berthold Unfried, "'Das Private ist öffentlich'. Mittel und Formen stalinistischer Identitätsbildung", Historische Anthropologie, 6:1 (1999), pp. 83-108.
54. On this disposition to change one's habitus to "work on oneself", see Brigitte Studer, "L'être perfectible. La formation du cadre stalinien par le 'travail sur soi'", Genèses, 50 (2003), pp. 92-113.
55. Minutes of Sector "Ya" meeting, 27-28 November 1937, RGASPI, 531/1/227:56-61. As the assembly took place in connection with the dismissal of Klavdija Kirsanova as school rector, the students used the opportunity to take revenge on her and her officials, condemning in particular the "high-handed and bureaucratic" nature of her rule.
56. Resolution of the purge commission of sector "I" of the International Lenin School, 23 November 1933, RGASPI, 531/2/67.
57. Protocol of German sector meeting of the Communist University of National Minorities of the West (CUNMW), 13 April 1935, RGASPI, 529/2/454.
58. Protocol German sector meeting CUNMW, 28 September 1933, Discussion, RGASPI, 529/1/544.
59. Rabotnica, 6 (1936), p. 4, cited in Maier, "Von Pilotinnen", p. 74.
60. Rabotnica, 6 (1936), p. 4, cited in Maier, "Von Pilotinnen", p. 74.
61. "Sehnsucht nach Mutterschaft", DZZ, 3 July 1935.
62. Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung, 6 February 1936. Ironically, Neher's child grew up as an orphan, his mother and his father being arrested "enemies". The father was shot shortly thereafter, while Neher died in a camp.
63. "Sehnsucht nach Mutterschaft", DZZ, 3 July 1935. For this particular model of femininity combining motherhood and employment see Brigitte Studer, "La femme nouvelle", in Le siècle des communisme (Paris, 2000), pp. 377-387.
64. "Sehnsucht nach Mutterschaft", DZZ, 3 July 1935. For this particular model of femininity combining motherhood and employment see Brigitte Studer, "La femme nouvelle", in Le siècle des communisme (Paris, 2000), pp. 377-387.
65. Anja Schindler, "Mit der Internationale durch das Brandenburger Tor"; Martha Ruben-Wolf (1887-1939), in Ulla Plener, Leben mit Hoffnung in Pein: Frauenschicksale unter Stalin (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1997), p. 47. Ruben-Wolf's and her husband's fate is somehow emblematic for a whole stratum of progressive emigrants to Soviet Russia who had hoped to see their ideals realized in the society in construction there. Her husband was arrested as a participant of a "physicians' conspiracy" and perished in a camp. Finding herself in a desperate situation, she committed suicide; ibid., p. 50.
66. Anja Schindler, "Mit der Internationale durch das Brandenburger Tor"; Martha Ruben-Wolf (1887-1939), in Ulla Plener, Leben mit Hoffnung in Pein: Frauenschicksale unter Stalin (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1997), p. 47. Ruben-Wolf's and her husband's fate is somehow emblematic for a whole stratum of progressive emigrants to Soviet Russia who had hoped to see their ideals realized in the society in construction there. Her husband was arrested as a participant of a "physicians' conspiracy" and perished in a camp. Finding herself in a desperate situation, she committed suicide; ibid., p. 50.
67. Ervin Sinkó, a Hungarian writer in residence at the Soviet Union noted (1935) in his diary that, to his utmost astonishment, Friedrich Wolf, a well-known German communist physician, who had some days before proudly presented his Moscow abortion clinic, now publicly demanded its ban in a Pravda article; Ervin Sinkó, Roman eines Romans, Moskauer Tagebuch 1935-1937 (Cologne, 1962, repr. Berlin, 1990), p. 108.
68. Examples in McLoughlin, Schafranek, and Szevera, Auftruch-Hoffnung-Endstation, pp. 273-274.
69. Ibid., p. 275.
70. Puhm, Eine Trennung in Gorki, pp. 74-75.
71. 46. Ibid..
72. Quoted in Ulla Plener, "Eine brach mit der zähen Hoffnung. Wanda Bronska 1911-1972, in Plener, Leben, 95 (21 May 1938).
73. Quoted in Ulla Plener, "Eine brach mit der zähen Hoffnung. Wanda Bronska 1911-1972, in Plener, Leben, 95 (21 May 1938).
74. Report on the situation and Party work in the ILS, 19 December 1936, RGASPI, 531/2/42.
75. There were exceptions. In 1937, propaganda brochures warned against women in secret services, see e.g. L. Zakovskii, Shpionov, diversantov i vreditelei unichtozhim do koncat (Moscow 1937), pp. 22-24.
76. Protocol general assembly ILS, 22/23 November 1937, RGASPI, 531/1/120.
77. Protocol of closed Party assembly ILS, 19 November 1937, RGASPI, 531/2/45.
78. Numbers of victims broken down by sex are still sparse. See J. Arch Getty, Gábor T. Rittersporn, and Viktor N. Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence", The American Historical Review, 98 (1993), pp. 1017-1049, here 1025. During the war years the number of female victims rose to more than 40 per cent; ibid. On the fate of old Bolsheviks, see Barbara Evans Clements, Bolshevik Women (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 280-281.
79. Numbers of victims broken down by sex are still sparse. See J. Arch Getty, Gábor T. Rittersporn, and Viktor N. Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence", The American Historical Review, 98 (1993), pp. 1017-1049, here 1025. During the war years the number of female victims rose to more than 40 per cent; ibid. On the fate of old Bolsheviks, see Barbara Evans Clements, Bolshevik Women (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 280-281.
80. Numerous tragic examples are to be found in the life stories of female German emigrants collected by Elfriede Brüning, Lästige Zeugen: Tonbandgespräche mit Opfern der Stalinzeit (Halle [etc.], 1990). For a typical case, cf. the memoirs of Trade Richter, Totgesagt (Halle [etc.], 1990). A well-known example is the case of Bukharin's wife. See her memoirs for an account of the internment in a "wives' camp"; Anna Larina, That I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin's Widow, Introduction by Stephen F. Cohen (New York [etc.], 1993), pp. 43-44.
81. Numerous tragic examples are to be found in the life stories of female German emigrants collected by Elfriede Brüning, Lästige Zeugen: Tonbandgespräche mit Opfern der Stalinzeit (Halle [etc.], 1990). For a typical case, cf. the memoirs of Trade Richter, Totgesagt (Halle [etc.], 1990). A well-known example is the case of Bukharin's wife. See her memoirs for an account of the internment in a "wives' camp"; Anna Larina, That I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin's Widow, Introduction by Stephen F. Cohen (New York [etc.], 1993), pp. 43-44.
82. Numerous tragic examples are to be found in the life stories of female German emigrants collected by Elfriede Brüning, Lästige Zeugen: Tonbandgespräche mit Opfern der Stalinzeit (Halle [etc.], 1990). For a typical case, cf. the memoirs of Trade Richter, Totgesagt (Halle [etc.], 1990). A well-known example is the case of Bukharin's wife. See her memoirs for an account of the internment in a "wives' camp"; Anna Larina, That I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin's Widow, Introduction by Stephen F. Cohen (New York [etc.], 1993), pp. 43-44.
83. There are many examples of this. To mention just one, the diary for the years 1937 and 1938 of the Leningrad artist Lyubov Vasilievna Shaporina is filled with cases of female friends identified as "wives of an enemy of the people"; Véronique Garros, Natalia Korenevskaya, and Thomas Lahusen (eds), Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 193 os (New York, 199 5), pp. 354-358.
84. Oleg Khlevnyuk, "The Objectives of the Great Terror", in Julian Cooper, Maureen Perrie, and E.A. Rees (eds), Soviet History 1917-1953: Essays in Honour of R. W. Davies (New York, 1995), pp. 158-176, here 160.
85. 56. The order is published in Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau, pp. 448-454, here 449. It also contains the instructions concerning the children who were to be put in an orphanage. An order issued by Berija in October 1938, according to which wives could only be arrested if they themselves were suspected of counter-revolutionary activity, marked a turning point.
86. The story is told by Getty and Naumov, The Road to Terror, pp. 4-5. On the treatment of the children of the arrested sec Corinna Kuhr, "Children of 'Enemies of the People' as Victims of the Great Purges", Cahiers du Monde russe, 39 (1998), pp. 1-2, 209-120.
87. The story is told by Getty and Naumov, The Road to Terror, pp. 4-5. On the treatment of the children of the arrested sec Corinna Kuhr, "Children of 'Enemies of the People' as Victims of the Great Purges", Cahiers du Monde russe, 39 (1998), pp. 1-2, 209-120.
88. 58. Sergej Zhuravlev, "Malenkie liudi" i "bol'shaia istoriia,": Inostrancy Moskovskogo Elektrozavoda. v sovetskom obshcbaestve 1920ch-1930ch godach (Moscow, 2000), pp. 322-333, 333.
89. Protocol no. 11 of the meeting of the Party Committee of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism (IML), 17 May 1937, TsAOD (Tsentral'nyi archiv obshchestvennych dvizhenii), 212/1/42.
90. Protocol no. 9 of the general closed meeting of the Party Committee of IML, 20 July 1937, TsAOD 212/1/41.
91. Letter from A. Heinrich, 29 January 1935, RGASPI, 546/1/252.
92. Nelly Held, Ohne Scham, Marianne Krumrey (ed.) (Berlin, 1990), p. 124.
93. Ruth von Mayenburg, Hotel Lux (Munich, 1978).
94. Only one example: the case of the leading German communist Werner Hirsch, who was not only accused of a sinister political past and present, but also of a bourgeois life-style, doubtful personal networks, and affairs with women. See Müller, Menschenfalle Moskau, p. 363.