Battling "unhealthy relations": Soviet youth sexuality as a political problem

Journal of Historical Sociology

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 397-416

  Livschiz, Ann ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 57649155041     PISSN: 09521909     EISSN: 14676443     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2008.00343.x     Document Type: Article

References (109)

1. We see a corresponding concern over American children and youth in the United States during the Cold War.
2. L. Attwood, "Women Workers at Play: the Portrayal of Leisure in the Magazine Rabotnitsa in the First Two Decades of Soviet Power," in Women in the Stalin Era, ed. M. Ilich (Palgrave, 2001), 40-43.
3. Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sotsial'no-Politicheskoi Istorii (RGASPI), f. M-1, op. 23, d. 443, l. 35.
4. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 346, l. 196.
5. Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sankt-Peterburga (TsGA SPb), f. 5039, op. 1, d. 15, l. 26. The idea of a "successful marriage" as a way to escape joining the labor force was seen as dangerously contrary to the proper outlook of a builder of socialism.
6. See, for example, "Seksual'naia revoliutsiia 20-kh godov," in S. I. Golod, XX vek I tendentsii seksual'nykh otnoshenli v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1996);
7. I. S. Kon, "Zapretnyi plod," in V chelovecheskom izmerenii (Moscow, 1989), 291-294;
8. E. Naiman, Sex in Public: The incarnation of Early Soviet Ideology (Princeton UP, 1997);
9. S. Fitzpatrick, "Sex and Revolution: An Examination of Literary and Statistical Data on the Mores of Soviet Students in the 1920s," JMH, Vol. 50, no. 2 (June 1978), pp. 252-278;
10. N. B. Lebina, Povsednevnaia zhizn' sovetskogo goroda 1920/1930 gody (St. Petersburg, 1999), esp. 270-275;
11. A. Gorsuch, Youth in Revolutionary Russia; Enthusiasts, Bohemians, Delinquents (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000).
12. Komsomol - Communist Youth League - an organization entrusted by the Communist party in 1922 with supervision over the Young Pioneers.
13. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 23, d. 454, ll. 24-25.
14. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 23, d. 882, l. 73.
15. Similarly, parents blamed youth organizations in Nazi Germany for corrupting their children and providing them with an opportunity to defy their parents, stay out late, and mix with members of the opposite sex. See R. Waite, "Teenage Sexuality in Nazi Germany," in Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 8, no. 3 (January 1998), 447;
16. G. Rempel, Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS (U of North Carolina Press, 1989), 50-51;
17. E. Heineman, Sexuality and Nazism: The Doubly Unspeakable? in Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 11, No. V1/2 (January-April 2002), 29-31.
18. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 23, d. 446.
19. Lebina, 275.
20. See also, W. Goldman, Women, the State, and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936 (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
21. T. G. Kiseleva, Zhenshchina i sem'ia v posleoktiabr'skii period (Moscow, 1995), 29. The idea of abstinence and of channeling sexual energy into political work was also heavily promoted in the 1920s.
22. Shul'gin, "K voprosu o polovom vospitanii," in Na putiakh k novoi shkole (1928), no. 12: 39;
23. A. Zalkind, "Polovoi vopros i trudnye deti," in Detskaia besprizornost' i detskli dom (Moscow, 1926).
24. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 27.
25. Recent scholarship points to the fact that perception of child sexuality as normal and healthy was a relatively new concept in the United States in the 1920s-1930s, although this normalization was "conditional and limited." (Hawkes and Egan, "Developing the Sexual Child," 1, 25)
26. At the same time, anxieties over sexualization of children were "clearly articulated in the first decades of the twentieth century." (Hawkes and Egan, "Developing the Sexual Child," 7, 30n10)
27. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 1.
28. The Soviets were not unique in viewing sexual and moral concerns in political terms. Nazi Germany makes for a good comparison (Waite, 474), but even in non-authoritarian regimes, the moral panic over the perceived or actual sexual practices of young people had important political and policy consequences.
29. TsGA IPD SPb, f. 24, op. 11, d. 20.
30. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 410, l. 63.
31. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 1, d. 15, ll. 48-51, 57-58.
32. Ibid., l. 136ob.
33. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 1, d. 21, l. 56ob. The standardization of the formulation in the different reports is also striking. From what we can gather from diaries of young people, notice from school officials would be the "kiss of death" for any budding relationship.
34. N. Lugovskaya, The Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl 1932-1937, trans. J. Turnbull (Glas, 2003).
35. TsGA IPD SPb, f. K-598, op. 2, d. 673,
36. RGASPI, f. 77, op. 1, d. 583,
37. TsGA SPb, f. 7384, op. 18, d. 863,
38. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 120, d. 237.
39. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 1, d. 15, l. 238.
40. TsGA SPb, f. 7384, op. 18, d. 863, l. 14.
41. I discuss the problems with the Soviet educational system in my dissertation "Growing Up Soviet: Childhood in the Soviet Union, 1918-1958."
42. Kon', "Sexuality and Politics," 10.
43. See, for example, L. Holmes, "Part of History: The Oral Record and Moscow's Model School no. 25, 1931-1937," Slavic Review, Volume 56, Issue 2, Summer 1997: 294.
44. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 1, d. 15, l. 40.
45. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 77, ll. 61ob-63ob.
46. Lebina, 275.
47. Sexual education and information on such things as birth control was not available for Soviet adults either. (Lebina, 285) A rare attempt to make information about menstruation available to girls was cut from the original manuscript. See RGALI, f. 630, op. l, d. 1878, ll. 98-99.
48. In studies conducted during the late 1920s, one frequently encounters triumphant statements about children and young people expressing no interest in sexual and erotic matters as a sign of progress. R. G. Vilenkina, "K kharakteristike nastroenii rabochego podrostka," in Pedologiia (1930), no. 1: 95-97;
49. A. K. Montelli, "Razvedka v oblast' interesov shkol'nikov vtoroi stupeni," in Pedologiia (1930), no. 1: 111, 117-118.
50. Original article - Soviet Pedagogy (1939), no. 6;
51. L. V. Plsareva, "Material dlia besed s uchashchimlsla o llchnoi gigiene i vzalmootnoshenilakh polov," Soviet Pedagogy (1941), no. 1: 65-77.
52. The emphasis on the moral dimension of sex education in the Soviet Union was similar to projects regarding sex instruction in the United States during this time. (Hawkes and Egan, "Childhood Sexuality," 15)
53. Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF), f. A-2306, op. 69, d. 2673, ll. 84-87.
54. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 23, d. 1473, l. 4.
55. Kon, "Sexuality and Politics," 10.
56. Though the decree was passed in 1943 and has been viewed as a wartime measure, its passing was actually delayed by Germany's invasion in June 1941. The implementation of this decree and its significance is discussed in greater detail in my dissertation.
57. Gorsuch, 185.
58. The shift from a sociological to a biological discourse occurred not only with gender, but with ethnicity during the same period. For the significance of the shift from sociological to biological, see A. Weiner, "Nature, Nurture, and Memory in a Socialist Utopia: Delineating the Soviet Socio-Ethnic Body in the Age of Socialism." AHR, Vol. 104, No. 4 (October, 1999): 1114-1155.
59. Soviet Pedagogy (1943), no. 5-6: 6; (1944), no. 4: 10-11. Sexual hygiene appeared to be the purview of young women only.
60. GARF, f. 5446, op. 44, d. 1088, l. 28.
61. Once it was deemed improper to have boys and girls mixing in the classroom of major urban areas, the implementation reports proved to be at times tragicomical. For example, the 1943 report on the Leningrad (a city under siege by the German Army since 1941 and recovering from a siege-related famine that wiped out almost a million inhabitants of the city) school network, admitted that severe artillery bombardment forced officials to reunite a boys' and girls' school in one building. The report hastened to add, however, that "the premises of each school are totally isolated, they have separate entrances, so that the boys and girls do not come into contact with each other." (TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 594, l. 93.)
62. GARF, f. 5446, op. 44, d. 1088, l. 24.
63. Ibid., l. 23.
64. Ibid., ll. 29-28.
65. Ibid., ll. 25-24.
66. GARF, f. A-2306, op. 69, d. 2954, l. 24.
67. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 125, d. 181, l. 52;
68. GARF, f. A-2306, op. 69, d. 2952, l. 66.
69. GARF, f. A-2306, op. 69, d. 2957, l. 7;
70. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 594, l. 94.
71. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 594, ll. 94ob-96.
72. Ibid.
73. Such extracurricular projects seemed to have been the norm in the early post-decree period. See, also Moskva poslevoennaia, 1945-1947. Arkhivnye dokumenty i materialy (Moscow: "Mosgorarkhiv," 2000), 602.
74. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 594, ll. 96-97. The obsession with female modesty is also an important component of many religious models of proper femininity. But even in a non-religious model of proper female sexual behavior, the emphasis on modesty is present.
75. (Hawkes and Egan, "Childhood Sexuality," 16)
76. It is important to note that a number of additional variables contributed to the violent and unstable environment in the boys' schools (overcrowding, high student-teacher ratio, and the score of health and development problems that were not being addressed).
77. TsGA SPb, f. 5039, op. 3, d. 815.
78. TsGA IPD SPb, f. K-598, op. 11, d. 301.
79. Poverty and attractive appearance were also seen as having potential to lead a girl into trouble. (RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 5, d. 349).
80. Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union, ed. T. Mamonova (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984).
81. B. Izlumskii, Alyepogony (Moscow, 1948), 249-251.
82. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 32, d. 704.
83. S. Lees, Losing Out: Sexuality and the Adolescent Girl (London: Hutchinson, 1983).
84. B. Aleksandrovskii, Druzhnoi sem'iei: iz opyta rabaty klassnol komsomol'skoi organizatsii v shkole (Novosibirsk, 1952).
85. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 5, d. 481.
86. For descriptions of improper boy-girl relationships, see TsGA IPD SPb, f. 24, op. 46, d. 39, ll. 2-3.
87. GARF, f. A-2306, op. 71, d. 721, l. 20.
88. Ibid., l. 13.
89. Ibid., ll. 32-33.
90. It appears that "pornography" referred to "dirty" notes and "dirty" pictures, whether hand-drawn or "procured" on the "street."
91. Ibid., l. 43.
92. Ibid., ll. 50-51.
93. For example, the publication of Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" in September 1953 in the United States, with its assertion that women were no less sexual than men, evoked a great deal of concern.
94. One could not expect a Stalinist policy to be reversed as long as he was alive, even if he lost interest in it. The process and its significance is discussed in my dissertation.
95. GARF, f. A-2306, op. 72, d. 3680, ll. 37-43.
96. Literary Gazette, 6 August 1953, p. 4.
97. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 5, d. 559, l. 5.
98. GARF, f. A-2306, op. 72, d. 3680, ll. 7-9.
99. RGASPI, f. M-1, op. 5, d. 559, l. 39. Similar sentiments were expressed on the eve of the war as well. Kon notes that after Stalin's death, the official attitude towards sexuality went from "brutal suppression" to "awkward taming."
100. (Kon, "Sexuality and Politics," 11)
101. For an example of improper attitude by teachers towards boy-girl friendships in Literary Gazette, 21 October 1954, p. 1.
102. For a discussion of the thaw, see N. Condee, "Cultural Codes of the Thaw," in Nikita Khrushchev. Ed. W. Taubman, S. Khrushchev and A. Gleason (Yale University Press, 2000). The critical approach to certain aspects of Soviet life did not end the desire to control and root out manifestations of youth sexuality by most of the educators.
103. We end up with a somewhat paradoxical situation, whereas in the West there existed a sexual discourse about shaping the future (Hawkes and Egan, "Childhood Sexuality," 3), the Soviet Union managed to conceptualize the future without sex.
104. Lebina, 288.
105. One interesting consequences of the de-sexualizing of Soviet girls is the introduction of school uniforms that remained the say through the Soviet period. It becomes quite noticeable when one looks at photographs of schoolgirls over time. A photograph in 1951 in magazine Rabotnitsa depicting a group of girls at a museum outing, could have just as well been taken in 1981 - the uniform styles and hair styles remained frozen in time. One contemporary artist (Dasha Fursey) appears to be dealing with the desexualization of the Pioneer girl figure. In her works, she takes the standard images of Pioneer girls and fills them with sexual Images.
106. Lebina, 276.
107. E. Weil, "Teaching Boys and Girls Separately," NYT March 2, 2008.
108. While the 1960s saw the publication of the first serious article about sexuality in Soviet Pedagogy, sex education did not appear in the Soviet Union until the 1980s. (Kon, "Polovala moral' v svete sotsiologii," Soviet Pedagogy, 1966, no. 12: 64-77).
109. I. Kon, "Sexual Culture and Politics in Contemporary Russia."