Русское зазеркалье (двуязычная версия)

Soviet women had no problems in occupying prestigious or leading positions ever after the war. They became authors, singers, actors, state ministers, directors of state factories, heads of statistic bureaus, and so on. I guess that, once having been in the front line as a commanding officer, you would never have psychological difficulties in running a factory… In an urban family, Soviet women often prevailed over their husbands—in a mild manner suggesting that the husband still is ‘the breadwinner’ and the formal head of family but which would allow the wife to take all serious decisions. Some of you might have watched Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears, a 1980 Soviet film that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981. The main character of the film, Katerina, goes through a long process of both personal and career development during which period she has relationships with different men—all of them turn out to be either ‘bad guys’ or nonentities. Meanwhile, she is promoted to an executive director of a large factory. When she finally meets Gosha for whom ‘she had been looking for so long’ and who is by the way just a tool-and-die maker she doesn’t tell him about her professional position because she is afraid to hurt his pride. At one moment, Katerina makes an attempt at domination and rebukes Gosha for his behaviour with her grown-up daughter whom he had helped out of a difficult situation. Even though Alexandra gratefully accepts his help, her mother knows better what must be done and how it must be done. A very matriarchal behaviour, don’t you find? Gosha then leaves the apartment which is more or less unusual in itself: I guess all men Katerina had before him would most likely accept her dominance. Watch the film and learn how this story ends… The situation and the film in general precisely describe the ‘mild feminism’ of Soviet urban women that I am talking about.

Now, can you understand why such articles as Is Feminism in Russia a Mortal Sin? by Valeria Kostra-Kostritskytotally miss the point? Something which is a part of your everyday behaviour cannot possibly be a mortal sin—you must suffer from serious schizophrenia if it is. I do not want you to miss the point and to falsely see Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Maya Kristalinskaya, Anna German, or other such outstanding Soviet female artists as ‘suave little women,’ as shy and submissive conformists justifying patriarchal dominance. Nothing of the sort—and if you still cannot grasp why it is not so then I am very disappointed in you, or maybe very upset by my poor skills of a lecturer.

The song to which I want to draw your attention is a female song by its very nature, as it is a lyrical ballad whose heroine asks herself how she is supposed to live these few hours when her husband or partner is ‘flying on’—and ‘stars reach out to him their tenderness.’