Women's practices of everyday life in the conditions of the Ukrainian village in the first years of post-war reconstruction (1944–1947)

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Westfдlische Wilhelms-Universitдt (WWU)

Women's practices of everyday life in the conditions of the Ukrainian village in the first years of post-war reconstruction (1944-1947)

Galyna Starodubets

Mьnster

Abstract

The purpose of article is to use the example of Zhytomyr Oblast and describe the daily survival practices of women collective farmers in the conditions of the reconstruction of the collective farm system and the famine of 1946-1947 and the peculiarities of their perception of those transformational processes, which they were witnesses and participants of.

Scientific novelty. The topic of everyday life in the Ukrainian village in the period of late Stalinism is considered from the aspect of experience of Ukrainian collective farmers women for the first time in Ukrainian historiography.

Conclusion. The core of the post-war reconstruction of the Ukrainian village was the restoration of the collective farm system. Given the changes in the demographic situation caused by the war and the German occupation of Ukrainian territories, women were the main mobilization resource for replenishing the ranks of collective farm workers. The memories of peasant women/peasants of Zhytomyr region provide grounds for the conclusion that in the period under study, the collective farm system had a distinctly discriminatory nature for women. Labor relations in the structure of the collective farm, which during the famine of 1946-1947 had a repressive character, had a dominant influence on the everyday lifestyle of the rural family.

According to the stories of our respondents, in the period we studied, the responsibility for the survival of the family mostly rested on the woman-mother. In historiography, this status of hers is usually called 'double burden'. There have been certain changes in the spatial and temporal dimensions of women's everyday life. The woman had to combine hard work in the collective farm with work in the household and care and upbringing of children. During the famine of 1946-1947, women's survival practices to some extent depended on her status: either she was a `widow' (the breadwinner of the family) or 'had a husband' (responsibility for providing for the family was shared between spouses). In general, it can be confidently asserted that the strategies of everyday behavior of the peasants in the first years of post-war reconstruction had a clear imprint of gender-colored labeling.

Keywords. Collective farm, collective farmer, everyday life, woman, peasant, famine, working day (trudoden')

Анотація

Жіночі практики повсякдення в умовах українського села перших років післявоєнної відбудови (1944-1947 рр.)

Вестфальський університет імені Вільгельма (Мюнстер, Німеччина)

Мета статті - на прикладі Житомирщини охарактеризувати практики повсякденного про/виживання жінок-колгоспниць в умовах відбудови колгоспної системи і голоду 1946-1947 років та особливості сприйняття ними тих трансформаційних процесів, свідками й учасниками яких вони були.

Наукова новизна полягає у тому, що вперше в українській історіографії тема повсякдення українського села у період пізнього сталінізму розглядається з точки зору проживання його українськими жінками колгоспницями.

Висновки. Стержнем повоєнної відбудови українського села було відновлення колгоспної системи. Зважаючи на зміни демографічної ситуації, зумовлені війною та німецькою окупацією українських територій, основним мобілізаційним ресурсом поповнення лав колгоспників, виступало жіноцтво. Спогади селянок / селян Житомирщини дають підстави для висновку, що у досліджуваний нами період колгоспна система мала виразно дискримінаційний характер для жінок. На стилістику повсякдення сільської родини домінуючий вплив мали трудові відносини в структурі колгоспу, які у період голоду 1946-1947 років носили репресивний характер.

Судячи з розповідей наших респондентів, у досліджуваний нами період відповідальність за про(ви) живання родини здебільшого лежала на жінці-матері. В історіографії такий її статус прийнято називати «подвійним навантаженням». Відбулися певні зміни у просторовому та часовому вимірі жіночого повсякдення. Жінка змушена була поєднувати важку працю у колгоспі з роботою в домашньому господарстві та доглядом і вихованням дітей. У період голоду 1946-1947 років жіночі практики виживання певною мірою залежали від її статусу: була це «вдова» (годувальниця родини) чи «мала чоловіка» (відповідальність за забезпечення сім'ї розподілялася між подружжям). Загалом, можна впевнено стверджувати, що стратегії повсякденної поведінки селян у перші роки повоєнної відбудови мали чіткий відбиток гендерно забарвленого маркування.

Ключові слова: колгосп, колгоспниця, повсякдення, жінка, селянка, голод, трудодень

Main part

The study of the problem of everyday life of the Ukrainian village during the period of late Stalinism appears to be a promising direction of scientific research. In the rather voluminous historiographic array of works on the topic of post-war reconstruction of agriculture, this aspect still remains insufficiently covered. The limitation of the public women's narrative about the late-Stalin period, insufficient representation in the public and scientific discourse in aspect of the «female construction of subjectivity» Dobre C.-F. Women remembering communism in Romania: former political detainees' perspectives. Women and Minorities Archives: Subjects of Archiving. 2011. Vol. 3. S. 42-58. is noticeable.

The personal trajectories of the peasant women's experiences of the crisis circumstances associated with the restoration of the collective farm system in 19441945, the famine of 1946-1947 and the actual lack of everyday goods remained outside the scope of historical research for a long time, with the exception for some aspects that attracted the attention of ethnographers. This kind of historical sources «were not very «desirable» in the Soviet practice of collecting and storing information» Стяжкіна О. Людина в радянській провінції: освоєння (від)мови. Донецьк: ДонНУ. 2013. 296 с.. However, in the modern conditions of the development of domestic historical science on the basis of «methodological pluralism (multiparadigmality)» Гломозда К. Сучасні погладь на проблему переосмислення історичного минулого. Україна: культурна спадщина, національна свідомість, державність. 2006-2007. № 15. С. 842-854., it is obvious that methodological approaches have shifted to the niche of «gender history» Кісь О. Жіноча історія як напрямок історичних досліджень: становлення феміністської методології. Український історичний журнал. 2012. № 2. С. 159-172., «everyday life of the era of socialism» Даниленко В. Повсякденне життя українських селян у повоєнний період (1945-1953 рр.). Україна ХХ ст.: культура, ідеологія, політика. 2005. Вип. 9. С. 3-16., and «oral history» Грінченко Г. Усні історії: методи аналізу та варіативність публікацій результатів дослідження. Вісник Харківського національного університету: Серія «Історія України. Українознавство: історичні та філософські науки». 2010. Вип. 13. № 906. С. 6-15. This determined the active attention of researchers «to the person as an active agent of history, and to personal experience as a basic socio-cultural value of society» Грінченко Г., Реброва І., Романова І. Усна історія в пострадянських дослідницьких практиках (на прикладі сучасних Білорусі, Росії та України). Український історичний журнал. 2012. № 4. С. 172-187..

The reconstruction of individual components of rural everyday life of the post-war era is carried out by us on the basis of the methodological principles of «women's history» Усна жіноча історія. Повернення: Історіографія сільських жінок в контексті суспільно- історичних факторів радянського і перехідного періодів. Київ: ЖЦ «Спадщина», 2003. 372 с.; Шутова О.М.Устная и гендерная история в свете антропологизации историографии. Женщины в истории: возможность быть увиденными: Сб. науч. статей / под ред. И.Р. Чикаловой. Минск: БГПУ, 2001. С. 55-74. using the «oral history» Кісь О.Усна історія: становлення, проблематика, методологічні засади. Україна Модерна. Т. 11. 2006. С. 7-24; Хасянов О.Р. Методы устной истории в изучении повседневной жизни советского крестьянства. Вестник Самарского государственного университета. 2014. С. 53-59. method. Our research is based on archival documents and sources of personal origin - memories of women of Zhytomyr Region. In the process of working on the problem, we processed 48 stories from the lives of women residents of the Zhytomyr region, as well as five men born in 1934-1938, collected during 2017-2021. Based on the goal and tasks of our research, the process of information gathering took place in the form of conducting a «problematic (singleissue) interview aimed at studying the «experience» of a person» Грінченко Г.Усні історії: методи аналізу... С. 11. of the dramatic realities of the post-war period (mid-1940s - first half of 1950s years) and «combined method during which the intervention of the correspondent in the structure of the interview is minimal» Молдавська Т. «Своя» і «не своя»: радянська та українська влада в усному селянському наративі Степового Подніпров'я. Суспільні злами і поворотні моменти: макроподії крізь призму автобіографічної розповіді: Матеріали Міжнародної наукової конференції, 25-26 вересня 2014 р., м. Львів. Львів: Інститут народознавства, 2014. С. 148.. It should be noted that all respondents were elderly at the time of the survey. At the time of the end of the occupation, the oldest woman interviewed was 22 years old (born in 1922). The vast majority of the rest of the women entered the post-war period as children and adolescents: from 4 (born in 1940) to 15 (born in 1929). The events that formed the basis of their stories took place during their childhood or adolescence. On the one hand, this questions the reliability of their memories, makes them «unreliable witnesses, not only because the details are erased, but also because the past, when confronted with the present, is romanticized, seems more correct and understandable» Стяжкіна О. Людина в радянській провінції: освоєння (від)мови. URL:

https://uamoderna.com/md/212-212. But at the same time, this «subjectivity is the life experience of an individual» Хасянов О.Р.Методы устной истории в изучении повседневной жизни советского крестьянства. Вестник Самарского государственного ун-та. 2014. № 1. С. 57. who experienced a sociopolitical crisis in the first post-war years, «a certain construct of the past, a representation that is largely determined by the contexts of these women's lives» Кісь О.Усна жіноча історія як феміністський проект: західні теорії, пострадянські контексти, українські практики. Народознавчі зошити. 2015. № 6 (126). С. 1392.. Women's memories give us an idea of the unique behavior patterns of women in an economically backward, agrarian region, their ways of adaptation and survival in the conditions of post-war devastation, famine (1946-1947), the omnipotence of the collective farm leadership, and extreme material and financial poverty.

For a long time, the topic we defined remained outside the scope of historical research. Only recently, several scientific investigations have appeared, in which the anthropology of the memory of the rural women of Zhytomyr region about the postwar everyday life, their practices of living it in the conditions of the reconstruction of the collective farm system is highlighted Starodubets G. Anthropology of memory of rural women of Zhytomyr region about post-war everyday life. Інтермаум: історія, політика, культура. 2021. № 9. С. 195-208; Starodubets G. Women's Experience of Participation in the Sovietisation Process in Ukrainian Villages in the 1920s and 1940s in Terms of Regional Peculiarities. Pamiqc i sprawiedliwosc: Pismo naukowe poswiqcone historii najnowszej. 2020. № 1 (36). S. 153-168; Стародубець Г. Повоєнне повсякдення крізь призму жіночого досвіду. Вінниччина в роки Другої світової війни. До 80-річчя початку німецько-радянської війни: матеріали ХХХІІ Вінницької всеукраїнської наукової історико-краєзнавчої конференції з міжнародною участю / відп. ред. Ю.А. Зінько. Вінниця: Нілан-ЛТД, 2021. С. 131-134.. Some of its aspects are touched upon in the candidate thesis of N. Kovalenko Коваленко Н.Л. Соціально-економічний та культурний розвиток українського села наприкінці 1943 - першої половини 1953 рр. (на матеріалах Житомирської області). Дис... к. іст. н.: 07.00.01 - історія України / Національний університет «Острозька академія». Острог, 2017.. Since the methodological principles of our scientific research go beyond the scope of one methodological approach, the historiographical basis of writing the article became works on the problems of the socio-economic development of the Ukrainian village Сушик І.В. Волинь повоєнна: соціально-економічні та культурні процеси 40-50 рр. XX ст. Луцьк: Вежа-Друк. 2019. 276 с.; Даниленко В., Лаас Н., Смольніцька М. Українське суспільство: від пізнього сталінізму до хрущовської «відлиги». Україна XX ст.: культура, ідеологія, політика. 2014. Вип. 19. С. 5-19., the organization of peasant life ЯкобчукН.О. Українське суспільство у повоєнний період (1945-1953 рр.): соціальний вимір і повсякденність. Військово-історичний меридіан. Електронний науковий фаховий журнал. 2019. Вип. 2 (24). С. 99-113; КовпакЛ.В. Соціально-побутові умови життя населення України в другій половині ХХ ст. (1945-2000 рр.). Київ: Ін-т історії України НАН України, 2003.. Given the subject of the research, the study is of particular interest of the gender-tinged experience of the population during certain periods of the Soviet/communist regime. Among the most notable are the works of O. Stiazhkina Стяжкіна О.В. Жінки України в повсякденні окупації: відмінності сценаріїв, інтенції й ресурси виживання. Український історичний журнал. 2015. № 2. С. 42-66., O. Kis Кісь О. Українки в ГУЛАГу: вижити значить перемогти. Львів: Ін-т народознавства НАН України, 2017. 287 с., K. Kobchenko Кобченко К. Гендерна політика радянської влади 1930-х років: між пропагандою та реальністю. Наукові записки Національного університету «Острозька академія». Серія: Гендерні дослідження. 2016. Вип. 2. С. 56-72. and others МаттінгліД. «Жінки в колгоспах - велика сила»: хто вони - українські призвідниці Голодомору? Україна Модерна. 2018. 20 вересня. URL: http://uamoderna.com/md/matlingly-women- in-kolkhoz.

For a deeper understanding of the ontological essence of Bolshevism/Stalinism, it is interesting to compare women's experience of postwar everyday life in the conditions of the establishment of a communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe, which is analyzed in the works of Polish and Romanian researchers. In particular, the participants of the Polish-Romanian research project «Returning the Future by Restoring the Past: Women's Narratives of Life under Communism» published an article based on the results of their research, the comparative structure of which allows us to identify the common and distinctive features of women's practices of experiencing the events of the period under current research in Romania, Poland and East Germany Dobre C.-F., Jonda B., Skorzynska I., Wachowiak A. Regaining the future by rebuilding the past? Women's narratives of life during communism. Sensus Historiae. 2015. Vol. 18. № 1. S. 11-34.. The topic of open science up for more female experiences and for more of her stories is raised in the monograph of Polish researchers under the general editorship of Urshula Markowska-Manista and Justyna Pilarska Markowska-Manista U., Pilarska J. An introspective approach to women's intercultural fieldwork: female researcher's narrations based on their intercultural experiences from the field. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademii Pedagogiki Specjalnej, 2017. P. 43.. So, the historiographic work on the problems of women's experience of surviving/living in social cataclysms in the conditions of the Stalinist totalitarian regime is quite voluminous. However, the topic of everyday rural women/collective farmers in Volyn still remains poorly researched.

The purpose of article is to use the example of Zhytomyr Oblast and describe the daily survival practices of women collective farmers in the conditions of the reconstruction of the collective farm system and the famine of 1946-1947 and the peculiarities of their perception of those transformational processes, which they were witnesses and participants of.

The liberation of the Zhytomyr region from the German occupiers began at the end of 1943, and in fact, reconstruction processes unfolded in parallel. The scale of losses in the region during 1941-1943 was impressive both in terms of material and technical dimensions, and quantitatively - in terms of human casualties. In particular, «the total losses of the region reached 22 billion roubles» Житомирщина: історичний нарис: навч. посіб. / А.Б. Войтенко, О.М. Іващенко, О.С. Кузьмін. Житомир: Полісся, 2003. С. 176. and «more than 400,000 residents (in fact, every fourth) did not return home due to various reasons» Коваленко Н. Соціально-економічний та культурний розвиток... С. 59-60.. In 35 districts of the region, 73 settlements were completely destroyed, 454 were partially destroyed The State Archives of Zhytomyr Region (SAZhR). Fund Р-2622. List 1. File 1248. P. 21..

The demographic situation in the region, as well as in Ukraine as a whole, has shown an obvious reduction in the number of the male population. For example, only in the Korostyshiv district (northern part of the region) «the population of the destroyed collective farms, in a large part - men able to work, was destroyed on the spot. Most of the women were taken to Germany. And the rest of the population, mostly old people, women and children settled in other villages of the district» SAZhR. Fund P-2622. List 1. File 1248. P. 119..

Given the situation, it is clear that the main burden of reconstruction processes fell on the shoulders of women. The peasant woman took responsibility for fulfilling her obligations to the state and her family quite consciously and, even if forced, but voluntarily. In modern historiography, this informal status of hers is called «double burden», «woman for everything»Dobre C.-F., Jonda B., Skorzynska I., Wachowiak A. Regaining the future... S. 24..

Paying tribute to the researchers of this period, we note that traditionally historiography (including the Soviet one) emphasizes the special role of a woman in process of reconstruction of various spheres of the «national economy». However, her image in the scientific literature is rather «collective» «generalized» rather than «individual», «personalized». She is considered as an important labor resource mobilized by the state to solve economic, cultural, educational, etc. issues. Behind the facade of the «working everyday life» of a collective farm woman, painted in different colors and shades, depending on the period of the historiography, the individual trajectory of her life during this period is faintly visible.

Work in a collective farm. Practices of survival in the conditions of the famine of 1946-1947.

The lion's share of the respondents we interviewed are peasant women, so their memories are closely related to life on a collective farm. For the vast majority of them, it was an objective reality in which they grew up and without which they could not imagine their lives. It should be noted that our respondents consider work to be an important element of their identity as a member of a rural micro-society. Usually, they consider women's experience of living in the occupation and post-war periods as an unalterable, natural given, which is perceived as the natural state of a woman.

Very often in their stories, the word «work» is used as a synonym for the phrase «collective farm» («we went to work all the time» Recorded on November 28, 2019 in the village of Uzhachyn, Novograd-Volyn district, Zhytomyr region from Zagryva Nina Silvestrivna, born in 1936.). For an agrarian region such as Zhytomyr region, working in a collective farm was actually the only option for employment for peasant women - «we did not know another life. We have to go, either we want it or no» Recorded on December 14, 2017 in the village of Pavlenkivka, Zhytomyr district, Zhytomyr region from Shevchuk Nadiya Petrivna, born in 1937., «by this time everyone had already gone to the collective farm, where else would we go» Recorded on December 25, 2017 in the village of Yosypivka, Starokonstyantyniv district, Khmelnytskyi region from Vasyliuk Maria Demyanivna, born in 1931, «maybe not everyone wanted to, but everyone went to the collective farm. There was no discussion about whether you want it or not» Recorded on December 25, 2017 in the village Karvynivka, Romanivska district, Zhytomyr region from Halitska Halyna Stanislavivna, born in 1936., «then everyone went to the collective farm, everyone went to do the norms» Recorded on November 8, 2020 in the village of Sloboda Sholomkivska, Ovrutsky district, Zhytomyr region from Turbal Hanna Oleksiivna, born in 1937., «and where else we could go, if not to the collective farm» Recorded on May 15, 2021 in the city of Radomyshl, Zhytomyr region from Shevtsova Nadiia Semenivna, born in 1940.. As a rule, both women's and men's memories of the daily life of the collective farm are filled with negative connotations - «the collective farm as a horror… God…» Recorded on December 30, 2017 in the village Sadky, Zhytomyr district from Hryshenchuk Halyna Yuriivna, born 1938.. First of all, they emphasize that the work was daily and very difficult, especially for women. The strategy of women's behavior was determined by «a wide range of social roles» Суковатая В. Устные истории, гендерная память и женские стратегии выживания в эпоху сталинизма. З архівів ВУЧКГПУ-НКВД-КГБ. 2010. № 2 (35). C. 347.. Thus, during the period of field work in the spring, summer and autumn, they had to combine work in the collective farm («kolhospnytsia») with running their household («housewife») and taking care of the family («mother»).

For a peasant woman, self-care was always not in the first place, moreover in the first post-occupation years. «Transferring the slogans of the war into post-war everyday life, the state urged its citizens to leave all personal dreams, experiences, and hopes for «better times»» Смольніцька М. До проблеми становища чоловіків і жінок у сільському соціумі в УРСР в середині 1940-х - на початку 1950-х рр. Україна XX століття: культура, ідеологія, політика. 2013. Вип. 18. С. 174.. Instead, ideas of overcoming difficulties for the sake of a bright future were promoted in various variations.

For objective reasons, industrial relations in agriculture were subjected to feminization due to the use of the labor of the female population. «If in 1940, men accounted for 49% among the collective farm workers able to work of Ukraine, then at the beginning of 1945 - a little more than 20%» Історія українського селянства: нариси в 2-х томах / гол. редактор В.М. Литвин. Київ: Наукова думка, 2006. Т. 2. С. 454.. The situation in Zhytomyr region was similar. For example, in 1946, the collective farm peasantry of the Bazar district was structured by gender as follows: men able to work aged 16 to 60 made up 2 535 people (30%), women aged 16 to 55 - 5 809 people (70%) SAZhR. Fund P-2622. List 1. File 1173. P. 59.. Due to the actual lack of the necessary agricultural machinery, collective farm women, as the main labor force of the collective farm, in the first years after the war cultivated the fields manually. «Quite often we had to dig with shovels. For example, in the spring of 1944, peasants dug up 500 hectares in the Radomyshl district» Коваленко Н. Соціально-економічний та культурний розвиток... С. 57.. «These women are poor, harnessed to and by cows and plowed and dragged. They had to cultivate at least their own field and went to the (collective farm) field. They were pushed. She had no right to lie down and sleep at night. It is a whole night that she has to spin the ropes and do the binding. And the hoe is with her. As soon as she prepared the ropes, she goes hoeing the beetroots. Everything was done manually. It was very difficult for them», - sums up H. Bilonig Recorded on April 11, 2021 in the village of Sokilcha, Popilnyan district, Zhytomyr region from Bilonih Halyna Lavrivna born in 1939.. Mothers often took their children with them, who «even though they were small, but went to help» Recorded on November 10, 2020 in the village of Velika Tsvilya, Horodnytsia district, Zhytomyr region from Yakymets Olga Vasylivna, born in 1933., «to work in the field» Recorded on April 18, 2021 in the village of Romaniv, Shepetivka district, Khmelnytsk region from Yakovchuk Valentyna Andriivna, born in 1940., «to weed the linen» Recorded on December 25, 2017 in the village Karvynivka, Romanivsky district, Zhytomyr region. from Halitska Halyna Stanislavivna, born in 1936., «to run behind the harrow» Recorded on November 8, 2020 in the village of Sloboda Sholomkivska, Ovrutsky district, Zhytomyr region from Turbal Hanna Oleksiivna, born in 1937.. In this way, the children were not left unattended, and on the other hand, they helped their mothers earn a «trudodenj» (labor day) Trudoden' - is a measure of assessment and a form of accounting for the quantity and quality of labor on collective farms in the period from 1930 to 1966..

In the story of each village respondent, the collective farm is associated not only with hard work, but also with the absence of salary, and therefore - absence of livelihood. According to the calculations of domestic researchers, «work in a collective farm gave peasants only 0.5% of monetary income (95% of the money they made by selling products grown on the homestead, primarily to pay taxes to the same state)» КовпакЛ.В. Соціально-побутові умови життя населення України в другій половині ХХ ст. (1945-2000 рр.). Київ: Ін-т історії України НАН України, 2003. С. 16.. Instead, their work was paid in so-called «trudodni», «they were also called «sticks». As if they put «sticks» for days worked Recorded on December 25, 2017 in the village Karvynivka, Romanivsky district, Zhytomyr region from Halitska Halyna Stanislavivna, born in 1936.. For each such day, «at the end of the year, collective farmers were paid 100 grams of grain» Recorded on May 6, 2021 in the village Kukilnia, Berdychiv district, Zhytomyr region from Panasyuk Victor Hryhorovych, born in 1937. and «once per year they were given some kopeck» Recorded on January 1, 2018 in the village of Chopovichi, Zhytomyr region from Honcharenko Halyna Mykolaivna, born in 1940., «for this stick they gave 10 or 20 kopecks… Was different - as they could. And 200 grams of grain was obtained. One worked for whole year this way, and brought this grain home on the shoulders» Recorded on May 19, 2021 in the village of Studenytsia of Korostyshiv district, Zhytomyr region from Honcharuk Olha Savetivna, born in 1936..

Accounting of worked «trudodni» was carried out by brigadier and accountants very carefully. Failure to meet the mandatory minimum threatened the collective farm worker with criminal liability. He could be excluded «from the collective farm and deprived of the right to a homestead plot Подкур Р. Реакція сільського населення на вимогу виконання обов'язкового мінімуму колгоспного трудодня у повоєнній УРСР. Україна XX століття: культура, ідеологія, політика. 2011. Вип. 16. С. 63.. «Those who did not have the minimum number of trudodni (10 more trudodni were required) were sent there further. For harmful works to Russia. Then Katka Benediuchka and Galia Ilchenko were sent away, because they had not enough trudodni.» Recorded on November 18, 2020 in the village of Barashivka, Zhytomyr district, from PantusTetiana Ivanovna, born in 1925.. In order to earn one «trudodenj», it was often necessary to work for two or three days. The decision on this matter was made by the local «management». Therefore, every peasant tried not to conflict with them. In their memoirs, the women almost never talk about the regional or district leadership, instead they often mention the brutality of their fellow villagers, who were the managers of the middle rung of the collective farm: «Brigadiers were already shouting. Like: «Go to work! To work!». Leave everything. They could also put the water on a fire in the stove to go to work. They pushed, oh. they pushed a lot to go to work» Recorded on December 5, 2020 in the village of Sorochnia Yemilchyn district, Zhytomyr region from Buynova Viera Franzovna, born in 1935.; «objeschiky were bad. They beated children on the shoulders with a whip. Petro Denysovych Kyryliuk was in the collective farm, very bad» Recorded on May 6, 2021 in the village Kukilnia of Berdychiv district, Zhytomyr region from Panasyuk Victor Hryhorovych, born in 1937.. Should be noted that despite the obvious feminization of agricultural labor in the 1940s, women occupied the lowest levels in the hierarchical structure of the collective farm society, «they were mostly of low ranks. There were women in the village councils, but they were not the heads. The brigadier was also mostly a man» Recorded on December 30, 2017 in the village Sadky, Zhytomyr district from Hryshenchuk Halyna Yuriivna, born 1938..

The greatest tragedy of the postwar period was the famine of 1946-1947. Analysis of the testimonies of our respondents allows us to conclude that there is an implicit expectation of hunger in their memories. The experience of the Holodomor of 1933 has not been erased from public memory and was included in the associative series with the «collective farm». Both women and men tell about the horrors experienced by their families in the hungry years of 1932-1933, drawing parallels with 19461947. Since Zhytomyr region was one of the most affected regions during the German occupation More about this, see Коваленко Н. Вказ. пр., in their memories respondents often «tie» the famine of the war period to the famine of 1946. In the public consciousness, rural everyday life during the war and the first years of the post-war period did not change much in essence.

Another social cataclysm, determined by the Party-Soviet government, led to the transformation of rural life and prompted women to find new everyday practices aimed at the survival of their families. First of all, it was about providing food for the family. The vast majority of families did not have men who either died in the war or still have not returned from the front. Therefore, women remained the main breadwinners of children and old parents. The topic of the famine of 1946-1947 is quite widely presented in historical literature For an example, see Веселова О.М., Марочко В.І., Мовчан О.М. Голодомори в Україні 1921-1923, 1932-1933, 1946-1947: Злочин проти народу. Київ-Нью-Йорк, 2000. 274 с.; Рабенчук О. Голод 1946-1947 рр. в Україні: вплив на свідомість та поведінку населення. Україна XX століття: культура, ідеологія, політика. 2008. № 13. С. 271-282; Голод в Україні у першій половині ХХ століття: причини та наслідки (1921-1923, 1932-1933, 1946-1947). Матеріали міжнародної наукової конференції (Київ, 20-21 листопада 2013 року). Ред.: Л. Губерський, С. Квіт, В. Смолій.Khib, 2013; Даниленко В.М. Передумови голоду 1946-1947 рр. в Україні. Україна XX століття: культура, ідеологія, політика., 2008. № 13. С. 42-50., so we will not stop at a detailed analysis of its causes and consequences of its deployment in Ukraine. Instead, the analysis of the memories collected by us allows us to highlight generalizations of the practice of living during the famine years. They were both universal and unique, given the geographical location of Zhytomyr region.

The analysis of the stories of our respondents provides grounds for distinguishing two groups that experienced the famine of 1946-1947 in different ways. For some, it was a time of survival on the brink of starvation. As a rule, the mother was the breadwinner in such families. The woman combined work in the collective farm with daily care of children. «I know, «Olha Mykhalchenko recalls, «that the cow disappeared from us in 1946. That cow was butchered and skinned, and then roasted in front of the fire. Mother roasted these skins for us, hid them and went to work. And we found it and ate anyway» Recorded on December 7, 2019 in the village of Levkiv of Zhytomyr district from Mykhalchenko Olga Volodymyrivna, 1939.; «in 1947, people dried potato skins, ground them in millstones and baked pancakes, which tasted extremely. My mother told me: «Take two spoonfuls of sour milk and bite a pancake once». Even ordinary wheatgrass was tastier and sweeter than these pancakes» Recorded on November 27, 2020 in the village of Andriyashivka, Berdychiv district, Zhytomyr region from Lompas Olena Yosypivna, born in 1939.. The presence of a nursery/kindergarten in the village was a huge help for the woman, which was a rarity in the period we have defined: «children went to nursery, the collective farm supported the children. They cooked some kind of soup there» Recorded on May 6, 2021 in the village Kukilnia of Berdychiv district, Zhytomyr region from Panasyuk Victor Hryhorovych , born in 1937.. At school, the children also received some kind of food.

Another part of the respondents indicates that they know and remember the famine of 1946-1947, but «we had a father, so there was something to eat» Recorded on November 28, 2019 in the village of Uzhachyn, Novograd-Volyn district, Zhytomyr region from Zahryva Nina Silvestrivna, born in 1936.; «Dad brought corn bread, 2-3 loaves (they gave the workers). The Jews helped us, they helped my parents. We were not starving» Recorded on December 15, 2020 in the village Myropol, Zhytomyr region from Dikhtiaruk Hanna Olesiivna, born in 1926.. At the same time, in their memoirs, they emphasize that other «people suffered. A lot of people were dying, a lot of people» Ibidem.. Thus, women's survival practices in post-war famine conditions were similar but depended on the status of a woman - a 'widow' (the breadwinner of the family) and the one who 'has a husband' (the duty of providing food was shared between spouses).

A common practice of the hungry post-war years was a trip 'to Zapadna' for food. 'Western' in the imagination of the inhabitants of Zhytomyr region looked like «a region where they lived better» Starodubets G. Anthropology of memory of rural women of Zhytomyr region... C. 203.. Based on the stories of our respondents, men, children and women went in search of food outside the region. In general, «a lot of people went to the west. They exchanged stuff from home for food and flour» Recorded on December 12, 2019 in the village of Romaniv, Zhytomyr region from Kostinskyi Felix Antonovych, born in 1934.. Driven by despair, the woman was forced to take such a risky step, leaving her children to fend for themselves: «My mother took to the west all the clothes, any skirt she had. She took things there, exchanged and brought grain. We rub it with a bottle and boiled them» Recorded on December 7, 2019 in the village of Levkiv of Zhytomyr district from Mykhalchenko Olga Volodymyrivna, 1939.; «My mother will go to the west on foot, because there was no money, so they walked with my brother on foot. They brought a pound of grain each, we grinded it on a millstone and cooked a soup. This is the way we suffered, but we survived like that» Recorded on May 13, 2021 in the village of Talky, Zhytomyr district from Parii Vira Hryhorivna, born in 1930.. Women's clothing was mostly the object of exchange: «my father took a bag and put there: a skirt and my grandmother's apron. He collected all this and went there to exchange for potatoes and bread» Recorded on April 16, 2021 in the village of Chernyakhiv, Zhytomyr region from Protsenko Halyna Ivanovna, born in 1938.. Forced trips to the western regions of Ukraine, on the one hand, gave the woman/man a chance to save their family from starvation. But on the other hand, this way of obtaining food was accompanied by many dangers: to be robbed by criminals (which happened most often), to be detained by the police, etc.

In addition to the physical suffering caused by hunger, the suffering of a moral and psychological nature was no less painful. After all, beggars from the 'East', or 'collective farmers', as they were called by the residents of western Ukraine, were perceived by the vast majority of people as beggars. However, should be noted that none of our respondents emphasized this in their stories. Instead, it was emphasized that this method/practice of obtaining food saved children's lives.

Household organization. Care and upbringing of children.

In addition to fulfilling the duties that depended on a woman as a member of a collective farm, no one exempted her from the need to solve the issue of arranging daily life and raising children. In everyday rural practice, there is a traditional gender division of responsibilities, primarily regarding household running. As a rule, hard physical work fell on the man's shoulders (plowing, mowing, gathering food for livestock, building a house, etc.). Some functions were shared between men and women, such as tending livestock. However, the issues of feeding the family, providing it with clothes, and taking care of the children, as a rule, were handled by women. As a result of the gender inversion of traditional roles, caused both by the objective reality of the change in the social structure of the Ukrainian village and by coercion on the part of the state, the forced muscularization of women's everyday practices was perceived by her as an internal instruction. The fact that the rural society and, first of all, the woman recognized that performing the «male» functions of the breadwinner of the family (work in the collective farm), while leaving behind the custody of the family life as «her» duty can be treated as a manifestation of the interiorization of social norms. It is significant that in women's and even men's stories, a woman is the main subject of post-war everyday life. Thus, V. Stavskyi, answering the question about what the children usually did in the summer, answered: «I helped my mother» Recorded on May 5, 2021 in the village Yablunets Yemilchyn district, Zhytomyr region from Stavskyi Viktor Oleksiyovych, born in 1936.. Obviously, this assistance did not include the kitchen or the house. The children performed hard physical work together with their mother: «they ground bread, folded skins» Ibidem., «carried manure to the fields on their shoulders. I myself carried, went to the first class and carried manure to the field» Recorded on May 6, 2021 in the village Kukilnia, Berdychiv district, Zhytomyr region from Panasyuk Victor Hryhorovych, born in 1937..

There have been certain changes in the spatial and temporal dimensions of women's everyday life. Caring for and raising children, cooking, cleaning the house, etc., took a back seat and were of secondary importance, compared to labor duties in the collective farm. The woman was forced to perform these vital functions outside the working hours, which in the spring-autumn period could last «from dawn to dusk». One of the most acute problems of post-war life remained the problem of purchasing clothes, shoes, hygiene products for the family, in particular, soap. «Satisfaction of the consumer needs of rural residents was very difficult due to the lack of transport infrastructure, trade network establishments, the availability of qualified personnel, interruptions in the supply of the food» Кузьменко В. Дефіцит в повсякденних практиках сільських жителів УРСР в 1950-1960-х роках (за матеріалами Чернігівської області). Етнічна історія народів Європи. 2017. Вип. 53. С. 131.. In addition, the peasants had practically no money, because the collective farms, as a rule, paid «in nature» and the payment was made at the end of the year. The most common way of obtaining money was trading in the market with products from one's own household/farm. «Market trade in the post-war years was an integral element of Soviet everyday life, both for peasants and townspeople, due to many circumstances, remaining a source of filling the budgets of collective farm worker families» Кузьменко В. Торгівля на колгоспному ринку в повсякденному житті сільських жителів УРСР в 1940-1960-х роках (за матеріалами Чернігівської області). Етнічна історія народів Європи. 2016. Вип. 49. С. 117..

Not every peasant could afford to travel to the regional or even district center. Those who lived near Zhytomyr «went to the market. They sold what they had: a liter of milk that they had saved, or an egg, or an onion from the garden. There was no transport, the bus did not run. They took large boxes and walked to Zhytomyr on foot. They traded, and then bought, maybe half a loaf of bread, because after the war they only gave half a loaf» Recorded on May 19, 2021 in the village of Studenytsia of Korostyshiv district, Zhytomyr region from Honcharuk Olha Savetivna, born in 1936.. As a rule, women did not risk going on such a journey alone. «A group of women gathered together, four or five of them, and thus they went. Because they didn't want to go on their own, because it's scary and far from the city - 20 or more kilometers. They get up at dawn and go, returning late at night. I bought kerosene for lamps there, some kind of soap, some sugar and flour, threads, some fabric. Brought fresh bread» Recorded on December 14, 2017 in the village of Pavlenkivka, Zhytomyr district, Zhytomyr region from Shevchuk Nadiya Petrivna, born in 1937.. Barter exchange with the so-called «hangers», or, as they were also called, «hunuchnyky» was a much safer and easier way to acquire things necessary for the household. As a rule, these were men who traveled around the villages and offered various goods to the villagers. «The changers drove (they called it labutnytsi) a cart. One would collect old pants, shirts that were lying around. Changer weighed all the stuff and paid with something accordingly. I had two kilos of feathers and we took a woolen scarf with my mother» Recorded on December 16, 2017 in the village of Martynivka, Starokostyantyniv district, Khmelnytskyi region from Kozak Nadiia Semenivna, born in 1937..

In the stories of our respondents, quite a lot of space is devoted to the topic of how they purchased clothes and the details of their description. Almost every one of them emphasizes how poor their clothes were, because «there was nothing to buy for, because there was no money» Recorded on May 05, 2021 in the village Cir of Lyubeshiv district, Volyn region from Hubaryk Nina Mykhailivna, born in 1936. and how much effort their mothers put in to dress their children («When my mother brought a dress, it was a luxury for us with my sister, my sister and I have one for two. Then we are extremely happy» Recorded on December 14, 2017 in the village of Pavlenkivka, Zhytomyr district, Zhytomyr region from Shevchuk Nadiya Petrivna, born in 1937.. «My mother really wanted me to be nicely dressed. My mother received a little sugar for a trudodenj, then she took it to the market and sold it so that she could buy some fabric and sew a dress for her daughter. As soon as the war ended, some kinds of silks were brought from Germany. So my mother would buy it for me, and Zhenia Nima will sew it. She sewed well. But it was just one dress» Recorded on April 11, 2021 in the village of Sokilcha, Popilnia district, Zhytomyr region from Bilonih Halyna Lavrivna, born in 1939.). However, not all peasant women had such a luxury of wearing a dress made of silk or simpler dress fabric. Immediately after the war, mostly, the main material for sewing clothes was «tents. Skirts were sewn from tents. Mom sewed a skirt. She would get some fabric from somewhere and would make some dress. It was what we wore» Recorded on May 19, 2021 in the village of Studenytsia of Korostyshiv district, Zhytomyr region from Honcharuk Olha Savetivna, born in 1936.. «Mother sewed skirts from bags. They were so hard, so slapped the feet so much» Recorded on December 7, 2019 in the village of Levkiv of Zhytomyr district from Mykhalchenko Olga Volodymyrivna, born in 1939..

The practice of using home-spun fabrics for sewing clothes continued in the postwar period in the Ukrainian village. «We made things from canvas, painted them, and the grandmother sewed a dress» Recorded on December 5, 2020 in the village of Sorochnia Yemilchyn district, Zhytomyr region from Buynova Viera Frantsovna, born in 1935.. Adult members of the family dressed in the same way. The women recall that «mother sewed pants for father manually herself. Boil it in beets to paint it» Recorded on December 29, 2019 in the village Zabolot, Radomyshl district, Zhytomyr region from Klymchuk Halyna Hryhorivna, born in 1932.. In the rural microenvironment, the ability to sew was extremely highly valued. As a rule, women were «tailors» in the village and their tailoring services were in great demand. Sewing to order was one of the women's practices that helped to survive in the extreme conditions of the war and post-war periods. Women also mention this in their memoirs: «The old woman knew how to sew. She sewed everything for us and also sewed for strangers to order» Recorded on April 18, 2021 in the village of Romaniv, Shepetivska district, Khmelnytskyi region from Yakovchuk ValentHna Andriivna, born in 1940.; «our neighbor Kateryna sewed a coat» Recorded on April 11, 2021 in the village of Sokilcha, Popilnia district, Zhytomyr region from Bilonih Halyna Lavrivna, born in 1939., «one woman sewed, everyone went there to her» Recorded on May 5, 2021 in the village Yablunets Yemilchyn district, Zhytomyr region from Stavskyi Viktor Oleksiyovych, born in 1936., «seamstresses sewed. We always brought to seamstresses» Recorded on December 15, 2020 in the village Myropol, Zhytomyr region from Dikhtiaruk Hanna Oleksiivna, born in 1926..

Due to her constant employment, the woman was deprived of the opportunity to emphasize her femininity and, despite the public display of indifferent attitude to her appearance, deep inside she remained psychologically traumatized due to the unrealization of her aesthetic needs and requests. The external manifestation of this stigmatizing pain can be found in the respondents' focus on individual details of clothing: «They bought a little red dress with polka dots. I was taken there on a photo. It was 1948» Recorded on December 5, 2020 in the village of Sorochnia Yemilchyn district, Zhytomyr region from Buynova Viera Frantsovna, born in 1935.; «a German lived in our house during the war. And then he gave a gift to my older sister - this kind of scarf: the middle is white, it is thin-thin and the ends with such beautiful flowers. When someone was getting married, they always borrowed from Vera, they said: «Vera, lend me the veil that the German gave you» Recorded on May 15, 2021 in the city of Radomyshl, Zhytomyr region from Shevtsova Nadiia Semenivna, born in 1940..

The poverty of rural everyday life was even more pronounced against the background of the better, in the opinion of the villagers, life of the rural intelligentsia. In the stories of peasant women, we find stories in which they recall that «the children of rich teachers, livestock doctors did not graze livestock, but the children of collective farmers grazed livestock separately. These richer kids ran out to us, they would play with us and leave. We say: «Lucky they are, instead, we graze livestock all day»» Recorded on May 8, 2021 in the village of Raci Romanivsky District, Zhytomyr Region from Siviuk Hanna Vasylivna, born in 1943.. Obviously, for women, the description of beautiful things, admiration for the everyday life of the rural intelligentsia was one of the ways to go beyond the daily life of the collective farm, within which they had to constantly survive.

Since the woman worked either in the collective farm or in the household almost all the time, she did not have time for work that was traditionally considered feminine - spinning, weaving, embroidery, sewing. In their memoirs, the peasant women emphasize that, being in fact children, they helped their mothers not only in the field, in the garden, but also «wove clothes, spun day and night. I get up at 5 in the morning and go to bed at 12 at night. They spun, wove, and mother sewed little linen shirts for us. She spun on a loom and sewed skirts and my mother also painted it green» Recorded on May 15, 2021 in the village Cir of Lyubeshiv district, Volyn region from Hubaryk Nina Mykhailivna, born in 1936.. Children grew up quickly and became irreplaceable helpers of their mothers in running the household («mother was at work, and we worked in the garden» Recorded on December 29, 2019 in the village Zabolot, Radomyshl district, Zhytomyr region from Klimchuk Halyna Hryhorivna, born in 1932.; «in the summer, those who had already grown up all grazed: some herded cattle, some herded geese, and those herded pigs» Recorded on May 8, 2021 in the village of Raci Romanivsky District, Zhytomyr Region from Siviuk Hanna Vasylivna, born in 1943.. «children stood in lines for days while mothers were at work, for half a loaf of bread» Recorded on November 27, 2020 in the village of Andriyashivka, Berdychiv district, Zhytomyr region from Lompas Olena Yosypivna, born in 1939.; «mother went to work, and I would bake bread, and bake pies, and cook food. I also looked after my little sisters» Recorded on May 18, 2021 in the village Galchyn, Andrushivka district, Zhytomyr region from Afanasieva Halyna Andriivna, born in 1933..