Soldiers Mothers

Characterized by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev as a “bleeding wound,” the Soviet-Afghan War left a broad imprint on the domestic front during the Soviet Union’s transition from stagnation to dissolution. From the onset of war on 25 December 1979 to the 40th Army’s withdrawal on 15 February 1989, most Soviet officials spoke only of a Limited Contingent of Soviet Troops in Afghanistan that served its “international duty.” As a result, private narratives and popular myths about those at war – known as the afgantsy – circulated for years before the Politburo chose to assemble heroic icons from the fallen. By focusing on the afgantsy, this dissertation offers a case study in the mobilization of civil protest, popular interpretation of military conflict in times of war, and its translation into postwar culture. The Soviet-Afghan war filtered through a range of domestic avenues, from emerging grassroots organizations, to conferences aimed at reinforcing the state narrative, to popular cinema. When in the years of glasnost public debate on the war was authorized, the only uniform perception of the afgantsy that emerged was that they were wrongfully deployed by the Politburo. After the Soviet Union dissolved on 26 December 1991 this verdict became redundant for many, and the historicization of the Soviet-Afghan War became a challenge for 15 independent countries. This study explores the myriad ways in which the Afghan war made an imprint on everyday life in the Soviet Union through the incorporation of a broad range of sources. These include but are not limited to recently declassified archival materials, oral history interviews, memoirs, films, and a vast range of publications that have been made accessible in the online world. More than 20 interviews were conducted, the majority of which were with afgantsy, but included soldiers’ mothers, widows, and veterans of other armed conflicts. Archival research took place at a variety of locales, among them the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the International Archive of Memorial in Moscow; the Central State Archive of Political Documentation of the Kyrgyz Republic in Bishkek; and the State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kiev.

WOMEN SOLDIER AND SOLDIER MOTHER DEBATES DURING THE
NATION-STATE BUILDING PERIOD IN TURKEY (1923-1950)
In regular armies in many countries of the world, compulsory military service is for the
male population. The number of countries where military service is compulsory for
women in the regular army is few. This study focuses on the debates on the compulsory
military service of women, which came to the fore in the early Republican period but
could not be put into practice. Discussions on the role of women in nation-building and
women's military service deepened during World War I. These discussions are actually
the place of women in the public sphere, the intertwining of some images of modern
women from the West, and the question "How should a Turkish woman be?" is also part
of the discussion. It is necessary to divide these discussions into two within the singleparty period. In the period between 1923 and 1935, when Turkish women were given
the right to vote and be elected, it is seen that the discussion in question was carried out
over the concept of equal citizenship, from the perspective of "women can do what men
do". In this period, besides the issues such as the right to education, the right to vote
and the right to be elected, the right to work under equal conditions, which cover the
equality of women and men in the public sphere, the issue of compulsory military service
is also discussed. After 1935, Turkish women were given the role of "good wife" and
"good mother" in the new division of labor within the patriarchal structure. In this period,
women have passed from the ideal of "women soldier" to "mother who raises soldiers"
and "ideal wife" in the public sphere. As a result of the war threat posed by the Second
World War, all citizens, including women, were called to the front for military service, if
necessary, within the scope of the 1939 expedition law. In the education policies of the
post-war period, the presence of military courses in secondary education and military
training courses for university women draws attention. The process of transforming
women-soldier rhetoric into soldier-mother in the historical process through the concept
of “patriarchal bargaining” will be discussed using primary and secondary resources.

In this article, I explore how a group of women in a distant Russian province learned to live in the state of grief by creating a space for the traumatic experience in their daily order of things, their personal narratives, and public landscape. Using materials from my fieldwork in Siberia in 2001–03, I demonstrate how the Altai Regional Committee of the Soldiers’ Mothers domesticated and privatized losses of their sons, which were caused by the Russian state’s military politics of the last 20 years.

By devising elaborate memorializing practices, the mothers managed to materialize evidence of their loss and suffering. It is precisely this collective and individual production
of metonymies of death, I suggest, that not only became the main source of the Committee of the Soldiers’ Mothers’ new public identities but also acted as the principal vehicle of their politics of pity.

In regular armies in many countries of the world, compulsory military service is for the male population. The number of countries where military service is compulsory for women in the regular army is few. This study focuses on the debates on the compulsory military service of women, which came to the fore in the early Republican period but could not be put into practice. These discussions are actually the place of women in the public sphere, the intertwining of some images of modern women from the West, and the question "How should a Turkish woman be?" is also part of the discussion. It is necessary to divide these discussions into two within the single-party period. In the period between 1923 and 1935, when Turkish women were given the right to vote and be elected, it is seen that the discussion in question was carried out over the concept of equal citizenship, from the perspective of "women can do what men do". In modern Turkey, besides the issues such as the right to education, the right to vote and the right to be elected, the right to work under equal conditions, which cover the equality of women and men in the public sphere, the issue of compulsory military service is also discussed. After 1935, these discussions suddenly disappeared, even the Women's Union, which contributed greatly to the acquisition of these rights, was abolished and Turkish women were given the role of "good wife" and "good mother" in the new division of labor within the patriarchal structure. In this period, women have passed from the ideal of "women soldier" to "mother who raises soldiers" and "ideal wife" in the public sphere. As a result of the war threat posed by the Second World War, all citizens, including women, were called to the front for military service, if necessary, within the scope of the 1939 expedition law. In the education policies of the post-war period, the presence of military courses in secondary education and military training courses for university women draws attention. The process of transforming women-soldier rhetoric into soldier-mother in the historical process through the concept of patriarchal bargaining by Deniz Kandiyoti will be discussed using primary and secondary resources.