A Century of Women Combatants in Russia

I took a class on warfare throughout the 20th Century this semester just gone, and my professor let me choose my own question for the assigned research essay. I chose to look at women combatants, because I and Bene have both been on a bit of a spree getting excited about various excellent ladies involved in wars a lot lately. I ended up becoming most interested by the roles of women in Russia's military, and decided to focus on that in my research. My topic, when I eventually realised what it was, was on the promises of equality made to Russian women by the Bolsheviks early in the 20th Century and how well that promise was kept. As it was a class on warfare, I was examining it through the lens of women's involvement in Russia's military action. 

Anyway, before I start rehashing the whole thing, here's the real thing!

Female soviet pilots relax between missions during World War II

The Second World War of 1939-1945 saw a dramatic increase in female combatants on the Soviet Union’s frontline from Russia’s involvement in World War I, 1914-17. This increase in the number of women and variety of roles was largely caused by a progression in the attitudes toward women, brought about not only through feminist activism but the adoption of Communist ideology shortly after the end of WWI. Focusing on the women combatants of Imperial and Soviet Russia in the First and Second World Wars, I will examine the changes that occurred in the attitudes to and roles of women in Russia throughout the 20th Century. I will use this to make a comparison to women’s roles in the armed forces of contemporary Russia and show that, though Russia’s women gained “unprecedented rights to equal jobs, pay, [and] education,” the promises made by Socialism of gender equality failed to be fully realised (Schwartz, 1979, p. 67). 

Three Shows I Have a Lot of Feelings About

I'm working on another post at the moment, but I've gotten completely stuck on it, so in the meantime, I present for your consumption:

three shows I have a lot of feelings about

Historical Profile: Baroness Emma Orczy

When you think of heroes with secret identities, you probably think of the superhero genre and comics, but where did they begin? As far as we know, they begin with The Scarlet Pimpernel in the early 20th Century, which was the inspiration for later characters like Zorro and Batman. The Scarlet Pimpernel was set during the French Revolution, boasting a titular character who masquerades as a shallow dandy while leading a secret society of English aristocrats who rescue their French counterparts from the guillotine.

the cover of the 1908 edition

And, yes, that says Baroness. Because the creator of the original dual identity hero was a woman. Last week, Sarah was talking about the concept of the “fake geek girl” who is supposedly taking a thing that is just for boys and pretending to enjoy it for the attention. I didn’t mean for my post to tie in so nicely—I chose my topic before I actually knew what Sarah’s was—but this is a happy coincidence that lets me add this argument to the mix: How can it be just for boys when a woman wrote the play and subsequent adventure novels that inspired such a large part of the genre? Yeah, no, it can’t.

I’m not going to keep going with that though, because Sarah did a great job with it and this post is actually the first of a new series we will be updating intermittently on women of significance throughout history.

The famous quote goes that history is written by the victors, but there’s another facet of that is often left ignored: History is written by men. Women have contributed so much to the world as we know it, but they are frequently forgotten or their work is stolen by a man who presents it as his own. F. Scott Fitzgerald is certainly not the only example, but he’s the first I can think of off the top of my head.

NYAD’s series on historical women, then, serves to highlight women we wish we’d learnt about in school, women who impress or astound us, women we adore, women whose contributions deserve recognition. And this week, I’m starting with:

16 Female Musicians You Definitely Need to Know Exist

I’ve decided to highlight some female singers and songwriters for y’all this week by sharing a collection of my favourite songs with female vocalists. It was so difficult to narrow it down, but I’ve managed to keep it to just 16. There’s a mix available here on 8tracks of the songs I ended up choosing, and if you love any of them, I 100% recommend checking out their other work and supporting them!

And now, in no particular order, the ladies who made this mix possible.

My Creative Process in Writing "Always"

I've recently self-published a short story written in 2012 for one of my classes at uni. We were required to write a piece that "held a conversation" with a poem or short story from our readings, and to write an accompanying essay about the techniques we used and our creative process. This is a little baby bit a promotion of the story (here is a link to the download page if anyone is interested in the final product; it's totally free) but it's also an excuse for more writing theory!

Anyway, on to the essay (spoilers follow)...

My First Week of (It'sNot)OKCupid

A few of my friends have forged into online dating in the last few years; one is currently chatting with a bunch of guys who all sound really cool, another has met a guy in person and had him be as great there as he was online, and another two are now in serious relationships with guys they met on RSVP—one around six months and the other over a year now. I’ve always been pretty reluctant about the idea of online dating though, even if I’m more than happy to meet new friends in the same way. Honestly, I’m still not sure I’m ready to give up on the possible Meet Cutes that happen in real life, that make telling your future children how you met their father a cool story, but in a moment of curiosity and, ok, plain nosiness on Monday, I decided to make an online dating profile. I figured I wouldn’t actually use it; I could just have a bit of a look around and see what online dating was about and maybe come back once the horror set in of hitting 25 single when, at seventeen, I was so confident I’d be getting married, if not already building a family. 

Repetition in Writing

In his 1933 essay, “One Hundred False Starts,” F. Scott Fitzgerald claimed that, as writers, we write about two or three experiences in our lives that we constantly disguise and rework. The quote is reproduced in full in Matthew J. Bruccoli’s Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald:

Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves - that's the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives - experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time anyone else has been so caught up and so pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded and humbled in just that way ever before.

Then we learn our trade, well or less well, and we tell our two or three stories - each time in a new disguise - maybe ten times, maybe a hundred, as long as people will listen.

(1981)

Fitzgerald has made three assertions in this statement: first, that authors must repeat; second, that we only have two or three stories to tell; and third, that authors write those same stories over and over in different disguises. In order to fully address each of these, I will split my argument into three corresponding parts. First, I will discuss repetition present in the writing of both professional and ‘new and emerging’ writers. I will then agree using Freud’s repetition compulsion and the role of repetition in imagination, that authors are compelled to repeat ourselves. Last, I will argue that though authors may have many moments in their life worth writing, they have only a few experiences about which they need to write.