Women in the First World War and the Russian Civil War

Women in the First World War and the Russian Civil War explores how Russian literature and autobiographical writing portrayed nurses, women soldiers, and commanders who served in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. Simonova’s research challenges the traditional perception of war as a masculine domain, introducing the concept of military femininities, particularly “expanded femininity,” which combines traditional feminine traits such as consolation, care, and inspiration with bravery, militancy, and leadership. The study focuses on lesser-known texts from the 1910s to the early 1930s, encompassing both well-known and underexplored writers like Boris Pilnyak, Boris Lavrenev, Eduard Bagritsky, Pavel Bliakhin, Veniamin Kaverin, Isaac Babel, Lidiia Charskaia, Zinaida Chalaia, Tatiana Dubinskaia, Sofia Fedorchenko, and Liusia Argutinskaia, as well as the diaries of sisters of mercy. With this comprehensive range of literary sources, this book demonstrates that representations of women are crucial in shaping and understanding the reception of these wars. Offering a fresh perspective on gender, war, and memory in early twentieth-century Russian literature, this monograph will appeal not only to scholars of literature and gender issues, but also to anyone interested in cultural and military history.