Housewives on the home front

Based on private wartime letters, this paper reviews the roles and experiences of women on the home front in Georgia during the Second World War. In doing so, it refers to the gender policy pursued by the Soviet Union at that time.

This paper aims at the critical rethinking of Soviet rhetoric pertaining to women’s emancipation through the analysis of personal correspondence during the war. The research relies on the Iverieli digital library and its archival fonds, which are entitled “Letters from the Front”. The paper analyzes the letters kept in the fond from the feminist perspective. This paper is meant for gender researchers, feminist activists, students and those interested in the social status of women in the Soviet Union.