Stalinism on the Frontier of Empire Women and State Formation in the Soviet Far East

This book is a fascinating account of frontier Stalinism told through the previously unexplored history of a campaign to attract female settlers to the socialist frontiers of the Soviet Far East in the late 1930s. Elena Shulman reveals the instrumental part these migrants played in the extension of Soviet state power and cultural dominion in the region. Their remarkable stories, recovered from archival letters, party documents, memoirs, press coverage and films, shed new light on Soviet women's roles in state formation, the role of frontier Stalinism in structuring gender ideals and the nature of Soviet society and Stalinism in the 1930s. Through these narratives Elena Shulman offers a nuanced picture of the world of the frontier as well as the complexities of women's lives under Stalin and the limits of Moscow's rule over the periphery and even the Gulag.

Introduction; 1. Women and Soviet power; 2. 'Where steel cracks like glass'; 3. 'Our famous Valia'. The rise of a Soviet notable; 4. 'Envy for everything heroic'. Women volunteering for the frontier; 5. 'Bol'shevichki were never ascetics!': female morale and Communist morality; 6. Snivelers and patriots; Conclusion.