Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons
This engrossing collection of prison memoirs by Russian women is the first to portray the direct experiences of the wide range of women who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and camps. Comprising the stories of women from all classes and backgrounds, this book covers the entire span of the Gulag's existence from the 1920s to the 1980s, including the little-known periods of political repression of the 1960s and 1980s. These memoirs and letters provide a rich portrait of how women led everyday life in prison and in the camps, of the strategies of accommodation and resistance they employed, and the challenges they faced when they reentered Soviet society. Although readers will hear the voices of women who were in excruciating physical and emotional pain, they will also find remarkable testimonies to the agency and resilience of women who struggled against incredible odds. Written by women from all stations in life and from drastically different backgrounds, these stories reconstruct not only the world of the Gulag but also its meaning for society at large. The documents excerpted here point to areas of Soviet history and culture that have yet to be fully investigated as they illuminate women's experiences of friendship, work, hope, inspiration, loss, and terror. All the works selected for the collection are united by their authors' sense of group and individual identity. To varying degrees, all of them associate their experiences with events and people beyond their personal experiences and immediate surroundings, thus expanding the traditional perspective of women's writing. These riveting stories, never before published in English or Russian, will appeal to scholars and students of Soviet history and literature, as well as general readers interested in women's history.
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Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons
This engrossing collection of prison memoirs by Russian women is the first to portray the direct experiences of the wide range of women who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and camps. Comprising the stories of women from all classes and backgrounds, this book covers the entire span of the Gulag's existence from the 1920s to the 1980s, including the little-known periods of political repression of the 1960s and 1980s. These memoirs and letters provide a rich portrait of how women led everyday life in prison and in the camps, of the strategies of accommodation and resistance they employed, and the challenges they faced when they reentered Soviet society. Although readers will hear the voices of women who were in excruciating physical and emotional pain, they will also find remarkable testimonies to the agency and resilience of women who struggled against incredible odds. Written by women from all stations in life and from drastically different backgrounds, these stories reconstruct not only the world of the Gulag but also its meaning for society at large. The documents excerpted here point to areas of Soviet history and culture that have yet to be fully investigated as they illuminate women's experiences of friendship, work, hope, inspiration, loss, and terror. All the works selected for the collection are united by their authors' sense of group and individual identity. To varying degrees, all of them associate their experiences with events and people beyond their personal experiences and immediate surroundings, thus expanding the traditional perspective of women's writing. These riveting stories, never before published in English or Russian, will appeal to scholars and students of Soviet history and literature, as well as general readers interested in women's history.
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Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons

Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons

by Veronica Shapovalov
Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons

Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons

by Veronica Shapovalov

eBook

$65.50 

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Overview

This engrossing collection of prison memoirs by Russian women is the first to portray the direct experiences of the wide range of women who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and camps. Comprising the stories of women from all classes and backgrounds, this book covers the entire span of the Gulag's existence from the 1920s to the 1980s, including the little-known periods of political repression of the 1960s and 1980s. These memoirs and letters provide a rich portrait of how women led everyday life in prison and in the camps, of the strategies of accommodation and resistance they employed, and the challenges they faced when they reentered Soviet society. Although readers will hear the voices of women who were in excruciating physical and emotional pain, they will also find remarkable testimonies to the agency and resilience of women who struggled against incredible odds. Written by women from all stations in life and from drastically different backgrounds, these stories reconstruct not only the world of the Gulag but also its meaning for society at large. The documents excerpted here point to areas of Soviet history and culture that have yet to be fully investigated as they illuminate women's experiences of friendship, work, hope, inspiration, loss, and terror. All the works selected for the collection are united by their authors' sense of group and individual identity. To varying degrees, all of them associate their experiences with events and people beyond their personal experiences and immediate surroundings, thus expanding the traditional perspective of women's writing. These riveting stories, never before published in English or Russian, will appeal to scholars and students of Soviet history and literature, as well as general readers interested in women's history.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781461615385
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 08/24/2001
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 364
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Veronica Shapovalov is associate professor of Russian at San Diego State University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 PART I: Nonconformity, Resistance, and Protest
Chapter 3 My Autobiography
Chapter 4 Why Weren't You Crying?
Chapter 5 Memoirs of Brusilova, by E. Selezneva
Chapter 6 From the Protocol of Interrogation
Chapter 7 You Would Make a Good Joan of Arc
Chapter 8 How I Became an Anarchist
Chapter 9 The Prison Transport in Wartime
Chapter 10 My Meetings with Anna Petrovna Skripnikova
Chapter 11 Perspective
Part 12 PART II: Camp As a Way of Life
Chapter 13 Episodes from My Life
Chapter 14 Life Is Everywhere
Chapter 15 From Aelita's Notes
Chapter 16 Epiphany in the Taiga
Chapter 17 From Letters
Chapter 18 Letters
Part 19 PART III: Sisters, Moms, and Broads
Chapter 20 From Letters
Chapter 21 Satyr and Nymphs
Chapter 22 The Hold
Chapter 23 I Never Saw Him Again
Chapter 24 Unedited Life
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