Family discourse of women’s press in the soviet period

Abstract

Today, the attention of the state is focused on preserving and strengthening the values of the family as a social institution. An interesting research task is to analyze how family discourse was presented in the periodical press of the Soviet period. The empirical basis of the study is women’s magazines, since they present this topic in the most diverse way, the main research methods are content analysis and a comparative historical method. The author identifies three time periods within which he considers the specifics of covering family topics. The article analyzes not only socio-political women’s publications, but also literary and social periodicals, and dissident women’s press.

In the Soviet period, we see that the family theme on the pages of periodicals is presented in different ways. During the NEP period, the traditions of pre-revolutionary journalism continue, where in women’s literary and public publications, family discourse is the main, dominant one. Since the 1930s, this topic has become unpopular in women’s socio-political publications, practically receding into the background. This is also true for the period of the Great Patriotic War.

The return of family themes to women’s periodicals occurs in the post-war period. The materials of women’s magazines of the post-war period are devoted to family and household topics, they represent the life of a Soviet woman as prosperous and calm, they make it clear that the state takes care of a woman and her child, treats expectant mothers attentively and reverently, does everything possible so that a woman can combine domestic economy, motherhood and their social tasks. In the dissident almanac “Maria” (“Woman and Russia”), family topics are presented from the standpoint of the interests and demands of a woman. In it, the authors show the painful positions of the Soviet family, such as families with single mothers, psychological violence in marriage, and many others.