Women's memory of hygiene practices in the 1950–1960s (on the example of Stalingrad/Volgograd)

Abstract

The article reveals stories related to body hygiene, as well as gender features of this direction. It is women's ego-documents that are one of the most important sources on the history of the construction of corporality, which in the era of the 1950–1960s developed not only from norms and regulations, but also from real-time circumstances. The city of Stalingrad/Volgograd, which was recovering after the Great Patriotic War, could only partially satisfy the hygienic needs of the residents, who were forced to resort to various ways of maintaining bodily cleanliness. Taking care of one's own body became a significant problem in the often lack of hygiene facilities and personal space that accompanied private homes and communal apartments in the region. The desire of the authorities to gradually regulate private life is reflected not only in the pages of special manuals, but also in periodicals, where advice on body hygiene is beginning to appear. However, the domestic infrastructure of a non-capital city could not fully satisfy the needs of the majority of residents, which is why few of them had the opportunity and desire to comply with not only dictated, but also elementary hygiene standards.

Acknowledgements: the article was prepared with the financial support of the RSF (project No 22-28-01428) «Women's history as the basis of Russian social optimism (non-capital urban everyday life of the middle of the 20th century)».