The orthodox women’s destinies in Soviet Russia in the 1920s and 1930s under political repression

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the fates of three Orthodox women who suffered during the period of political repression implemented in the role typical for the traditional model of women's behavior: a priest’s wife and a mother with many children; a religious Orthodox laywoman; a nun. The theme of women's fate, broken by repression, makes it possible to raise several issues in the historical and gender context: the "women's question" in Soviet Russia; the political repression of the
twentieth century in historical and public memory; the veneration of new martyrs in modern society; gender roles of women who retained the traditional model of behavior during the years of repression. The fates of Chionia Archangelskaya, Tatiana Grimblit, and Alexandra (Chervyakova) fit into the historical context of the first two decades of the Soviet era, when social prospects for religious women were closed. The analysis of Orthodox women’s biographies and their individual behavioral characteristics shows that in the conditions of persecution against the Church, they preserved their gender identity in expressing their religious views, continuing the Russian traditional understanding of a woman as a symbol of the moral ideal. The article substantiates the introduction of the concept of "women's Christian feat" into the historical narrative. The novelty lies in the use of a new type of sources as the basis for research – modern hagiographic texts prepared as a part of the canonization in 2000 at the Jubilee Council of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church of the martyrs and Confessors of the twentieth century. The specificity of newly glorified saints’ lives is based on archival materials of judicial and investigative cases-interrogation protocols, certificates, letters, which allows historically reliably on the example of the most difficult life
situations to reveal the life path of women who suffered "for the truth". The article discusses the importance of forming a historical narrative in gender studies devoted to the difficult period of repression in Russian history, and the formation of women's discourse in the context of historical and gender issues as an independent direction.