The cultural artifact that I have found is an image (seen above) from an article from The Atlantic that depicts some of the members the 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (later the 46 Guards Night Bomber Regiment) who were originally apart of Aviation Group 122. This group consisted of three female units- the 586th(fighter pilots), the 587th(dive bombers), and the 588th(night bombers)- who flew combat missions for the Soviet Union during the course of World War II, what is known in Russia as The Great Patriotic War. The most-known regiment from Aviation Group 122 is the 588th or 46 Guards Night Bomber Regiment, who only flew night missions and where dubbed Nachthexen or "Night Witches" by the Germans. This photograph is highly significant since it reveals that Soviet Russia was the first country to allow for active women participation in the military forces in a time where women where only allowed, and secretly for that matter, to participate in supportive roles in the armed forces. This artifact has been argued to show the light in which Communist Russia wished to present itself to the outside world: that their citizens were superior products of socialism. However, Russian history professor Reina Pennington disagrees that the creation of these female aviation regiments were, as many other historians claim, just a mere propaganda stunt or out of necessity due to lack of male pilots; instead, Pennington believes that famous pre-war navigator & pilot Marina Raskova and her connections in high places (Stalin) allowed an avenue for the creation of the regiments. I agree. Raskova and her individual agency pushed for the creation of one all-female regiment (the 588th) and two all-female navigator and pilot but male-mechanic engineer regiments (the 586 and the 587) that in turn momentarily expanded the boundaries of the so-called "all-male military culture" only to be discharged back into acceptable female occupations due to the idea that women's primary roles were for mothering and nurturing which re-emerged post war due to the Soviet Union's need to rebuild in wake of the war's aftermath. The rise and fall of these female regiments were inextricably linked to the needs of their mother country and what she asked of them: fearless women or nurturing mothers.
I find that I will need to start contextualizing the significance of these three female regiments by having to start with the flight of the Rodina in 1938; a flight that broke the international straight-line distance by the three women Marina Raskova, Polina Osipenko, and Valentina Grizodubova. The mentioning of other famous female pilots, such as 5-woman aerobatic team based in Tushino Airfield, Moscow all emphasize that while not common, female aviators did exist before the war thus ruling out the argument of necessity; that is that the Soviet Union utilized female combat pilots out of pure need. This in turn brings me to central humanist question I wish to answer: How did the culture of Soviet Union pre-WWII, during WWII, and post-WWII affect the progression and subsequent regression of female occupational advancement within the Russian military forces. To accomplish this I will utilize a gender studies approach as well a historical one to delineate events and understand the underlying values/rationale.
The bulk of scholarly works on these women primarily focuses around the 588th Night Bomber regiment, also known as the Night Witches, (due to the fact that whenever the Russian press did publish anything on the female pilots they focused on this regiment thus any available information is most about these women ) and takes on different standpoints as to why they were allowed to actively serve in combat positions. Reina Pennington, the leading authority, claims that assemblage of these three primarily female units were done so through the charisma and political backing that fame entails of Marina Raskova, a famous pre-war pilot who help set many aviation records (both solo and in group) and who overtime grew political relationships with Stalin and other members of his cabinet. Geopolitical analyst Mahdi Darius Nazeroaya in his article "The Historic Role that Soviet Women Played in Defeating the Nazis in World War II" takes on the position that the Bolshevik's ideology (Communism) set the road for women equality as Karl Marx's manifesto demanded by allowing women to enter the industrial workforce and eventually military positions. However, after the integration Nazeoraya fails to answer or attempt to answer the deactivation and overall dismal of Russian military women. A US Air Force report known as "Femme Fatale: An Examination of the Role of Women in Combat and the Policy of Implications for Future American Military Operations" contains a chapter on the WWII Russian women pilots and credits the folklore of Imperial Russia with stories of polianitsy or "women warriors" or sometimes referred to only as the amazonka (Amazon) having been told to children as fairy tales and thus creating a culture were women could and in certain circumstances (usually the tales centered around invaders and protection of the culture/home) were expected to fight. Nevertheless, the other portion of trustworthy publication on these women are magazine and newspaper articles such as the ones that appeared in The Atlantic , The Los Angeles Times , and The New York Times as response to the death of Nadezhda "Nadia" Popova, one of the better known Night Witches. These articles report on her death and give a brief history of the regiment she served in; nevertheless, their publication years later indicates that as societal and cultural vales have changed that the feats of these women has been allowed to come out and this brings to light the cultural impact that these women themselves had as a comic book, documentary, and film about them have been made by European-affiliated individuals.
In this research paper I hope to further analyze the impact that culture and societal values can have on the roles of women as well on it can affect historical memory. I believe that my paper will only expand on existing scholarship.
