A lecture by Natalia Romanets was held on International Women’s Day

On March 6, a public lecture by the senior researcher of the Holodomor Museum, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Natalia Romanets, “The Female Face of Peasant Resistance: The Role of Women in Mass Peasant Protests of the Era of Complete Collectivization and the Holodomor,” was held in the Hall of Memory.

“The fact that women actively participated in mass riots, rebels became very unpleasant news for the authorities. Information about this constantly reached the ODPU bodies of the Ukrainian SSR. For example, in the report of the head of DPU of the Ukrainian SSR, V. Balytsky, on the events in the Shepetiv District of March 3, 1930, we read: “A characteristic feature of all these rebels that women play the leading, most active role in them,” says Natalia Romanets.

The historian listed the arguments used by the Soviet authorities to explain such outbursts of disobedience among women: “The authorities blamed the kulaks and their influence. A woman is the kulak’s new ally. The head of the Vasylkiv District Executive Committee writes: “It often happens that a kulak simply buys a poor woman for a jug of milk.” The documents also contain the thesis that “the kulak himself does not speak out, but instead sends his wife and children to relatives so that they cry and call for protection from the arbitrariness of the authorities…” Among the explanations given are “female emotionality, the patriarchal system, the ignorance and impunity of women,” etc.

However, all such arguments are easily refuted: “Reading such documents, we see reservations that reveal the actual state of affairs: women organisedly came to meetings where the creation of collective farms was discussed (even a peasant woman who was 90 years old!). There were real cases when women beat their own husbands if they were going to join collective farms.” So, it was a completely conscious, rational protest based on the needs of peasant women, morality, and political consciousness.

During the lecture, the historian gave a tour of the chronology of women’s rebellions and talked about specific actions by the authorities that caused mass resistance and the methods of punishment used against the rebels.

You can find more details soon on our YouTube channel, where we will post a lecture recording.