The image of a Soviet woman-politician in the Belarusian magazine Rabotnitsa a Syalyanka (1946-1991)

Abstract

In the Soviet state the solving of the gender question was based on the Marxist-Leninist idea of men and women equality. The activities aimed to involve women in the political life were carried out together with the realization of the economic and social tasks. In the second half of the 1940s the problem of the emancipation of women in the USSR was recognized as resolved. The women participation in politics became the widespread phenomenon. The image of a woman-politician formed in mass media indicates that the soviet authorities were interested in the participation of women of all soviet republics in politics. Analysis of the materials of the Belarusian popular women's magazine „Rabotnitsa i syalyanka” in 1946–1991 allows to reconstruct the image of the women-politician of the BSSR as it was seen by the communist party ideologists and state functionaries. The image created in the process of mediation was not a neutral reflection of real Belarusian women – it was a part of an ideological order. Like all the Soviet media the magazine was a part of the means of propaganda of the Communist party that’s why it created the ideal images of the woman-politician and translated them to the reader.