Feminism and communism: specifics of interaction in the western Ukrainian media discourse of the 1920s – 1930s

Abstract

The Subject of the Study is the models of interaction and intersection of ideologies in media discourse. In contrast to the homogeneous ideological discourse of the Soviet press, the Western Ukrainian of the interwar period was ideologically diverse, in particular, “leftist” ideas were propagated in magazines. There is a noticeable trend in modern media studies: researchers to some extent ignore the “communist segment” of the Western Ukrainian press of the interwar period, this is due to the relevance of our study. Realizing that the communist movement was not widespread in Western Ukraine during the interwar period, let us consider the press of communist organizations both for the sake of objectivity and the need to explore models of the intersection of communist ideology and feminism and this is the novelty of the research. The aim of the article is to investigate the specifics of the interaction of feminism and communism in the Western Ukrainian media discourse of the 1920s and 1930s on the material of communist magazines. The weekly Nasha Zemlya and Sel-Rob, which represented the communist ideological discourse of Western Ukraine, were selected for analysis. The research methodology is a combination of critical discourse analysis with feminist critique. The Results of the Study. Communist magazines were concerned about how to attract Ukrainian women to the party ranks. The key issues covered in Western Ukrainian communist magazines were: women’s unemployment, low-skilled workers, difficult conditions, and low wages. At the same time, only women journalists paid attention to the gender aspect of such problems, for example, the gender disparity in the remuneration of men and women. The political and ideological orientation of Western Ukrainian communist newspapers toward the Soviet Union and Moscow Bolshevism was obvious. Propaganda materials about the Soviet Union’s success in resolving the “women’s issue” regularly appeared in the newspapers of Western Ukrainian communists. Publications on women’s issues were feminist in terms of authorial Intentions, ideological accents, and interpretation of facts. However, discrimination against women was primarily due to an unjust socio-economic system. Despite feminist intentions in the materials of communist magazines, activists of the Ukrainian Women’s Union were criticized as the main ideological competitors in the struggle for the Ukrainian woman.