War Wives: Women, Marriage, and the Soviet Partisan Movement (1941–44)

Abstract

The article explores relationships between male combatants and women in the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944, based on the case of the Soviet partisans. It analyzes different forms of wartime marriages, which are considered as heterosexual relationships entailing complex negotiations and exchanges, and as social institutions which were an essential part of the transformation of the social order during the war. It shows how these marriages revealed shifts in hierarchies, status and concepts of authority and power, blending peasant traditions and military culture in response to the shock of war.