Monthly Adventures in the USSR: What they said about them in the press
The topic of menstruation in the media is still taboo - and its discussion is veiled by blue liquid and euphemisms like "these" or "critical" days. It seems that it has always been this way, but in fact it isn’t — in the USSR they have openly written about menstruation for many years, and the articles have been accompanied by pictures of the uterus. We understand the history of attitudes towards menstruation in the USSR - with the help of the press, books, and the historian Pavel Vasilyev.
By this time, when the egg matures, the woman develops blood, or, as they are otherwise called, regula, or menstruation. In Russia, this usually happens in the 13th or 14th year. From the age when the maturation of the eggs and the regula begins, the girl begins to turn into a girl. She begins to grow stronger, her voice changes, sometimes her character changes. At this time, girls sometimes become very irritable.
"WORKER", № 6, 1923
← IN THE TWENTY AND THIRTY YEARSThe party press published menstruation texts in at least every other issue. Doctor of Historical Sciences Alice Klotz believes that this can be explained by the early Soviet hygienic campaign - it was actively pursued before the post-war years, when the main migration from villages to cities took place and the population learned basic hygiene skills. During this period, menstruation was written medically dry and to the point. Candidate of Historical Sciences, postdoctoral student of the Van Lear Institute in Jerusalem Pavel Vasilyev says that in the first years after the revolution in the country"Emancipatory sentiments were strong".
During the blood, the inside of the uterus swells, the uterus becomes friable, poured with blood. The hole in the cervix opens up a bit, and the blood is poured out. Menstruation lasts differently: 3-5-7 days, - and appear every 3-4 weeks. If menstruation lasts longer or appears more often, then this is already a disease, and you need to consult a doctor.
"Worker", № 6, 1923
→ RESEARCHER ERIK NAYMAN WRITES, that Alexandra Kollontai regarded menstruation as something unpleasantly obligatory for women, which would be nice to get rid of. It was believed that menstruation gets in the way of women towards full equality with men, but is not considered as an important women's experience. This is just a phenomenon that women are exposed to, so they wrote about them, as well as about any other "medical", highly specialized information - the minimum necessary. For additional data or cycle deviations, it was advised to go to the doctor.
Menstruation is thus not a disease; According to the letter of the law, a woman during menstruation is not subject to exemption from labor. But there are a number of women who, due to certain conditions of the body, menstruation, especially in the first days, are extremely difficult. Doctors prescribe a woman who does not work at the enterprise, complete rest (lying in bed) for one or two days.
"WORKER", № 7, 1924
← DISCUSSIONS ON MENUSTRUCTURES AND EQUALITY were conducted at the level whether to take time off in the days of menstruation. Soviet history professor Melanie Ilic in the study "Soviet Women Workers and Menstruation: 1920s and 1930s" writes that menstrual leave existed in factories and industries where there were more women than men. Women could take a day off several days a month - although some deliberately did not use them. Pavel Vasiliev believes that this is also characteristic of the current situation: on the one hand, menstrual time off can be considered a progressive legislative initiative; on the other hand, they seem to automatically imply that the female body a few days a month functions worse than the male one, and the male body is taken as the standard.
But not all party publications of this period have strong feminist sentiments. For example, in the "Women's Journal" in 1926, the article "Chemistry of Women's Moods" appeared - it describes that a woman becomes uncontrollable for several days a month, and in psychiatry she is prepared with a diagnosis of "menstrual psychosis": "Consequently, the period of menstruation is certainly limited. The statistics illustrate this idea by pointing to an increase in the propensity to crimes. It turns out that about 50% of all suicides among women fall during the period of regulation. "
If the female egg cell does not meet with the sperm, the unfertilized egg cell still moves into the uterus and dies. The surface layer of the swollen mucous membrane of the uterus narrows; this is accompanied by bleeding; what we call menstruation happens.
"Worker", № 7, 1947
→ AFTER THE WAR,in the second half of the forties - early fifties, in medical journals details, attention to health and hygiene is replaced by concern only for the reproductive state of the woman. The press reminded that if the menses had gone astray or there was a discharge, the woman needed to see a doctor immediately, until complications arose - she was to become a mother.
Pavel Vasilyev adds that the country in the Stalin period, in the context of militarization, was interested in new citizens, and above all in soldiers. This is most noticeable in the postwar years, when a woman was viewed as an "incubator" for the production of people, and not only in the USSR - other countries affected by the war also sought to make up for the losses. During this period, medical negligence, cases where a doctor caused damage to the reproductive health of a woman by their actions, were punished especially severely, Vasiliev adds. Accordingly, they didn’t talk about menstruation by themselves — they were simply mentioned in the articles about pregnancy, the causes of infertility or abortions.
The main concern of parents in this regard is to better prepare the girl's body for a normal menstrual cycle. In physically developed, seasoned, healthy girls, menstruation usually passes regularly, without disturbance; on the contrary, it is often difficult for painful girls to tolerate the onset of menstruation, lose weight, lose their already modest strength.
"Worker", № 3, 1963
← FROM THE END OF THE FIFTIES - the beginning of the sixties mentions of menstruation in the press emerge only in the framework of advice for the mother of a teenage girl. The grandmother, the doctor and the teachers in the school should be ready for the menstruation of the girls, and the mother should provide the daughter with information in advance so that she is not afraid of the blood. And the whole environment of the schoolgirl should be ready for the fact that her behavior will change, she will start to learn and be rude worse - it is considered that this is a normal stage of her life associated with "becoming a mother." Pavel Vasiliev assumes that from the end of the fifties to the eighties menstrual knowledge goes into the sphere of the family, and the responsibility for storing and transmitting this information lies only with the mother.
There is one more theory explaining this state of affairs: in the sixties-eighties, it becomes more difficult to talk about menstruation, perhaps also because of a new, even more conservative view of the family. In the book "The High Title of the Communist: Postwar Party Discipline and the Values of the Soviet Regime" Edward Cohn concludes that the Khrushchev period in the USSR was almost more "moralizing" than the Stalinist period. For example, if under Stalin it became known about the mistress of some official, then simple conversations and reprimands could follow - when Khrushchev, the sanctions for such actions were much stricter. The moral character of the builder of communism is constructed more than ever clearly and in detail.
At least twice a day with clean hands with short cropped nails, it is necessary to wash the external genitals with slightly warm boiled water; dried blood on the external genital organs leads to skin pollution and irritation, hence inflammation can pass into the vagina and internal genital organs. You should not take a bath during menstruation, swim in the sea, in the river (you should not douche the vagina). You should wash in the shower. You can not have sexual intercourse. It is necessary to use hygienic gauze pads, which should be tied up to a belt and replaced as it gets dirty; should wear spacious leotards and often change them.
"A brief encyclopedia of the household", 1966
→ In Soviet times in the press Very little attention is paid to the “technical” side of the issue - hygiene products that should make the life of a woman easier during menstruation. For example, the special belt on which it was necessary to fasten cotton wool wrapped with gauze was very popular. Although by the end of the eighties in the country the first pads appeared, called by female names ("Angelina", "Veronika"), and tampons, these goods were scarce, and Soviet women rarely bought them. But the instructions on how to make pads on their own - from the same gauze and wool - were very popular. Pavel Vasilyev believes that because women often did the pads themselves, they did not understand why they would give money for them.
In the eighties, articles about menstruation are scarce, and by the beginning of the nineties, hints of them remain only in advertising. Pavel Vasiliev believes that the "disappearance" of menstruation may be associated with traditionalist discourse, which over time will only strengthen. Menstruation is finally referred to as "women's affairs", which have no place in the journal; some of the information is transferred to the encyclopedia "for girls", where tips on the production of gaskets are also kept. In the future, the promotion of gaskets and tampons was engaged in advertising - in the press and on television. The first Tampax ad appeared in Burda magazine in 1989: she promised that with Tampax, women in the country would gain unprecedented comfort and freedom - and at the same time explain in detail how to use it and how to dispose of it.
Almost thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, menstruation is still a taboo topic. Despite the fact that pads, tampons and menstrual cups appear regularly in advertising, talking about them is still considered a “personal” matter - and because of this, many women do not fully understand how their body functions, and myths continue to reign in society that during menstruation it is impossible to get pregnant and you can not engage in any sports. The good news is that a start has been made to change: for example, in advertisements of gaskets, it was not blue liquid that appeared, but blood. It remains to overcome the embarrassment.
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