Shapovalov Veronica (ed.) Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons

Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001. — 364 p. — ISBN10: 0742511464; ISBN13: 978-0742511460This engrossing collection of prison memoirs by Russian women is the first to portray the direct experiences of the wide range of women who were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and camps. Comprising the stories of women from all classes and backgrounds, this book covers the entire span of the Gulag's existence from the 1920s to the 1980s, including the little-known periods of political repression of the 1960s and 1980s. These memoirs and letters provide a rich portrait of how women led everyday life in prison and in the camps, of the strategies of accommodation and resistance they employed, and the challenges they faced when they reentered Soviet society. Although readers will hear the voices of women who were in excruciating physical and emotional pain, they will also find remarkable testimonies to the agency and resilience of women who struggled against incredible odds. Written by women from all stations in life and from drastically different backgrounds, these stories reconstruct not only the world of the Gulag but also its meaning for society at large. The documents excerpted here point to areas of Soviet history and culture that have yet to be fully investigated as they illuminate women's experiences of friendship, work, hope, inspiration, loss, and terror. All the works selected for the collection are united by their authors' sense of group and individual identity. To varying degrees, all of them associate their experiences with events and people beyond their personal experiences and immediate surroundings, thus expanding the traditional perspective of women's writing. These riveting stories, never before published in English or Russian, will appeal to scholars and students of Soviet history and literature, as well as general readers interested in women's history.Nonconformity, Resistance, and ProtestEvgeniia Isaakovna Iaroslavskaia-Markon. My Autobiography
Anna Petrovna Skripnikova. “Why Weren’t You Crying?”
Varvara Ivanovna Brusilova. Memoirs of Brusilova, by E. Selezneva
Iuliia Nikolaevna Danzas. From the Protocol of Interrogation
Ekaterina Nikolaevna Mikhailova. “You Would Make a Good Joan of Arc”
Aida Issakharovna Basevich. How I Became an Anarchist
Roza Zelmanovna Vetukhnovskaia. The Prison Transport in Wartime
Liudmila Vasilevna Klimanova. My Meetings with Anna Petrovna Skripnikova
Irina Zalmanovna Tsurkova. PerspectiveCamp As a Way of LifeIadviga-Irena Iosifovna Verzhenskaia. Episodes from My Life
Kseniia Dmitrievna Medvedskaia. Life Is Everywhere
Liudmila Ivanovna Granovskaia. From Aelita’s Notes
Olga Viktorovna Iafa-Sinakevich. Epiphany in the Taiga
Vera Fedorovna Shtein. From Letters
Mariia Vasilevna Kovach-Astafeva. LettersSisters, Moms, and BroadsAnna Petrovna Zborovskaia. From Letters
Olga Viktorovna Iafa-Sinakevich. Satyr and Nymphs
Elena Semenovna Glinka. The Hold
Irina Pavlovna Vasileva. “I Never Saw Him Again”
Valentina Grigorievna Ievleva-Pavlenko. Unedited LifeSelected Bibliography