Женщины в системе политических репрессий СССР (1918-1950-е гг.): нормативно-правовой анализ (1 и 2 этапы)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Soviet legal and regulatory framework of political repressions in the 1918–1950, with a focus on the gender aspect. The study examines the key stages in the formation of Soviet repressive legislation, beginning with the first decrees of the revolutionary period and concluding with the institutionalization of repressive practices during the Stalinist era. Particular attention is paid to identifying the mechanisms through which state violence acquired a legitimized character and became a stable instrument of political governance over society. The author analyzes the main laws, codes, resolutions, and directive documents that reveal the nature and scale of repressive policies toward women. The source base of the study consists of decrees of the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK), resolutions of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, criminal and corrective labor codes, as well as departmental acts of the OGPU and NKVD, which made it possible to trace the evolution of the legal institutionalization of the repressive system. The gender approach makes it possible to identify the specific features of women’s position under Soviet repressive policies. It is shown that, despite the formally proclaimed principle of equality, women were subjected to repression both as independent targets of persecution and as members of the families of “enemies of the people”. It is emphasized that women proved to be particularly vulnerable in the context of the expansion of extrajudicial practices, administrative exile, forced labor, and collective responsibility based on family affiliation. By systematizing the existing legal framework, the author identifies five stages from 1917 to 1958, where the main criterion is the normative documents aimed at either tightening or easing repressive policies toward the female population. The article examines the legislative documents of the first two stages, covering the period from 1917 to August 1937. It has been established that during the first stage, a general legal framework of Soviet terror was formed, within which women were not yet singled out as a distinct category of victims; however, they were already incorporated into repressive practices through mechanisms of class-based and political persecution. During the second stage, in the context of collectivization, dekulakization, and the strengthening of the NKVD’s role, women increasingly became targets of repression—not only as relatives of the accused, but also as participants in social protests and as bearers of a “socially dangerous” status. In conclusion, the author argues that the legal and regulatory framework of political repressions was a crucial element of state policy aimed at institutionalizing violence, while the gender dimension of repression reflects the deep contradictions of the Soviet social and legal system