Overcoming ‘Distinctive Backwardness’

Categorising Udmurt Women in Soviet Biomedical Propaganda (1920–1932)

Authors

• Maria Vyatchina University of Tartu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3670-6315

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.141310

Abstract

From 1920 through 1932, Soviet biomedical propaganda disseminated via Udmurt literature including through periodicals, novels, plays, and poetry aimed to instil sanitation values and advance modernisation. This propaganda targeted the Indigenous population, perceived by the Bolsheviks as backward and unhealthy. Udmurt women specifically, often blamed for disease transmission, were rendered responsible for implementing new sanitary practices. This model, which positioned ethnic minority women as change agents in remote areas, was promoted by the Commission for the Improvement of the Work and Everyday Lives of Women (1926–1932). By examining this propaganda, this article reveals the idealised roles—of mother, labourer, agitator, and professional—assigned to Indigenous women by Soviet officials. Soviet development, whilst ostensibly promoting cultural uplift, entailed the exploitation of women’s bodies, imposed changes to daily life, suppressed Indigenous culture, and devalued Indigenous knowledges.

Keywords: agitation, Bolsheviks, USSR, Udmurts, sanitation propaganda, racialisation, gender.