„Šachterka“ −Der Arbeitsalltag von Frauen und Mädchen in der sowjetischen Industrieprovinz Kusnezker Becken in den 1930er Jahren

Abstract

During the First Five-Year-Plan, women were recruited in large numbers for building up heavy industry. The Kuzbas mining region was no exception. Here, with a predominantly young and male population, many of whom were deported and forced to work in the mines, the recruitment of women was perceived as a disciplinarian policy. The recruitment policy was quite successful: During the First Five-Year-Plan, the percentage of women working in the Siberian mining industry climbed from 5,9 % 1928 to 23,4 % 1932. Especially the group of younger workers, the 18–23 years-old so called ‘podrostki’, was approaching sexual equality, with 25 % young women in this age group and even 37 % girls among the youngest workers (under 18 years of age). The efforts of making miners out of girls and women, undertaken mostly by union organisations, were accompanied by the image of the strong and self-confident ‘šachterka’ (female miner), working underground on machines. In opposition to official propaganda, women in the male dominated mining business had the lowest status, lowest earnings, and worst working conditions.