16/06/2026
🔎 ARCHIVES / WOMEN III - and for those who cannot participate in the other two events, there is always the option to read the new issue of the CAHIERS D'HISTOIRE RUSSE, EST-EUROPÉENNE, CAUCASIENNE ET CENTRASIATIQUE of Cercec⤵️
GENDERING CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN HISTORY
Guest editors: Oksana Kis, Kseniia Kuzina et Olena Stiashkina
2026/1 Vol. 67
They ask: How can the national narrative change when women voice their stories of living through the long and turbulent 20th century? What do we learn about Ukraine’s history when the focus is on women? Or, using the straightforward question asked by Sherna Gluck “What's so Special about Women?”
‼️ NEW ISSUE • CAHIERS D'HISTOIRE RUSSE, EST-EUROPÉENNE, CAUCASIENNE ET CENTRASIATIQUE • "GENDERING CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN HISTORY" ["L’histoire contemporaine de l’Ukraine au prisme du genre"]
Sous la direction de Oksana Kis, Kseniia Kuzina et Olena Stiashkina
Cahiers d'histoire russe, est-européenne, caucasienne et centrasiatique
2026/1 Vol. 67 https://shs.cairn.info/revue-cahiers-du-monde-russe-2026-1
Éditions de l'EHESS
241 pages
How can the national narrative change when women voice their stories of living through the long and turbulent 20th century? What do we learn about Ukraine’s history when the focus is on women? Or, using the straightforward question asked by Sherna Gluck “What's so Special about Women?”
This special issue focus on women’s experiences of rapid modernization that took place on the Ukrainian lands during the 20th century. Departing from the post-soviet traditions of focusing a historical inquiry chiefly on large-scale political struggles, macro-level economic processes and major institutional structures, this issue offers an anthropological approach to the history of Ukraine allowing to explore specific experiences and perspectives of different groups of women who found themselves in the whirlwind of big political, socio-economic and cultural phenomena and events. Examining Ukrainian history of the turbulent 20th century through the lenses of Ukrainian women’s lives allows to reveal and study some inconspicuous factors and dimensions of historical processes which are undetectable under regular optics of classical historical inquiry, but were nevertheless important drivers of historical developments.
The studies included in this issue allow to see women in their diversity: they were among victims and among perpetrators, they were rebels and conformists, losers and winners, some aspired to fulfill their ambitions and expand areas and forms of their activities, while others just tried to carry on coping with day to day challenges. These research explore everyday lives of women, including their consumer and cultural practices, professional pursuits, political engagements, wartime experiences, interactions with state authorities and law enforcement, and most importantly – women’s search for their part in a rapidly changing world.
The authors examine various realms (political, cultural, economic and social) where transformations of gender order and women’s emancipation “from above” overlapped and intertwined with other crucial social processes of urbanization, industrialization, struggle for nation-state building, class and ethnic clashes which prompted women to develop new complex identities. These articles cover the 20th century focusing mainly on Ukrainian women and representatives of other nations who resided on Ukrainian territories. Some studies address women’s experiences in large-scale developments, while others focus on the micro-level (local events and actors) or regional dimensions; individual women’s stories serve as cases illustrative for women’s grassroots agency. This issue aims to unfold the complexity, ambiguity and non-linearity of the Ukrainian historical experience in the 20th century as represented by women’s lives.
