Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers
by Kazimiera Janina Cottam

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Book Reviews of Women in War and Resistance: Selected Biographies of Soviet Women Soldiers

Book Review: Definitely the standard work on the subject.
Summary: 5 Stars

I consider myself fairly well read when it comes to the Soviet military, but right from the first few pages I discovered that my "knowledge" of Soviet women combatants was based on typical Western misconceptions. It was neither the shortage of manpower or the desire to make a propaganda statement that brought Soviet women into combat roles. Instead, it was their sheer determination to take part in the defense of the Motherland and the consistent proving of their combat mettle that accounts for women being welcomed (despite considerable skepticism) into the ranks of the Red Army.

Most of the women whose stories were selected for inclusion in this book are recipients of the coveted Hero of the Soviet Union (HSU) award. This prestigious list includes women from all combat services, but the majority are either Red Air Force pilots or participants in the Soviet resistance.

Almost all Soviet women pilots seemed to have been inspired by a trio of female aviation pioneers named Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova. These three women became as famous in the Soviet Union during the 1930's as Amelia Erhardt was in the West. Grizodubova went on to command a regiment consisting of all men, the only instance of this ever happening, while Raskova formed the first women's regiments and commanded one of them until her death in January of 1943 (Osipenko died in a plane crash before the war). In what seems very unusual to an American reader, bomber/ground attack pilots received much more recognition than fighter pilots. In fact, the only Soviet woman fighter pilot to be named as a Hero of the Soviet Union was Lidya Litvyak, who was awarded the honor posthumously in 1990, nearly 50 years after having been killed in action in August of 1943.

Whenever I was reading through the bios of the women of the Red Army and Air Force, I was glad to learn that many of these heroines lived long and healthy lives after the war and that a good number of them were still alive as of the late 1990s. Then I got to the stories of Soviet Resistance fighters... In their cases, the survivors can be counted on one hand. All the previous stories had been of women who risked their lives fighting the Nazis; all the following were about women who almost invariably sacrificed theirs for the same cause. Some died under torture by the Nazis or their collaborators while others fought to the last bullet against suicidal odds. Very, very few lived to see the invader driven out of their homeland. In many ways, their stories are the most profound.

Two other groups of Soviet women combatants were also included. The first were recipients of the Order of Glory, 1st Class. This award was reserved exclusively for privates, NCOs, and (in the case of the air force) junior lieutenants. It was actually awarded far less often than the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. Only four women received this very rare award for frontline service.

The stories of four female veterans of the Russian Civil War (1918-22) finish up the book. This conflict, not widely written about in the West, is of particular interest to me. I especially enjoyed the bio of "Zemlyachka." Her name appeared briefly in other accounts I had read as someone particularly feared and detested by the counter-revolutionary "White" armies. It was good to finally read a more favorable account of her wartime service. 20 years before Hitler's invasion, "Zemlyachka" and the other three Bolshevik fighters whose stories are told here took part in an epic struggle against a homegrown Russian fascist movement whose victory would have dramatically altered the course of all that was to follow.

Professor Cottam has written a great book that will interest readers of both Soviet and military history as well as those seeking a historical perspective on the current debate regarding women in combat. She has also put together three other books containing both first- and third-person accounts of Soviet women in wartime. If you have even a slight interest in the subject, _Women in War and Resistance_ is a must.

Biographies & Memoirs Books

• History
• Nonfiction