Zinara Z. Mukhina

Doctor of Science (History), Professor, Department of Humanities

Stary Oskol Technological Institute named after A. A. Ugarov

(Stary Oskol, Russia)

Natalia A. Mitsyuk

Doctor of Science (History), Associate Professor, Senior Researcher

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences

(Moscow, Russia)

Natalia L. Pushkareva

Doctor of Science (History), Professor

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences

(Moscow, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-8-22

Abstract. The authors of the article present women's contribution to the construction of the most important railway route Stary Oskol – Rzhava ("Road of Courage"), built on the eve of the Battle of Kursk. The main sources were office documents, auto-documentary materials – memories of participants, oral histories, primarily belonging to women. The content of these sources destroys numerous stereotypes regarding women's social roles in society and contributes to the preservation of the historical memory of the feat of ordinary Soviet women, helping to overcome the invisibility of women in history. The number of people mobilized for construction was 20– 25 thousand, a significant proportion of whom were women. Women performed important social and economic tasks. The daily life of women participating in the construction of the “Road of Courage” was part of military life. Sacrifice, intense physical labor at the limits of human endurance, malnutrition, constant stress for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones, but at the same time a demonstration of strength of spirit, self-motivation, and a positive attitude were an integral part of women's everyday life in the rear. Among the methods used to motivate workers were agitation and socialist competition. The labor feat of the Soviet people made it possible to complete the construction of the road twice as fast as planned. For many women, participation in the construction was their form of participation in the victory over the enemy. The construction took place in extreme conditions: three shifts, 14 hours per day, shortage of provisions, difficult living conditions, lack of medical care, constant shelling. In extreme working conditions, women demonstrated high stress resistance, self-organization and patience.
Keywords: women's military everyday life, historical anthropology of war, participation of women in the Great Patriotic War, Battle of Kursk, "Road of Courage", home front workers.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: Mukhina, ZZ, Mitsyuk, NA & Pushkareva, NL 2025, ‘Everyday Life of Female Workers During the Construction of the Stary Oskol–Rzhava Railway in the Summer of 1943’, Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 2 (22), pp. 8–22, https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2025-2-8-22 (in Russ.)

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