Gendered Negotiations in Post-World War II Latvia

This presentation grows out of my research on gender in World War II Latvia under the Soviet (1940-1941) and Nazi (1941-1945) occupations. In the larger project, I use Soviet and Nazi regime correspondence, wartime periodical press, oral histories and memoirs to demonstrate how gender became a contested sphere of power for the occupation regimes and the Latvians under occupation. During World War II, gendered policies (e.g. marriage regulation) and gendered language became a tool for both occupation regimes to recruit collaborators. At the same time, Latvian resistance movements co-opted some of this gendered language to protest the occupying powers.

            In my presentation for the Berkshire conference, I consider the impact this gendered struggle for power during World War II had on postwar society. I do this by tracing the fates of three groups of women: 1. women who were tried by the post-war Soviet courts for collaboration with the Nazis 2. women who fled Latvia and became refugees and 3. women who remained in Soviet-occupied Latvia and participated in the rebuilding of society. My sources for this analysis include government documents, memoirs, and oral histories.

            This presentation aims to contribute to a broader discussion of the long-term effects of the gendered nature of war and military occupation that may also inform our understanding of more military occupations and wars (e.g. Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq).