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Gender and Power: The Communist Party of Ukraine on Women in Leadership, 1960
The Resolution of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) “On Serious Shortcomings in the Promotion of Women to Leadership Positions”, dated July 4, 1960, noted a significant gender imbalance in Soviet state administration. The CPU placed the blame for the insufficient presence of women in leadership on party committees and the heads of Soviet and economic governing bodies, who, it stated, “underestimate the full importance of this issue.” In the document, absolute and relative figures were presented together only when describing women’s educational level, whereas in all other cases, the share of women was given only in relative terms. Such manipulation of statistics made it impossible...
Valentyna Shevchenko on Her Chairmanship of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR
Valentyna Shevchenko (1935–2020) worked as a senior pioneer leader and a secondary school teacher, later holding leadership positions in the Komsomol and party bodies of the Ukrainian SSR. She served as Deputy Minister of Education and as head of the Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. During the Perestroika period, she rose to the position of Chairwoman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. In independent Ukraine, Valentyna Shevchenko led several civic organizations engaged in humanitarian issues. Her memoirs cover the period from her childhood to the first decade of Ukrainian independence, becoming more detailed as they approach the present. She explained that her motivation for...
Polish-Soviet Population Exchange: 1944 “Report on Mood”
This report, prepared by the head of the Lviv oblast party committee, and addressed to Nikita Khrushchev on 14 October 1944, offers an official assessment of Polish attitudes in the region one month after the signing of the Polish-Soviet population exchange agreement. Presented as a “report on moods,” it contains a series of quoted remarks attributed to local inhabitants. These very manifold moods highlight the complexity of the population transfer on the ground. Far from a smooth or unanimous process, the implementation of resettlement encountered hesitation, fear, ambivalence, and selective compliance. While the report depicts some readiness to leave, it also underscores that departures were often driven less by ideological conviction than by pragmatic considerations, security,...
Soviet Nationality Policy in 1944 Lviv
This memorandum, transmitted in Russian to the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Ukraine, Nikita Khrushchev, and signed by Kostyantyn Litvin (then deputy head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine), Ivan Hrushetskyi (First Secretary of the Lviv Oblast and City Committees of the CP(b)U), and a third eastern Ukrainian party official is a party document. It reflects the nationality policy measures taken after reoccupation in Lviv. Dated 3 August 1944, just one month before the Polish-Soviet population exchange agreement, it sets out measurement to incorporate the city into the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and legitimize the new power. The document frames Lviv...
Gender and Soviet Cadre Policy in 1960s: Transcript of First Secretaries of Regional Party Committees Meeting
The meeting of the heads of regional party committees and the leaders of republican executive bodies, held on November 17, 1965, was dedicated to organizational and party work within the CPU (Communist Party of Ukraine) in preparation for the “worthy reception of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU,” scheduled for March 1966. Attendees heard reports from the head of the Ukrainian party organization, Petro Shelest, as well as from nine regional CPU committees. In his speech, an excerpt of which is published below, Petro Shelest addressed preparations for what he called a “momentous event in our lives,” a “landmark date in the life of our Party and our people – the 23rd Congress...
Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi on Male Domination in Soviet Leadership, 1977
At a meeting with the heads of the Communist Party of Ukraine and state bodies, as well as regional leaders, current issues of the republic and planning for 1978 were discussed. After several speakers, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPU, Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi, took the floor. Listing shortcomings in the current implementation of economic plans and in planning for the coming year, he called on those present to consider candidates for election at the upcoming party conferences and to create a reserve of personnel, particularly among women. Among the one hundred people present at the meeting, there was only one woman — Domnikiia Yosypivna Protsenko, head of the Kherson Regional...
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