From Don Juan to Comrade Ivan: Educating the Young Men of the Urals for Love and Marriage, 1953–1964. Issue 1 (1st August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McElmeel, Brendan
• Is Part Of: Aspasia. Volume 15:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 21
• Page End: 40
• Publication Date: 2021-08-01
• Subjects: communist morality -- gender -- Komsomol -- love -- marriage -- masculinity -- Soviet -- Thaw; Women -- Europe, Eastern -- Periodicals; Women -- Europe, Central -- Periodicals; Women -- Balkan Peninsula -- Periodicals; Women -- Europe, Central -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Women -- Europe, Eastern -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Women -- Balkan Peninsula -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Women; Balkan Peninsula; Central Europe; Eastern Europe; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 305.40943
• DOI: 10.3167/asp.2021.150103
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1933-2882

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines discussions of love and marriage in a regional newspaper of the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) in the central Urals region. Although framed around the intention to communicate official communist morality and ideals about the family, these discussions included stories and readers' letters that expressed a range of views that could both draw on and challenge Party ideals. While scholarship has emphasized the conservative elements of communist morality and the lack of support for men in the domestic sphere, these sources point to an understanding of love as central to a man's life and comradely partnership as fundamental to Soviet marriage.