As I write this introduction, Russia's war in Ukraine is well into its third year, voters in Russia returned Vladimir Putin to another presidential term, and the 2024 presidential election in the United States looms. Despite some electoral results that suggest a slight movement away from far-right ideologies, recent years have seen a resurgence of efforts to reassert patriarchal controls over societies around the world, often through attacks on women's reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ communities. Perhaps surprisingly, Central and Eastern European efforts are being used as models to be adapted in other places. For example, far-right politicians and commentators in the United States have embraced Hungarian President Viktor Orbán's conception of “illiberal democracy” and have sought to implement similar policies, notably in efforts to curtail access to abortion, in attacks on transgender medical treatments, and through bans on books deemed offensive to family values, among others. In addition, laws that criminalize homosexuality and near total abortion bans in Poland, Hungary, and Russia, among others, undermine citizenship rights for significant segments of the population in our region.
These anti-gender efforts compound the existing challenges to researching women's and gender history, even as they make such scholarship more crucial than ever. As we recover the experiences, struggles, and opportunities of the past, we chart a better path forward for the future. Such efforts are on display throughout this issue of Aspasia. The issue opens with a forum on the history of gender and militarization in Central and Eastern Europe. As scholars, we recognize that the remilitarization of the region taking place as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine represents a significant challenge and raises the very real possibility of a retrenchment of traditional values, norms, and expectations. The forum contributors consider the past relationships between gender and militarization, and how those experiences might provide context for understanding the dynamics of the current war, offering lessons for assessing future conflicts. They examine various experiences across the twentieth century to show the opportunities and limitations for women both during and after conflicts, and the conditions women face as both active participants and victims in war. Anna Nowakowska-Wierzchoś begins the discussion by examining efforts to establish women's military training programs (PWK) in Poland after World War I, which sought to create a new woman-citizen ready for the country's defense. The PWK offered military training to women outside the scope of the official armed forces, and fostered among the women who participated a vision of self-sufficiency and patriotic contribution to the national project and its defense, even as the authorities rejected this vision. Iva Jelušić examines the legacy of female Partisans in post-World War II Yugoslavia, their recruitment into the Antifascist Front of Women (AFŽ), and the role their wartime participation played in raising expectations for greater rights and opportunities after the war, most of which went unrealized. Nataliia Zalietok's contribution compares the mobilization and demobilization of women in Great Britain and the Soviet Union during and after World War II. She finds that while the particulars varied in each country, both mobilized women when it suited their wartime needs, and that mobilization reinforced traditional gender roles and norms, rather than challenging them. Weronika Grzebalska returns the focus to Poland to highlight what she calls the “problem of invisibility” regarding the integration of the long history of Polish women's military contributions into both national and international military history narratives. Finally, Steven Jug offers a comment on the four forum pieces that suggests the need for scholarship that recognizes both the contributions of women and the disruptions their participation causes.
The issue continues with three research articles that, taken together, broadly address the impact of state and revolutionary modernization in the twentieth century. The articles by Achilleas Fotakis and Dimitra Vassiliadou present some of the outcomes of a grant-funded research project on sexual violence in Modern Greece. Drawing on legal statutes, police statistics, and criminological analyses, Fotakis explores the Greek law on rape and changing perceptions of rape as a crime during the twentieth century. He argues that despite some interest in rape and reforming rape law, policing efforts focused on institutional and political priorities rather than protecting rape victims. Likewise, Vassiliadou draws on case law to assess how courts, individuals, and families addressed the moral harm caused to victims of rape through both customary practices and court actions. She finds that extralegal settlements, together with the possibility of criminal trials, provided a range of options for redress in cases of sexual violence. At the same time, the continued appeal of extralegal solutions preserved customary practices well into the modern era and challenged the authority of the modernizing Greek state. The final research article in this issue shifts the focus to revolutionary Byelorussia. Katarzyna Taczyńska sets the Yiddish poetry of Byelorussian writer Sore (Sara) Kahan (1885–1941) in its historical context, considering the ways Kahan's literary works embraced the revolutionary moment and the possibilities for Jewish cultural expression. Detailing Kahan's support for revolutionary modernization through her incorporation of socialist-realist and communist elements into her poems, Taczyńska shows the opportunities that the Bolshevik Revolution offered—at least temporarily—for the creation of a modern Jewish-Yiddish-Byelorussian culture, and the ability of women to contribute to such efforts.
This issue also includes two review essays. Izabela Desperak offers a timely assessment of the continued significance of Barbara Einhorn's foundational 1993 work, Cinderella Goes to Market. Tracing the arguments made by Einhorn regarding gender and the transition in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Communism, Desperak points out not only that Einhorn's arguments remain relevant today but also that she seemingly predicted accurately the broader trends that have developed in Central and Eastern Europe in the ensuing years. Desperak highlights the persistence of anti-gender movements first noted by Einhorn, and points in particular to the recent successes of anti-abortion activists, especially in Poland, Hungary, Byelorussia, and Russia, to implement traditionalist agendas that undermine women's citizenship. Our other review essay, by Georgeta Nazarska, examines two recent works about women, scholarship, and archival holdings in Bulgaria and Turkey, highlighting efforts to create women's archives, diversify research methods, and apply various technologies to document and preserve women's experiences. These works contribute to the recovery of marginalized women's voices and highlight further research possibilities in our region.
As always, we conclude this issue with book reviews and conference reports that reflect the diversity and depth of current scholarship in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European women's and gender history. I am continually impressed and humbled by the excellent work of scholars across the region, despite the obstacles that feminist studies continue to face. In these reviews and reports, we see scholars forging connections and networks across disciplines and throughout the region, working steadily at creating supportive communities that will be well-positioned to continue the important work of advocating not only for women's and gender history, but also for an equitable future. I hope that you find this issue valuable, and I hope that you will consider submitting your own work for publication.
Sharon A. Kowalsky