- Title
- The kitchen garden movement on the Soviet home front, 1941-1945
- Creator
- Cardona, Euridice Charon; Markwick, Roger D.
- Relation
- ARC.DP110100533 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110100533
- Relation
- Journal of Historical Geography Vol. 64, p. 47-59
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2018.12.006
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- During World War II, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union had thriving domestic gardening movements. Actively promoted by their governments, gardening was supposed to supplement diets and nourish the patriotic spirit. In the Soviet Union, however, gardening was much more than a patriotic duty; it was often a matter of survival, the primary means of supplementing near starvation bread rations. Amidst incomparable, catastrophic wartime conditions, the huge Soviet gardening movement was distinguished by the speed with which it was implemented and taken up, predominantly by women. Based on original archival and published sources, this article examines in depth the Soviet wartime legislative framework, material resources and propaganda that promoted individual kitchen gardens. The article analyzes the way the state organized and promoted individualist, small-scale urban horticulture - a politically risky initiative given that it conflicted with the Stalinist model of large-scale, industrialized agriculture - and argues that in promoting gardening self-sufficiency, the Soviet socialist state shifted much of its responsibilities for food production onto its citizenry. The article not only aims to shed new light on the crucial role gardening played in feeding a famished citizenry but also the distinctive way in which Soviet propaganda, in giving voice to the psychological satisfaction of gardening, tapped into women's commitments to the family, in intimate alignment with patriotic, home front defence of the Soviet Motherland.
- Subject
- Soviet Union; women; war; home front; gardening; food; SDG 2; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1466992
- Identifier
- uon:47709
- Identifier
- ISSN:0305-7488
- Language
- eng
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