"Our Brigade Will Not Be Sent to the Front": Soviet Women under Arms in the Great Fatherland War, 1941-45

The article reports on the development, formation and death of the Russian 1st Separate Women's Volunteer Rifle Brigade during World War II. It examines the recruitment, structure, training, deployment and daily life in the brigade. It also examines the disciplinary problems that affected the brigade almost from its inception. It notes that the chaotic history of the brigade casts light on gender relations within the Red Army and Soviet society as a whole in the context of the hegemonic heroic narrative of the Red Army's victory over fascism.