Personal Acts with Public Meanings: Suicides by Soviet Women Teachers in the Early Stalin Era

During the first stage of the Stalin era, suicides by Soviet women teachers revealed the essential ambiguity of a self–destructive act, the uncertain identity of women as public activists, and the difficult position of teachers at a time of intense political conflict. Examining eight women teachers who killed themselves in the period 1928 to 1931, this study argues that this assertion of self–control through self–destruction was also a surrender to others, including the actors and structures whose domination originally contributed to suicidal behaviours. This study thus describes both limited opportunities for and considerable restraints upon women teachers in the Stalinist context.