East-South Women's Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery (Gradskova, 2025)

=== [PDF page 1] === EAST-SOUTH WOMEN INTERNATIONALISM AT THE COLD WAR PERIPHERY COMING TOGETHER IN TASHKENT, HAVANA, AND BEYOND YULIA GRADSKOVA === [PDF page 2] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery === [PDF page 3] === [Blank page] === [PDF page 4] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Coming Together in Tashkent, Havana, and Beyond Yulia Gradskova Södertörn University, Sweden === [PDF page 5] === BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 1359 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK Bloomsbury Publishing Ireland, 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02 AY28, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in the United States of America 2025 Copyright © Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025 For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. vi constitute an extension of this copyright page. 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To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. === [PDF page 6] === Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Women’s Gatherings at the Periphery: A Critical Perspective on Cold War “East–South” Internationalisms 1 Coming Together for a “Better Future?” Contexts, Places, and Memories 2 Women Going Places: Between Political Duties and the Tourist Gaze 3 South–East Women’s Internationalism from Tashkent: Building a (Post)Colonial Sisterhood? 4 Te Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and Internationalism from Havana 5 Internationalism, “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 6 East–South Women’s Networks and Education for Women: Visions, Discussions, and Practices 7 A School Tat “Opens Up the World?” Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana Final Refections Appendix: Archival Sources, Periodicals, and Oral Sources Bibliography Index About the Author 27 59 89 137 175 205 231 261 269 271 290 293 === [PDF page 7] === Acknowledgments It is almost impossible to express gratitude to all the people and institutions who made this book possible. Also, the writing of this book—on women’s gatherings and travel—in itself involved a lot of travel, during which I was very lucky to enjoy innumerous great intellectual conversations with researchers of transnational history, women’s activism, and the Cold War. I am inmensly grateful for all the conversations and e-mail exchange I had with fellow researchers. Te work for this book was supported by a sabbatical grant from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (SAB23-0010), and I am very grateful to this foundation as well as to Mid Sweden University and its Department of Gender Studies, where I spent most of my sabbatical, for this opportunity; special thanks to Pär Olauson, Angelika Sjöstedt, and Anna Olovsdotter Lööv. I also want to express my gratitude to the anonymous peer reviewers and, particularly, to the reviewer of an earlier version of this book, whose critical comments proved very useful for the improvement of the manuscript. Gathering the material for this book was a long and challenging process that took several years and became possible, thanks to several grants and permissions for using library collections and archives. My gratitude goes to the (Re)New Fellowship for letting me work in the Danish National Archives, to the Visegrad Fellowship for allowing me to work at the Blinken Open Society Archive in Budapest, and to the Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami for the possibility of working there during the early post-pandemic period. Tanks to the Riksbankens Jubileum Fond sabbatical grant, I spent about one month at the Center for Gender History at the University of Glasgow as a visiting researcher. I am very grateful to Prof. Maud Bracke and to all other colleagues I met there for the possibility of discussing my research and presenting some of the frst drafs of the book; special thanks to the Center for East European Studies at the University of Glasgow. === [PDF page 8] === Acknowledgments vii Collecting materials about women internationalism at the Cold War peripheries proved to be a rather difcult task; in particular, names and contributions of some Central Asian women seem to be forgotten. Tus, I am indebted specifcally to those people who facilitated my access to the historical sources in such complex postsocialist environments. I am grateful to the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Stockholm and, personally, to the ambassador, Mr. Nodir Ganiev, for facilitating my access to the National Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Tashkent. I am also grateful to Dr. Zayra Badillo Castro (University of London), Dr. Shokhjahon Rashidov (Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan), Dr. Zukhra Kasimova (Bucknell University), and Dr. Vokhid Kholov (Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan) for sharing their experience of archival work and historical research as well as sources and their contacts in Uzbekistan. Particular thanks also go to Ms. Dilorom Abdullakhodjaeva for sharing with me her memories about her aunt who used to work at the House of Friendship in Tashkent during the 1960s to 1970s. Tanks to her invitation to take a walk through the city, I also could learn about some historical parts of Tashkent that were important for my study of women’s internationalism. With respect to collecting Cuban materials, I am particularly indebted to Prof. Jessica Stites Mor (University of British Columbia) for all her advice concerning feldwork in Havana and for sharing her contacts with me before my travel there. In Cuba, my sincere gratitude goes to the representatives of the WIDF Regional Ofce and its current director, Ms. Alicia Campos Perez, who generously allowed me to work in the organization’s internal archive. I am also grateful to Dr. Angelina Rojas (Institute of History of Cuba) and to Eva Dominguez for sharing their knowledge and memories with me. A very special thanks goes to Luisa Bandeira Coelho, PhD student at Södertörn University, for her invaluable help obtaining published memoirs of an important participant in women’s Cold War internationalism in Brazil and bringing them to Sweden. Working with transnational history and, in particular, writing a book is never a fully individual endeavor and is made possible thanks to collaborations with colleagues from diferent countries and universities. I am very grateful for all the suggestions, bibliographical recommendations, and criticism === [PDF page 9] === viii Acknowledgments ofered by my Swedish and international colleagues—Tuychi Rashidov, Norbert Götz, Fernando Camacho Padilla, Giulia Strippoli, Adriana Valobra, Elisabeth Elgán and Andreas Åkerlund. Without their helpful suggestions, as well as all the discussions we had around my ideas when they were still being formed, this book would not have been possible. I presented earlier versions of some parts of this book at the seminars of the History of International Relations (Stockholm University), the advanced seminars in History and Gender Studies at Södertörn University, the workshop “Recolonizing Empires: Cold War Transnational Social Movements and Social Policy in Post-Colonial Areas” at the University of Utrecht, the seminar “Cuba and the Global Revolution” at the National Library of Portugal, the seminar on Eslanda Robesen at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin)—organized by Doreen Mende, curator of the exhibition on Robeson, in November 2022— and at the conference organized by the European Society for Central Asian Studies in Almaty (2023). A signifcant part of the time when this book was in the process of writing, I worked as a research coordinator at the Center for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) and as a researcher at the Department of Gender Studies at Södertörn University. I want to express my sincere gratitude to all my colleagues there, with whom I not only discussed difcult methodological issues connected to transnational history and the writing process but also received intellectual stimulation and emotional support, which were crucial for this project. Special thanks go to the director of CBEES, Prof. Per Bolin; CBEES research coordinators Julia Malitska, Johanna Mannergren and Ramona Rat; as well as to all my colleagues from the Department of Gender Studies, but, in particular: Ramona Dima, Katarina Mattson, Helena Hill, Soheyla Yazdanpanah and Jenny Sundén. I kindly thank my colleagues from the project on “Motherhood and Nationalism”—Ieva Bisigirskaite and Soheyla Yazdanpanah: our discussions on contemporary politics of gender and motherhood were very helpful for shaping my thinking about Cold War gender politics! I am also grateful to all my colleagues from the Departments of History and Gender Studies at Södertörn University with whom I discussed earlier drafs of this book. My special thanks go also to Monica Quirico, who read the frst draf of the whole manuscript. === [PDF page 10] === Acknowledgments Finally, I am very grateful to my son, Yakov Golovin, for helping me with proofreading parts of this book. And I wish to express my thankfulness to both of my children for their interest and willingness to hear about the progress of the book—which kept me writing despite the despair connected to Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine that constituted the tragic context of the long period of my work. Te ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. === [PDF page 11] === List of Abbreviations AAPSO Afro-Asian People Solidarity Organization AALASO Afro-Asian-Latin-American Solidarity Organization AHPCE Historical Archive of the Spanish Communist Party (in Spanish) ANC African National Congress Central Committee Center of Documentation of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) CEPAL UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean COMECON Council of Mutual Economic Assistance CSW Committee of Soviet Women DAWN Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era DNA Danish National Archive ECOSOC UN Economic and Social Commission ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifc FMC Federation of Cuban Women (in Spanish) GARF State Archive of the Russian Federation (in Russian) GDR German Democratic Republic IAW International Alliance of Women ICW International Council of Women IISH International Institute for Social History ILO International Labor Organization === [PDF page 12] === List of Abbreviations IWY International Women’s Year KGB State Security Service (in Russian) KVINFO Fond of Information about Women (in Danish) NAM Non-Aligned Movement NARU National Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan NIEO New International Economic Order Te WIDF Regional Ofce in Havana (in Spanish: Ofcina Regional) OSA Blinken Open Society Archive PAWO Pan-African Women’s Organization RFE/RL Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty UMA Union of Argentinian Women (in Spanish) UNESCO United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund UzFS Uzbekistan Society of Friendship with Foreign Countries (or, earlier, Uzbekistan Society for Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries, UzOKS) VOKS Society for Cultural Contact with Foreign Countries (from Russian—Vsesoiuznoe Obshchestvo Kulturnykh Sviazei s Zagranitsei) WIDF Women’s International Democratic Federation WILPF Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WWW Women of the Whole World (the WIDF journal) Te WIDF journal, version in Russian (Zhenshchiny mira) === [PDF page 13] === xii === [PDF page 14] === Introduction Women’s Gatherings at the Periphery: A Critical Perspective on Cold War “East–South” Internationalisms Why Tis Book? Was it possible for women positioned at the peripheries of the Cold War to infuence it? Was it possible for them to engage in international politics and further the interests of women at large? By focusing on the ideas, aspirations, and relationships developed in the collaborative networks of those women who were not part of the Cold War’s main landscape, this book deals with women’s internationalism in an attempt to answer these questions. To give an example: in early September 1962, African women from about twenty postcolonial countries and, in some cases, from those still fghting against colonialism gathered in Tashkent to participate in a seminar on education for women, organized with support from the Women’s International Democratic Federation and UNESCO. Tey were hosted by Uzbek women at the premises of the Uzbek Friendship Society and greeted by women from other Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Afer exchanging opinions about women’s education in postcolonial African countries and visiting kindergartens, schools, universities, and maternity hospitals in the capital of Uzbekistan, the guests made study trips to other Central Asian Soviet republics. Te seminar lef behind quite a diverse set of documents ranging from international publications to classifed Soviet reports preserved in Moscow, but it does not (yet) seem to have become a part of the history of women’s internationalism in the twentieth century. In particular, little is === [PDF page 15] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery known about the seminar, its Central Asian hosts, as well as the impact it and many similar ones had on women’s rights and the personal and political connections between women in (post)colonial countries. Finally, it is rather unknown if such gatherings had an infuence on the places where they were happening or on thought regarding women’s status and anticolonialism there. At the same time, several studies, mainly focusing on North–West and North–South connectivity, have demonstrated that women’s transnational networks played an important role in the global politics of the twentieth century, not least when it came to improving women’s status, creating more equality, and securing a better future for the world’s children (see, e.g., Rupp 1997; Marino 2019). While the earlier period of women’s internationalism has been studied in detail, it was rather later, during the third quarter of the twentieth century, that women’s networks grew globally and women’s infuence on global governance became perceptible. Tis becomes particularly visible during the decade declared by the UN as the International Decade for Women: 1975–85. Transnational connections then grew through activities taking place before, during, afer, and around the frst UN Women’s Conference, held in Mexico City in 1975 (Bonfglioli 2016a, 2016b; Olcott 2017, Report on the World Conference 1975), as well as around all the ones that followed it (see, e.g., Antrobus 2004; Jain & Chacko 2009). Many ideas and proposals discussed during this period later became part of the international conventions and declarations aiming to achieve gender equality, notable examples being the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the UN in 1979, and the International Development Strategy for the Tird United Nations Development Decade, adopted by the UN in 1980. However, this was not only a period when the number of women’s international collaborations and networks increased dramatically, but also one during which their diversity grew and striking disagreements as well as conficts were revealed (see Olcott 2017). Te complex alliances and rivalries around specifc issues are only beginning to be studied, and this book is an attempt to contribute to this scholarship through an examination of women’s internationalism from a Cold War pericentral perspective. While this book is about women’s gatherings and networks, the Cold War in the title does not appear coincidentally; it signifes more than just the time === [PDF page 16] === Introduction period when these communications and gatherings were taking place. While the Cold War seems to correspond mainly to the logic of male dominance, recent studies unambiguously show that women had a role to play as well (Cîrstocea & Tébaud 2023; Bonfglioli 2016a; de Haan 2023; Gradskova 2021; Donert 2022). Tus, I see the Cold War not only as constituting an immanent context for women’s transnational gatherings but also as shaping their connections while simultaneously being itself shaped and (trans)formed by women’s activities, mobilities, and networks. Furthermore, following Odd Arne Westad’s approach to the Cold War as a global phenomenon shaped by the superpowers’ neo-imperial pretensions to domination (Westad 2005), in this book I am particularly interested in studying the global Cold War peripheries as sites for women to gather, network, and establish connections. In order to explore the gatherings, networks, and connections that were deeply afected by the Cold War, I frst needed to subvert the Cold War geopolitical categories used for defning locations and ideological positions. In particular, “East” and “South” used in the title of this chapter (as well as “East– South” and “South–East,” which are employed interchangeably throughout the text) are intended to represent changing geopolitical interpretations and nominations of the networks and connections, some of which may or may not coincide with the Cold War’s geopolitical denominations of “South” and “East.” On the one hand, this book looks closely at the international gatherings and networks that were happening (being directly sponsored, organized, promoted or supported, inspired, and greeted) in connection with the “Eastern bloc”—a geopolitical concept embedded in Cold War imaginaries which, thus, fell out of use afer the end of the Cold War. However, this book does not explore the international connections of women from the “Eastern bloc” or the Communist “East” (or the “Second World,” as the state socialist countries were called, following the liberal capitalist West, the “First World,” and preceding the “Tird World,” encompassing all the other countries) in general, but is limited to those coming from the outskirts (global Cold War peripheries) of the Communist “East.” Women (and men) from Central Asia or the Caucasus, former colonies of the Russian Empire, despite being presented by “Eastern bloc” propaganda as “Soviet” women, were frequently seen by “Western bloc” === [PDF page 17] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery counter-propaganda as manipulated by new Soviet imperial and Communist politics (Kirasirova 2011). Te decolonial turn in Eastern European and postSoviet feminist and gender studies (Tlostanova 2010; Todorova 2021), and the anticolonial perspective developed during the last few years by researchers from Central Asia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, and other “peripheries” of the the Cold War geopolitical defnitions of “blocs” and “worlds.” Tey did so by stressing diferences in the status of women within the “Eastern bloc” itself and criticized the politics of racialization and preservation/reinforcement of the cultural hierarchies of an imperial kind. On the other hand, this book seeks to further subvert any homogenized understanding of the “Tird World” (later substituted by the term “Global South”), which was criticized by postcolonial researchers as a confusing imaginary created by the Cold War centers (Mohanty 2003). Interest regarding the role of women in “South–South” solidarities, particularly when it comes to women’s activism and networks inside of or in connection with the Non-Aligned Movement (henceforth NAM), is currently growing. Tis research demonstrates the complexity of both the internal coalitions and the attitudes that NAM had toward the superpowers (see Jain & Chacko 2009; Bonfglioli 2021), with some women’s organizations “acting on several fronts” and “across blocs” (Bonfglioli 2021, 448). At the same time, the ideological and geographical boundaries between those who belong to the “Global South” and those who do not (and thus, do or do not constitute legitimate objects of research on South–South solidarities—see Stites Mor 2022), as well as the efects of pressures, constraints, and seduction on the part of the two superpowers, continue to be key issues under discussion. As far as this book concerns itself with this debate, it argues against a simplifed interpretation of “South–South” activism, which assumes it to have greater independence2 from the neo-imperial politics of the Cold War core described by Westad (2005). Tus, this book aims to further problematize interpretations of the “South” and “East” in connection to women’s internationalism. Indeed, in this book, I use the categories of “East” and “South” as being moving and fexible. Previous research on the Cold War has already demonstrated that, in spite of the “Iron Curtain,” which divided nations and hindered communication, === [PDF page 18] === Introduction including among women, borders between the “First” and “Second” Worlds (or “East” and “West”) were never fully closed but always allowed some circulation of ideas, people, and institutions, which crossed them in both directions (Autio-Sarasmo & Miklóssy 2011; Martin Garcia & Magnúsdóttir 2019). Furthermore, it was not the divisions between the “First” and “Second” Worlds per se, but their (neocolonial) attempts to spread their infuence and values, as well as to secure allies in the rest of the world, that constituted the global Cold War, with all its cultural struggles and negotiations (Westad 2005; see also Iandolo 2022, 7). Te Communist “East” was attempting to fnd allies in the “Tird World,” an undertaking which included a constant monitoring of the “West’s” attempt to fnd allies there as well, not least with, for, and among women (Gradskova 2022a). At the same time, as the new Cold War history of Latin America suggests, while the Cold War continent revealed itself through an increase in US interventionism and revolution/counter-revolution dilemmas (Pettiná 2022; Booth 2021), not all the events that played out in Latin America during the Cold War can be attributed only to the superpowers’ rivalry. Indeed, many of them were fueled by long-standing tensions in the countryside and between the state and its citizens (Booth 2021). Te events also unfolded at the grassroots level, and the power simultaneously operated “through language and symbolic systems in everyday practices” (Spenser 2008, 381). On the other hand, recent research on diferent “socialisms” has shown that several “Tird World” countries were interested in certain ideas, institutions, and constructions of the future associated with or originating from countries applying state socialism in the “Eastern bloc.” For example, a recently published book by Eric Burton et al. (2021) draws attention to the entangled and multidirectional encounters between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and African socialisms of the 1960s and 1970s. All of this suggests a need to further question the “three-worlds”/East–West–South geopolitical imaginary of the Cold War period. In particular, it is important to take into account the postsocialist feminist scholarly critiques pointing out the multiple hierarchies and divisions inside each of the three worlds, which all encompassed distinct histories of inequality and difering racializations (Tlostanova 2010). Tus, in this book, I further problematize the relationships === [PDF page 19] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery between women from the “Second” and “Tird” Worlds, in particular, making an attempt at “provincializing” those from the center of the “Second” one (Chakrabarti 2000) by starting my research at the “periphery,” a place with a blurred belonging that cannot be clearly identifed according to a simple, three-part geopolitical scheme. In contrast to the dominant economic understanding of the periphery developed by world-system analysis (Wallerstein 2004), I am interested in the peripheries of the global Cold War (Westad 2005)—a geographical space set apart from the Cold War core’s centers of power. I suggest looking at the peripheries, or the spaces in-between, as spaces that provoke a constant preoccupation with dissent or unrest at the centers, and where, despite many eforts, centralized control is less efective. In doing so, I am following a number of previous attempts to study the Cold War from the periphery (see, e.g., Robert McMahon’s book from 1994: Cold War on the Periphery—about the politics of the United States in India and Pakistan—or the book Cold War from the Margins by Teodora Dragostinova, dealing with the cultural Cold War in Bulgaria, 2021). Tus, the peripheries, margins, outskirts (or, using Madina Tlostanova’s terminology, the borderlands, 2010) difer from the Cold War’s core in terms of colonial and racial histories and memories, as well as—from a Eurocentric historical perspective—of seen as “underdeveloped” (Rist 1997, 73). Te histories of racialization and racism—as a part of Russian (in Central Asia) and Spanish (in Cuba) imperial politics—marked chosen geographical locations through laws, division of urban spaces as well as practices of education and medical care (Kamp 2006; Sessions 2024). No less important, however, were the “invisible” politics of racialization that characterized state socialist politics. Despite the ofcial “antiracism” (and, not least, the defense of anti-racism internationally), recent studies on the Soviet Union and countries of state socialism in Eastern Europe demonstrate that racism was a part of state socialist politics and everyday life (Baker et al. 2024; Todorova 2021; Sahadeo 2019) and that it also did not disappear in Cuba afer the revolution of 1959 (Moralez Dominguez et al. 2013). Indeed, according to Esteban Moralez Dominguez, by stopping to pay attention to race, the Cuban government created a false social harmony, as skin color in Cuba continues to be a factor of social diferentiation today (Moralez Domínguez et al. 2013, 27–8). === [PDF page 20] === Introduction Tus, in this book, I study women’s internationalism by focusing on East– South (or South–East) women’s connectivity in the regions broadly understood as Cold War peripheries. I am specifcally interested in internationalism as practiced by coming together for cross-border discussions and through the maintenance of contacts and networks that were created during and around these gatherings. I am also interested in mundane practices of internationalism and the places where they occurred. Tus, following some recent studies that explore the cooperation between women’s organizations from the state socialist countries and countries in Asia and Africa (see, e.g., Nunan 2016; Ghodsee 2018; Banks 2021) I want to better understand the relationships between participating women, the impact of places, and the people they met, the motivations and feelings of those hosting and participating in the international events and discussions, as well as diferent attitudes and solutions to the issues of global importance that were discussed at these gatherings. In addition to the subversion of geopolitical categories, the analysis of the encounters and connections shaped by (but not fully identical with) the Cold War led me to attempt to look at these events and networks in terms of the mundane activities involved. Tese consisted, among other things, of writing letters, preparing to travel abroad, attending meetings, being a tourist in a new country, hosting a foreign visit, reporting about an event, going on excursions, and expressing gratitude to the organizers. My interest in how the East–South internationalist self was made (here I am following a recent study on British women of the generation of change by Lynn Abrams, 2023, 6–8) infuenced my way of choosing and reading the historical sources. Tis included paying attention to personal documents, such as letters and published memoirs, as well as focusing on gendered experiences of, among other things: traveling, friendship, political participation, care, and motherhood. Any analysis of the contexts of women’s gatherings on the Cold War periphery would be incomplete without paying attention to the individual female participants’ interpretations of their meanings, as well as their personal motivations, and impressions of other participants, places, and events themselves. In contrast to ofcial documents, personal writings allow us to see the events under review and, in turn, their participants in relation to gendered social norms and political spaces, as well as gendered selves that are usually not discernable === [PDF page 21] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery through ofcial documents. I consider the use of individual memories to be particularly important for my study: without the voices of those women who traveled to diferent countries and met women from other continents, without description of their joy and curiosity, and sometimes, also frustration, grief, and anger, the story of women’s internationalism under the Cold War cannot be complete. Te individual stories and memories also help us pay attention to details that are invisible in the ofcial reports—enriching the understanding of the particular events and processes. Tus, this book seeks to answer the following questions: Who were the women that participated in the East–South transnational gatherings and why did they do so? What did these gatherings mean for the participants, local hosts, and places where they were held? What problems were seen as crucial to address, and what common future(s) were imaginable for women coming together at the Cold War peripheries? What ideological misunderstandings and practical problems did participants encounter, and in what ways were they constrained by the Cold War? How much and in what ways did East– South gatherings and networks difer from those originating in the “West”? What efects did these gatherings and networks have on the solutions to global problems, as well as on the places where the women were meeting and on the participating women themselves? How much did the issues discussed and relationships formed change between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s, the years that marked the beginning and later the end of state socialism in Europe? And, fnally, how much and in what ways did women’s South–East internationalism impact the Cold War itself? Following Glenda Sluga, I understand “internationalism” as referring to actors’ cross-border cooperation as well as conceiving issues of global concern not only in terms of the interests of the nation-state and its citizens but also in consideration of various problems and issues that need to be addressed internationally (Sluga 2017). While many of the gatherings I describe were organized under the infuence of diferent Communist and Marxist interpretations of what internationalism is, I am particularly interested in the signifcance of these gatherings in general as well as in seeing their impact outside of the Communist ideological interpretations. Furthermore, new research on citizens’ diplomacy by Giles Scott-Smith (2023) suggests that === [PDF page 22] === Introduction citizens and their organizations, not only states, have agency in foreign policy. Women who were involved in transnational communication and networks during the Cold War can be seen as one group of such global political actors, who were ofen empowered to act by their respective states, but who also ofen advocated instruments of global governance and, at the same time, used international networks for strengthening local communities and local women. Tus, I am also interested in how much the women’s East–South gatherings at the Cold War peripheries have infuenced the ways of thinking about rights, women’s status, and practices of improving this status at the peripheries. In this book, I focus on examples of motherhood and education for women as subjects of these South–East gatherings. Alongside the term “internationalism,” I also use the concept of “transnational” when discussing women’s gatherings at the Cold War peripheries throughout the book. In contrast to “international,” which indicates relationships between nations/states, the concept of the “transnational” helps us to examine the interpersonal relationships and decisions inspired by thinking beyond and/or outside of nations and states (see Bracke & Mark 2013), including those taken by continental, anti-state, stateless, or immigrant actors, and organizations. Tus, it is important to note that my use of the term “internationalism” in this book is rather diferent from the one that constitutes an inherent part of Marxist political theory, as well as the attempts at its practical realization that can be observed in the activity of the Communist International (Comintern, an organization created in Soviet Moscow in 1919 with the aim of spreading Communist ideas) or the spread of the Cuban revolution of 1959 in the “Tird World” (Westad 2005). Indeed, while some of the women I consider in this book became involved in transnational East–South women’s networks when mobilized by the party or (socialist) state, my interest is connected to the visions of global sovereignty and solutions to global problems that emerged from women on the Cold War periphery, acting not only in accordance with but also against or outside of the ideology of Communist internationalism. As I mentioned at the beginning, when writing about “East–South” or “South–East” gatherings, communication, and networks, I do not follow a specifc geographical defnition of “East” or “South.” Rather, I see these === [PDF page 23] === 10 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery defnitions as geopolitically and historically constructed, and changing their meanings not only as a result of the global Cold War’s geopolitics but also depending on the positionality of the narrator/visitor or observer. For example, both of these concepts can be flled with meanings connected to the Cold War’s three-worlds geopolitical imaginary, historical Eurocentric Orientalism, imperial histories, or regional perspectives. As a result, the same place on the world map during diferent periods of history and/or from diferent points of view can be seen, for example, as part of the enigmatic “Orient,” representing the Western or Eastern part of a particular country, belonging to the Global South based on its developmental index, or being part of the “Communist East” due to the “course on building socialism” declared by political leaders of the time. Even though the book focuses on relationships between women from the “East” and “South,” these concepts are rather fexible, ever-changing, and even interchangeable, depending on the date, the location of the viewer, and the political context. Historically, the Soviet “East” (which I see as a Soviet (new imperial) construction based on a similar imperial one) was located somewhere around the Caucasus and Central Asia, sometimes including the indigenous populations of Siberia and the Volga-Ural region (Gradskova 2018). According to Martin Mueller, however, the whole area to the east of the former Iron Curtain can currently be defned as the “Global East” (Müller 2020), which in some sense replaces the Communist “East” of the Cold War period. Such assumptions, however, may be in confict with the European aspirations of some of the countries belonging to this imagined region, thus continuing to make the concept of the “East” problematic. Te time period discussed in this book mainly starts by the era that coincides with the creation of independent states in Asia and Africa, as well as coincides with intensive international discussions about development, human rights, and improvement of women’s status—the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. It was during this period that South–East contacts between women intensifed and became geographically widespread despite the many obstacles that a world divided by the Cold War presented for gatherings, travel, and cooperation. Te contacts intensifed during the period of the Cold War that was characterized by détente and aspirations of a peaceful coexistence of two systems; however, === [PDF page 24] === Introduction 11 they also continued during more dangerous phases like the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, war in Vietnam, and the growing tensions that followed the 1979 Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. Te last part of the period under review, preceding the end of the Cold War, was also marked by the UN-sponsored IWY and the decade for women (1975–85) which reiterated the importance of women’s gatherings on the periphery in the previous years and demonstrated the centrality of international eforts for improving the situation of women globally. Still, even if the period between the late 1950s and mid-1980s is the main period under review, neither women’s internationalism in the late 1950s to mid1980s nor the cultural Cold War can be fully understood without a revision of Communist internationalism, including the internationalist ideas of the Soviet revolution of 1917 and their infuence on Soviet hospitality for foreigners as well as on the Soviet thinking around the emancipation of women in colonial countries and fnally on the legacies of East–South women’s connections in the inter-war period. Taking into account some insights from previous research suggesting that the grounds for the Cold War were already laid afer the end of the Civil War in Russia that resulted in the Soviet attempt at being part of international politics while insisting on an imminent victory of Communism (Haslam 2011, 3–5), some parts of the book look into the inter-war period and use documents on women’s travel and hospitality from that time. While South–East women’s internationalist thoughts and networks were of almost no interest to historians afer the end of the Cold War, the last ten to ffeen years have seen the interest become renewed. Tis can be seen as part of the growing inquiry into the gendered global connectivity of the past. It could also be seen as an attempt to contribute to present-day feminist and scholarly discussions on the (dis)connection between the ideas and practices of gender equality in the countries of Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union during the Cold War and ideas of “Western” feminism that spread across the region afer 1989 (Cîrstocea 2022; Gradskova 2020). Further, excavating East–South women’s internationalism during the Cold War can be seen as an attempt to understand, and resist, contemporary anti-gender conservative transnationalism, which is growing strong in some countries of the former Communist “East” (Pető 2015). Indeed, the “rediscovery” of the South–East === [PDF page 25] === 12 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery women networks, developed neither fully within, nor fully against “Eastern bloc” geopolitical ambitions, provides the current lefist, Marxist, anti-racist, and intersectional feminists in many countries of the former Communist “East” (including those organizing resistance against the neo-imperial Russian war on Ukraine within Russia; see Talaver 2023) with new possible repertoires and arguments for their current struggle against anti-immigrant, neoliberal, femocratic, and neocolonial militarist forces. In fact, present-day achievements of the global governance around women’s rights and freedoms are a result of complex interactions on diferent levels and over many division lines. And the South–East women were important actors there, contributing with their experience and learning from other women at the same time. However, an exploration of East–South women’s internationalism during the Cold War cannot be achieved without reassessing how the Cold War political confrontation and cultural competition sharpened policies, events, publications, and, not least, women’s organizations in the Communist “East.” As was confrmed afer the opening up of the archives in 1989, the Communist mass organizations difered from those created from below and freely in terms of their lack of internal democracy and ofen involuntary participation (on women and the Comintern see Taber & Dyakonova 2023; on criticisms of post–Second World War women’s organizations in the Communist “East,” see Funk 2014; on the contradiction between a politics of friendship and racial hierarchies between women in Bulgaria, see Todorova 2021). Te heated discussions connected to such a re-excavation were summarized by Eva Maria Hinterhuber and Gisela Fuchs in a series of debates, including one problematizing the extent to which state-created structures can be compatible with women’s struggle against patriarchy (Hinterhuber & Fuchs 2022). In turn, Celia Donert, in her introductory article to the special issue of the International Review of Social History on women’s rights and global socialism, focused on the conficts between transnational communication and the attempts of centralized and state-dependent organizations to infuence women’s transnational activity (Donert 2022). My own research on the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) has demonstrated that, in practice, the role of this transnational and pro-“Eastern bloc” women’s organization was rather complex. Indeed, the “Eastern bloc” politics of women’s === [PDF page 26] === Introduction 13 rights were signifcantly fueled by geopolitical aspirations and Cold War goals (Gradskova 2021). However, the support for the discourse on women’s rights and the fnancial and ideational promotion of cooperation between other women’s organizations and members of the WIDF created new possibilities for many women from Africa, Latin America, and Asia to navigate between liberal and Communist variants of women’s emancipation. Afer the frst article by Francisca de Haan, professor of the Central European University, challenging the continuing Cold War in women’s history, was published in 2010 (de Haan 2010), several books and special issues as well as multiple articles have addressed the topic of transnational women’s activism in connection with the organizations and individual women belonging to, collaborating, or communicating with the side situated to the “East” of the Cold War dividing line. Despite many discussions around this transnational activism, however, it seems that a closer examination of how women’s internationalism was produced through pericentral South–East women’s gatherings and connectivities needs to be made. From Research on the Cold War’s Main Blocs to Women’s Gatherings and Peripheries? Teoretical Perspectives and the Contributions to Previous Research Tis book continues the research of recent decades on the cultural and global Cold War. Tis research has questioned the impenetrability of the Iron Curtain (Autio-Sarasmo & Miklóssy 2011; Bechmann Pedersen & Noack 2020) and has emphasized the importance of the Cold War for diferent localities, including those situated far from the geographical centers of the two main military blocs (Westad 2005). In particular, I follow the approach suggested by Sari Autio-Sarasmo and Katalin Miklóssy (2011), who see the Cold War as a multilevel and multipolar interaction. Tus, when exploring East–South women’s connectivities, I see them as both infuenced by Cold War struggles and rivalries, and simultaneously as infuencing them. My theoretical approach is informed by a feminist geographical understanding of “place,” which is seen as the product of social relationships === [PDF page 27] === 14 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery (Massey 1994, 120–1). Using this approach, I pay special attention to a micro-historical analysis of women’s travel and gatherings where a particular destination/meeting place is seen as a constructed space of women’s internationalism (Sluga 2017). Indeed, my investigation takes as its starting point two cities that were seen as non-central (or peripheral) from several geopolitical perspectives. Tashkent was the capital city of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan in Central Asia.3 Being a part of the Soviet Union, Central Asia was seen by the Soviet (European) center and, frequently, by external observers as well, as a place geographically situated far from Moscow and populated by Muslim people (diferent from the Slavic majority of the Soviet core). Tashkent and Central Asia had previously been colonized and since then approached as the “nonWhite” space (see Biss 2015; Sahadeo 2019), or the area populated by people of “color” (Lynd & Loyd 2022). As early as the late 1930s, the Soviet center started to make signifcant changes in the city’s physical environment aimed at demonstrating the advanced nature of the Soviet system (Stronski 2010, 2). However, it was afer the 1966 earthquake that a drastic (re)construction occurred, and Tashkent was made to ft the mold of a modernized/westernized city (Kirasirova 2018). At the same time, as Artemy Kalinovsky has shown in his research, the Central Asian elite became an important resource for Soviet foreign policy in the “South,” and in exchange, the elites were able to make some of their claims heard in Moscow (Kalinovsky 2020, 190–1). Still, according to Kalinovsky, even at that time, the relationships of Central Asia with the Soviet center retained many colonial characteristics (Kalinovsky 2020, 200). Havana, the capital of revolutionary Cuba, is geographically situated in close proximity to one of the main blocs of the Cold War—the United States—and was seen by the “West” as a Soviet outpost. However, new research on Cuban foreign policy reveals a much more nuanced picture of Cuba’s involvement in global politics and positions it as belonging to several “peripheries,” which were shaped by the centrality of its internationalist mission in Africa for its self-presentation, its periodic friction with Soviet and “Eastern bloc” leaders, and, not least, its attempts to take a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as a “developing country” (Yordanov 2022). As for internal politics inside the Soviet bloc, throughout the entire Cold War period, Cuba === [PDF page 28] === Introduction 15 (and Latin America in general) was seen as the (tropical) “South,” exotically diferent from the Soviet and “Eastern bloc” core in terms of its culture and Te histories of colonialism and racism connected to both of the chosen places make the issue of whiteness and racialization particularly important for my story. Te names of the two cities in the title of this book do not mean, however, that the book is only, or even primarily, about them. Rather, starting from these two geographical locations, I seek to challenge the Eurocentrism that is ofen visible in global history research, including that on women and gender Women’s gatherings not only addressed urgent problems, such as ending wars or military conficts, but were centered around social and political transformation. Tus, they attempted to construct “better” futures for women, children, and everybody. Terefore, the “future” can be seen as an important component of women’s international thought, indicating diferent and even utopian visions and goals toward which those women who took part in the cross-border gatherings and networks were working. Tese visions might include dogmatic ideological constructions stemming from the Communist ideologists in Moscow or East Berlin, but also visions rooted in multiple peripheralities as well as in diferent variants of combinations of socialist, feminist, and developmental theories. Te optics of seeing and the language of speaking about the future have obviously undergone many changes since the optimism of the 1960s, and the present time is ofen described as experiencing a process of defuturing (Fry & Tlostanova 2022). From this perspective, East–South women coming together at the Cold War peripheries may seem to be rather naïve in their aspirations for a future of happiness and justice. Nevertheless, it is particularly in our time of “defuturing” that a critical revision of previous constructions of the “future” could be useful. Tus, this book aims to explore whether South–East women’s gatherings and networks contributed to the changes toward a “better future” and if yes, in which way they did. Te South–East women’s gatherings and networks working for a “better future” were ofen framed around a set of developmentalist ideas advocating the transformation of the economy, politics, and society to achieve a higher level === [PDF page 29] === 16 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery of “development,” that is, the economic, social, and cultural transformation of the countries of the “Tird World” toward modernity. Te ideas and practices of development were and continue to be the objects of criticism, not least for their Eurocentrism and hierarchical North–South relationships, as well as for their lack of practical achievements (see Rist 1997; Peet & Hartwick 2009; Ziai 2012, 4). Furthermore, by the 1990s, Cold War developmental ideals and practices had already started to be criticized for their neglect of nature—a process that led to the reformulation of developmental goals and the prioritization of sustainability (Peet & Hartwick 2009, 269–70).4 Nevertheless, according to Gilbert Rist, the discourse of development continues to be strong, frst of all, due to “its power to seduce” (Rist 1997, 1) and, importantly, because it manages to promise a (better) future. While it is true that, in the context of the Cold War, “development” was initially a “Western” strategy and was seen as one of the key measures for preventing the spread of Communism (about President Kennedy’s new developmental initiatives for Latin America afer the Cuban revolution, see Pettiná 2022, 80), quite soon it became the subject of a Cold War competition between the two blocs and, also, became subjected to global governance (Rist 1997; Iandolo 2022; Coundouriotis 2021). For example, previous research has shown that the discussions around development at the Bandung—the 1955 conference of leaders of newly independent countries— were infuenced by the Cold War divisions (Rist 1997, 82). At the same time, the question of how much the “Eastern bloc’s” developmental ideas and practices were diferent from “Western” ones continues to be the subject of discussions (Mark et al. 2021; Burton et al. 2021; Iandolo 2022; Banks 2021). For example, according to Artemy Kalinovsky, “what the Soviet Union did at home and abroad, the way it understood the societies it thought to transform, and the concept of an end goal ofen were quite similar in practice” to those of the “West” (Kalinovsky 2018, 7), while Alessandro Iandolo suggests that the Soviet aid plans for Ghana, Mali, and Guinea in the 1960s difered in several respects from the Western ones (Iandolo 2022). Western developmental thinking and aid programs were initially focused mainly on economic growth (Rist 1997), while a recognition of the importance of women and women’s perspectives on development only came about during the period of the UN’s Decade for Women, as a result of feminist theorizing === [PDF page 30] === Introduction 17 and changes in the position of women within the global system of production (Peet & Hartwick 2009, 242). Te most important changes concerned the role played by women from “Tird World” countries, particularly around the UN’s World Women’s Conference in Nairobi (Jain 2005). Te proliferation of women’s participation in development was marked by the creation of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) in 1984, a transnational forum for feminist research, and the New Delhi Conference on Women and Development, organized by NAM in 1983 (Jain 2005, 95–7; Antrobus 2004). However, despite the growing body of research on the ideas and practices of developmental politics of the Communist “East,” the exploration of “Eastern” development in connection with women remains in its early stages. According to Jain and Chacko, women inside NAM attempted to gain more visibility starting from the early days of the movement, and in turn, the diferences in attitudes toward women and development were to be found not between the main Cold War blocs but rather between the representatives of NAM and the two superpowers (Jain & Chacko 2009, 896; Jain 2005). However, considering that, although Yugoslavia was one of NAM’s founders, Cuba has played a remarkable role, and it would be particularly interesting to explore Cuban ideas and contributions to women’s perspectives on development more. It is worth exploring given that Cuba was one of the “Communist” countries during a signifcant portion of Cold War history. Furthermore, there are still very few studies on the exchanges that East–South women had regarding their ideas about strategies and practices concerning the areas usually seen as being parts of “development,” while at the same time being marked as specifcally “gendered”: improving conditions for mothers and children, family planning, women’s education, equality within the family, or women’s remunerated work. Tus, this book addresses some of these questions. Te book contributes to several areas of inquiry. Firstly, it contributes to the existing body of research on women’s and feminist internationalism during the Cold War, with a special focus on women’s East–South networks at the peripheries. Provincializing women’s internationalism allows me to better understand the diversity of its forms === [PDF page 31] === 18 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery as well as the agency of people behind it. Terefore, the study allows for a better understanding of how women’s internationalist ties were made and maintained, how the ideological frames of women’s encounters were created and subverted, what knowledge was transferred, and, in the case of the less explored connectivities, how it was transferred. Te book questions the geopolitics of women’s internationalism by directing attention toward the spaces and subjects whose belonging to the defned Cold War entities was blurred and opaque, while at the same time having some similarities with respect to their colonial pasts and anticolonial thinking and practices. Exploring women’s internationalism from the periphery enables me to pay more attention to afnities and frictions on the basis of (or in spite of) ideological, racial, religious, and economic diferences. Secondly, the book contributes to research on the role played by women in the transformation of local and global societies by looking at how women’s transnational networks brought these two levels together. By exploring South– East women’s gatherings and networks, I show what issues were seen as particularly important, what solutions to the world’s problems were proposed, and how it was believed that these problems should be approached practically in local communities. In particular, I focus on issues relating to the protection of maternity, reproductive rights, the eradication of illiteracy, and the political education of female activists. Finally, this book makes a contribution to research on tourism and travel during the Cold War through its special attention to women’s political travel, as well as to hospitality and coming together in locations with colonial histories and memory. Inspired by postcolonial research on tourism and travel (Hall & Tucker 2004), this book shows how imperial-colonial and Cold War structural relationships have infuenced women’s travel destinations, the tourist gaze, and hospitality. Sources and the Book’s Structure Te material upon which this book is based is a combination of archival documents, periodical publications, and published memoirs.5 === [PDF page 32] === Introduction 19 Te archival materials that I used are preserved in several countries, and the archival collections difer signifcantly in terms of their purposes and the character of the documents they preserve. For my research on Cuba, I used materials preserved at the WIDF’s Regional Ofce for Latin America (Ofcina regional de la FDIM) in Havana, which contained documents from the school for Latin American women. Tis archive predominantly consists of the school’s internal archive, organized by school staf for their own needs; it is composed of several folders with documents on shelves in one of the rooms. Each fle contains materials preserved afer a particular course and marked by course number and year, starting from the very frst one in 1978. Te materials preserved in these fles consist mainly of information about students, teachers’ reports about the courses, student evaluations of the courses, and a few other materials that might include students’ presentations or teaching materials. In addition to this archive, I also studied materials preserved at the Documentation Center of the Federation of Cuban Women (henceforth FMC DC), opened on the school premises when it was operating. Tis collection was thought to serve the needs of female students at the school who were working on their projects. Today, this archive is open to the public and is visited by Cuban university students, researchers, and activists dealing with the history of the women’s movement in Cuba. Tis archive contains mainly ofcial materials of the Federation of Cuban Women (Federación de Mujeres Cubanas, henceforth FMC), including part of its international correspondence; it also contains fles dedicated to the FMC’s international work that I consulted there. I also studied the FMC’s ofcial periodical publication—the primary publication for women in Cuba—the monthly journal Mujeres. Tis women’s journal was consulted in the archive of the University of Miami—Cuban Heritage Collection. I am very grateful to this institution for allowing me to use their collection, particularly because it was during the last phase of the pandemic, when some restrictive measures were still in force at the University of Miami. I studied the Soviet archival materials in Moscow (State Archive of the Russian Federation—GARF) and in Tashkent, at the National Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan (NARU). Te GARF materials in Moscow (which I also used for my previous publications on the WIDF; see Gradskova 2021, 2022a, 2023) contain the archives of the Antifascist Committee of Soviet Women === [PDF page 33] === 20 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery (henceforth CSW, the organization dropped the “Antifascist” in the 1950s, but the archive retains the organization’s name from when it was founded in 1941). Te CSW collection has many documents relating to the WIDF—an organization of which the CSW was a powerful and founding member. Te CSW’s collection also contains information about conferences, meetings, and seminars that were organized with the participation of the CSW and WIDF in diferent parts of the Soviet Union (including in Tashkent and Almaty) and abroad (such as a conference on the education of African women in Khartoum in 1970). Furthermore, the CSW collection in GARF also included a very diferent category of documents: classifed fles containing information sent by the Soviet representative at the WIDF headquarters (frst in Paris and afer 1951 in East Berlin) to the CSW and answers from the CSW’s responsible representative or president. Tese fles are particularly valuable because they provide an opportunity to access a Soviet perspective on the activities of the WIDF, as well as on some of its leaders and international guests visiting the Soviet Union. Finally, the CSW collection also contains fles of correspondence with women’s organizations in particular countries. I explored several such fles, including one dedicated to correspondence with Cuba from diferent years. During my visit to Tashkent, I worked in the NARU, where I studied a collection of documents about the activities of the Uzbek Society of Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries (Uzbekskoe Obschestvo Kulturnykh Sviazei s Zagranitsei, UzOKS, fond 2661). Tis society, the Uzbek branch of VOKS (Vsesoiuznoe Obshchestvo Kulturnykh Sviazei s Zagranitsei, see more on VOKS history in David-Fox 2012), was opened frst as a Tashkent branch of VOKS in 1947, but starting from 1953 already existed as the Uzbek Society of Friendship and Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries, which I refer to henceforth as Uzbek Friendship Society (UzFS). In comparison to the interwar period VOKS, described by David-Fox as a “major player among agencies dealing with shaping public opinion abroad” (2012, 41), UzFS was only one of many such institutions that became particularly important to Moscow in the context of Khrushchev’s reforms and the decolonization of Africa and Asia. Tis was when greater resources started to be channeled to Tashkent and Uzbekistan from the Soviet center with the ambition of building a new center for the Communist bloc’s geopolitical strength in the global cultural Cold War === [PDF page 34] === Introduction 21 (Kirasirova 2013, 118). Files preserved in the collection contained protocols for meetings of the society and its women’s section, programs, and reports on foreign delegations that visited Uzbekistan, as well as correspondence between representatives of the UzFS and women from diferent countries. In addition to these three main collections, I also consulted several other archives. Tese included the Blinken Open Society Archive (OSA) preserved in Budapest, Hungary, containing documents from Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (henceforth RFE/RL), two Cold War information and counterpropaganda centers that accumulated data on the countries of the “Soviet bloc.” In these collections, I consulted materials dedicated to the WIDF, the situation in Tashkent and Uzbekistan, and materials (press clippings, reports) on the relationships of Tird World organizations and governments with the Soviet Union, as well as large international events such as the UN World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974. Te items preserved in this collection are mainly preparatory materials for counter-propaganda broadcasting, which include reports about diferent aspects of political, social, and cultural life in the Communist bloc and the media materials on the basis of which these reports were written. Hence, they contain a lot of interesting information about the Soviet role in the global Cold War that was censored in the Soviet bloc countries. However, when using materials from this archive, it is particularly important to take into account that they were produced as a form of cultural Cold War weapon and, thus, ofen do not give a full or multifaceted picture of the various events. Alongside the archive in Budapest, I accessed some specifc collections— mainly connected to the WIDF’s activity—in the Danish National Archive (DNA) in Copenhagen, the Historical Archive of the Spanish Communist Party in Madrid (AHPCE), and the archive of the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam (IISH). Tese archives were used as additional resources that gave access to some materials produced in the context of the UN Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1980 (DNA, KVINFO) and WIDF declarations and reports on various congresses and other events. Te main periodical publications that were used for this study are the WIDF journal, Women of the Whole World (but mainly its Russian-language version, Zhenshchiny mira), which I read mainly in the Slavonic Library at === [PDF page 35] === 22 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the University of Helsinki. However, I also consulted several issues of this journal in the English language (mainly issues from 1969 to 1985), which are preserved in the Danish National Library. Any research on East–South women’s connections would be incomplete without paying attention to the subjective motivations, feelings, and experiences of the individual women who traveled to the conferences and seminars, produced and internationally distributed appeals and declarations, and engaged in correspondence with other women living in diferent countries and continents. Hence, in order to analyze the diversity of these subjective attitudes and personal connectivities, I also used personal documents, stories, letters, and memoirs. Using personal materials allowed me to pay attention to small details that are usually invisible in wider narratives. Indeed, focusing on doing diplomacy “from below” (Scott-Smith 2023) and from an individual perspective, further opens up the possibility of gaining a better understanding of the particular spaces and contexts of South–East internationalism. Personal stories about political tourism and women’s networking are also invaluable for understanding the feelings of the participants and their individual strategies for navigating the borders and inequalities, as well as the Cold War itself. At the same time, work with these documents cannot be achieved without acknowledging and analyzing the ideological interpretations of events by the authors themselves, whose writing sometimes brings in Cold War constructions even in those cases where the authors are trying to escape them. Te use of autobiographical materials and memories requires an ethical and respectful approach to individual experiences but, at the same time, supposes explanation, verifcation, and interpretation (Bornat 2008). Following previous research on Cold War personal documents (Kõresaar 2011; Kozlova 2005), it is possible to say that personal documents and stories (even those written and told afer the end of the Cold War, when state socialism no longer existed) are infuenced by the ideological language and, even in cases when they avoid being directly censored by the editors and publishers (which is ofen the case), demonstrate a great deal of self-censorship. Tus, while utilizing some personal travelogues, memoirs, and other personal materials can be very useful in terms of unearthing information that is not available in the ofcial protocols, === [PDF page 36] === Introduction 23 declarations, and reports, the analysis of these personal documents about travel and international gatherings should take into account their purpose and the context in which they were produced. Te main criteria for choosing whether to include an example from one of the women’s memoirs or not were the diversity of statuses, geographies, and international experiences of these women, as well as the relevance of some of their experiences and positionalities to the two particular Cold War peripheries that are named in the title of this book. However, these autobiographical materials are very diferent with respect to their style, form of presentation, and length. Finally, in a few cases, I also had the possibility to converse with women who were in one way or another knowledgeable about women’s gatherings at the Cold War periphery. Due to the secondary position of the interviewed persons to the themes and events I explore in this book, I see these conversations as complimentary sources, not as proper interviews, or oral history material. Te individuals I conversed with included two women in Havana—a translator at the school for Cuban and, later, Latin American women (T) and one of the staf members of the WIDF Ofce in Havana who started her job recently (K). I am also very grateful to a relative of one of the central fgures who organized women’s international cooperation in Tashkent—Hujuma Shukurova— her close younger relative, whom I indicate her as DA in the text. Te last conversation took place in Tashkent, on October 3, 2023, in the form of a walk through the city and was accompanied by a demonstration of some pictures and documents that had been preserved in the family archive. While some copies of the documents (pictures) obtained with permission of the owner are in my possession, the notes of the conversation were only used in a limited way when writing this book due to the young age of Shukurova’s relative at the time when Shukurova herself was still alive (she died in 1980). Although, as the author of this book, I was practicing professional critical distancing from the historical sources, the constructivist turn in the humanities and social sciences suggests that neither choosing cases for analysis nor selecting and reading the archival documents and printed materials can ever be fully and purely factual: the results of the analysis depend upon the researcher’s positionality with respect to diferent geopolitical, social, and === [PDF page 37] === 24 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery gender hierarchies. In the case of this book, the selection and analysis of the material on East–South women’s Cold War internationalism were made by a researcher who grew up in what was still the Soviet Union and traveled to Cuba on a student exchange in 1989, but matured academically in the “West.” At the same time, having been for many years employed in the feld of “East European Studies” and working mainly as a gender historian, I feel myself, as the author of this book, embodying the experiences of multiple and repeated “travels,” crossing both academic, and also physical and personal, borders and division lines inherited from the global Cold War. Te book consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the two cities (and the regions/countries to which they correspond) by questioning and bringing together their diferent geographical belongings. It also presents an overview of the discursive context within which the women’s gatherings and networks were taking place, as well as starts to explore what the participants meant by “coming together” through an examination of published memoirs that were authored by two participants from diferent continents in the South–Eastern networks. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the history of women’s travel and participation in the transnational gatherings from a longer historical perspective, starting in the 1930s; it also discusses the issues of the tourist gaze and (mainly state socialist) hospitality. Chapters 3 and 4 aim to deepen the analysis of internationalism from the peripheries—Chapter 3 focuses on Tashkent and Central Asia, while Chapter 4 explores women’s internationalism in (and via) Havana afer the Cuban revolution of 1959. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with two specifc issues that were at the center of East–South women’s internationalism: maternity and education. Finally, Chapter 7 is dedicated to the international school for Latin American women in Havana. Notes 1 Te division between center and periphery in the Communist bloc is a subject of discussion. All of the Eastern European countries were under the control of Moscow, but some of them also had the status of having been dependent territories in the past (e.g., on Poland’s self-perception as a postcolonial country, === [PDF page 38] === Introduction 25 see Kola 2021). At the same time, new research on the Cold War suggests that these countries cannot be seen as only objects of Moscow’s control: they ofen followed their own political interests (Mark et al. 2020). 2 See examples of two recent conferences https://southsouthconnections.atu.ac.ir/; https://geisal.hypotheses.org/78. 3 Due to the ofcial presentation of the USSR as a “Union of Republics”—a federation of a special kind—Soviet Socialist Republics were able to participate in many international organizations, including the UN and UNESCO, as independent states. For the Soviet Communist leadership in Moscow, such participation was benefcial, providing the opportunity of having several “voices” supporting its politics without needing to expend much efort to win the allyship of independent states. However, while such a system worked during the late Stalinist period, the leadership of Soviet republics sometimes took more independent political positions under late socialism (see, e.g., Kirasirova 2011). 4 See the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org. 5 All translations from Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese are mine unless otherwise specifed. Personal names from archival documents written in Cyrillic letters were transliterated by me. === [PDF page 39] === [Blank page] 26 === [PDF page 40] === Coming Together for a “Better Future?” Contexts, Places, and Memories Tis chapter aims to set the scene for my analysis: to approach the Cold War periphery via the example of two cities where many South–East women’s gatherings took place—Tashkent and Havana—and to explore how these gatherings were connected to the global concerns and international discussions of the time and what changes they experienced. Tis also involves inquiring into the discursive context surrounding these gatherings and, in particular, Cold War divisions in women’s activism, as well as discrepancies and conficts around solutions to global problems, including the improvement of women’s status. Finally, following my special interest in the mundane aspects of internationalism and in the self of its participants, the last section of this chapter deals with the individual memoirs of two participants in the South– East coming together during the Cold War period. Tese two memoirs, very diferent in style and content and written by women from two diferent continents, are crucial, not only due to their individual perspectives on South– East transnational connectivity, but also because they illustrate the diversity of circumstances and motivations of the women who were involved in East– South internationalism. Not least, these autobiographical texts indicate the possibility of diferent ways of relating to the past, depending upon one’s political career and the political context surrounding the moment when these memoirs were published. === [PDF page 41] === 28 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Bringing Forward Progress, Overcoming Colonial Legacies, and Building Transnational Cooperation: Hopes, Aspirations, and Conficts during the Time of the Global Cold War As I already have shown in the Introduction, this book explores women’s gatherings and networks in the context of the Cold War, mainly from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s. During these years, the overall climate of the Cold War as well as the rhetoric and the intensity of the confrontation experienced signifcant changes. In the beginning of that period (the late 1950s to the early 1960s), the “future” was, seemingly, looked at with hope by many people in diferent parts of the world. Indeed, the Cold War climate seemed to become milder, particularly afer John Kennedy became president of the United States in 1961. Importantly, the politics of détente declared by the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, who replaced the globally feared Communist tyrant, Stalin, also contributed to this thaw. Furthermore, the long-lasting anticolonial struggle had culminated in the forming of new states in place of the former colonies, primarily in Africa and Asia. Millions of people became citizens of new independent countries and optimistically looked toward the future, where it was expected that the achievement of independence would pay of in the form of freedom and, soon, economic and cultural prosperity. Te hope for prosperity or a better life in the future was also connected to the progress of science and technology, which promised to secure human existence against the cruelty and unpredictability of nature. Te progress of medicine also brought hopes of dominating biology—from overcoming the danger of diseases to the possibility of gaining control over the number of people born. Finally, aspirations of investigating the cosmos started to become a reality with the frst space fight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Te end of the period that the research is concerned with was also connected to hope, however, of a diferent kind compared to the beginning of the period I started with. Indeed, the unexpected changes in the Soviet Union afer coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 and the beginning of Perestroika intensifed expectations of democratization and liberalization in the “Eastern bloc” and, in fact, paved the way for the end of the Cold === [PDF page 42] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 29 War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Latin America, it coincided also with a broader move from dictatorships to democratization, including beginning of the slow process of reforms in Brazil since the late 1970s, end of Somoza dictatorship as a result of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, democratic elections in Argentina in 1983, and victory of “No” till Pinochet at the referendum in Chile in 1988. Tese changes in Latin America became the result of many years of political protests and, in some cases, of the clandestine and partisan struggle. However, the end of the Cold War was preceded by a period of signifcant escalation, both in Europe—with the deployment of nuclear delivery systems in Western and Eastern Europe (Nuti et al. 2015)— and globally (Westad 2005), notably marked by the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979 (Nunan 2016). Furthermore, it is possible to say that the period of the late 1970s to early 1980s has demonstrated a disillusionment with the idea of increasing prosperity in the newly independent countries, including a dwindling hope for the development that had been outlined in diferent attempts of the African socialisms (Iandolo 2022; Burton et al. 2021). In fact, many “Tird World” countries, not least those in Latin America, found themselves in the middle of the international debt crises during the late Cold War period. Te state socialist system, and the USSR in particular, experienced economic and political stagnation (Yurchak 2006) that led to much more strained relationships with countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America despite ofcially preserving the rhetoric of friendship and solidarity from previous decennia. Meanwhile, toward the end of the period that concerns this analysis, the global recognition of “human rights” increased—not least due to the Latin American struggle for democracy and the growing activism of the dissident movement in Eastern Europe (Moyn 2010; Eckel & Moyn 2014). Tis time was also marked by the growth in recognition of women’s rights as human rights, coming as a result of the UN Decade for Women. But if we return to the beginning of the period that this book is dealing with, diferent visions of the “future”—from industrial and cultural development to gender equality—became important for the ideological battles of the cultural Cold War, not only in Europe but globally. Te competition between diferent paths toward progress and diferent imagined “futures” unavoidably marked === [PDF page 43] === 30 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery transnational women’s gatherings, not only those that were called upon to condemn imperialism or Communism but also those dedicated to education, medical assistance, or reforms to family legislation. Tis section is dedicated to further exploration of the discursive and political contexts of the Cold War within which women’s gatherings were taking place. I do this mainly on the basis of previous research and pay special attention to discrepancies around constructions of “progress,” “overcoming colonial legacies,” and “cooperation” in relation to the place of women in these constructions. In addition to reviewing the existing descriptions of these ideas and policies, I also seek to identify the research gaps concerning the role of East–South women’s networks in defning and questioning these ideas. I start with the hopes and aspirations of “progress.” While the perception of continual change and improvement within society has existed since far back in history, it was mainly during the nineteenth century and in the context of rapid improvements in productive technologies, medicine, science, and education, that ideas about the gradual improvement of society—social progress— became the center of political ideologies and, primarily, of liberalism and Marxism. While both of these ideologies can be seen as Eurocentric, they had diferent interpretations of what constitutes “social progress” and, in particular, the best way to achieve it. Indeed, while liberalism was focused on improving the institutions of liberal democracy and guaranteeing personal freedom and private property, Marxist theoreticians focused on reorganizing society through the abolition of private property in order to guarantee more equality. Te cultural Cold War confrontation was grounded in these assumptions as well, the specifc point of contention becoming the issue of “human rights,” interpreted as focused on negative freedoms in the “West” and as “social rights” (guaranteed by the state) in the Communist “East” (Moyn 2010). Te idea of liberal “progress” was compromised due to colonial politics up to the collapse of the colonial system during the early post–Second World War years, while still promising to bring “progress” to people in the colonies. Indeed, according to Nii-K Plange and Mumataz Alam, “social policies on welfare, informed by the imperialist logic of race and science, were all ingrained in the practice of colonial authorities and the colonial state as rationales === [PDF page 44] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 31 for maintaining the empire” (2023). However, growing research in the feld of Soviet and post-Soviet studies shows that, while the civilizing mission of the Russian Empire was criticized by the Bolshevik government, the Soviet propaganda of bringing “progress” to the “backward” peripheries with the help of the centralized politics of industrialization and culturalization (Martin 2001), including the “emancipation” of women, to a large extent followed an imperialist logic (Tlostanova 2010; Gradskova 2018). Furthermore, as early as the 1930s, Soviet nationality politics came to be known for using tactics from the “imperial repertoire” such as the forced displacement of populations, proclaiming some ethnic groups as “enemy nations,” and emphasizing the dominant role of the Russian language and culture in forming the state’s elite Initially, the scholarly discussion about diferent interpretations of “progress” did not pay much attention to women, assuming that their place in these positive developments was equal to men’s. It was a pioneering book by Helen Laville that drew attention to the fact that competing images of women were an important part of the cultural Cold War (Laville 2002). According to Laville, for example, the two blocs used competing ideals of femininity in the cultural Cold War: while the “West” focused on capitalism’s contribution to “happy housewives,” the Communist “East” presented the achievements of progress as expressed through women’s professional education and broad participation in work and public life (Laville 2002, 2013). Tus, propaganda machines on both sides of the Iron Curtain depicted what was considered to be the “ideal” role for women in society, and denounced as “non-progressive” the roles given to women on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain. For example, the documents that were collected for the RFE/ RL broadcasting preserved in Budapest and placed into the fle “Women” are a good illustration of this (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 256, 257). Te materials in these fles were designed to counter the Soviet ofcial information about women’s everyday life in the Soviet Union. Tey focused on data that, frst of all, would provide a negative portrayal of the situation of Soviet women due to their waged work and lack of consumer goods. It focused on hard working conditions for women in many enterprises, a double burden, and shortages of goods. Tus, it was these topics that the counter-propagandists working at RFE/ === [PDF page 45] === 32 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery RL saw as relevant to the topic “Women.” It was these issues that were seen as signs of the poor functioning/lack of progress in the Soviet Union and under the state socialist model in general. Only in a few cases did the reports created by RFE/RL employees also target the ofcial state socialist propaganda on the “progress” that had been achieved with respect to gender equality. Tis was done, for example, by exposing the disproportion in the participation of women in the Communist Party (only about 20 percent of CPSU members were women in 1965—Rogal 1965). Tese reports almost never mentioned the involvement of women in diferent kinds of activism, and even less so, women’s engagement in transnational activities. At the same time, the documents suggest that those responsible for the propaganda campaign against its Communist counterpart saw women in general as secondary Cold War political actors, individuals who were less important than men for achieving “progress.” As we know, the women’s movement of the late 1960s in Western Europe and North America signifcantly transformed “Western” ideas about “progress” and women’s role in it, not least by contributing to a revision of the gender neutrality of “human rights” (Moyn 2010). By the end of the Cold War, and under the infuence of the UN women’s conferences and decade for women, “progress” had started to include ideas about women’s equal status in society, and the global priorities of gender equality could not leave intact the cultural Cold War dispute around “progress” concerning women. Te end of the Cold War reinforced the interpretations of “progress” as connected to “democracy,” but also to “gender equality.” Not least, women’s waged work was included in the new post-Cold War vision of “progress.” However, the Cold War evaluation of Soviet gender politics as the opposite of “progress” was not substantially Afer this brief overview of the cultural Cold War conficts around “progress” in relation to women, I now move on to an analysis of the demands and aspirations to “overcome colonial legacies.” As explained in the Introduction, the creation of new states in Asia and Africa, in place of the colonies of the European empires, led to a new confguration of the problems that had to be dealt with internationally. One of the solutions to the problem of global inequalities that was connected to the colonial legacies began to be seen as “development,” ofen interpreted as a growth in production in order to satisfy === [PDF page 46] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 33 the needs of the population. Te issues of “development” moved to the center of the global agenda and, not least, led to the UN declaration of the frst (and then the second and third) decade of “development” in 1960. Te UN’s move toward focusing on development refected the expansion of its membership as newly independent countries joined the organization, together with the personal attitude of the US president, John Kennedy (Coundouriotis 2021). Tis also led to an expansion of the interpretation of “development” itself: from satisfying material needs to improvements in social conditions.1 Te global attention directed toward the problems of postcolonial societies was a favorable moment for the Soviet Union, which, similar to the United States, had (new) imperialist aspirations “to exercise power over great distances and many societies” (Burbank & Cooper 2011, 414). In particular, the Soviet Union hoped to demonstrate its achievements on the way to overcoming the legacies of colonialism in its colonial borderlands or, as Kalinovsky called it, the specifc results of the “socialist development” experiment (2018). As a (new) imperialist power, the Soviet Union was not invited to participate in the Bandung conference in Indonesia (1955), where the issues of overcoming colonial legacies were at the center of the discussions (Rist 1997; Eslava et al. 2017). However, this did not mean that Soviet-style or state socialist models— such as a planned economy and state control over key sectors—lacked appeal, particularly for some newly independent states (on Ghana, Mali, and Guinea see Iandolo 2022; see also Lee 2010; Burton et al. 2021). Furthermore, in spite of the USSR’s neo-imperialist ambitions being severely criticized by China, which presented itself as providing the best way for overcoming “colonial legacies” (Friedman 2015), some African leaders were rather satisfed with the early results of Soviet developmental aid (Iandolo 2022). Te interest of the African and Asian countries in the Soviet achievements contributed to the growing visibility of the “former” colonies inside Soviet territory, primarily Central Asia, which was presented by the Soviet bloc as demonstrating successful “development” (Kalinovsky 2018). However, many postcolonial countries were skeptical. Nevertheless, some socialist ideas about “overcoming colonial legacies” and achieving “progress” were attractive to governments, intellectuals, and activists from Latin America, Asia, and Africa during the whole Cold War period, and this was again demonstrated by the participants in === [PDF page 47] === 34 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the Tricontinental Conference in Havana in 1966 (which aimed to bring Latin America into the Afro-Asian union established at Bandung, more about Cuba’s role in South–South solidarities see Hatzky & Stites Mor 2014). According to a recently published study, the discussions there were impregnated with ideas of socialism, although these were grouped together with welfare and democracy (Parrott & Atwood Lawrence 2022). If we return to the Soviet bloc at the beginning of the postcolonial era in Africa and Asia, it is important to note that, in spite of the growing political and economic interest within the Soviet Union and the “Eastern bloc” in countries outside of Europe (see, e.g., Mazov 2008; Mark et al. 2021; Iandolo 2022), the Communist “East” largely lacked knowledge about many former colonial regions and territories. Te RFE/RL report from 1959 preserved in the OSA (“Agitation and aid in Africa (I)” 1959, p. 2—HU OSA) informs us, for example, that during the 1930s to the 1950s, only a few Soviet ethnologists directed their research toward African people, the Department of African Studies at Moscow State University had few students, and only ten students were studying African languages in Leningrad. Tus, at least during the early postcolonial period, and even in cases where mutual interest was present, East–South communication and cooperation looks rather complicated. Furthermore, the “socialist” approach to overcoming colonial legacies and bringing development and social progress had already signifcantly diminished in popularity in Africa by the end of the 1960s (Eslava et al. 2017; Iandolo 2022; Coundouriotis 2021), not least due to the political defeat of several advocates of this approach in Africa by that time, including Ghana’s president, Kwame Nkrumah, in 1966. At the same time, the Communist “East” politics in Africa were criticized by the “West” as those aimed for the Soviet imperial goals, similar to the Soviet politics in its borderlands, like Central Asia. For example, the second report on Soviet politics in Africa prepared by Radio Liberty from 1959 noted that “the motivation behind all that [developmental aid promises] has nothing to do with Africa’s welfare, but was the purely selfsh one of weakening of the United States and of Western unity for the greater glory of the Soviet bloc” (“Agitation and aid (II)” 1959, p. 12—HU OSA). Unlike the criticism of the export of Soviet developmental ideas to Africa and Asia, a comprehensive evaluation of Soviet nationality politics, === [PDF page 48] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 35 industrialization, and its “civilizing mission” only occurred afer the Soviet Union’s collapse. Newly available archival materials allowed researchers to better understand what colonial mechanisms of management had been used and how (Rasulov 2017; Burbank & Cooper 2011, 39–56). Soviet politics, in particular during Stalinism, included forced expropriations, induced famine, and deportations (see, e.g., Burbank & Cooper 2011, 414). In terms of the economy, in the context of Central Asia, for example, these new imperial politics contributed to the creation of a cotton monoculture, leading to the region’s renewed economic dependence on the Russian/Soviet center (Kalinovsky 2018). Research on other countries of the “Eastern bloc” also demonstrates the presence of inequalities and cases of “cultural missions” aimed at ethnic minorities (e.g., in relation to Roma and Muslims, see Todorova 2021). Last, but not least, as it was already noted, in spite of the Cuban government’s declared antiracism, research shows that while racial inequality in Cuba had somewhat diminished during the period afer 1959, cultural racism was largely preserved in the context of the impossibility of discussing issues of racism publicly (De la Fuente 2001; Benson 2016). Te results of the reforms of women’s status and the emancipation of women as part of the Soviet politics of overcoming “colonial legacies” continued to be debated. On the one hand, some of the mass campaigns of “emancipation” of women in the Soviet colonial borderlands—such as their unveiling in Central Asia in March 1927, hujum—were evaluated by many researchers as a variant of colonial, rather than anticolonial politics, given that they were decided and planned from the Russian/Soviet center in the interests of domination (Northrop 2004), ignored Muslim intellectuals’ (jadids) own attempt of reforms (Kamp 2006) and did not lead to the real emancipation of women. In particular, the mass involvement of women in paid work within the state socialist economy without signifcant changes in the situation inside the family led to a double burden of work tasks, in combination with traditional patriarchal domination (Tokhtakhodzhaeva et al. 2004). On the other hand, many Soviet reforms regarding the status of women in the Caucasus and Central Asia were recognized as being rather similar to those undertaken by some Asian states like Türkiye (Edgar 2006). Still their enactment from the imperial center and advocation of cultural superiority over “backwardness” === [PDF page 49] === 36 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery can be seen as reinforcing rather than diminishing diferences in status and opportunities, and leading to the racialization of women living in the colonial peripheries (Edgar 2006; Tlostanova 2010; Gradskova 2018). However, the questions of what efects the Soviet and “Eastern bloc” policies on overcoming colonial legacies with respect to women during the Cold War had, and the role played by women’s gatherings in it, did not receive substantial answers, and this book aims to contribute to the fnding of those answers. Te study of women’s networks would be impossible without paying attention to the ideas, aspirations, and politics of cooperation and solidarity. As is well known, “solidarity” was proclaimed to be the foundation for the attitude of the countries of state socialism to the countries fghting for independence and trying to overcome the legacies lef by European colonial domination. However, as shown above, in practice, this “solidarity” and “cooperation” in the name of progress were shattered due to a lack of knowledge about each other, conficts, misunderstandings, and, not least, Cold War superpowers imperial ambitions and interventions, the Soviet interventions in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) among several others. Furthermore, the multiple discrepancies and open conficts between the countries of (state) socialism (e.g., the Soviet–Yugoslav and Soviet–China splits), as well as divisions inside many Communist and pro-Communist organizations, not least, as a result of the Soviet interventions, infuenced how the calls for cooperation and solidarity coming from the “Communist bloc” were seen at the Cold War peripheries (Friedman 2015; Concheiro et al. 2007). It is important to name several transnational organizations that originated (wholly or in part) in postcolonial and developing countries whose activities have not yet been fully explored. Tese organizations were centered around solidarity and cooperation and, to a greater or lesser extent, expressed their support for the “Eastern” vision of progress and approach to overcoming colonial legacies and underdevelopment. While East–South women’s cooperation with each of these organizations and networks needs further research, in this section I will just mention the most important movements, organizations, and conficts in order to indicate the context for East–South women’s gatherings and networks, many of which were connected to these organizations. === [PDF page 50] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 37 One of such organizations was the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization (AAPSO), which was created afer the 1955 Bandung conference, in Cairo in 1957; it was composed of diferent nongovernmental organizations and had a strong Soviet infuence2 (see Iandolo 2022; CIA 1963). Te WIDF had observer status in AAPSO, and my previous research has shown that this organization was presented in its documents and publications as an important partner, while many African and Asian women participating in the East–South gatherings were also connected to AAPSO and participated in its meetings (Gradskova 2021). Te third AAPSO conference, in Moshi, Tanganyika (1963), saw the start of attempts to expand the organization and to include the Latin American countries. Tis latter move, strongly promoted by Cuba, was celebrated at the frst meeting of the new organization, African-AsianLatin-American People’s Solidarity Organization (AALAPSO) (Tricontinental organization), in Havana in 1966 (Parrott & Atwood Lawrence 2022). Te last obviously brought the further integration of East–South women’s networks into its activities (see more about AALAPSO in Chapter 4). At the same time, many of the meetings of these organizations and other events were severely marked by conficts, which in turn have infuenced power relationships inside the organizations. Te China–Soviet split, for example, led to Soviet infuence within AAPSO seriously deteriorating, but it also afected the unity of this organization (Friedman 2022). Among other outcomes, it resulted in the postponing of a conference in Algiers planned for 1965. Te AAPSO conference in Moshi (1963) was marked by confrontation between Soviet and Chinese representatives, including members of invited women’s organizations (see Gradskova 2024). As for the AALAPSO conference in Havana, according to Jeremy Friedman, the USSR was afraid of the independent international position of Cuba and of its gaining more strength afer the Havana meeting, and even proposed holding the Tricontinental Conference in Brazil (Friedman 2022, 202). Te NAM, founded by the heads of Yugoslavia, Ghana, Egypt, and India in Belgrade in 1961, which had development and socialist aspirations on its agenda, was one of the most important actors in the international politics of the Cold War period. Te NAM aimed to oppose the two military alliances behind the two principal Cold War blocs and involved discussions about === [PDF page 51] === 38 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery women’s issues (Jain 2020) as organization of Yugoslav women was prominent there. Te NAM’s fourth conference took place in 1979 in Havana, Cuba, while the Cuban women’s organization, the FMC, an active member of the WIDF and South–East networks, was one of the conference hosts (and the Soviet representatives got status of observers there). Yugoslav women were prominent actors in the promotion of the socialist vision of progress and women’s rights at the UN Women’s Conference in Mexico City in 1975 (Bonfglioli 2016b, 2016a). At the same time, NAM continued to be an organization marred by many internal disagreements, not least those connected to its relationships with the countries and politics of the “Eastern bloc” (including long time efects of the 1949 Yugoslav–Soviet split and position of Cuba, a member of NAM, and the “friend” of the Soviet Union). One of the biggest women’s organizations was the WIDF, which I introduced earlier. Tis large transnational women’s organization provided a crucial environment for fostering connections and networks, ofen ofering places for gatherings, courses, and schools, as well as sending invitations and helping with travel documents and travel money (about the WIDF, see de Haan 2010, 2012, 2018; Gradskova 2021). Te WIDF headquarters, from 1951 in East Berlin, was one of the most important centers for transnational women’s activities, including those where East–South women met. Te WIDF headquarters also included permanent representatives of many East–South women’s organizations working in the WIDF Secretariat and editorial house, publishing and translating the WIDF journal, Women of the Whole World, into several languages (including French, Spanish, and Arabic). Although the journal was produced internationally and usually provided a voice for women from diferent continents, its content was specifcally positive toward the experiences of women in the countries of state socialism. Te articles published in this journal cannot be seen as uncensored: in particular, it would be impossible for women having a critical attitude toward the WIDF program and ideology to publish their views there. Still, following Christina Varga-Harris’s evaluation of the complex international efect of the journal Soviet Woman—which, while presenting a very positive image of the Soviet woman, simultaneously “blurred the === [PDF page 52] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 39 binary self-other” in its publications (Varga-Harris 2019, 762), I consider that Women of the Whole World’s materials could be read diferently by the various women’s organizations and could have quite diferent efects. Tis journal ofen published information on diferent South–East gatherings and is one of my primary sources for this book. In some cases, women working in the WIDF Secretariat and writing for the journal were not sent to Berlin by their organizations, but found this work as political refugees from their home countries (like the Brazilian activist, Ana Montenegro, as well as Jordanian exile activist writing under the pen name Layla—see Chapter 2). Many women from Africa, Asia, and Latin America working in this journal shared its main positions—which makes one think of selfcensorship rather than direct pressure from Moscow or East Berlin while analyzing their articles in the journal. Te WIDF, in its turn, was cooperating not only with national but also with some regional and transnational women’s organizations, one of the most important of which seems to have been PAWO—the Pan-African Women’s Organization—formed in 1962 under the name African Women’s Conference and having its headquarters in Conakry, Guinea. African feminist, Jeanne Martin Cissé, was the frst leader of this organization and a central person for South–East connections. I discuss Cissé’s memoirs in more detail later in this chapter. Tus, on the basis of this overview, it is possible to say that the Cold War context not only presupposed confrontation between women along the main line of division but women’s gatherings were also refecting the multiple geopolitical splits and divisions, including ideological and political divisions inside the Communist East itself. At the same time, the global Cold War context led to the easy ideologization of every confict around women’s issues and their inclusion in Cold War political struggles and confrontations. Afer discussing these general discursive contexts and the transnational organizations of cooperation and solidarity that are prominent in this book, I briefy present the two Cold War peripheries that I have chosen as starting locations for exploring East–South Cold War women’s connectivities. === [PDF page 53] === 40 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Tashkent as East, (Socialist) North, and as South I start discussing the Cold War peripheries from Tashkent, the most important city of Soviet Central Asia, or of “the Soviet Orient,” as the region was frequently designated at that time. As is well known, from the frst post-revolutionary years, the transformation of the “Orient” was seen by the Bolshevik government—as well as by the powerful Communist transnational organization in which the Bolshevik/Soviet Communist Party played the central role, the Comintern— as one of the most important revolutionary tasks. Indeed, the documents of Comintern’s Second Congress, also nicknamed the Congress of People of the East, which was held in Baku in September 1920, criticized imperialism for strengthening its grip on the colonies afer the end of the First World War. Te Congress also produced a Manifesto calling upon all the people of the “East” (in the orientalist understanding of the “East/Orient”) to “wake up” and unite with the revolutionary proletariat (of the West) under the banner of the Communist International (Congress 1977, 171). Central Asian women— frequently addressed at that time as “women of the East/Orient”—were seen as a central object for this awakening. In particular, they were presented as sufering from the domination of an unjust political system, but also from religion, and from backward traditions and customs that forced them to be largely docile victims of exploitation. Te Soviet pamphlets published by the Institute for the Protection of Maternity and Childhood in the series “Woman of the East” in the late 1920s presented the process of emancipation of the “woman of the East” as not an easy one, pointing in particular to the resistance of the local wealthy and religious authorities (Venediktov 1928; Moskalev 1928). For example, women in Uzbekistan were presented as being so dependent on strict religious regulations that, in contrast to women from many other ethnic groups within the territory of the Soviet Union, they needed a lot of teaching and help (from the Bolshevik center) in order to become modernized and able to utilize the rights given to them by the revolution (Moskalev 1928, 22). === [PDF page 54] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 41 Tus, it is possible to say that, from a Soviet gendered perspective, the region was predominantly addressed in terms of its “Easternness,” which, similar to the “Orient” in Edward Said’s Orientalism (2003),3 indicated that this Soviet borderland was seen from the “West,” in this case, the (Western) Soviet center, as having less “culture” and “civilization.” Te propagandists, doctors, teachers, and women activists of the Bolshevik Party’s Department for Work among Women, Zhenotdel (Moldosheva 2016), were sent to help with women’s emancipation in the Soviet peripheries, such as the Caucasus or Central Asia. Ascribing to Central Asia such characteristics as underdevelopment, lack of culture, and—no less important—unjust forms of treating women, the representatives from the Soviet center presented themselves as more “advanced,” “modern,” and “cultured” (Gradskova 2018; 2024). Although, due to revolutionary opposition to the “bourgeois” West, these Soviet actors never spoke in the name of “Western” values or civilization, still their treatment of Central Asia’s people in general, and women specifcally, coincided with the imperialist and orientalist Western perspective criticized by Said (2003). Tis attitude was inherited by the Bolshevik civilizers from Russian imperial practices and worldviews, which have a history extending back centuries. Central Asia was the last territory to be conquered by the Russian Empire, in the 1870s, and was one of the Russian colonies where colonial rule was most reminiscent of the relationships between the metropolis and overseas colonies in Western colonial empires (Abashin 2021), with Tashkent’s separate Russian enclave resembling “colonial cities built by Europeans worldwide” (Sahadeo 2007, 6). Te Soviet “emancipators” of Central Asian women during the 1920s and 1930s referred to the region as a former colony (see, e.g., Moskalev 1928), thus positioning it among the dominated Southern and Eastern territories that were on their way toward “liberation” (even though Soviet politics largely continued the colonial politics of the Russian imperial center, and were in practice rather neo-imperial/neocolonial). Simultaneously, as an object of Russian colonization and neocolonial (Soviet) politics, Tashkent and Uzbekistan can be seen as part of the (post)colonial “South.” However, precisely because of the new imperial ambitions of the Soviet center and its use === [PDF page 55] === 42 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery of part of the imperial repertoire of the past, Soviet Tashkent and Central Asia can be seen as continuing to be a colony (or colonial borderland) of a special kind (Sahadeo 2007; Tlostanova 2010). Tashkent was formerly the center of Russian colonial possessions in Central Asia (conquered by the Russian army in 1865), and as a result of the Soviet neo-imperial politics of geopolitical restructuring and renaming of territories, ethnic groups, and languages in the frst post-1917 decades (see Stronski 2010, 5–6), it acquired the status of capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (UzSSR). However, it was ofen addressed in Soviet publications as the capital of the Soviet “East,” or of Central Asia in general. Situated geographically in the “South–East” of the Soviet Union, Tashkent and Central Asia simultaneously constituted part of the Communist “East” (as the bloc was ofen named by its Cold War counterpart). Tis last defnition of the “East” made Tashkent and Central Asia into part of the “Second World,” and thus, to some extent, it can even be seen as belonging to the industrial state socialist geopolitical “North,” even though the region does not usually seem to be addressed in that way. Finally, to problematize the complexity of Tashkent’s geopolitical belonging even further, it is necessary to state that, currently, Central Asia is defned as part of the Global “South” (see the ECOSOC UN list of countries of the Global South4 on Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and the Organization of Women in Science for the Developing World on Uzbekistan5). All of these opposing defnitions and partially overlapping imperial and (post)colonial histories lead me to defne Tashkent as a city on the Cold War East–South periphery. It was these complex geopolitical (non)belongings, in combination with the importance of the city for transnational women’s gatherings during the Cold War, that led Tashkent to become one of the cities selected for analysis in this book. Havana as South–East in the North–West In contrast to Central Asia, which had long been a focus of Russian imperial ambitions and was later an integral, formally equal part of the Soviet Union, === [PDF page 56] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 43 Havana exemplifes a diferent kind of Cold War periphery. Indeed, the racially diverse territory of Cuba, which for several centuries belonged to the Spanish empire, was marked by the histories of colonization and slavery, and, afer achieving independence in 1898, by histories of republicanism and authoritarianism (Blanco Borelli 2016). At the same time, it was Cuba’s position in the Northern (and Western) Hemisphere and in close geographical proximity to the United States that led the country to be historically identifed as a zone of American infuence (Keal 1983). Afer the war of independence that ended Spanish colonial rule, which had lasted for about 400 years, for more than 50 years Cuba became a state that was politically and economically dependent on the United States (and sometimes even rhetorically addressed as its “colony”). Together with countries in the Caribbean and Central America, Cuba can be seen as a periphery of Western capitalist society, or the Global “North” in contemporary terms (even if it usually is not addressed as such). Tus, Cuba’s geographical location in the North of the Western Hemisphere and its embeddedness in the realm of US cultural infuence allows its classifcation as a kind of peripheral “West” (or periphery of the geopolitical North) in the global context, while also being clearly part of the Global “South” due to its long history of colonial exploitation. All of this taken together, along with Havana’s status as a center for transnational women’s gatherings afer 1959, makes Havana and Cuba a particularly interesting place for observing East–South connectivity. Te crucial change in Cuba’s geopolitical belonging occurred afer the Cuban revolution of 1959. According to previous research, this revolution was the turning point in the Latin American Cold War (Pettiná 2022, 56). Indeed, the Cuban revolution led the Communist “East” to move into the Western hemisphere, thus drawing a dividing line, not only between Cuba’s new and previous ideological and political regimes, but also between Cuba and the North/West geopolitical region. Soon afer the frst turbulent postrevolutionary period, the Cuban leadership, sympathizing with socialist ideals of equality and development, took the course of developing close ties with the Soviet Union. Afer the American invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and despite signifcant cooling in the Cuban–Soviet relationship afer the “missile crisis” that ended with the removal of Soviet nuclear arms from Cuba in 1962, === [PDF page 57] === 44 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Soviet–Cuban relations improved signifcantly during the following years. As previous research has shown, this occurred in part due to changes in Soviet views on non-European countries leaning toward the state socialist option, including the Soviet leadership’s adoption of the idea of a “non-capitalist path of development” (indicating the possibility of a “third way” between capitalism and socialism) and the “national-democratic state” (Pettiná 2022, 61). Tis allowed Cuban leaders to improve their contact with Moscow and move much closer to the (Communist) “East.” As a result, Cuba started to be classifed by the “Eastern bloc” as a country “building socialism,” and later—as the frst socialist country in Latin America. During the process of the radical changes in Cuban society that started afer the revolution, Havana as a capital city experienced multiple transformations with respect to both its economy and its cultural and urban life, including the formation of new revolutionary organizations for diferent sectors of the population. One such new mass organization was the FMC which, according to Michelle Chase, was created by the decision of the revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, in 1960, but incorporated members of several women’s lefist organizations and new guerilla women (Chase 2015, 132–3). Te leading role in this organization was given to Vilma Espín, a former member of the guerillas and Fidel Castro’s sister-in-law. Nationalization of enterprises and transport, cooperation in agriculture, a declaration of the end of racial and gender inequalities, the creation of a system of public childcare, and the mass involvement of women in work outside the home soon brought Cuba “closer” to the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe and, in particular, the Soviet Union. According to observations from the early 2010s, and in spite of neoliberal reforms in many spheres of economic and social life, even during that period, Havana and Cuba as a whole still preserved many cultural signs showing that “life in socialist Cuba has been deeply shaped by connections to the distant world area where state socialism frst fourished” (Gonçalves 2013, 84). Nevertheless, socialist Cuba difered from the members of the East European state socialist bloc in several important ways. On the one hand, the Cuba of the 1960s to 1990s (and also the postsocialist, post-Fidel Castro’s Cuba of the 2000s6) had to deal with the cultural and social efects of the legacies of colonialism, slavery, and racial hierarchies on a diferent scale === [PDF page 58] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 45 than the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet (European) center. On the other hand, Cuba was never seen by the USSR or the East European state socialist countries as a fully equal partner: even in the early 1980s, the country was still looked upon as being diferent from the core states of “developed socialism.” According to research by Anne Gorsuch, alongside the “enthusiasm and romance between Cuban and Soviet citizens,” these relationships also included mistrust; the latter is particularly evident “in Soviet discourses and encounters with the gendered and racialized Cuban body” (Gorsuch 2015, 497). Additionally, in spite of various ways of belonging to the Communist “East,” including being a member of the state socialist economic partnership, the COMECON, Cuba was not part of the Warsaw military bloc, that is, the Cold War’s “Eastern” military partnership. All of these factors placed socialist Cuba of the late Cold War period at the periphery of the Communist “East.” Even though, in geographical terms, this periphery was situated in the “West,” during the 1960s the “mythological Latin America” (Rupprecht 2012, 99) was seen by the “Eastern bloc” rather as an object of orientalist fantasies (similar to the orientalized “East”). However, when discussing the Cold War peripheries and the place of Cuba during the global Cold War, it is important to note that the Cuban state was also opting for alliances and forms of self-presentation that were not accessible to the Central Asian countries, which continued to be part of the Soviet imperial formation. Indeed, Cuban leadership saw the country positioned not only among (state) socialist nations, but also among the postcolonial countries of Africa and Asia (as well as Latin America, which gained independence earlier). In other words, during the Cold War period, the Cuban leadership presented Havana as a city of the postcolonial “South” that, with the help of socialist reforms, should hold a leading position among the countries of the “Tird World,” and not least among those united in the spirit of Bandung or, later, NAM (Alburquerque 2017). As I have already mentioned, the result of this was that Havana hosted the Tricontinental Conference in 1966, followed by the creation of the AALAPSO, with Havana as its headquarters. Tis was the most important attempt by the Cuban revolutionaries to take the lead in the solidarity movement between people of the three continents (Stites === [PDF page 59] === 46 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Mor 2022). In spite of many internal conficts and difculties, including the negative impact of the Soviet–China split on the development of this organization (Garland Mahler 2018, 75–6), the Tricontinental movement was initially successful in fostering internationalism and solidarity in the “South.” Numerous eforts were made to create and spread a new revolutionary culture across the continent, with one of the most pioneering being the work of Casa de las Américas—a cultural institute and journal based in Havana—dedicated to developing a new revolutionary postcolonial culture (Gordon-Nesbitt 2015). Finally, Cuba also joined NAM and became the only NAM member in the Western hemisphere. As already mentioned, in September 1979, Havana played host to the sixth Congress of the NAM, and Cuba became the chair of NAM between 1979 and 1983. All of this shaped Cuba’s ofcial politics, ofen characterized as “Tirdworldism,” which emphasized forging “solidarity” with (other) countries of the “South.” According to Alburquerque, as early as in 1965, not least, the journal Casa de las Américas started to pay more attention to the topics and fgures of the Tird World, with Vietnam and, in particular, Ho Chi Minh, and Algeria becoming countries of express interest (Alburquerque 2017). Solidarity with the “South” was realized in many diferent forms, not least through sending materials and providing training for military guerilla troops in Africa and Vietnam, ofering fellowships for international students from countries “fghting imperialism,” and informing readers about the anticolonial struggle in the media (Randall 2015, 161). Women were involved in all of these activities at every level, including as military instructors (on Cubans in Angola see Hatzky 2015; I discuss Cuban women-volunteers further in Chapter 4, using the example of publications by Limbania Jiménez Rodríguez). Notably, Haydée Santamaría, a hero of the Cuban revolution,7 served as the head of Casa de las Américas. At the same time, many of the South–South activities performed by Cuban women and men did not fully coincide with the views and political interests of the Communist “East” and led to tensions with Moscow. Tus, the peripheral status of Havana difered from that of Tashkent; frst of all, through its self-designated belonging to the “Tird World”—or, in contemporary geopolitical terms, the Global South—although this status can also be seen as partly imposed by the presumably “developed” Eastern === [PDF page 60] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 47 European state socialist countries. Furthermore, Havana’s history as a colonial city was much longer than that of Tashkent and was much more clearly marked by its colonial legacies in the form of color lines (Blanco Borelli 2016). Cuban revolutionary leaders adopted a dual stance regarding these legacies: on one hand, they asserted that the 1959 revolution had eradicated racial discrimination in Cuba and promoted racial equality. On the other hand, in their internationalist work in the postcolonial “South,” they drew on Cuba’s history of inequality and slavery to claim a special afnity with Africans, using this connection as a basis for forging political alliances with several African nations (Garland Mahler 2018, 170–2). Tus, it is possible to say that “colonial legacies” (not least of color lines and underdevelopment) in Havana’s case, similar to “colonial legacies” in the form of city spacial segregation and “oriental” discrimination of women in Tashkent, became a political resource for building connections to postcolonial countries, not least, between women. Women’s rights activism in Cuba during the frst half of the twentieth century was politically diverse. Women were actively involved in liberal and transnational feminist organizations (Marino 2019), while also participating in the Cuban Communist Party as early as the 1930s (Rojas 2021, 93; Marino 2019). One of the Cuban women’s organizations, the Democratic Union of Cuban Women, was a WIDF member from the beginning and participated in several international campaigns, including protesting against the war in Korea (Chase 2020) and celebrating International Children’s Day (Gradskova 2021). In contrast to women in Tashkent and Uzbekistan, who were formally granted sufrage and equality within the family and workplace as part of Sovietization in the early 1920s, Cuban women gained the right to vote in 1934. However, they only achieved full equality with men in terms of work and property rights afer the adoption of a new Constitution in Cuba in 1940. Afer the revolution of 1959, Cuban women’s participation in public life grew signifcantly (Chase 2015, 184–6); revolution also brought rapid transformations in gender roles, including a mass campaign for the involvement of housewives in production work, which was accompanied by the creation of an accessible childcare system. Finally, patriarchal norms surrounding women’s sexuality were reformed (Chase 2015, 192–3), with one signifcant change being the decriminalization of abortion in Cuba in 1965.8 === [PDF page 61] === 48 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery In spite of the many achievements on the way to gender equality in Cuba during the early post-revolutionary years, the results of the Cuban gender experiment were rather contradictory. According to Ilya Luciak, in the early 2000s several Cuban leaders of diferent levels recognized privately that women in Cuba have “limited participation in the positions of power” (2009, 110). Indeed, Cuba projected an international image of progress in gender equality while simultaneously suppressing criticism of its gender policies. (Luciak 2009, 110). Conversely, researchers are divided on the extent to which the FMC and its leader, Vilma Espín, operated independently versus merely implementing the decisions of the Communist Party. While Maxine Molyneux argued that women in state socialist countries were mobilized by the state (Molyneux 2003), a recently published biography of Vilma Espín challenges the tendency to depict Espín as a subordinate fgure within the Cuban revolution, arguing that “while Espín did not embrace the label ‘feminist,’ she dedicated her life to achieving women’s emancipation as she understood it” (Torres Santana & Chase 2023, 613). According to this recent publication, from the 1970s Espín emphasized the equality of men and women “within the household as well as in society” (Torres Santana & Chase 2023, 615). Havana was the center for the state reforms of the status of women and for Cuban women’s activism. It was the city where the central ofce of the FMC was located, its main periodical publication, Mujeres, was produced, women’s activities for solidarity with the “South” were coordinated, and female participants in the internationalist missions to countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia were instructed (see more on this in Chapter 4, part 4). In recent years, amid severe economic, political, and emigration crises, Cuba has predominantly been in the media spotlight for human rights violations and the struggles of its citizens’ daily lives. However, between the 1960s and 1980s, during the Cold War, Cuba was simultaneously portrayed as both a symbol of the threat posed by Communist dictatorship to its neighbors and a beacon of progress, innovation, and hope, particularly regarding the role of women in society. Cold War Cuba and its capital, Havana, became an internationally important space for transnational women’s encounters. Tis book explores the content and meanings of some of these encounters. === [PDF page 62] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 49 Feminist Memories of Doing Internationalism Finally, afer setting the context and locations of transnational gatherings in this part of the chapter, I delve into the individual participants to explore the diversity of their personal backgrounds, motivations, and experiences. I examine how women portrayed South–East internationalism during the Cold War and refected on their participation through their published personal memoirs by analyzing two autobiographical texts that difer signifcantly in style. Indeed, I use memoirs by Jeanne Martin Cissé, the head of the PAWO, and of a Brazilian feminist, Ana Montenegro (née Carmo), who wrote a memoir about her years of political exile during the military dictatorship in Brazil during the late 1960s and 1970s. Te authors of these memoirs were frequent participants in the South–East gatherings and, not least, contributors to the WIDF journal. Tis means that their names appear repeatedly in the pages of this book. Jeanne Martin Cissé (1926–2017) was born in Guinea and is known as an active participant in the anticolonial struggle in Guinea and French West Africa, a co-organizer and for many years the head of the All African Women’s Conference created in 1962 (in 1974 renamed as the Pan-African Women’s Organization, PAWO), and the frst woman to serve as the president of the UN Security Council, in 1972. In this function, Cissé has contributed to advancing gender equality in marriage on the transnational level and participated in the UN discussions on women’s rights as human More than half of Cissé’s memoir is dedicated to her international activities and dealing with the problems facing African women. Te memoir shows her to be a strong supporter of the frst postcolonial leader of Guinea, Ahmed Sékou Touré. Although her memoir recounts that, during the later years of Sékou Touré’s government, the state drastically limited the freedom of the opposition, including arresting Cissé’s husband (Cissé 2009, 108), the autobiographical text presents him mainly positively throughout (this is probably due to Cissé’s long years of belonging to the political structures led by Sékou Touré). === [PDF page 63] === 50 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Her activities for and with women take a central place in Cissé’s book: for example, she describes her eforts to help girls attend school despite the hesitancy of their families (Cissé 2009, 91), and she writes about her support for Sékou Touré’s government in fghting polygamy and emancipating women. Afer the frst transnational organization for African women, the All African Women’s Conference, was created in 1962 (Cissé 2009, 96), Cissé became its general secretary and moved to Bamako (Mali), where the headquarters of the new organization were situated. Writing about her work in Mali, Cissé stresses her cooperation with Aua Keita, leader of the Malian women’s organization and member of the WIDF (see Barthélémy & Rillon 2023). Troughout her book, Cissé presents herself primarily as an African internationalist and women’s rights activist, while paying much less attention to broader East–South networks and gatherings. Writing about African women, Cissé ofen addresses her female colleagues from Africa as “sisters”9 (Cissé 2009, 132) and stresses the importance of cooperation between women’s organizations from diferent African countries. Tus, the memoir does not say much about PAWO or Cissé’s own contacts with other South–East women, or specifcally about contacts with women from the Communist “East” (the WIDF is only mentioned from time to time, including in connection with her frst journey to Europe in 1954; I will discuss this in more detail in Chapter 2). For example, describing the meeting in Tanganyika in 1962, Cissé writes that Belgian, Soviet, and German delegations were also present (Cissé 2009, 104), and she also mentions the contribution of the WIDF representatives at the conference in Bamako in 1965, where they talked about the health of mother and child (Cissé 2009, 106). Tat is why it is rather surprising when, close to the end of the memoir, the author informs her readers that, in 1975, she received the Lenin Peace Prize in Moscow (Cissé 2009, 134). However, even in this case, she does not give specifc details of her trip. Similarly, she briefy presents her contacts with Cuba, when the delegation of women from her organization was invited there in 1962 (Cissé 2009, 119). Such lack of attention to her contacts with the WIDF, as well as with Cuban and Soviet women, can be connected to the post-Cold War context when her memories were written, and when the state socialist countries and their women’s organizations had ceased to exist. === [PDF page 64] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 51 On the other hand, even during the period when she was working in New York, at the UN, Cissé consistently presents herself as, frst of all, an African female leader. Tus, the UN conference in Mexico City, where Cissé was head of the delegation from Guinea (Cissé 2009, 133), was memorable for her mainly due to the discussions on female genital mutilation and the rights of homosexual women, discussions that were at that moment new from an African perspective. Nevertheless, in connection with the UN conference, Cissé proudly informs her readers that she had organized a reception in New York for all the delegations from Africa who were passing through on their way back from the conference. In contrast to the lack of attention to East–South connections in Cissé’s memoir, the publications of the WIDF journal and archival materials demonstrate that Cissé was a rather frequent participant at these East–South gatherings. For example, her picture is on the cover of the WIDF journal number 9 from 1962; in 1966, she spoke at the WIDF council meeting in Salzburg (ZM 1966 1: 67), while in 1970, she was in correspondence with the WIDF organizers of a conference on fghting illiteracy in Africa that took place in Khartoum (GARF 3 2421). Cissé was also the main protagonist of an article in Mujeres (Cissé had visited Cuba, in 1971—Mujeres 1973 2: 84), describing her activity in support of women’s rights in Africa and her work at the UN. Tus, it is possible to say that a leading African activist might beneft from her participation in the East–South networks providing their participants with certain opportunities to engage with particular types of connectivities and varied kinds of resources that could be important for transnational African organizations. Moving from Africa to Latin America, the memories of Brazilian feminist and Communist, Ana Montenegro (née Ana Lima Carmo, 1915–2006), seem to be very diferent in several respects. Before 1964, Ana Montenegro, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, was involved in various activities inside the country, combining work for the party and work for women’s rights. However, afer the military coup of 1964 in Brazil, the author, who was 49 years old at the time, was forced to leave the country and to become far more involved in transnational activism than before. Under the name Ana === [PDF page 65] === 52 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Montenegro, she spent most of her 15 years of exile (before returning to Brazil in 1979) in East Berlin, where she worked at WIDF headquarters. During this period, she also contributed to the WIDF journal: for example, in 1966 she published an article about the difcult situation of peasant women in Latin America, demonstrating a lack of social security and women’s dependence on their husbands (ZM 1966 1: 16–17). Afer returning to Brazil, Ana Montenegro published two of her best-known pamphlets, which were recently republished (2022) under the same cover: To be or not to be feminist (Ser ou não ser feminista) in 1981, and a memoir of her exile (Tempo de exilio) in 1988. In her frst pamphlet, Montenegro advocates the importance of feminism for women in Brazil, taking a long historical perspective and demonstrating diferent historical forms of discrimination against women. Tis pamphlet also discusses ideas about women’s role in society, including those of Simone de Beauvoir, the American feminist Betty Friedan, the Bolshevik revolution, and those coming from indigenous cultures in Latin America. Defending the rights of women, Montenegro criticizes machismo, brings into the discussion the rights of lesbian women, and concludes by declaring that the liberation of humanity is not possible without gender equality (igualdade dos sexos). Tus, it is possible to say that Montenegro returned to Brazil as a convinced feminist whose views difered signifcantly from, for example, those expressed by the representatives of the ofcial women’s organizations (such as the CSW) in the Soviet Union. In contrast to the pamphlet of 1981 about the importance of a feminist position in the struggle for justice, Montenegro’s memoirs focus more on the emotional context of her exile than on a description of facts, names, or the years when particular events or encounters took place. Being separated from her country for so many years is presented in her memoirs as painful (as Montenegro wrote at the beginning, she decided to publish them only afer returning to her country, and even more than this, afer she felt that the exile had fnally become the past for her). Tus, these memoirs refect the emotional happenings of her exile, while the many historical events she lived through (including some important East–South gatherings) are present in the pamphlet only in an opaque and imprecise form. However, Montenegro’s memoirs still provide enough information to enable an exploration of the formation of === [PDF page 66] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 53 another female internationalist, very diferent from the Pan-African leader I discussed above. It is probable that, in order to give her memories some sense of chronology, Montenegro starts by quoting some of the letters she was writing to her friends (without naming them), which focus mainly on her feelings. In particular, being alone and not knowing how long this period of life would continue is a repeating emotional context for the events and activities she was living through. Among other things, she mentions several times that she is living in a cold country, but only at the very end does it become more transparent that she was living in the GDR (Montenegro mentions the Soviet Union very briefy among other countries she visited10). Nevertheless, neither the country where she was living nor, it seems, Europe in general is given any special attention or description in the memoirs, but rather becomes an indicator of her status as an exiled person. For example, in a letter from 1974, Montenegro writes that it is her tenth winter and tenth fall “here” and that she “never wanted so many winters and falls in Europe” (Montenegro 2022, 207). Tis feeling of being an outsider in Europe contrasts with her description of being connected to people in other countries and continents, frst of all in Latin America, but also in Africa and, by the end, also in the Middle East. Describing the people she met and the impact they had on her, Montenegro demonstrates her embeddedness in the East–South networks. In particular, she ofen mentions her special connection to the Chilean refugees afer the Pinochet military coup of 1973, due to a similarity in their destinies. Indeed, she writes about maintaining correspondence with many Chilean friends around the world and her warm memories of Santiago, the Chilean capital. Although Montenegro does not specify which international event she visited in Santiago, some indications suggest she most likely to have visited the city in 1972 in connection with the WIDF Latin American seminar. Tus, it seems that this seminar becomes important not for its content (or not only for that, if we think about the feminist pamphlet written by Montenegro in 1981), but rather for the special feelings and contacts with people and the city that it facilitated. Mentioning briefy that it was the Mexican embassy in Brazil that helped her to leave Brazil safely afer the coup, Montenegro explains later that Mexico, === [PDF page 67] === 54 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Cuba, and Peru are the Latin American countries where she can feel at home (Montenegro 2022, 224). In particular, the people of Cuba produced feelings of pride in her. Mentioning that her frst visit to Cuba was in 1960, afer visiting the country again on her way to European exile from Mexico, Montenegro expressed her happiness at encountering people who “can protect revolution,” thus, probably, promising some stability for the people in the situation like hers (Montenegro 2022, 224). Cuba is presented in her memoirs not only as a revolutionary symbol but also in a much more personal way; as an exiled person, a “foreigner” everywhere, Montenegro values Cuba because she did not hear herself described as a “foreigner” while in Cuba (Montenegro 2022, 243). Finally, it seems that she also remembered her visit to Peru in 1974 in a particularly warm way, describing it as a place of connectivity between women from diferent countries. While she does not mention the reason for her journey to Peru, it is easy to suppose that this visit was also connected to the South–East gathering, a seminar on the education of Latin American women supported by the WIDF and UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientifc, and Cultural Organization; I discuss this seminar in greater depth in Chapter 6). Montenegro published her article on education in Brazil in the WIDF journal report from this seminar under her real name—Ana Carmo (WWW 1975 1: 17–18). However, Montenegro implies that among her most important experiences of exile were her encounters with Africa and African people. Some of these encounters took place in Berlin (she lived in a place where many African activists were her neighbors), and she presents the city in her memoirs as having an emotional value mainly due to these personal South–East encounters. In particular, Montenegro wrote about her friendship with Amilcar Cabral,11 a hero of the anticolonial struggle against Portugal, whom she befriended in Berlin, as well as about her travels to Africa: “the continent that I learned to love and which I discovered with the help of this magic word that is solidarity” (Montenegro 2022, 209). Encountering African people and the history of colonialism and racism, as well as getting to know the rich culture of African people, led Montenegro to think about African people in Brazil and their common histories of racism (Montenegro 2022, 232). While describing her process of learning about inequalities in Brazilian society that she had not === [PDF page 68] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 55 thought about before her exile, Montenegro described, for example, her new questions, such as: How many Black ministers does Brazil have? At the same time, her contacts with African people led her to feel a special connection with Africa: according to her, coming to Africa for Brazilians is like coming back to our home (Montenegro 2022, 209). Tus, even though Montenegro implies many times that it was very difcult for her to live outside of her own country for so many years, she prefers to see it as not entirely “empty time” (Montenegro 2022, 203): she met new people and traveled; thus, she was learning a lot (Montenegro 2022, 210). Indeed, this summary of her years in exile indicates Montenegro’s subjective experiences of internationalism; the analysis of her publications and travel destinations during these years suggests that she herself has contributed a lot to East–South women’s gatherings and connections. In conclusion, it is important to emphasize that the ofcial documents from the meetings and seminars provide only a partial glimpse into the lives and experiences of the individual participants in the South–East networks, capturing just a fraction of the event’s signifcance and the opportunities it ofered. It makes use of personal documents to be crucial for researching women’s gatherings at the Cold War periphery. Conclusion Moving toward more developed economies and societies was one of the imperatives emerging out of the ruins of the colonial system of European domination; thus, studying women’s transnational activism of the time can scarcely be imagined outside of it. Ofen, being less “visible” compared to male participants in discussions about a “better future” from a global perspective, women from countries that were forced to deal with colonial legacies, due to their geopolitical (South–East) location, created and took part in diferent cooperative networks to generate ideas about a “better future” and ways to achieve it. Simultaneously, the cultural Cold War competition ofen forced them to rely—in both their rhetoric and content—on the position of one or === [PDF page 69] === 56 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery other of the two principal Cold War blocs. In the case of the women’s gatherings in Tashkent and Havana, it was (more in the frst, but to some extent also in the second) the Soviet superpower’s political interests that shaped the content of these gatherings. Still, as the examples of the two memoir accounts that I have discussed in this chapter demonstrate, participants in the East–South gatherings “remembered” both their participation and the events themselves quite diferently. When joining the networks or deciding to participate in some of the transnational events, South–East women had diverse reasons for doing so, and the same transnational gathering might also have diferent efects on its female participants. As for the two cities that I have chosen as my starting points, Tashkent and Havana, it is possible to say that even though they are usually presented in the Cold War context as part of the “Communist world,” they each possessed several features that alienated them from the Cold War core (such as Moscow or East Berlin) and suggest some similarities with each other. Among these were their colonial past, their non-European (non-White) populations, and economies that were in some form of developmental transition. It is these similarities that are important for my further analysis of the East–South women’s gatherings that took place there. Notes 1 See, for example, UN Documentation: Development https://research.un.org/en/ docs/dev/1960-1970. 2 Not least, AAPSO did not condemn the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (Activities of Communist World Organizations: International Documentation and Information Centre, 1969(73)). 3 However, as Jef Sahadeo writes, several researchers did not see Orientalism as applicable to the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, due to its porous borders and long-term contact with Asia (Sahadeo 2007, 5). 4 http://www.fc-ssc.org/en/partnership_program/south_south_countries. 5 https://owsd.net/sites/default/fles/OWSD%20138%20Countries%20-%20Global %20South.pdf. === [PDF page 70] === Contexts, Places, and Memories 57 6 Te presentation by Maria Gutiérrez Bascón, “Postsocialist Assemblages: Urban Redevelopment, Spatial Justice and the Right to the City in Havana,” showed that, in spite of Cuba’s continued ofcial presentation as a “socialist” country, many factors, including neoliberal reforms and the gentrifcation of Havana, indicate the postsocialist character of contemporary Cuba. Exploratory Workshop: Between the Eastern Bloc and the Global South. Reframing Research on Cuba, December 5, 2023, Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam Humboldt-Raum. 7 Haydée Santamaría is one of the central fgures of the Cuban revolution and, as head of the Casa de las Américas, also a central fgure in Cuba’s connections with Latin American intellectuals (see Randall 2015; Gordon-Nesbitt 2015). 8 Te Cuban reforms in the sphere of sexuality had many limitations; frst of all, institutionalized homophobia, in particular during the 1970s (see Hamilton 2012, 117–48; 194–5). However, according to Espín’s daughter, Mariela Castro Espín, who worked as a sexologist, there were already attempts to declare gender-neutral marriage during that period, while in 2009 the institution for the defense of the rights of transsexual people was set up (Ruiz Cumplido & Más 2010, 36–8). 9 “Friends and sisters” is also used in the All African Women’s Conference internal communications; see, for example, documents preserved in the British Library online collection “All African Women’s Conference” https://eap.bl.uk/archive-fle/ EAP121-2-9-1-32. 10 She writes about river Neva and the “resistance of Leningrad” (Montenegro 2022 (1988), 244). 11 Amilcar Cabral (1924–1973) was one of the leaders of the African anticolonial struggle in Portuguese colonial Africa. === [PDF page 71] === [Blank page] 58 === [PDF page 72] === Women Going Places Between Political Duties and the Tourist Gaze Being present in the same room for a transnational women’s meeting to discuss how to fght illiteracy or to reform family legislation is not possible without travel. In order to come together for a conference or seminar in places like Tashkent or Havana, many of the participants had to take planes, trains, or buses, and have valid passports and visas available. Also, when traveling to an international meeting, women had to be ready to leave their homes and their countries (in some cases, also their children), an action that was ofen perceived as challenging existing gender norms. When arriving at their destinations, the women were met by local hosts, also mainly women, who not only helped them with accommodation and access to the seminar/conference venue but usually also arranged a series of excursions, cultural events, and sightseeing activities. Participation in these excursions and study visits required women to go places; in order to discuss the issues of rights and development with other women, they became not only participants at the events but also “guests.” Indeed, as “guests,” they were greeted and given souvenirs by their hosts while, at the same time, as “guests,” they were also expected to learn more about the lives of local women and communities. In other words, they received objects, knowledge, and experiences that their “hosts” considered important for their guests to take back “home.” As I show below, in many cases, the sightseeing program included visiting tourist attractions (objects of the tourist gaze, see Urry & Larsson 2002): museums, exhibitions, or even a short stay at a tourist resort. On the other hand, these women traveling to pursue the business of transnational cooperation, women’s rights, and development nevertheless had to observe multiple and ofen conficting norms and regulations in order to === [PDF page 73] === 60 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery become the right kind of “guests.” In part, these norms were prescribed by (trans)national women’s organizations and in part by the national political parties or regional movements to which the women belonged and the ideologies they shared. Tese special norms guided the practices of the receiving side, the “hosts,” as well. It is important to note that, in the Cold War context, according to the documents available to me, many gatherings took place at the peripheries of the Communist “East.” Te explanations for this include the Soviet bloc’s Cold War goals of promoting the “achievements of socialism,” but also, in many cases, fnancial, security, and transport accessibility. Tus, in many (but not all) cases of South–East women’s international gatherings, the “hosts” framed the gatherings in terms of the regulations of state socialist ideology and norms of state surveillance and censorship. Tis last, obviously, does not mean that other “hosts,” who did not belong to the Soviet bloc, could be seen as totally free from regulations or censorship. However, the character and strictness of the censorship difered and, on the basis of my previous research on the WIDF (Gradskova 2021), I can state that events for women were ofen considered “less serious” than those for men and were less strictly surveilled by the Soviet center. Tus, this chapter aims to explore the multiple—and ofen invisible— economic, political, and ideological constraints, hindrances, and pleasures of transnational mobility in the context of South–East women coming together. Previous research has challenged the perceived impenetrability of the Iron Curtain and has shown that tourist, scientifc, and artistic cooperation across the Iron Curtain also constituted an important part of the Cold War (AutioSarasmo & Miklóssy 2011; Bechmann Pedersen & Noack 2020; Djagalov 2020). Crossing the Cold War dividing lines and getting to the “other side” could have many diferent results and outcomes, but usually infuenced both the guests and the hosts. For example, in their edited volume on tourism and travel during the Cold War, Sune Bechmann Pedersen and Christian Noack (2020) suggested that organizing tourist visits to the “East” for “Western” tourists required the (“Eastern”) hosts to partially change their way of thinking about business, pleasure, and hospitality (see, e.g., how Standley 2019 described East Berlin’s presentation to West Germans in the 1970s to 1980s). Furthermore, === [PDF page 74] === Women Going Places 61 another chapter in the same anthology—by Shaul Kelner—brought together ideas on tourism and political activism when the author explored how an American human rights organization used tourist visits to the USSR to support Soviet Jews denied their right to emigrate to Israel (Kelner 2020). Te last variant of travel can be seen as a form of “political tourism,” defned by the editors of another publication, the special issue on political tourism published by the Swedish journal Arbetarhistoria, as journeys with a political purpose, politically arranged journeys, and journeys to political destinations (see Neusinger & Vyf 2011 1: 3). Te forms of travel that I discuss in this chapter are similar to the travel described by Kelner and dealt with in the special issue referred to above, and can be approached as “political tourism.” As established by previous research, from its early days, international travel to the Soviet Union was not simply “political” but ofen served the openly propagandistic aims of its Soviet organizers. For example, Michael DavidFox has shown that the travel arranged by the Society for Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries (VOKS) for European and American intellectuals, writers, artists, and flm directors during the inter-war period was aimed at the creation of an attractive image of state socialism and of the Stalinist regime. Tese trips were organized in the hope of winning friends and allies for the Soviet Union in the West (David-Fox 2012). In order to do so, the foreign guests of the Soviet Union were usually presented with a specially staged “reality,” in which they were both participants and spectators. While such a presentation obviously did not allow these foreign guests to see the “real life” of the Soviet people or, specifcally, to understand the crimes of Stalinism, David-Fox’s book suggests that the false impressions about Soviet reality that European public intellectuals were receiving also depended on the readiness of the participants in the political “pilgrimage” to the Soviet Union to idealize some specifc things they saw there (David-Fox 2012). While Cold War international travel to the Soviet Union and other countries of state socialism had inherited a great deal of this legacy, more diverse attitudes toward travelers to and from state socialist countries can be found during the postwar period (Gorsuch & Koenker 2013; Bechman Pedersen & Noack 2020). Despite the work done in several studies on Cold War tourism and travel, women’s travel to the Soviet Union, in particular to its “Eastern” === [PDF page 75] === 62 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery parts, is not well explored, and no specifc research has yet been done on nonWestern female political travelers. Te participation of “Eastern,” including Soviet, women in political travel to the “South,” and vice versa, during the Cold War period—as part of international delegations, the work of UNESCO or other cultural transnational entities, as well as political travel by women on behalf of transnational women’s organizations and development aid—has also not been explored. Defning such women’s travel as “political tourism,” I follow a broad defnition of tourism that is not seen as predominantly a form of leisure, but rather as a special type of mobility (Pearce & Butler 1993, 11). According to Pearce and Butler, tourism has various social, psychological, and economic attributes, while the tourists usually have an image of the trip in their minds, and also assume that there will be some social aspects during the trip. According to Urry and Larsen, tourists are surrounded by people who organize their trip for them and infuence their gaze (tour managers or hotel operators, see Urry & Larssonn 2002, 8). Tourist travel can also be seen as having some similarities with pilgrimage; both include three diferent stages: leaving home, the liminality of travel, and return (Turner, cited in Pearce & Butler 1993, 12). While the journeys I discuss in this chapter were not just any ordinary tourist trips in themselves, the stages indicated by Turner can be distinguished here as well: leaving their country, a certain liminality of arriving at a place of international congress or seminar, and returning home aferwards (to their ordinary political activities). Furthermore, women traveling to these international conferences and other events could be seen as having a so-called “tourist gaze” (Urry & Larssonn 2002): looking at reality diferently from locals, as well as being surrounded by a special team of people whose task is taking care of them and choosing the places for them to “see.” Finally, in this chapter, I use the concept of hospitality, which is generally understood as a relationship between guest and host, where the host welcomes the guest with some amount of good will (Lynch et al. 2021). In particular, I apply “hospitality” when exploring the organizations and environments connected to facilitating transnational gatherings of women, as part of bringing strangers closer and fostering trust (Lynch et al. 2021, 7). === [PDF page 76] === Women Going Places 63 Tus, in this chapter, I begin with the assumption that Cold War travel to the peripheries would deviate in various ways from the inter-war period’s “pilgrimage” of European intellectuals to Soviet Russia, not least due to the greater variety of guests’ political, cultural, and religious backgrounds, as well as knowledge about and interest in state socialism per se. Tis chapter ofers readings of some “host” and “guest” communications from this perspective. In what follows, I explore how women traveled to the venues of transnational women’s gatherings to discuss women’s status, rights, and development. I also study what hindrances and pleasures these journeys involved, what impressions the women gained, and how the hosts organized sightseeing, fostered trust, and, simultaneously, evaluated their guests and their experiences of the meetings in ofcial talks and in classifed reports preserved in the archives. Furthermore, I explore diferent practices of hospitality and diferences in foreign women’s “tourist gaze.” I also study the variety of hindrances and pleasures in political tourism and analyze diferent forms of hospitality that took place during the Cold War. Traveling on Political Business as a Woman In her famous book about three of the frst women’s transnational organizations—the International Alliance of Women (IAW), the International Council of Women (ICW), and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)—Leila Rupp describes several international women’s congresses, conferences, and seminars that took place during the frst half of the twentieth century and contributed to forming international bonds among women (Rupp 1997). She explores the organizational difculties and practical problems connected to women’s participation and travel, including gendered ones. Tese last included obstacles to traveling to international meetings described by women as “the duties of an extensive household,” the need to nourish a baby, or the impossibility of even thinking about crossing the ocean without a husband (Rupp 1997, 183). At the same time, while Rupp’s protagonists were mainly middle-class European and North American women gathering in rather safe places, many of which could simultaneously be seen === [PDF page 77] === 64 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery as tourist destinations during the frst half of the twentieth century, she also states that “attendance at meetings and congresses involved both hard work and pleasure, and the fun of social events and sightseeing also counted as a reward of participation” (Rupp 1997, 187). Although the gatherings of the ICW or IAW could also be seen as a kind of travel that mixed political and tourist agendas, East–South travel—which involved crossing Cold War borders—presupposed both of these at a much higher level. Indeed, starting from the revolutionary fame and international isolation of the early Soviet state, through the Cold War’s “Iron Curtain” separating “East” from “West,” to revolutionary Cuba and the challenges faced by the “developing” postcolonial “South,” the places where East–South women were coming together were simultaneously exoticized, romanticized, orientalized, and feared. Due to the political hardships and surveillance, as well as the rather low-income status of many female travelers—in particular those from countries that, at the beginning of the Cold War, were defned as fghting for independence and in the 1970s to 1980s were addressed as “developing” ones—traveling to many of the places on the “East–South” map of transnational encounters could ofen be a unique experience in one’s life and, because of this, specifcally memorable. Focusing on Cold War travel per se, it is important to note that due to the prolonged period of war and Stalinist purges, including among the members of foreign Communist parties (Díaz 2021; de Haan 2023), during the early post–Second World War years, connections between East–South women were almost nonexistent. Te creation in November 1945 of the WIDF in Paris can be seen as an attempt to recreate some ties between Soviet women and women from other countries, primarily in Europe (de Haan 2012). Indeed, although women from several non-European countries—for example, Mexico and India—took part in the Paris meeting, there were no representatives from most of the colonial territories. However, this situation started to change during the following few years as the result of a combination of several factors: the growth of the anticolonial movement in Asia and Africa, the victory of the Chinese revolution in 1949, and, not least, the beginning of changes in attitude to contact with foreigners as a part of the destalinization of the USSR afer 1953. === [PDF page 78] === Women Going Places 65 In this context, the connectivity between South–East women increased through the establishment of contacts and mobility between diferent geographical locations and organizations. It is known that the WIDF attempted to establish contacts with women in colonial and postcolonial countries (Armstrong 2016; Gradskova 2021). In doing so, the WIDF, not least, was motivated by the need to make gains in the cultural Cold War and by considerations relating to the importance of preventing the “Eastern bloc’s” Cold War counterpart, the “West,” from developing greater infuence in these newly independent countries (Gradskova 2021). It is because of this reason, the WIDF’s attempts to send a delegation to several Asian countries in 1947 were hindered by the French colonial government with respect to Vietnam, while the delegation was only able to visit Burma for a very short time. Also, not all members of the delegation were able to get visas and permission (GARF 1 97, p. 6). As a result of these problems, in 1948 the WIDF delegation was only able to visit three countries, spending most of its time in independent India. Te report of this delegation has been studied by Katharine McGregor (2016), who showed that it was focused around work discrimination, violations of the rights of pregnant working women and mothers, and the lack of social security for working women. However, it is important to add here to the fndings of this previous research that the report gives the impression of a rather hierarchical structure within these encounters, with (White) women from Western and Eastern Europe inspecting the conditions experienced by women in countries defned by their racial and colonial diference, without giving much space to the voices of local activists. Te Communist revolution in China in 1949 led to the geopolitical restructuring of the “East.” One of the symbols of these changes was the celebration of the frst Asian women’s conference organized with the support of the WIDF in revolutionary Beijing in 1949 (in place of initial attempts to hold this conference in India, which were not welcomed by the Indian government due to its fear of Soviet infuence). In her speech before the WIDF’s Executive Committee in April 1949, Lu Tsui, one of the organizers of the Beijing conference, stressed that revolutionary China felt itself obliged to organize the Asian conference, even though the situation in China did not make it very convenient for such an important international meeting. In spite of China’s === [PDF page 79] === 66 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery willingness to welcome women of the “East” and “South,” Lu Tsui emphasized that China did not have diplomatic relations with many countries, resulting in visa and travel problems for some conference participants (Gradskova 2021, 82). Still, according to the post-conference report, delegates from twentythree countries (fourteen of them Asian, including the Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) attended the Beijing conference (GARF 1 99, p. 141). Te delegates from poorer Asian countries had their lodgings and travel expenses covered by the Chinese government, according to this document. During the years afer the Beijing conference, the international role of women from the Soviet republics of Central Asia grew rapidly. One example of the early involvement of Central Asian women in traveling abroad and receiving foreign guests can be found in a pamphlet by Sara Ishanturaeva (1911–1998). She was born in the Namangan region to an Uzbek family and was known in the Soviet Union primarily as a theater actress, having the honorary Soviet title of the “USSR’s People’s Artist.” According to an article in the Soviet encyclopedia published in 1979,1 in 1927, Ishanturaeva graduated from the Uzbek Drama Studio, which was afliated with the Moscow House of Culture, the former known for later forming the nucleus of the Uzbek Drama Teater in Tashkent. Ishanturaeva performed in Uzbekistan and took part in performances by Uzbek and international playwrights, including in “Algeria, My Homeland” by the Algerian postcolonial writer Muhammed Dib. Ishanturaeva became a member of the CPSU in 1942 and was elected as an MP of the USSR Supreme Soviet several times; she was also twice decorated with the Order of Lenin. In 1954, Ishanturaeva published a short pamphlet, describing her experiences of traveling (in December 1952) to Vienna in order to participate in the Congress of Peace Defenders, and of being a host for the delegation of Indian women returning from the WIDF Congress in Copenhagen in 1953, who visited Tashkent on their way back. Such a publication was hardly her own initiative; probably, the Soviet authorities suggested that she write it, with at least two goals: illustrating the “progress” of Central Asian women in the Soviet state and presenting foreign political tourism and meetings with foreigners in a way that best corresponded to Soviet interests. In the pamphlet, Ishanturaeva informed her (Soviet) readers that she had studied in Moscow in order to become a theater actress and that the time she === [PDF page 80] === Women Going Places 67 spent in Moscow had infuenced her special feelings for this city, “our dear Moscow” (Ishanturaeva 1954, 7). Despite indicating a personal connection to the Soviet capital, this sentence demonstrates the rigidity of the Soviet (neo-imperial) ideological construction, demanding special veneration for the superpower center from all its subjects. Furthermore, as a participant in the peace congress, in the frst part of the pamphlet, Ishanturaeva includes several narratives central to the Soviet ideological discourse and mandatory for inclusion in every text: she expresses gratitude to the Soviet army for bringing liberation from fascism and describes herself as “having tears in her eyes” when (North) Korean women spoke about the war in Korea.2 All these discursive constructions were supposed to present her to the Soviet readers of her book as a “typical” Soviet person, at the same time constructing such a person as one of many who had sufered from the war, did not want another one, and saw the United States as a potential danger of provoking one. However, the pamphlet by Ishanturaeva—following the Soviet Cold War publisher—also had to show that she was simultaneously a representative of Central Asia. Tus, her connection to her home region—Asia—is also shown as quite strong, not least when she mentions that she participated in a performance based on a script by Turkish Communist writer, Nazim Hikmet. Describing her time in Vienna, somewhat surprisingly, Ishanturaeva not only describes famous foreign guests from the “West,” but also specifcally notes Naila Bazanova, a biologist from Kazakhstan, whom she was very happy to see at the Congress and whom she kissed when they met (Ishanturaeva 1954, 19). Tis is likely to be an indication of the close relationship between all the Central Asian women. However, she also presented herself as being connected to “Eastern” women in a broader sense—women from the Communist “East.” Indeed, Ishanturaeva wrote about her conversation with the representative from Czechoslovakia, Gusta Fučikova (a women’s rights activist and wife of Julius Fučik, the Communist, who was murdered by the Nazis). However, here again, Ishanturaeva stressed that Fučikova spoke about Tashkent as a “familiar” city, where her husband had lived during the 1930s (Ishanturaeva 1954, 20).3 Describing her role as a host for the Indian women’s delegation while they were in Tashkent, Ishanturaeva describes these Indian female visitors as “close friends” (Ishanturaeva 1954, 33), commenting that “India is not very far from === [PDF page 81] === 68 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Soviet Uzbekistan” and confrming the closeness between Uzbekistan and India through her respect for people fghting for freedom there (Ishanturaeva 1954, 34). Tus, it is possible to say that Ishanturaeva implies a similarity between the people of these two countries due to their postcolonial status. However, the pamphlet shows that Ishanturaeva is also ready to speak about diferences—social injustice and poverty in India—when the head of the delegation, Hajrah Begum,4 informs the author that many women in India die while giving birth due to the lack of professional help. Tis contrast is made even stronger through the author’s—obviously deliberate—disclosure that she grew up in an orphanage. Tus, the main protagonist presents herself as building her career despite all the odds, and implies that, with the help of her example, the guests can understand why Soviet Central Asian women are so proud of their country. In this short pamphlet, based on an autobiographical account but written with propagandist aims, Ishanturaeva presents herself as a woman who frequently meets foreigners and communicates with them. Tus, encounters between women from (Soviet) Central Asia and international male and female activists are normalized in the pamphlet and presented as an experience where both sides feel themselves to be comfortable and can communicate on equal terms. For example, meeting famous foreign intellectuals at the Vienna congress, such as German Communist writer Anna Seghers or Chilean Communist poet Pablo Neruda, is not presented in the pamphlet as at all surprising by Ishanturaeva. At the same time, nor is receiving Indian female guests in Tashkent described as anything out of the ordinary. Tis is the earliest Cold War travel account by a Central Asian woman I found and, despite its ideological purpose and construction, it contains some interesting details about how women’s participation in transnational networks was presented and justifed, including for the female Central Asian readers. Afer this Soviet story of traveling abroad and meeting East–South women at home, at the (Soviet) periphery of the Cold War, I want to go back and recall the story about frst travel abroad realized at around the same time and described in the autobiographical publication by Jeanne Martin Cissé (which I introduced in Chapter 1): her frst long-distance international travel, to Europe, to one of the transnational women’s gatherings organized with === [PDF page 82] === Women Going Places 69 support from the WIDF. In this story, Cissé did not present herself as a person who was well aware of women’s problems or the women’s movement from the beginning, nor was she specifcally interested in becoming an internationalist. Cissé, a teacher in (still colonial) French West Africa and trade-union activist, was requested by her husband, a member of the anticolonial Guinea Democratic Party, to travel to Paris in 1954 (Cissé 2009) in order to participate in what she describes in her memoirs as the WIDF Congress in Asnières (near Paris).5 In order to take part in this event, Cissé was supposed to travel to France with her newborn daughter. Indeed, her party considered that Cissé’s status as a “mother” made her a particularly suitable traveler to be departing from colonial Guinea: due to her maternity leave she did not need to ask for permission from the school where she worked, or to explain her reasons for traveling abroad to the school administration, which was part of the colonial authorities (Cissé 2009). Tus, this journey would be less dangerous for her than for other members of the organization, whose departure to Europe might look suspicious. Participation in this international women’s gathering near Paris, the imperial metropolis, was Cissé’s frst trip outside of West Africa. Tus, preparing for this journey forced her to think about many practical detailes, including that the journey involved changing climate and ways of dressing and everyday practicalities, for both her and her baby. According to her memoirs, Cissé seems to have had a lot of expectations concerning this transnational meeting. However, she notes that, frst of all, she saw the upcoming event as an opportunity to meet women “like her.” Cissé’s husband convinced her to undertake this trip by presenting the upcoming meeting as a place where, for the frst time, she could meet other Black women from French colonial territories, including women from the Americas and the Caribbean. Tus, at the meeting, she could learn about similarities and diferences in women’s situation in French colonial Africa and the Caribbean (Cissé 2009). Tese expectations led Cissé to overcome her initial doubts and take part in the transnational gathering near Paris, together with her baby. Tese two descriptions of political travel, written for diferent purposes, make us to re-evaluate the roles that South–East Asian women sometimes played while traveling, their own perception of the travel, as well as the external === [PDF page 83] === 70 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery constraints and challenges they ofen faced when engaging in international connectivity during the early Cold War period. Starting in the 1950s, the intensity of women’s transnational encounters grew further. Te number of political guests, including female guests, visiting the Soviet Union increased signifcantly. For example, an article by a member of the CSW, Lidiia Petrova, published in 1958 by the WIDF journal, stated: “During the last two years, more than 2200 delegations from 89 countries have visited the Soviet Union, this was about 25 000 people altogether” (ZM 1958 12:10–11). She continued later by saying, “Just the CSW has received about 200 foreign delegations over [a period of] 12 years” (ZM 1958 12:10–11). Tese increasing numbers of guests obviously mean that foreign visits became more ordinary events, and that certain routines were established for meeting guests. At the same time, the growing number of guests expanded the geography of their travels, although their main routes continued to be planned in advance by their hosts. As already described in the examples of the WIDF delegation’s trip to India and the 1949 congress in Beijing, the difculties in getting visas constituted serious hindrances for the South–East women who wanted to come together during the Cold War period, in particular during its frst decades. Indeed, many European countries restricted travel by women from those countries that were seen as connected to the dangers of Communism or anticolonial struggle (or both, as they were ofen seen as cooperating; see, for example, the biographies of Communist women in the book edited by de Haan 2023). Tis was the case for the WIDF Congress in Copenhagen in 1953, where several women’s delegations from the “South” could not come for a variety of reasons. In particular, in contrast to the delegates from Italy, France, Sweden, the Soviet Union, or the Chinese People’s Republic (the last two were represented at the Congress by thirty delegates each), the delegates from Vietnam and North Korea who arrived in Europe were not granted Danish visas and, together with the delegation from Malaya, they had to send their presentations in written form (Za ravnopravie 1953, 4). As a result, the Copenhagen Congress became one where several “East–South” (and South–South) encounters that could have taken place did not happen. In a number of other cases, representatives of women’s organizations who were traveling to the (Communist) “East” had to travel under other names and === [PDF page 84] === Women Going Places 71 passports. According to an interview published in the Cuban women’s journal Mujeres (1985 7:54), the female Cuban activist, Maria Antonieta Henriquez, decided to participate in the International Youth Festival in Moscow in 1957 despite being aware of the difculties faced by Cubans attempting to travel to a “Communist” country from Cuba, which had an authoritarian political regime (“‘Moscu en la memoria.’ Recuerdos de una cubana, participante del festival de juventud,” Mujeres 1985 7:54). In the interview, she remembered arriving in Moscow with a false travel document afer frst traveling by plane to Paris, then by private car to Prague and, fnally, by train to Moscow. Tis travel itinerary also helped her to avoid problems when returning home. Tese examples from the early Cold War period can be followed by several others from a later period, including that of Ana Montenegro from Brazil, who had to escape political persecution in her own country and became internationally known under her new name (see Chapter 1). I also come back to the theme of difculties in border-crossing for women when discussing travel by Latin American lefist women to courses in Havana during the late As for travel from the “East,” as it is known, the Communist regime already had a set of severe rules and limitations for their citizens traveling abroad during the pre–Second World War period. Tus, women traveling for political duties were a rather rare exception. A few female Soviet representatives working at the WIDF headquarters in Paris and, afer 1951, in East Berlin were among the frst Soviet women sent to be “on duty” in (Western and Eastern) European countries afer the end of the Second World War. As I have written elsewhere, all of them were receiving their salaries from the Soviet state, had to write classifed reports about the WIDF’s work, and be careful to send them by “special post” addressed to the Committee of Soviet Women (CSW). Tese frst female Soviet participants in the transnational women’s networks were closely watched by both their male and female colleagues (Gradskova 2021). Furthermore, delegations of women from the countries of the Communist “East” sent to congresses like the one in Copenhagen in 1953 that I described above, were composed of women representing a diversity of professions and experiences, but were at the same time obliged to undergo several levels of Communist Party control before leaving the country. For example, all money === [PDF page 85] === 72 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery that the CSW delegation was planning to spend in Denmark (the Soviet women were invited by the Danish women’s organization) had to be discussed with the special Communist Party commission deciding about the use of foreign currency (Gradskova 2021, 29). Afer the death of Stalin, tourism abroad became more accessible to Soviet men and, also, women (Gorsuch & Koenker 2013). However, with respect to women’s work abroad and political tourism, the situation changed even more signifcantly in the context of growing Soviet participation in international organizations such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) or UNESCO (the USSR became a member of both soon afer Stalin’s death, in 1954), and the growing political importance of connections with women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America for the Soviet leadership. It was in this context that the “Eastern periphery” of the “Eastern bloc”—Central Asia—became a center of women’s (and not only women’s, see Djagalov 2020) East–South encounters. It was during this time that the Soviet state started to need Uzbek and other Central Asian women to realize its geopolitical goals and these women began to gain greater visibility as political travelers. However, traveling to international women’s gatherings was never free of political control for any Soviet woman, regardless of her place of residence. Still, not all Soviet women, including those who were involved in cultural and scientifc contacts in the context of East–South networks, were able to travel outside of the (Communist) “East.” In this context, the memoirs of Lily Golden, daughter of an African American father and Jewish American mother, who moved to the USSR in the early 1930s (I discuss the story of Golden’s parents and childhood in Tashkent in Chapter 3) is a good example of such “no-travel” during the Cold War: only several years afer the breakdown of the Soviet Union was she able to emigrate to the United States (or, in her own words, “to return home,” that is, to return to the country in which both of her parents were born). Published outside of Russia, in the United States in 2002, Golden’s memoirs carry the visible impact of discussions about the Soviet past during the period of Perestroika (1985–91) and the early post-Soviet period. Tis was a time when the ofcial Soviet historical narrative was being severely criticized and when its “white spots”—censored and dark periods and aspects of history—moved to the center of public discussions. Golden takes up several === [PDF page 86] === Women Going Places 73 of the topics that were being discussed, including refecting upon the Stalinist repression and its efects, as well as discussing limitations on traveling abroad. During the 1960s and 1970s, Golden was a unique Soviet Black researcher at the Institute of Africa at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the newly opened (in 1959) research center that aimed to overcome the lack of knowledge about that part of the world (for more on this research center, see Iandolo 2022, 36). Although, from time to time, the WIDF journal published articles about African women written by researchers at the institute, sometimes reporting on their impressions of their trips to Africa (see, e.g., ZM 1966 1: 19–20, an article by Raisa Smirnova about the lives of peasant women in Africa), in the case of Golden, her connections to people outside of the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe were limited to encountering Africans in Moscow. Tis restriction on travel imposed by the Soviet authorities was connected both to her “inappropriate” behavior while visiting one of the state socialist countries in her younger years (protesting against the Soviet surveillance during one of her trips) and to her later marriage to an African freedom fghter. Indeed, initially, in the late 1950s, Golden had the opportunity to visit several countries in the (Communist) “East”: Bulgaria,6 the GDR, and Czechoslovakia (Golden 2002, 97–8). Soviet citizens like Golden were able to make such trips to the (Communist) “East” (or rather, West, looking from a geographical perspective) only afer all the prospective traveler’s documents and political views had been “checked” by the state security services. In spite of this, tourists continued to be under the supervision of an accompanying person during the whole trip (such practices are discussed by Gorsuch & Koenker 2013), and Golden colorfully describes her personal experience of such a surveillance ofcer in her memoirs. Te interest these services took in Golden increased afer 1961, when she married a former student and one of the leaders of the anticolonial struggle from Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). According to her memoirs, Golden soon found herself in a situation where, even without leaving her country, she found herself being followed by a KGB agent, while her Soviet friends were interrogated by the secret police (Golden 2002, 103). Later on, due to the worsening relationship with her husband, complicated travel regulations in the countries she had to fy through, and then the arrest and death of her husband, Golden’s planned trip to Zanzibar never became === [PDF page 87] === 74 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery a reality. Tus, her story became rather a story about “no-travel” to Africa and “non-making” connections with African people, relatives, and scholars. It is important to note that Golden’s situation, in the context of Soviet travel regulations, cannot be seen as unique, and that periods of “no-travel” during the Cold War were part of the biographies of several other transnational South–East female activists, including Eslanda Robeson (Ransby 2013).7 Apart from the political difculties of crossing Cold War borders on the way to South–East gatherings, such travel involved a lot of gendered hindrances that are ofen invisible at frst glance. For many women from postcolonial countries in Africa and Asia or rural Latin America, their trip to an international women’s conference or study visit was ofen their frst time abroad, and was connected to a lot of expectations, but also to fears and problems, frequently related to their responsibilities as mothers. Tis led to a situation in which some of these women opted for “no traveling,” and, in practice, the women who were able to participate in the transnational gatherings were those whose husbands shared their pro-independence and pro-emancipation goals (as in the case of Jeanne Martin Cissé, whose memoirs I discussed in Chapter 1), or who had the support of their extended families. While describing her frst trip outside of Africa, Cissé did not write about the fnancial aspects of her travels, but many archival documents suggest that coming together at transnational gatherings was also connected to signifcant fnancial costs. It seems that the success of women’s South–East gatherings during the 1960s–80s was connected to the readiness of state socialist women’s organizations and transnational organizations with leanings toward the “Eastern bloc” (like the WIDF) to ofer fnancial support for coming together. For example, afer the WIDF’s general secretary, Italian Communist Carmen Zanti, visited Africa (she attended the Afro-Asian Women’s Conference in Cairo and then traveled through several African countries) in 1961, she insisted on the need for the WIDF to cooperate more closely with African women: to support African women to travel to WIDF conferences and, simultaneously, to visit Africa more frequently. Here, she was referring in particular to Soviet women and women from other state socialist countries (GARF 3 799, p. 8). Te documents preserved in the Soviet archives demonstrate, however, that even though the WIDF was ofering fnancial help with travel for African women === [PDF page 88] === Women Going Places 75 to attend international conferences during the 1960s to 1970s, frequently such help only covered part of the African women’s organizations’ real travel needs. Probably, the limited nature of this help was connected to the high demand for fnancial support and the diversity of women’s organizations in the “South.” In contrast to some earlier visits by important public intellectuals to the Soviet Union described by David-Fox (2012), the hope of recruiting many African, Asian, or Latin American women as allies who would become deeply involved in supporting the “Eastern bloc” was lower. Te lack of knowledge about each other and ideological concerns in the Cold War spirit, however, contributed to fears and mistrust on both sides. For example, even when provided with fnancial support for travel to Tashkent by UNESCO, several African countries did not send their representatives to the seminar on education that took place in Tashkent in 1962 (see more in Chapter 6). But, what can be said about the pleasures and contradictions of traveling to these South–East women’s political gatherings? In order to answer this question, below I look more closely at the program of one of the frst long visits by the representatives of the Cuban women’s organization, the FMC, to the Soviet Union in 1965 (GARF 3 1468). Te Cuban delegation—consisting of Iraida Rosado, Pilar Franco, and Aleide Villavicencis—arrived in the USSR on September 17 and spent more than three weeks traveling around the country. Te delegation’s visit started and ended in Moscow, where the FMC guests had a meeting with Zinaida Fedorova, deputy head of the CSW. From Moscow, the delegation’s route took them through Leningrad, Ukraine (Kyiv and Yalta), and Volgograd. Te program for the visit included guided tours to places that were probably seen by the Soviet hosts as being of specifc interest to the FMC members. In Moscow, these consisted of the Palace of Pioneers, the journals Soviet Woman and Peasant Woman, a car plant where guests had a conversation with representatives of women’s councils; they also visited a polyclinic, a technical school, the Agrarian Academy, and the confectionary factory “Bolshevik.” In Leningrad, they visited a nursery school, a kindergarten, and the Peace Committee. In Kyiv, the delegation visited the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture and the Ukrainian Union of Friendship Societies (with foreign countries); while in Yalta in Crimea, they visited the international pioneer camp Artek, a wine-producing sovkhoz, and met local women activists of a === [PDF page 89] === 76 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Communist Party committee. In Volgograd, the Cuban guests visited a sockmaking factory, a hydroelectric station, and the local party committee. Tis impressive list of destinations visited by the delegation nevertheless suggests that the guests were expected to be primarily interested in getting to know institutions connected to the organization of education and childcare, as well as enterprises where the majority of workers were women (the sock factory, the confectionary factory). Although the delegation did visit a car plant, this was mainly because the guests were meeting representatives of women’s councils there. Te program for the Cuban women’s delegation’s visit also included destinations that had specifc ideological meaning for the Soviet hosts and were common to most of the delegations visiting the Soviet Union: revolutionary and the Second World War-connected memorials and monuments. In the case of this delegation, these included Lenin’s Mausoleum, the Second World War monument at the Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd (where the delegation placed a wreath of fowers in memory of the Soviet heroes), Smolny Palace in Leningrad symbolizing the Bolshevik revolution, and two museums dedicated to Lenin in Moscow. At the same time, it is easy to suppose that, despite several weeks of presentations of Soviet achievements in diferent felds, including gender equality, the Cuban guests hardly had any chance to learn about those parts of Soviet history— GULAG, deportations, Holodomor—that were not considered appropriate to demonstrate, nor were they given a lot of opportunities to learn about the everyday lives of overworked Soviet women and their infamous double burden. Tus, what was the value of such a long trip through several parts of the Soviet Union? While the “tourist gaze” usually captures only a part of reality, one that the “guests” are more ready to see, still, traveling ofers some unexpected opportunities for learning and exploring, and unforeseen meetings. At the same time, despite the ideological ambitions of the hosts, the guests’ gaze was not necessarily ready to follow them and they interpreted the reality in accordance with their own experiences and worldviews. Finally, the female political tourists from the country that had only recently been a (peripheral) part of the “Western” camp could perceive most of the “Eastern” reality as both exotic and not easy to trust. === [PDF page 90] === Women Going Places 77 Furthermore, the program for the visit included a lot of places of general tourist interest, and some that were allowing to explore cultural heritage rather than having an ideological signifcance: the Museum of Chekhov, the Kremlin, Tretyakov Gallery, the city of Alupka in Crimea in Ukraine, and the Museum of Ukrainian Art in Kyiv. Finally, the guests also visited theaters in Moscow, Kyiv, and Leningrad, as well as the Circus in Moscow. All this not only contributed to the pleasures of travel but also allowed for some opportunities for comparing and understanding diferences among national cultures inside of the Soviet Union and for learning about center-periphery relationships. Afer an analysis of travel in the next section, I further explore the instruments and practices of East–South hospitality in connection with the transnational women’s gatherings. Hospitality, Its Limits, and Hidden Agendas As I have already noted, previous research has shown that, starting from the early years afer the Bolshevik revolution, inviting international guests to the Soviet Union was designed to show them the achievements of socialism in the hope of turning them into friends of the USSR (David-Fox 2012). Te receiving of the Cuban delegation just a few years afer the Cuban revolution, the detailed program of which I have discussed above, had a similar aim; in this case, the Cuban women visiting the USSR were expected not only to tell their compatriots about the Soviet way of transforming women’s status but also to set up a similar project in their own country. Indeed, in comparison to the lefist intellectuals described by David-Fox (2012), the representatives of the Cuban women’s organization approached the visit in more practical terms rather than in terms of cultural diplomacy—they wanted to introduce some of the institutions and practices they had seen abroad among women in Cuba. But in this part of the chapter, I want to focus more on the receiving side, the hosts, and explore how the organizers of diferent conferences and study trips were trying to organize the events, as well as to learn more about and evaluate their guests. Due to the documents available to me, and also because the specifcs of East–South encounters under the Cold War ofen took place in === [PDF page 91] === 78 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the (state socialist) “East,” in this section, I pay more attention to the hospitality (and the problems with it) provided in the “East.” As already mentioned, Sara Ishanturaeva gave one of the earliest accounts of receiving Indian women in Tashkent. In the account in her memoir, which was obviously censored, Ishanturaeva presents herself as a member of the “Soviet” people, while Soviet Uzbek women are described as eager to demonstrate all the achievements of Soviet Uzbekistan in the best way. Finally, Ishanturaeva shows herself to be a proud host for the visitors (I see them as political tourists) from foreign Asian countries (Ishanturaeva 1954). While the format of this ofcial Soviet publication does not allow us to learn about Ishanturaeva’s other possible emotions (and possible private conversations), apart from her pride at being a host, other researchers have suggested that such an experience could infuence the host more than the Soviet organizers were expecting. Indeed, according to Artemy Kalinovsky, for example, one young Uzbek woman, afer working with an Indian delegation as a translator, decided not to deal with practical Komsomol issues, but to become a researcher focusing on European– Persian contacts in the past instead (Kalinovsky 2020, 202). With the post-Stalinist reopening of the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s, hosts were sometimes ready to show their guests objects that had only recently been considered impossible to visit. Tus, the representatives at the international seminar “Equality of Women in the USSR” in September 1956 were able to visit a female prison in Moscow (GARF 7928 2 1678, p. 1). Te delegation consisted of several women, including some from Sri Lanka (Ceylon at that time), Iraq, Syria, and various European countries and international organizations. In order to create “trust,” the hosts even allowed the “guests” to ask several questions of female inmates, who had probably been specially prepared for this visit (Gradskova 2021). Tis rare visit, diferent from the established tour route through factories, kindergartens, and the Second World War monuments, indicates the possibility of deviations in the host strategies, as well as other possible and unpredictable disruptions to the host’s story. Classifed Soviet reports about the visits of foreign delegations constitute an important source for studying female hosts’ communication with female political tourists. Tese classifed reports ofer a lot of information about Soviet hospitality. Keeping such reports can be seen as a way of collecting information === [PDF page 92] === Women Going Places 79 for engaging in further cooperation and, importantly, for organizing future events in connection with the situation of women, or exploring guests’ impressions of the Soviet Union and the tours in order to address existing problems. However, in practice, the reports focused primarily on issues of loyalty to the USSR and the “Eastern bloc” and were intended for use in the cultural Cold War: to understand the suitability/unsuitability of the guests for the role of Soviet “friends.” Furthermore, the reports ofen disclosed private details and personal traits of the guests (it is difcult to determine how many of the guests guessed that this reporting was taking place or what they knew about it). At the same time, the reports were usually written from a subjective position and, thus, cannot be seen as entirely truthful information about the guests or their attitudes toward the places they visited or the people they met. In particular, for a historian, some reports say more about their author than about the guests. Nevertheless, in many cases, such reports are almost the only “personal” documents remaining from some of these transnational gatherings or study visits. Below, I explore one such fle of reports—from February to September 1961 (GARF 4 147)—a period when the number of foreign visitors to the Soviet Union (including female ones) had increased due to the new concept of foreign politics and attempts to build relationships with postcolonial countries. I start with the Soviet evaluations of their guests. Indeed, the internal reports inform us about a visit by a Japanese women’s delegation (GARF 4 147, p. 61), who arrived in the USSR at the invitation of the CSW in January 1961, afer participating in a conference of the women of Asia and Africa. Tis Japanese delegation consisted of nine members representing women’s departments of the Communist and Socialist parties, the women’s department of the unions, and the Japanese chapter of the WIDF. Te report suggested that some of these guests were not “well prepared” (according to Soviet expectations) for meeting their hosts and building trusting relationships. Some members of the delegation came to the USSR with a “preconceived” opinion. Tey considered that the achievements of the Soviet people were only propaganda, the quality of life in the Soviet Union was low, that there were no stable families, and that Soviet children were brought up only in institutions. (GARF 4 147, p. 17) === [PDF page 93] === 80 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Furthermore, some of the guests were described as questioning Soviet women’s “hospitality” itself. Still, the Soviet hosts, the authors of the report, expressed the hope that “women delegates will tell the truth about what they have seen in the USSR” when they returned home. Another classifed report from the same year was dedicated to a visit by Iran’s women’s delegation. Tis one evaluated guests’ attitudes to the Soviet reality as much higher. It is important to note here that, in this case, the guests were not representatives of a democratic country with access to diferent (even though still Cold War) media but a delegation of women living in exile, in the GDR (GARF 4 147, p. 23). Tis delegation arrived in the USSR on December 26, 1960, and by January 13, 1961, they had visited Moscow, Leningrad, and Baku. Te majority of members of this delegation were described as wives of ofcers in the Iranian army executed in 1953. Although the report noted that the program of visits was conducted according to the women’s wishes, it seems to have been a rather ordinary program, similar to the one for the visit of the Cuban delegation described above, but somewhat shorter. It included industrial plants, agricultural cooperatives, schools, medical institutions, museums, and theaters. In contrast to the rather negative evaluation of Soviet hospitality given by the Japanese delegation, in this case, the report noted that “Members of the delegation came to our country with a large amount of knowledge about our country and with a ‘correct’ [!] understanding of the Soviet reality, but still what they saw was beyond their expectations” (GARF 4 147, p. 32). One of the members of the delegation, Afag Ruzbah, for example, said on the last day of the visit that she was ready to write a book about her and her colleagues’ impressions: “We knew a lot about your country, but what we saw excited us. We saw great care from the state for human beings, whoever they might be: a child, a war veteran, or a youth” (GARF 4 147, p. 32).8 One more classifed report (GARF 4 147, p. 41) informed readers about hosting a delegation of Indian women, who participated in the Afro-Asian Women’s Conference in Cairo the same year. Tis delegation visited the Soviet Union between January 24 and February 4, 1961, and consisted of two participants: Berta Braganza (from Goa), leader of the movement for the liberation of Goa and editor of the progressive newspaper Free Goa, and Vimla Vermani, vice president of the National Council of Women, an organization === [PDF page 94] === Women Going Places 81 that was a member of ICW (a liberal transnational women’s organization) and secretary of the State Department of Family Planning in India. Tese two women visited Moscow and Leningrad and, according to the report, learned about education, youth upbringing, and healthcare. However, like many other female guests, they also visited the confectionary factory Bolshevik and had a meeting with one of the leaders of the CSW and with the editor of the journal Soviet Woman. Te report notes that when the editor of Soviet Woman proposed that they contribute an article, only Braganza agreed to do so and wrote a short article about her impressions of the Soviet Union. One of the most impressive experiences for Vermani, however, was the visit to the Friendship of People University (GARF 4 147, p. 43); according to the report, Vermani was less interested in other parts of the trip. At the same time, the author of the report expressed her great satisfaction as a host that Braganza wanted to visit the Museum of Tolstoy, and while there showed a good knowledge of his works. It suggests that the report’s author likely enjoyed Tolstoy’s books herself and viewed the guest’s appreciation of Russian literature as an equally signifcant indicator of loyalty as their reverence for the Bolshevik revolution (even if, in practice, guests; interest in Tolstoy might be connected to the parts of his thought that was outside of the ofcial Soviet reading). It is also remarkable that when the guests asked to visit a Soviet family, they were advised to visit one described as an “ordinary Soviet family,” which was in fact the home of a CSW member, Voronina (GARF 4 147, p. 47), thus in practice preventing them from meeting Soviet women outside of those working for the CSW. A description of the detailed characteristics of the two guests, which accompanied the report (GARF 4 147 p. 51), stressed further diferences between them: while Braganza, for whom it was a frst trip abroad, was characterized by the report as a victim of the colonial government’s persecution for her political activism, Virmani was characterized as rather a “useless” person. Indeed, Braganza was described as being active in the struggle for Goan independence (she had been dismissed from her job as a schoolteacher), and the report emphasized that, despite not being a member of any party, she sympathized with the Communists. Finally, the personal evaluation also noted her knowledge of the October Revolution, the history of the USSR, Lenin’s activity, and even her knowledge of the world of art, which she demonstrated while visiting the === [PDF page 95] === 82 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Hermitage, were praised (GARF 4 147, p. 52). In contrast, according to the report, Virmani was a “typical bourgeois dame” who did not understand politics and was also ignorant about world culture (she seemed to hear the name Rafael for the frst time while visiting the Hermitage according to the report: GARF 4 147 p. 53). Tus, here again, the author of the report presents herself as a welleducated woman belonging to (White) European culture, while the Indian guest is described as a rather ignorant person, possibly an object of culturalization. Some of the classifed Soviet reports suggest that East–South political travel in some cases led to intensifed communication between the guests themselves. For example, this was the case during the visit by a delegation of women from several Latin American countries sent by their (Communist) women’s organizations to Moscow in 1955 (GARF 2 1621). Te classifed report of the CSW started with a negative evaluation of the work among women realized by some Latin American Communist parties and suggested that meeting each other was probably more important to the female members of the delegation than observing Soviet reality. Evaluating male Latin American Communists’ involvement in the work among women as low, the report went further, arrogantly accusing Latin American Communists of having the “feudal” ideas about the “supremacy of men over women” and stated that the lack of female cadres in the parties of the region was a result of the situation within the parties (GARF 2 1621, p. 18). Tus, this report also reveals much about the paternalistic attitude of the Moscow hosts toward the South–East women’s organizations. Furthermore, the report stressed the lack of connections between women’s organizations in Latin America (GARF 2 1621, p. 20) which, according to the Soviet observer, had infuenced the study trip as well: when the Latin American delegation visited Moscow, the thirty delegates from nine countries could not agree among themselves and could not choose one leader for the delegation. In continuation, the report put forward the idea that spending some days in the USSR during the study trip had probably enabled the participants to learn more about life in their neighboring countries in Latin America (rather than specifcally about the USSR!). And, fnally, the report suggested, somewhat sarcastically, that probably, in the case of Latin American lefist female activists, the best way of gaining knowledge about other Latin American countries and the activities of women there was “the trip to Moscow.” While it was said with === [PDF page 96] === Women Going Places 83 the aim of demonstrating the superiority of the Russian Soviet center, this assumption, however, might refect a part of the reality. Latin American women could use their trip to the USSR as an opportunity for strengthening regional networks rather than focusing on a pretentious host. It is also interesting that the author of the report recommended the creation of a coordination center in one of the countries of the continent to improve the situation (GARF 2 1621, p. 21)—the idea that will be in a way realized in the form of the school in Havana in the 1970s (see Chapter 7). In some cases, however, the hosts were very happy with their guests. For example, in the case of the Cuban delegation I discussed above, the impressions of the Soviet employee who was monitoring were rather positive. According to the report, it was Smolny, the Volzhskaia hydroelectric station, and the Second World War monument in Volgograd, “Mamaev kurgan,” that impressed them most. Tese guests were specifcally interested in the question of how the Soviet woman combined work outside the home with family responsibilities. And, according to the hosts, they found answers during visits to children’s institutions, through communication with Soviet women, and so on. Tey were very impressed by women having leadership positions at work. In the end, the author of the report wrote that the guests were “kind” and “treated the host with a lot of care.” Finishing the report, the author wrote that it was “a pleasure to work with such guests” (GARF 3 1468, p. 7). Nevertheless, in some cases, the classifed documents from the Soviet archive not only gave evaluations of the ideological correctness and cultural capital of the guests, but also conveyed information that allows us to better understand how some of the guests viewed the receiving country and what they did not like about the organization of the visit. For example, some reports suggest that the practical arrangements of the trip and the level of comfort the guests could access ofen did not correspond to the hospitality they were expecting. For example, the report about a visit by an Indian delegation, consisting of three representatives of an Indian women’s organization and a member of the WIDF, specifcally noted that one of them, Sudha Roy, was complaining too much (GARF 4 147, p. 296). However, the report explained this in terms of her personal psychological problems, without discussing the problems of Soviet hospitality: === [PDF page 97] === 84 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery She is a little capricious, likes to quarrel and to insist on her point of view. Sometimes she did not want to hide her dissatisfaction at instances of those small problems that, unfortunately, we sometimes experience in our work with foreign delegations (for example, it was cold in the hotel on the frst day when we arrived, the city still did not have heating on and there was no hot water in the bath-tub). (GARF 4 147, p. 303)9 Although, as I already highlighted in the Introduction, the Communist “East” initially attributed racism and imperialism only to the opposing side of the Cold War confrontation, implicit racism was a part of everyday life in countries of state socialism. Previous research has demonstrated that, foreign students from non-European countries coming to study at the Soviet center (primarily in Moscow) were objects of racialization, orientalization, and exoticization, while in several cases they encountered open racist hostility (Katsakioris 2019), even though, according to the memoirs of many students, racism was not a regular experience for these students (Rupprecht 2012, 238). Still, several cases of violence against African students that led to their deaths (e.g., a student from Ghana in 1963) were widely discussed and initiated protests by African students (Lynd & Loyd 2022; see also Matusevich 2012). At the same time, a study by Jef Sahadeo suggests that the racialization of non-White “guests” in Moscow was widespread in the case of guests from the Soviet “East” (Caucasus and Central Asia) coming to the USSR’s central cities, and that everyday racism was growing during the late period of the Cold War (Sahadeo 2019). While the archival documents available to me concerning South–East women’s gatherings and networks do not discuss racism in any depth, some reports about hosting international women’s delegations in Moscow suggest that female political tourists could experience racism even during the short period of their visit. For example, this can be deduced from the reports about a high-level women’s delegation from Ghana in 1961, who conveyed that the hotel personnel in Moscow discriminated against them because they “were Black” (see more Gradskova 2022a, 61–2). At the same time, East–South gatherings per se were events where global racial inequality was an important political concern, which provoked disturbances and heated discussions; in particular, in the context of the China–Soviet split of the early 1960s. It was during that period that the Soviet central newspaper, Pravda, === [PDF page 98] === Women Going Places 85 accused the Chinese of “racialism” as a reaction to their accusation against the Soviet representatives coming to the AAPSO conference in Tanganyika (AAPSO HU OSA 300/5/90 box 123 Reuters, November 5, 1963), while Chinese politicians demanded that the Soviets should not participate in East–South cooperation (such as the AAPSO meeting in Algiers in November 1965) because they are continuing to represent “white imperialist Russia” (HU OSA 300/5/90 box 123). Te question of racial belonging/not belonging thus became connected to the question of (Soviet) neo-imperialism and ways and forms of fghting it. Tese issues and other conficting visions of Soviet reality by the guests moved to the center of discussions at the WIDF Congress in Moscow in 1963 (Gradskova 2021), and afected East–South women’s networks from a broader geographical perspective. For example, the classifed report (GARF 4 165) signed by Vera Kuteishchikova, a well-known Soviet researcher of Latin America and former employee of the VOKS,10 about Latin American delegates to the congress drew attention to several problems that seemed to worry the Soviet hosts. One of these was how the congress delegates were interpreting the Soviet gender order and women’s status in the USSR (GARF 4 165, p. 200). Here, Kuteishchikova noted happily that most were “understanding” (she meant that they agreed with the Soviet vision) and only representatives from Uruguay, Chile, and Mexico needed “extra clarifcation” (GARF 4 165, p. 203). According to Kuteishchikova, the Latin American women participating in the Congress expressed negative attitudes to the Chinese critique of the USSR and of other state socialist countries: China accused them of not fghting hard enough against American imperialism. For example, one of the “politically advanced” delegates (as she was characterized in the report by Kuteishchikova) from Colombia, Edith Rodriguez, condemned the Chinese delegation’s behavior at the congress. At the same time, Kuteishchikova noted that, among the Venezuelan delegates, there was a lack of unity against the Chinese position, and Kuteishchikova attempted to convince them. It was in this context that the Cuban women were described as being among those who did not share the Soviet position and, in conversation with Kuteishchikova, explained this through the specifc geopolitical situation of Cuba. One of the leaders of the Cuban delegation, Haydée Santamaría, stressed that Cuban women insisted on neutrality toward China because this would guarantee security in the difcult === [PDF page 99] === 86 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery situation (she meant the American blockade) in which Cuba found itself. According to Kuteishchikova’s report on her conversation with Santamaría, the people of Cuba hated the United States and would not understand if the Cuban leadership changed its position (in order to correspond better to the new Soviet course on peaceful coexistence). In addition, Cubans were not happy that the Soviets had evacuated their arms so rapidly (during the missile crisis of 1962). Finally, Kuteishchikova suggested that Cuban female leaders did not have full internal unity: not least, Santamaría criticized Espín for her way of managing discipline within the organization (GARF 4 165, p. 203). Te last, most probably, was seen by the hosts as a promise of more heated debates in the future, not least, about the role of the Soviet Union globally. Te translations of Chinese media from the time of the Congress in Moscow, preserved in the OSA archive, are another important source that can help us to understand how divisions inside the (Communist) “East” led to the formation of new division lines and coalitions among South–East women. In particular, the Chinese press mentions a row between the Chinese and Indian delegations (probably concerning border issues11); at one point, microphones were cut, lights switched of, and the session suspended (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 531). Te report from Beijing, dated July 18, 1963, provides information about a big rally in Beijing welcoming home the delegation from the Moscow Congress. Hsinhua reported that more than 10,000 attended this rally in Beijing. Te head of the delegation, Yang Yun-Yu, described the Moscow Congress as an “inglorious page in the history of the world’s women movement” (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 531). Te RFE’s own internal report by David Graham (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 531, General News Talk (RFE) 2 07 1963 about the Moscow Congress) noted that four delegations voted against the new WIDF program (China, North Korea, Indonesia, and Albania), and that the Chinese, North Koreans, and Albanians also produced a manifesto stating that they were being unfairly treated. Tus, in concluding this section, it is possible to say that, despite spending signifcant fnancial resources on receiving female political tourists and attempting to present the state socialist achievements with respect to women’s rights in the best possible way, the efects of this activity frequently did not correspond to expectations. Not least, the Soviet classifed reports suggest === [PDF page 100] === Women Going Places 87 that guests ofen had a well-trained and selective tourist gaze allowing them sometimes to see the hiddent truthful reality, but also that the hosts’ plans could be disturbed or subverted by various internal developments and guests’ intentional actions. Conclusion Looking at women’s gatherings at the Cold War periphery from the perspective of political tourism and hospitality allows us not only to better understand the geopolitical and infrastructural contexts of these gatherings, but also to explore in greater depth some of their gendered and emotional aspects. Indeed, although they discussed internationally important issues of progress, changes in the status of women in society, and overcoming colonial legacies, it was also the traveling, visiting new countries and cities, and meeting other women that constituted the important experiences at all these transnational gatherings. Discussions of the political issues, indeed, cannot be fully separated from the pleasure of visiting important tourist sites and cultural events, as well as sharing meals and less formal conversations. At the same time, the analyzed material suggests that political tourism during the Cold War was ofen connected to passing across (former) imperial and Cold War borders, which led to political hindrances, while the travel itself was impacted by ideological constraints. In some cases, travel involved secrecy and camoufage, while state socialist hospitality was bound by diferent surveillance regimes. No less perceptible, however, were the gendered hindrances, the greatest of which were the gendered norms according to which women were seen as primarily caregivers and mothers. Gatherings at the Cold War peripheries as political tourists allowed South– East women not only to travel (which in itself was a new experience for some of them), but also to visit places that did not constitute typical travel destinations. While informing political travelers about women from other geographical locations who were struggling with similar problems, the extended geography of East–South women’s gatherings also had an impact on local women, thus involving them in transnational imagination and contacts. Tis process led to === [PDF page 101] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery 88 peripheral places, where women’s political tourism was aimed, gaining greater visibility and centrality. Notes 1 https://coollib.cc/b/309380-bse-bse-bolshaya-sovetskaya-entsiklopediya-ish/ readp. 2 Te Soviet Women’s organization and the WIDF expressed strong antiAmerican statements, sent a special delegation, and published a pamphlet attacking what they defned as the United States’ crimes in Korea (Gradskova 2021). 3 Julius Fučik, a Communist and victim of the Nazi regime, spent several months in Kyrgyzstan at the Czech collectivist colony in the early 1930s (Leupold 2021). 4 Hajrah Begum (1910–2003) was one of the Indian Communist leaders and head of the National Federation of Indian Women in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 5 Te WIDF never held a congress in Asnières. However, it is probable that Cissé was traveling to the congress of the Union of French Women, a powerful WIDF member (the WIDF president, Eugenie Cotton, was one of the leaders of this organization of French women). It is likely that, due to the participation of many international delegations at that meeting in Asnières, Cissé saw it as a WIDF event. 6 In her book, Golden mentions that her knowledge of Uzbek was helpful for informal communication with some Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin while she was on holiday in Bulgaria. 7 For example, on Nigerian activist Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, see Johnson-Odim and Mba 1997,Gradskova 2021. 8 Signed by Voronina, January 1960. 9 Report by Voronina, October 30, 1961. 10 For more about the use by the researchers of the Institute of Latin America in Moscow for cultural diplomacy, see Rupprecht 2015; about Kuteishchikova, see Kofman 2020. 11 Tis row is also mentioned in a New York Times article from June 27, preserved in the OSA collection (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 531). === [PDF page 102] === South–East Women’s Internationalism from Tashkent Building a (Post)Colonial Sisterhood? In the online presentation of his book Laboratory of Socialist Development (2018), historian Artemy Kalinovsky described signifcant changes with respect to Soviet Central Asia, starting during the 1960s as part of the global Cold War: “the Cold War transformed how Moscow related to the region, how local politicians related to Moscow, and how the emerging elite, studying at rapidly expanding universities in the region, saw the world.”1 While Kalinovsky’s book addresses many aspects of Cold War politics in Soviet Tajikistan, he does not pay much attention to the gendered aspects of the internationalization of “socialist development.” Nevertheless, the image of the “emancipated woman of the East” was central to the Soviet propaganda of “socialist development,” and this is why the place of Central Asian women in East–South internationalism requires further inquiry. Tis is the aim of this chapter. I am interested in how the achievements of the Soviet reforms of women’s status in (post)colonial Central Asia—and Tashkent in particular—were addressed in foreign women’s travelogues and autobiographical publications, in particular, soon afer these reforms were realized. What were they able to see, and what contradictions within these reforms became visible? I am also interested in Central Asian women’s Cold War travel, as well as in the transnational women’s gatherings that took place in Tashkent and other parts of Central Asia. Can we see the Central Asian women only as those who were used by the (Russian) Soviet center for its geopolitical interests—like demonstrating Soviet achievements or writing classifed reports on foreign guests, or could they have their own interests and gains from participating in transnational gatherings and networks === [PDF page 103] === 90 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery and meeting women from postcolonial and developing countries? What constraints surrounded the women of Soviet Uzbekistan and other Central Asian Soviet republics in their international endeavors? What meanings and efects did these peripheral gatherings and networks have for diferent participants? How did the status of Central Asia as a (former) colony infuence these encounters? In order to better understand how the Soviet emancipation of women— and the overcoming of colonial legacies in Tashkent and Central Asia—were presented to and seen by these female foreign visitors, I start the frst section by reviewing three autobiographical texts written by women about Soviet Tashkent during diferent historical periods. Two of them were written before the beginning of the Cold War (and before Second World War) and published in the 1930s, while the third is an autobiography published in the 2000s, afer the breakdown of the Soviet Union, and from a very special position: its author was born in Central Asia but into an interracial family of US-American parents. Te second section of this chapter consists of an overview of the events connected to East–South internationalism in Tashkent and its important female protagonists. Finally, the third part deals with the work of the UzFS and, in particular, with the international correspondence maintained by its women’s section. Te Soviet Central Asia and Tashkent Seen through Early Female Travelogues and Memoirs In Chapter 1, I briefy introduced Tashkent and Central Asia as one of the peripheral regions focused on in this book. I noted that, as early as the late 1920s, the Soviets began showcasing this region as a model for how women in colonized countries should be emancipated, following the violent hujum campaign and the subsequent integration of women into the Soviet production system. During this period, “happy” narratives were crafed concerning the Central Asian women (and women from other Soviet borderlands). It was then when tensions between the expectations of the Soviet state and the women of the region became visible to some of the foreign female visitors. Tis frst === [PDF page 104] === Internationalism from Tashkent 91 section explores these narratives, the resulting tensions, and the impressions of the travelers. Te aim of this frst section is twofold: frstly, to explore travel to Soviet Central Asia and female travelers’ perspectives on changes in women’s status, as well as the Soviet politics of fghting colonial legacies in the 1930s, and, secondly, to examine how Soviet life and the situation of women there was seen from the inside of this South–East periphery, but by a person born in Tashkent in 1934 with foreign parents and an African American heritage. Before moving to the three memoir accounts themselves, it is important to say that South–East women were already traveling to the Soviet borderlands— former colonies with predominantly non-Russian populations, including Central Asia—during the early years of the Soviet system. In particular, women from Turkiye and Iran took part in the Comintern Congress in Baku in 1920 (see Chapter 1). However, probably the most thoroughly studied case of early journeys to Central Asia by travelers inspired by anti-racist and anticolonial thinking is the arrival in Central Asia of dozens of African Americans during the 1930s for work, study, or even with the aim of making a flm there. Tese travelers included such prominent fgures as Paul Robeson, his wife Eslanda Goode Robeson, the anti-racist thinker W. E. B. Du Bois, and one of the most important fgures of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes (Biss 2015; Matusevich 2008). Tese African Americans, similar to the Western visitors described by David-Fox (2012), wanted to witness the Soviet social experiment, but were specifcally attracted by the ofcial Soviet presentation of a “race-less” society and hoped to escape the discrimination at home, in the United States. Soviet Central Asia, a space that was presented in Soviet propaganda as “decolonized,” was one of the important focuses of attraction; however, as previous research has shown, the attempt by a group of African American flmmakers to produce a flm, “Black and White,” in Central Asia proved unsuccessful. Moreover, several of the Black “travelers” who remained there longer became victims of Stalin’s terror (Matusevich 2008; Biss 2015). Even though this group of visitors included some women, unfortunately, it is mainly the accounts of these early travels of Black Americans written by male travelers that remain (Hughes 1993; Aripova 2022). One of the most famous African American female travelers to the (Soviet) “East,” and an important === [PDF page 105] === 92 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery fgure in women’s internationalism during the early Cold War period, was Eslanda Robeson, who, similar to Du Bois, practiced “colored cosmopolitism”: she was ready to fnd similarities between the cultures of “colored” people in diferent parts of the world (Umoren 2021, 101). Robeson became particularly well known through her internationalism during the early Cold War years: as a journalist, she participated in several important gatherings on both sides of the Iron Curtain, including at the UN’s 1954 annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Asian women’s conference in China in 1949, the African conference in Ghana in 1958, and the Tashkent Film Festival in 1958. Considering Afro-Asian and Black American-Caribbean solidarities to be particularly important, she published her notes on a trip to Africa in 1936 (Shafer 1999, 47–64) but did not leave substantial descriptions of her journeys to Beijing or Tashkent. Tus, I start with two pre–Second World War accounts of (Western) female travelers who visited the Soviet Union in the 1930s and were among the frst (post-1917) female foreign travelers who managed to reach the (Soviet) “East.” In contrast to the literature dedicated to male travelers to the Soviet Union during diferent periods of its history (see, e.g., Hollander 1997; David-Fox 2012; Alburquerque 2017; Biss 2015), female political travelers to the Soviet Union and, in particular, the Soviet “East” received almost no attention. Tus, I consider it important to start with the stories of two Western women who traveled to Soviet Central Asia in the 1930s and shared their impressions about women’s life there in books published abroad. Tese impressions are also useful for comparing their way of seeing changes in Tashkent and the status of women in Soviet Asia with those of the non-European female travelers who came to the Soviet “East” 20–40 years later. One of these early travelers is a Swiss journalist, Ella Maillart (1903– 1997), who visited a large number of the Soviet Central Asian republics in 1932. Maillart’s adventurous travel attracted signifcant attention in Europe (Steinert Borella 2006). Te second is a Russian-speaking, Vienna-based, Jewish art historian, Fannina Halle (1881–1963).2 Halle visited the USSR several times in the late 1920s and early 1930s and published several books describing her trips; one of these is called Women of the Soviet East. Tis book was based on Halle’s impressions of traveling to Central Asia and === [PDF page 106] === Internationalism from Tashkent 93 Transcaucasia around 1934–5; it was frst published in German and later translated into English. In her book Turkestan Solo: One Woman’s Expedition from the Tien Shan to the Kizil Kum, published in English translation (from French) in 1934, Maillart described her journey to Central Asia, including cities like Frunze (now Bishkek), Tashkent, Samarkand, and Khiva. Already well known as a sportswoman who had participated in the 1924 Olympic Games and an adventurer, Maillart did not present herself as especially interested in socialist ideas, but rather as a person who liked traveling to underexplored and hard-to-reach destinations. Still, as it already has been shown (Steinert Borella, 2006) her discussion of Central Asian history and her conversations with the Soviet authorities reveal her extensive knowledge of the history of Russian colonization, as well as the successes and failures of Soviet politics, not to mention her knowledge of the geography and economics of the region. Right at the beginning of her book, Maillart mentions her curiosity with respect to changes in women’s situation in Central Asia as one of the reasons for her trip there: “what I wanted to see were the Mohammedan women in their harems before they have all been liquidated. And to get some idea what the liberation they owe to the Soviet Government has meant to them” (Maillart 1938, 21–2). Tis explanation, however, looks rather more like a questioning of the Soviet reforms than the marveling tourist gaze of a Soviet admirer. At the same time, Maillart’s view is clearly that of a European toward a culture perceived as oriental and exotic. Describing her multiple encounters with both women and men in Central Asia and in the Soviet capital, together with orientalist passages, Maillart demonstrates substantial knowledge about the functioning of Soviet society, its bureaucracy, and its internal hierarchies, problems, and contradictions, both in the center and at the peripheries. For example, she wrote that she had to accomplish a special mission while in Moscow: her Russian emigrant friend living in Paris had asked her to pass on a coat to her mother, who had continued living in Moscow (Maillart 1938, 17). Maillart described her meeting with the mother of her Paris friend rather emotionally: she told Maillart about her lack of money and pessimistic views of the future. Even if this meeting made Maillart upset, it did not seem to surprise her. While in Tashkent, Maillart not only explored what had happened to the “harems,” but she also visited an exiled === [PDF page 107] === 94 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery anarchist activist whom she had met in Switzerland during his exile there before the 1917 revolution (Maillart 1938, 187). Tis demonstrates a certain awareness of the internal conficts among “revolutionaries,” as well as Central Asia’s continued borderland status, the destination of people who were not wanted by the Soviet center. Maillart also became interested in speaking with one of the prominent leaders of the Bukharan nationalist movement who had decided to cooperate with the Bolsheviks, Faizulla Khodjaev.3 In conversation with him, she demonstrates her profound knowledge of the conficts and ambiguity of the (post)colonial situation in Uzbekistan and directly asks among other “how do Uzbeks feel toward the Russians who colonized them?”(Maillart 1938, 194). Tis question obviously reveals her suspicions about the ofcial Soviet declarations about the end of colonial rule and the postcolonial status of Central Asia. As for her observation of the native women of Central Asia, Maillart carefully expresses her preoccupation with the speed of the reforms: “the Soviet regime with extraordinary suddenness, has plunged the nomad straight into the twentieth century, collectivizing, socializing, sedenterizing him; and bringing in its wake schools, hospitals, newspapers, wireless, tractors and the cinema” (Maillart 1938, 14). And, again, alongside observing these rapid changes, Maillart notices the continuing presence of the Russian colonial legacy in Tashkent: the city, according to Maillart, was clearly divided into the “Russian” part and the “native city” (Maillart 1938, 170). Still, Maillart seems to be sympathetic to many aspects of the Sovietization of women in the city: while she is somewhat bored with the Soviet propaganda lectures (these lectures for her are the “same as everywhere,” probably meaning that the lectures reproduced the same ideological narrative that could be heard in Moscow—Maillart, 1938, 177), she seems positive about observing women attending a reading lesson at the Women’s Club in Tashkent. In one part of her story about her time in Tashkent, Maillart mentions the African American engineers who were invited to improve the production of cotton: she met one of them at Uzbekistan’s newspaper editing house (Maillart 1938, 193–4). While Maillart presents this meeting in a somewhat racialized way, expressing her surprise at the well-dressed and intelligent Black man, this episode suggests that non-White foreigners were already visible in Tashkent by the 1930s (and also that some of them contributed to the (post)colonial === [PDF page 108] === Internationalism from Tashkent 95 development of Central Asia that the Soviet Union would proudly demonstrate to female political tourists during the Cold War). At the same time, as Steinert Borella has noticed, Maillart reveals to her readers the colonial nature of the Soviet politics of imposing cotton production in Central Asia in spite of concerns of the indigenous population (2006, 60). It is interesting to note that, in Maillart’s case, the Soviet authorities do not seem to have particularly trusted her or been very cooperative in organizing her visit. Tis is probably because she was not considered to be a person who would reproduce the story that Moscow wanted in her books. Indeed, afer she was late to join the expedition to the mountains at the China–Kazakhstan– Kyrgyzstan border, organized by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, due to the Soviet authorities’ long bureaucratic procedures with her documents (Maillart 1938, 13), Maillart encountered many difculties with her journey before fnally departing to Central Asia with a group of Proletarian tourists.4 Indeed, Maillart writes that she had decided to go to Tashkent “at any price” (Maillart 1938, 19), and even attempted to ask for support from known Soviet cultural personalities, such as flm director Pudovkin or writer Boris Pilnyak, in Moscow. Te Soviet Ministry of Foreign Afairs, however, insisted that “it is impossible for foreigners to visit Uzbekistan, except where specially invited,” and referred to the example of two English women who had got of the train in Samarkand but were compelled by the Soviet authorities to leave for Moscow the same night (Maillart 1938, 21).5 Tus, Maillart’s travelogue repeatedly reminds the reader that traveling through Soviet Central Asia was not such an easy accomplishment; it required visas and the observance of multiple regulations concerning foreign citizens in its territory. On the basis of this account, it is possible to see that Soviet hospitality could be quite diferent in relation to diferent kinds of visitors, and that, in the 1930s, the Soviet center did not see Uzbekistan as a place that should be open to “tourists,” including female travelers and journalists. Another woman who visited diferent parts of the Soviet Union, including Central Asia, during the same period, Fannina Halle, seems to have had much better relationships with the Soviet authorities, at least when she decided to collect material for her book on women in the “Soviet East.” As a person who had already visited the USSR and had published reports on leading Soviet === [PDF page 109] === 96 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery female revolutionaries and the transformation of the gender order in the Soviet center (Halle 1933), she seems to have been ready to admire the Soviet politics of “equalization of the sexes” (Halle 1938, viii). Also, even before traveling to Central Asia, Halle seems to have been ready to internalize the Soviet perception of the hierarchical diferences between modernity and backwardness, or center and periphery. Indeed, she describes “women of the East” as diferent from Russian women, who are defned in the book as a kind of “Europeans” (even though they were somewhat diferent from “Europeans,” still, according to Halle, Russian women “have been seized by the current of western culture long before the October revolution and the World War”—Halle 1938, vii). Tus, it is possible to say that readers of Halle’s book are expected to distinguish between the Soviet women from the center and women from the periphery. Nevertheless, at the beginning of her book, Halle attempts to show that the dividing line between Soviet people had started to disappear, although this was occurring through the integration of some representatives of the “Soviet East” into the center (according to her, the “Soviet East” begins in Moscow). Indeed, she describes the changes in the lives of “women of the East” as connected to the Communist University of the Working People of the East,6 which aimed to prepare national minority Soviet cadres and was situated in Moscow (Halle 1938, 18). It was here that non-Russians and, in particular, Muslim women, could learn about their new rights and opportunities. In contrast to Maillart, Halle presented her impressions of the Soviet reality as a scientifc book divided along theoretical (and feminist) concepts, such as patriarchy/matriarchy, visions of the future, specifc events of emancipation (like hujum), and so on, but not written in the form of a travelogue. Nevertheless, Halle’s book displays signifcant diferences from the ofcial Soviet narrative on the “emancipation of women.” For example, Halle does not accuse all religions, and, in particular, Islam, of being oppressive, but suggests that “One thing is at any rate true: the total deprivation of women of their human rights is alien to the letter of the Quran, and therefore to the original teaching of the Prophet” (Halle 1938, 66). However, moving from religious scripts to the religious practices of Islam, in the rest of the book, Halle mainly reproduces the Soviet narrative about the total lack of rights of Muslim women (Gradskova 2018), which she confrms from her own “tourist” experiences, === [PDF page 110] === Internationalism from Tashkent 97 presented in an orientalist way; for example, a woman in paranjee is described as “funereally wrapped” (Halle 1938, 65). In the chapter “Te Dawn of the New Era,” Halle refers to Lenin’s ideas about the emancipation of “nationalities” in revolutionary Russia and the Soviet emancipation of women (Halle 1938, 110). While telling this attractive and impressive story of “emancipation,” the author moves freely from Central Asia to the Caucasus (and also mentions other ethnic groups living in the Soviet Union, such as the Kalmyks or some people of the North). Tis makes it difcult to determine which parts of the Soviet Union she had actually visited and what stories she had collected while meeting female representatives of the “emancipated nationalities” in Moscow, not least at the abovementioned Soviet University of the Working People of the East, and what regions and cities she visited (in the preface, Halle writes about her “repeated lengthy journeys,” especially in Central Asia and the Caucasus—Halle 1938, ix). In her book, Halle presents the turbulent hujum campaign of 19277 as a revolt of Central Asian women against patriarchy (Halle 1938, 178) and, with reference to a famous Communist woman sent by the Bolsheviks to work in Central Asia, Antonina Nukhrat, she describes the violent reaction to hujum as resistance by the patriarchal society (while some researchers support this vision (Kamp 2006), about hujum as a campaign organized from the Moscow center and seen by the native population as a continuation of the colonial politics of the Russian Empire, see Northrop 2004). In contrast to Maillart, Halle did not write much about hindrances put in place by the Soviet authorities to reaching particular regions or meeting women. It seems that her perspective on the women of the “East” followed mainly the prescribed Soviet ideological narrative, which made Soviet hospitality much more “hospitable” for her than for Maillart. In some cases, Halle describes the individual women whom she meets in more detail. Tis is the case with Tamara-Hanum, a dancer from Uzbekistan (Halle 1938, 246–9), and Leila Mahmetbekova, the frst airwoman in Azerbaijan (Halle 1938, 290–1). I wish to mention the encounter with Tamara-Hanum specifcally: this Soviet dancer continued to be one of the important “faces” of the new Uzbekistan, and was an important part of the communication with foreigners even later, during the Cold War period. Presenting TamaraHanum as the daughter of an Armenian political exile to Central Asia, Halle === [PDF page 111] === 98 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery describes her dances in a rather emotional and orientalist way, but also notices Tamara-Hanum’s multiple trips abroad, including to London and Paris. As for Mahmetbekova, in her conversation with Halle, she describes herself as being particularly interested in meeting foreigners and telling them about the transformation of life and women’s situation in Azerbaijan: “And in the evenings I study, especially German and French. So I shall soon be able to talk to our foreign guests in their own language” (Halle 1938, 290–1). As I show further below, during the postwar and, in particular, post-Stalinist years, Mahmetbekova’s aspirations to meet foreign women and to speak to them in their own language (or with a translator) would become a reality for many women in diferent parts of the Soviet “East.” As these autobiographical publications of two early female political tourists show, the Central Asia was not a part of the Soviet Union aimed at showcasing the Soviet experiment in the frst place and, even less, for female foreign visitors. Not least, the colonial legacies of Russian imperialism continued to be most visible there. At the same time, it was the achievements of Soviet modernization and reforms of women’s status in the (former) colony that were seen by the Soviets to be particularly strong argument for the benefts of “socialism” in conquering allies abroad. Tus, some women representing Central Asia, such as Tamara-Hanum, were sent on tours abroad already during this period. Afer these two accounts of traveling to Central Asia written by European women, I look closer at an autobiographical story that was written much later by a daughter of one of those African American travelers who came to Soviet Central Asia in the 1930s in hope of a better future without racial discrimination. Tis autobiographical story by Lily Golden (I have discussed part of this story, dedicated to Golden’s life in Moscow starting from the mid1950s, in Chapter 2), My Long Way Home, was published in the United States in 2002, and on the basis of documents and family stories, it reconstructed the life of her parents in Tashkent. In contrast to the two female travelers described above, Golden’s parents, US-American citizens who came to the USSR in the 1930s, did not go back but stayed in the Soviet Union, in Tashkent, where Golden was born in 1934 (around the time when Maillart and Halle were visiting the city). === [PDF page 112] === Internationalism from Tashkent 99 Lily Golden was the daughter of an African American father and a Jewish American mother, who came to the USSR together with a group of Black American professionals in the early 1930s in order to develop cotton production for the Soviet state. Growing up in a family of well-educated parents who held positions as university professors in Soviet Tashkent, Golden describes her childhood and youth in Tashkent as mainly a happy and rather privileged life, compared to the majority of Soviet citizens (due to the professorial status and income of her parents). She also described herself as a successful young sportswoman who participated in tennis championships in diferent cities of the Soviet Union as a member of Uzbekistan’s tennis team. Describing her youth in Tashkent, she presents it as not being overshadowed by any discrimination on the grounds of her skin color or Jewishness. According to her, life was mainly how her parents had expected it: the absence of racial segregation was an important reason for her parents having not returned to the United States afer her birth, despite having observed that the political situation in the USSR was getting worse. However, according to Golden, returning “home” to the United States with a little Black child would have meant going “back to [the] racism and intolerance that they experienced in the United States” (Golden 2002, 15). In order to confrm that her parents had made a good decision, Golden refers to the story of her father’s friend, Wayland Rudd,8 whom she met in Moscow in the 1950s (Golden 2002, 39). According to the story told to her by Rudd, afer attempting to go home to the United States in the late 1930s, he could not stand the racism there and decided to return to the USSR, thus, fnding himself in the mid of Stalinist purges. In spite of this confrmation of the expectations of her parents in general, and in contrast to ofcial Soviet publications, as well as those produced by the WIDF, which proudly declared the absence of racism in the USSR, Golden’s memoirs include several accounts of the racialization of diferent groups of Soviet people, and primarily, antisemitism. Particularly vividly, Golden describes the late Stalinist antisemitic campaign of the 1950s that she encountered in Moscow, while studying there in 1952–7. Furthermore, Golden describes widespread suspicion toward foreigners (and those communicating with them) as being part of the Cold War environment. When also taking into account Golden’s willingness and lack of fear to write about the Stalinist === [PDF page 113] === 100 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery terror, whose victims also included former foreign “friends” of the USSR, her autobiographical story largely destroys rather than supports the Soviet Cold War narrative about the “happy life” of Soviet people of diferent nationalities and skin colors who are full of friendly feelings toward foreign workers, independent of their race. All of this makes Golden’s story a valuable source for understanding the hidden contexts of the international South–East gatherings at the Cold War periphery as well as in the Soviet center. Describing her childhood years in Tashkent, Golden presents it as a city where the Russian language dominated (however, Golden writes that she could also communicate in Uzbek). At the same time, the Tashkent of her younger years (the 1940s) is described as a place of refuge; a city where many languages and ethnicities mixed. Indeed, during the Second World War, Tashkent was a destination for the planned evacuations organized by the Soviet authorities in the hope that it would be safer than the Soviet center. Tus, several cultural institutions, including the best universities and conservatories from Central Russia, were evacuated to Tashkent (Golden 2002, 23; on the Second World War’s place in the Sovietization of Tashkent, see also Stronski 2010, 14). But the Tashkent described in Golden’s memoirs was also a place of refuge for those persecuted in the Soviet Communist imperial center: for Jews from Central Russia and Ukraine sufering from antisemitism, or for Stalinism’s political prisoners who moved to Tashkent afer serving their term in Kazakhstan’s GULAG camps (Golden 2002, 16–17). However, at the same time, Golden also demonstrates that many inhabitants of Uzbekistan, similar to those from other parts of the Soviet Union, became victims of Stalinist terror. Although this was silenced in the ofcial history during her youth, Golden was able to learn about the purges through family stories. In particular, her father, who was forced to become a Soviet citizen to stay in Tashkent, carried a high risk of being arrested, and her parents lost a lot of their friends there. It is very likely that this infuenced the health of Golden’s father, who died from a heart attack in 1940. However, Golden’s family, like many other Soviet families, preserved their stories about Stalinist terror without making them public, up to the end of the Soviet Union. It is interesting to note that, in her memoirs, Golden seems to be asking herself the question asked by many researchers of political travel under === [PDF page 114] === Internationalism from Tashkent 101 Stalinism: about those political tourists’ silence on the Stalinist purges (see, e.g., David-Fox 2012, 2; Alburquerque 2017). Tus, Golden attempts to explain this silence of the political tourists. According to her, those foreigners who were friendly to the Soviet Union, including African American political travelers, ofen did not want to make the fact of repression public, even in later years, due to the fear of damaging the image of this country that was promising a “bright future,” including one without racism. Golden illustrates this with the example of Paul Robeson,9 a friend of her parents. According to him, an African American who was welcomed by the Soviet Union, the context of the Cold War rivalries made it inappropriate to tell stories of Stalinist terror to people in the United States. Tus, Robeson did not want to mention the Stalinist purges, not least in his ofcial memoirs about the USSR (Golden 2002, 19). Golden’s memoirs contribute further to our understanding of Central Asia as a peripheral space inside the Communist “East.” For example, despite playing tennis in high-level competitions in Central Asia and serving for several years as a leader of Uzbekistan’s women’s team, Golden understood rather early that sportswomen from Uzbekistan could not achieve the same level in sport that was accessible to sportswomen in Moscow and, thus, to beat the Moscow team and become internationally known (Golden 2002, 29). Using the example of her own childhood experiences, she also shows that, starting during the Second World War years, children in Uzbekistan had a greater workload than many children in the central part of the Soviet Union: starting from eleven years old, children were subject to the mandatory and physically demanding work of picking cotton (Golden 2002, 29–30). It is likely that all of this explains Golden’s decision to continue her studies in Moscow: the move not only promised a better university education but was also an attempt to escape the difculties and uncertainties of life at the South–East periphery, Central Asia. I consider these three very diferent personal accounts—of traveling to Soviet Central Asia and living in Tashkent as a descendant of a mixed African American family—to be useful for my discussion below about Tashkent as a site of South–East internationalism because they show how Tashkent and Central Asia were presented to foreigners and how this (Cold War) periphery was positioned, or could be experienced, with respect to the global discussions === [PDF page 115] === 102 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery on colonial legacies, gender, and racial equality. In the next part of this chapter, I focus on Central Asian women’s participation in East–South internationalism during the Cold War as part of the politics initiated by the Soviet center. Furthermore, using examples of some of its representatives, I demonstrate how and why the status and meaning of Uzbek women’s participation in Soviet politics difered from those of the women from the Soviet center. Central Asian Women on the Duty of (Soviet?) Internationalism Starting from the late 1950s, Central Asia, and in particular Tashkent, became a place for many artistic, intellectual, and political gatherings that were instrumental in the building of a postcolonial world. Many of these gatherings involved women or, starting from the 1960s, were specifcally designed for women. During the last years of Stalinism, the number of foreign visitors coming to Tashkent and Uzbekistan was very small, but this situation started to change quite soon afer Stalin’s death. As previous research has shown, the emergence of postcolonial countries as a new geopolitical actor contributed to changes in Soviet politics and new visibility for Central Asia (Kalinovsky 2018; Djagalov 2020). While previous research on the place of Central Asia in the global politics of the 1960s and 1970s did not pay enough attention to the role of Central Asian women, in this section I explore their role in East–South internationalism. What kind of gatherings were women participating in and hosting? What can be said about Central Asian women’s interests, careers, and place in Soviet political hierarchies and transnational networks? Rossen Djagalov has studied two important postcolonial transnational cultural institutions that were closely connected to Tashkent: the Afro-Asian Writers’ conferences and Tashkent Film Festivals. Both of these cultural institutions included Central Asian participants and in those cases when conferences and festivals were held in Tashkent, local audiences and spectators. Te Afro-Asian Writers Association was inspired by Bandung (1955), and the frst conference took place in Tashkent, in 1958.10 Although the participation === [PDF page 116] === Internationalism from Tashkent 103 of women there was not very high, it seems to have been an important event for the WIDF: on the cover of one of the issues of the WIDF journal from 1958, it is possible to see three female participants, including Uzbek poet Zulfya (ZM 1958 11). One more issue of the same journal published greetings to its readers from the American anti-racist activist and writer, W. E. B. Du Bois, who participated in the writers conference in Tashkent (ZM 1959 7:2). 1958 was also the year when Tashkent held the frst Afro-Asian Film Festival11 (Djagalov 2020, 137–8), and this event was also noticed by the WIDF journal. Indeed, the guests at the frst flm festival included two famous African American participants: musician Paul Robeson and his wife, ethnologist and journalist, Eslanda Robeson, whom I mentioned in the previous section. It was Eslanda Robeson who wrote a short article about this festival for the WIDF journal (ZM 1959 1:14). When describing her positive impressions of Tashkent, Robeson stressed similarities between Tashkent’s streets and people with those of Africa. In particular, she described her husband, Paul Robeson, as ready to start dancing directly on the streets of Tashkent: the Uzbek music reminded him of the popular jazz of America, the music of African Americans. While this kind of comparison between Uzbek culture and Black African and Afro-American cultures was not typical of the WIDF publications, in this case, it should probably be attributed to Eslanda Robeson’s own initiative, taking into account her interest in similarities between the cultures of “colored” people in diferent parts of the world. Tus, stressing some similarities between Tashkent and Black America, Robeson was perhaps implying a better understanding and closer alliances between Uzbeks and Black Americans due to certain similarities in their positionality within the racialized global power hierarchies. While previous research has shown that the international cultural events organized by Moscow (in Tashkent and other places) were aimed at winning the cultural Cold War through establishing contacts and spreading Soviet infuence across the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa (see Djagalov 2020), their Central Asian participants, in particular women, were not yet receiving enough attention. At the same time, Central Asian women’s participation in international events was growing, while in the early 1960s Central Asia and Tashkent came to be seen more and more as a place for transnational events === [PDF page 117] === 104 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery focused specifcally on women’s rights and problems. Indeed, in 1962, Tashkent became for the frst time the host for an international women’s seminar, the seminar on women’s education in Africa (I mentioned the seminar in Tashkent in the Introduction and discuss it in more detail in Chapter 6). Te WIDF journal published an extensive report on this seminar and its primary location— Tashkent. Tis long report was signed only with the frst name of the author, Layla, the pseudonym of Jordanian political refugee, Salwa Zayadeen (for more on Zayadeen and her work for the WIDF in East Berlin, see Gradskova 2021, 115). Te article was entitled “I have seen, I have heard, I have learned,” and was accompanied by pictures of Tashkent women (including the head of the Supreme Soviet of Uzbekistan, Yadgar Nasriddinova) and some of the seminar’s African guests (ZM 1963 1: 9–12). Layla’s way of presenting her impressions of the event and Central Asia in this article was remarkably emotional; several times, she mentions her strong feelings when seeing this city. According to her, what she saw in the Soviet Tashkent was so diferent from how the city was described in the stories of older women or how it could be seen in older pictures. Indeed, at one point Layla asks her “Soviet friends” to “forgive her sentimentalism” (ZM 1963 1: 10) when comparing the women of Uzbekistan to fowers afer a hard winter. Layla seems to be very impressed by the Soviet stories about women who were formerly colonized and discriminated against, who became free and well educated due to the Soviet politics of emancipation.12 Te article was accompanied by a color photograph of three women with a caption stating that all of them speak three languages and work as translators, as well as including quotes drawn from the impressions of the African guests afer visiting universities, libraries, and kindergartens. However, it is important to note a small, but still signifcant, diference in Layla’s way of addressing diferent groups of women who were participants at the event: while she writes about “Soviet friends” (“friend” was the normative form of address inside the WIDF—Gradskova 2021), she writes about “our African sisters” (ZM 1963 1: 11). Tis might indicate a diferent kind of emotional connectivity compared with those she had with her Soviet “friends” from Moscow. While it is unclear whether Layla placed Uzbek women in the same category as her “Soviet friends,” as I show further, Uzbek women, in contrast to women working in the CSW in Moscow or most of those working in the WIDF’s headquarters in === [PDF page 118] === Internationalism from Tashkent 105 East Berlin, also usually addressed their guests from postcolonial countries as “sisters.” Starting from the 1960s, many women’s delegations visited Tashkent and Central Asia, while more Central Asian women also started traveling abroad, including to take part in East–South events dedicated to women’s rights. In particular, Central Asian women’s participation in AAPSO conferences should be noted. For example, a delegation of women from several Central Asian countries took part in the frst conference of African and Asian women in Cairo in January 1961. Te participant list included Hamroh Tahirova (Tajikistan), Bibi Palvanova, Minister of People’s Education from Turkmenistan, and Khadicha Sulaimanova, Member of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan (GARF 3 599, pp. 305–16). Tese women seem to have been well equipped to speak with postcolonial female activists; for example, Palvanova was the author of a dissertation on the theme of Soviet emancipation of women in Turkmenistan and, later, will become the frst female Doctor in Historical Sciences of Turkmenistan (see Palvanova 1982). Tus, in Cairo, women representing diferent republics of Central Asia could speak with African women about the history of decolonization and development, stressing similarities between Soviet Central Asia and postcolonial Africa and Asia. While I could not fnd information about those Central Asian women who participated in several other conferences, in 1974 AAPSO held its meeting for Asian countries in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Present were representatives from thirty Asian countries and four international organizations, including the WIDF, who took part in the conference (ZM 1974, 48–50). Te WIDF journal dedicated an article entitled “For peace and security in Asia,” authored by Barbara Kaufman, to this event. Finally, a conference in Khartoum (1970), organized by the Union of Sudanese Women with support from the WIDF and UNESCO, also enjoyed the participation of a woman from Uzbekistan, Zukhra Rakhimbabaeva, whose speech was based on her analysis of fghting illiteracy among women in Uzbekistan in the 1920s and 1930s (WWW 1970; I return to Rakhimbabaeva’s speech in Chapter 6). In contrast to the 1960s, in the 1970s to 1980s Central Asia became an important place for meetings of predominantly (but not exclusively) Asian women. In 1975, as part of the IWY, an international seminar dedicated to === [PDF page 119] === 106 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery women’s education and participation in economic life took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan (WWW 1975 4: 20–3). In 1988, the Soviet–Indian seminar “Woman and Work” was organized in Tashkent (GARF 3 7034, pp. 1–8). Tis seminar discussed women’s work in the countryside, professional and technical training for women, and work security. Te seminar participants included several active representatives of East–South internationalism from the 1960s: Uzbek poet Zulfya (participant in the frst Afro-Asian Writers’ conference) and Zukhra Rakhimbabaeva. In addition, some Uzbek women holding leadership positions in the Uzbek Soviet Republic took part in that conference: a representative of the Institute of Economics of Uzbek SSR, Olga Osipova, and the Minister of Education of Uzbek SSR, Oidyn Abassova (GARF 3 7034, pp. 1–2). Tis high level of representation corresponded to the participants from the Indian side, who included members of regional governments in India, a professor at a women’s university, and the head of a handicraf association. On the basis of this brief overview, it is possible to say that, starting from the late 1950s, Central Asian women participated in many South–East women’s gatherings at home. However, what was their role there? And what did this participation mean for them? Unfortunately, the most internationally visible Uzbek women did not leave us their memoirs (in contrast to some men; see, e.g., memoirs by Nuritdin Mukhitdinov, member of CC CPSU in 1957–61, published in 1994), while the names of these women are not usually included in the accounts of internationalism and women’s transnational activism of the Cold War period. At the same time, in the context of the building of a new independent Uzbekistan, prominent political and social fgures of the previous (Soviet imperial) regime obviously were not the center of attention. Tis is similar to other countries in Central Asia, where important historical fgures of the Soviet period began to be the focus of research only recently.13 Tus, I consider it important in this chapter to briefy present some of the Uzbek women who were participants in the East–South internationalism, using the diferent sources available to me. Tus, the biographical accounts below are composed on the basis of diferent secondary documents, including data from a Soviet encyclopedia, women’s publications from the 1960s and 1970s, post-1991 media interviews, obituaries, internet resources, and memoirs === [PDF page 120] === Internationalism from Tashkent 107 published by a member of the former CPSU apparatus from Uzbekistan whom I already named. In one case, that of Hujuma Shukurova, I also use visual materials and copies of documents collected through a conversation with her relative (DA, Tashkent, October 3, 2023).14 Nevertheless, the foundations for my presentation of the participants in the East–South encounters are rather limited, the materials available to me were predominantly in Russian and, mainly, in the form of ofcial publications. I hope that, in the future, Uzbekistani researchers who are interested in women’s history and Uzbek women’s participation in transnational events will write well-documented and more informative accounts of the lives of the prominent women of Uzbekistan, participants in the South–East gatherings and networks, including using documents from private archives and those written in Uzbek and other Central Asian languages, as well as oral history accounts. I start with, probably, the most well-known Uzbek woman in the 1960s— whom all the important international guests to Soviet Uzbekistan were meeting—Yadgar Nasriddinova (1920–2006). According to her ofcial biography, Nasriddinova was born in Kokand and became an orphan early in her life (her name “Yadgar” means “orphan” in Uzbek); at twenty-three years of age, in 1943, she started to work as one of the Secretaries of Uzbekistan’s Komsomol organization and, later, in the leadership of Tashkent Komsomol organization.15 From 1959 to 1970, she was the president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Uzbek SSR and (from 1960) a deputy president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Bukach 2012, 11–12). Between 1970 and 1974, Nasriddinova became the head of one of the Houses of the USSR Supreme Soviet and worked in Moscow. She retired in 1978 (Bukach 2012: 12). Tis account, based on ofcial Soviet sources, shows us a woman achieving a successful Soviet career, suggesting similarities with many other women in diferent parts of the Soviet Union who succeeded in becoming part of the Soviet nomenklatura, the privileged upper echelon of the party apparatus. However, this visible similarity does not account for the complex combination of internal dilemmas and external hindrances that surrounded the frst generation of Uzbek women, representatives of a colonial borderland, who decided to become part of the political apparatus of the Soviet state, which was === [PDF page 121] === 108 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery diferent from the former imperial state, but still followed a signifcant part of its imperialist logic and Russifying practices. While the period of greatest international visibility of Nasriddinova corresponded to the post-Stalinist period, the beginning of her political career coincided with late Stalinism. While Nasriddinova held an important position and was ofen described to foreign guests as the head (or even the president) of Uzbekistan’s Soviet Republic, the Soviet political system in Uzbekistan, as in the whole of the Soviet Union, was built around the Communist Party’s centrality to governing the country, and this made (the male) frst Secretaries of Uzbekistan’s Communist Party far more powerful (see, e.g., memoirs by Mukhitdinov 1994). Indeed, as some internet forum materials and the oral history account (October 3, 2023) show, inside Uzbekistan’s political elite, Nasriddinova’s political biography included rivalry with the powerful frst secretary of the CP of Uzbekistan, Sharaf Rashidov. For example, in spite of her successful work in Uzbekistan in the 1960s and early 1970s, afer moving to Moscow, Nasriddinova was no longer welcome in Uzbekistan, while, according to my conversation with Shukurova’s relative, some of her close co-workers were arrested and prosecuted (conversation with DA, October 3, 2023).16 Furthermore, during the period of Perestroika (and afer Rashidov’s death in 1983), Nasriddinova was one of those accused of corruption in the so-called “Cotton Afair” (on the “cotton afair” and its infuence on the Uzbekistan elite’s relationships with Moscow, see, e.g., Allworth 1990, 310–12; Cucciola 2017; Norling 2017). As a result of this, she lost all her posts and was expelled from the CPSU; however, she was fully rehabilitated in 1991.17 According to a short interview with her published by a newspaper in Russia (Moskovskii komsomolets) in 2005, Nasriddinova, who continued to live in Moscow afer her retirement, insisted that she did not have any plans to visit Uzbekistan (Melman 2005). While the “cotton afair” is viewed in independent Uzbekistan as part of the activities of the anti-Uzbek lobby in the CC of the CPSU, Nasriddinova seems to have been largely forgotten for many years in Uzbekistan, until very recently.18 However, during the 1960s, Nasriddinova’s name became known internationally. It was during this period that, as the president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Uzbek SSR, Nasriddinova was meeting foreign guests and was sometimes presented to them as “Uzbekistan’s president” (including === [PDF page 122] === Internationalism from Tashkent 109 to participants at the seminar for African women in 1962, GARF 3 775 p. 26). An article by Maria Teresa Gallo, titled “Today, a Woman Is President of the Republic of Uzbekistan” and published by the WIDF journal in 1959, describes Nasriddinova as one of the most remarkable examples of how women’s life had changed in Uzbekistan (WWW 1959 12:19–21). In the WIDF journal from 1960, dedicated to the ffieth anniversary of March 8, Nasriddinova’s photograph is placed between photographs of activists from the UK and Iraq, suggesting that she was one of the globally important women’s political rights activists (ZM 1960 1). Put forward by the Soviet government to symbolize the “emancipated Uzbek woman,” in 1964 Nasriddinova published a pamphlet dedicated to changes in women’s lives in the Uzbek Soviet republic: “Women of Uzbekistan” (in Russian). Among other things, in this pamphlet she remembered her meeting with African women, participants at the 1962 seminar on education in Tashkent. According to Nasriddinova, although the seminar was dedicated to education, its participants discussed many other themes because “it is not possible to separate education from the issues of women’s role in society” (Nasriddinova 1964, 3). Tus, Nasriddinova demonstrated here an approach to the improvement of women’s status that was rather common for postcolonial female activists, presenting it as part of the solution to other social problems of the developing nations. In continuation with, and with reference to, Lenin, Nasriddinova stated there that women can learn to be politically active, including managing the state, when they have the opportunity to start doing so in practice (Nasriddinova 1964, 146–9), also indicating that Soviet Uzbekistan could be a good example: 18 Uzbek women were members of the USSR Supreme Soviet (Nasriddinova 1964, 150). It is easy to suppose that this pamphlet reproduced some of the arguments that Nasriddinova used during her conversations with international guests, including female political tourists, while fulflling her job as a Soviet employee. Te abovementioned memoirs by Nuritdin Mukhitdinov, Uzbekistan’s representative on the CC of the CPSU, together with a short account of an interview with Nasriddinova, published in Russia in 2005 (Melman 2005), however, enable us to look at Nasriddinova’s life and work from another perspective: her work in the Soviet party apparatus while being a representative === [PDF page 123] === 110 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery of a Muslim nation from a Soviet colonial borderland. Te previous research on Soviet Uzbekistan has identifed the politics of the Russian center as destructive for the Uzbek national elite (Allworth 1990, 310–12) and the published memoirs and oral history support this evaluation. Mukhitdinov, for example, accused several members of the Soviet Communist leadership in Moscow of being imperialist chauvinists, interested in the so-called “fusion of nations,” which in practice, according to him, would lead to the disappearance of diferent ethnic groups and nations through their Russifcation (Mukhitdinov 1994, 5). He also repeatedly addressed suspicions from the side of the Russian majority in the Communist Party leadership toward Uzbek Communists that had led to unjust accusations and career barriers for many of them (see also Rashidov 2022, 41). While I do not have any evidence to support or refute the author’s accusations with respect to particular members of the CPSU, the attention he pays, as an ethnic Uzbek, to “imperialist” ideas and practices, indicates that, in spite of the ofcial respect that the Uzbek representatives in the CPSU (like Nasriddinova) supposedly enjoyed, in their everyday contacts with Russian majority in the Soviet and party apparatus, the imperial-colonial hierarchies were revived and perceptible through everyday communication inside the Soviet leadership. Just to add a small detail: the drinking practices that were widespread at events organized by the Soviet Communist leadership at diferent levels caused problems for Communists from colonial borderlands, in particular, those educated according to Islamic norms. Indeed, Mukhitdinov described his unsuccessful attempts to follow the habit (Mukhitdinov 1994, 19), while Nasriddinova insisted in her interview to Melman that she had managed to avoid drinking alcohol altogether (secretly substituting it with water) at ofcial Soviet and CPSU events (Melman 2005). Although it is impossible to confrm the truthfulness of this last claim, the stories suggest that members of the Soviet nomenklatura from Uzbekistan (and Central Asia and many other non-Russian parts of the Soviet Union, the colonial borderlands) experienced more challenges in their everyday work than those from the Soviet center. Furthermore, it is important to mention here that, even though I did not fnd any specifc information about Nasriddinova’s refections upon Stalinist terror in Uzbekistan, it is reasonable to suppose that she was aware of the victims among Uzbek intellectuals (Mukhitdinov names many repressed Uzbek === [PDF page 124] === Internationalism from Tashkent 111 intellectuals and politicians, he got to know them not least due to his eforts to achieve public rehabilitation for the victims in the late 1950s19). Tus, the terror of the past may have been one more factor infuencing Nasriddinova’s self-perception (and that of other highly positioned Uzbek women, including those working for internationalism), leading her to feel more like an object of voluntarist, threatening, and discriminatory politics emanating from the (Soviet) Cold War center that brought her (and other Central Asian women) closer to (post)colonial East–South women from other countries. Mukhitdinov’s memoirs contain an interesting description of the frst ofcial visit of the Indian president, Jawaharlal Nehru, with his daughter, Indira Gandhi, future prime minister of India in 1980–4, to Moscow and Uzbekistan in what he calls “the year of India”: 1955 (Mukhitdinov 1994, 149). Describing Nehru as an important political thinker, the author informed his readers that he managed to fnd an opportunity for conversations with Nehru during his visit. According to Mukhitdinov, Nehru’s ideas infuenced him very much: it was thanks to these conversations that he was able to understand much more about Asian and African countries, as well as about the postcolonial world in general (Mukhitdinov 1994, 149). Describing the ofcial dinner with these Indian guests in Samarkand, he mentioned that Yadgar Nasriddinova (at that time Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan) and Zukhra Rakhimbabaeva (at that time Deputy Minister of Culture of Uzbekistan) also participated in receiving Nehru and Indira Gandhi (Mukhitdinov 1994, 150). Tus, although these memoirs do not give much information about these two women’s proximity to the guests, it is reasonable to suppose that they also might have had the opportunity to learn some postcolonial views on empires in direct conversation with them. At least, it seems to be true that Rakhimbabaeva later had more opportunity to learn about postcolonial ideas. According to Mukhitdinov, together with Rashidov, she accompanied the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, in his Asian travels during the following year, 195620 (Mukhitdinov 1994, 208; more about Sharaf Rashidov’s role in Uzbekistan’s diplomacy see Rashidov 2022, 43). Tus, afer mentioning Zukhra Rahimbabaeva’s participation in representing Uzbekistan to Indian guests at home and in the Soviet government’s delegation visiting Asian countries in 1956, I now move on to some biographical information about this Uzbek woman, who was prominent in East–South === [PDF page 125] === 112 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery networks. Zukhra Rakhimbabaeva (Zahro Rahimboboeva in Uzbek, 1923– 1992) was born in Andizhan, received her education from the Central Asian University in Tashkent, and, like most of the Soviet elite, also worked for a period of time as a middle-level Komsomol leader. Rakhimbabaeva is the author of a pamphlet on the women of Uzbekistan and their role in building Communist society, published in 1949, and in 1954 she defended her doctoral dissertation on Soviet nationality politics. From the mid-1950s, Rakhimbabaeva worked as Deputy Minister of Culture (she will become Minister of Culture later, see her article on culture of Soviet Uzbekistan, Rakhimbabaeva 1984), and between 1956 and 1963 she was one of the Secretaries of the CC Communist Party of Uzbekistan. Rakhimbabaeva participated in the seminar for African women in Tashkent and shared Uzbekistan’s experience of eliminating illiteracy among women (GARF 3 778, p. 73). She was also tasked with preparing a speech for the WIDF Women’s Congress in Moscow, 1963, on the Soviet politics of emancipation of women in Uzbekistan. In this lengthy speech, which Rakhimbabaeva made on June 27, 1963, for delegates participating in the Commission on women’s struggle for national independence, translated into several congress languages, Rakhimbabaeva presented herself as one of the second generation of postcolonial women who, “through the example of our mothers” knows what it means to live under conditions of colonial oppression (GARF 3 967, p. 22). Later in her speech, Rakhimbabaeva moved to the successful overcoming of the colonial legacies and expressed her pride in the USSR’s politics of economic assistance to countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. For example, she stated that 480 new industrial enterprises were in the process of being built with support from the USSR in postcolonial countries. She also called for support for the Soviet politics of peaceful coexistence, which would be in the interests of postcolonial nations (GARF 3 967, pp. 25–6). Rakhimbabaeva was also involved in the Soviet–Mexican Friendship Society— together with one more representative of Uzbekistan she was recommended by the UzFS in 1966 (NARU 2661 189, p. 22). Tus, it is possible to say that, as in the case of Nasriddinova, Rakhimbabaeva was instrumental in spreading the infuence of Communist “East” geopolitical interests across the Cold War peripheries, and this was the reason for inviting her, as a representative of such a periphery, to speak in Moscow, for the participants of the WIDF Congress. === [PDF page 126] === Internationalism from Tashkent 113 However, unfortunately, the archival documents do not give much information about her impressions or the knowledge she was able to obtain through her transnational experiences. Later in her life, Rakhimbabaeva was commissioned to work as a Soviet representative at the WIDF headquarters (1967–73), which brought her into direct contact with women from other Cold War peripheries. In this new capacity, she continued publishing on both Soviet women’s and national politics. For example, her article in the WIDF journal (WWW 1973 1: 12–14) “Women’s Development in a Multinational State” was dedicated to the ffieth anniversary of the Soviet Union. Rakhimbabaeva stressed the “long and difcult road traversed by women of our country,” stating that, before the October revolution of 1917, the “position of women in national outlying parts of the Russian Empire” was “terrible.”21 However, remaining fully in accordance with the dominant ideology that she had to represent in the article, she implied that diferences between women from the (former) colonial borderlands and the center had disappeared and that women of all ethnic groups—“if she is an Uzbek, a Ukrainian, a Kazakh, a Russian, or an Azerbaijani”—were equal in society (WWW 1973 1:15). During her most internationalist period with respect to women’s rights, 1967–72, while working in Berlin at the WIDF Secretariat, Rakhimbabaeva participated in meetings of the WIDF leadership and reported about them to the CSW in Moscow (Gradskova 2021, 2022a). During these years, Rakhimbabaeva visited South–East women’s organizations as part of the WIDF delegation (see report about visiting India and Pakistan in the WIDF journal, ZM 1968 4: 35–7) and took part in a conference on the elimination of illiteracy among women in Khartoum (1970; for more about Rakhimbabaeva’s presentation in Khartoum, see Chapter 6). Unfortunately, I could not fnd much information about Rakhimbabaeva’s work and life afer the end of her term at the WIDF Secretariat in East Berlin, but for some period of time, she was in the diplomatic service in India (1973– 7) (Rahimboboeva 2004, 268). However, as I noted at the beginning of this chapter, in 1988, Rakhimbabaeva took part in the Soviet–Indian seminar on women and work. Tus, it is possible to suppose that she continued participating in diferent East–South women’s gatherings during the late Soviet years as well. === [PDF page 127] === 114 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Among the women who were involved in East–South internationalism in the 1950s and 1960s, there were also representatives of Uzbekistan’s cultural elite: artists and writers. Some of them, like Tamara-Hanum, the famous dancer, I have already mentioned. In Chapter 2, I also wrote about Sara Ishanturaeva’s pamphlet from 1954 describing her participation in the Congress of Peace Defenders in Vienna in 1952 and hosting the Indian delegation in Tashkent in 1953. However, here I want to write more about another representative of Uzbekistan’s cultural elite, a participant in the frst Afro-Asian Writers’ conference in Tashkent in 1958, Zulfya Israilova (1915–1996), usually referred to only by her frst name, “Zulfya.” (I have already mentioned that her picture appeared on the cover of the WIDF journal in 1958.) Zulfya’s contribution to Uzbekistan’s culture is now commemorated in the form of a monument in the center of Tashkent, in the recently reformed “Alley of Writers.” Tis monument to Zulfya is the only one dedicated to a female writer in this alley.22 According to the brief information about her that can be found on Uzbekistan’s webpages (in Russian), she was born in Tashkent and, for many years, up to 1980, was the head of Uzbekistan’s women’s journal.23 While Zulfya seems to be commemorated now primarily as a poet, the publications of the WIDF journal and information from the OSA archive suggest that she was frequently involved in South–East women’s and cultural networks and gatherings. For example, in 1958, an issue of the WIDF journal published her poem on Egypt, suggesting that she had previously traveled there and had contacts with women (ZM 1958 11). In 1966 Zulfya continued taking part in the work of the UzFS (NARU 2661 175, p. 177). An article by N. Gladkov published in Pravda on January 22, 1985, described Zulfya, at that time a member of the CC of the UzSSR, as a poet who was well known outside of the Soviet Union and receiving many letters from her readers (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 1057). Afer this presentation of several Uzbek women who were important for East–South women’s internationalism, I now move on to one more participant in the transnational women’s gatherings at the Cold War periphery: Hujuma Shukurova (1927–1980), whose activities and letters to South–East women I also discuss in the third section of this chapter, dedicated to the work of the Uzbek Society for Friendship and Cultural Relationships with Foreign Countries (henceforth, UzFS). A memoriam article from 1980, published by === [PDF page 128] === Internationalism from Tashkent 115 the journal of the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Uzbekistan, informs readers that Shukurova was born in Samarkand and, afer completing her university education in Tashkent, defended her dissertation at Moscow State University in 1954; the dissertation was dedicated to the Soviet emancipation of women in Uzbekistan (Shukurova 1980, 56). Shukurova was a member of the CPSU from 1950, took part in several party congresses, and later became a member of the CSW. Te article also contains an account of Shukurova’s work: between 1954 and 1961, she worked in the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Uzbek SSR; from 1961 to 1974, she was the head of UzFS; and from 1974, she was the director of the Lenin Museum in Tashkent (Shukurova 1980, 56). As I have already written, the ofcial Soviet biographies of representatives of the political and cultural elite include a lot of omissions and silences, and this biography by Shukurova is no exception. Tus, in what follows, I try to reconstruct some of the “omitted,” “unimportant” (from the Soviet perspective), or “invisible” parts of her transnational activities, with the help of other documents and an oral history account—a conversation with her relative (conversation with DA, Tashkent, October 3, 2023). It will help me to question, not least, her self-identity as a woman who had an “unproblematic” biography of a Soviet civil servant, one non-marked specifcally by her Central Asian belonging and histories of Stalinism. Shukurova, who was given the very rare name “Hujuma” (indicating her birth in the year of the Soviet campaign for the emancipation of women, hujum, see Chapter 1), was born into a family that supported Soviet ideals, with her mother early in her life experiencing strictness and violence of Islamic regulations for women in Samarkand. According to a relative of Shukurova, while being a housewife in the early years of her marriage, Shukurova’s mother later became a head of women’s club, following her husband’s involvement in the Communist Party (conversation with DA, Tashkent, October 3). Shukurova’s father for two times—in 1923–5 and 1930–3—studied at the famous University of the Working People of the East in Moscow (Halle wrote about this university as an important center for preparing cadres to fght colonial legacies on the Soviet peripheries in her 1938 book (see the beginning of this chapter). However, during the process of the Stalinist purges, Shukurova’s father, who was working at that time as the frst secretary of the Communist === [PDF page 129] === 116 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Party organization of one of the districts of Tajikistan, was arrested in 1937 and, afer being for some years “under investigation” did not have any ofcial work in 1939–40.24 Tus, Shukurova’s childhood was marked by the wave of repressive measures against her family coming from the (neo-imperial) Soviet center. Afer graduating from the Tashkent Pedagogical University, Shukurova continued her postgraduate education at Moscow State University (at the same time as Golden), and in 1957, she defended her dissertation “Communist party of Uzbekistan fghting for the emancipation of women in the frst years of socialist industrialization.” All of this probably made her well-equipped—in the eyes of the Soviet leaders—for her position as the head of the UzFS, which she held for many years, particularly during the time when new contacts with women’s organizations in the postcolonial countries of Africa and Asia were becoming established. On one occasion, Shukurova also visited the United States as part of the CSW delegation invited by the American organization, “Women’s Strike for Peace.” Te documents of the 1962 conference on the education of African women preserved in the Moscow archive demonstrate that, similar to other women from Uzbekistan assigned to work with foreigners, Shukurova ofen stressed similarities between Central Asian women and women from postcolonial countries. Te transcript of the seminar on education for women in Africa (1962, Tashkent) preserved the text of her speech, starting with “Dear African Sisters” (GARF 3 776, 26–7). Expressing her confdence in “talented African people” making “all the efort in order to eliminate the hard legacy of colonialism in the sphere of people’s education,” Shukurova compared the present situation of Africa with the lack of education for women in Uzbekistan, “where before the revolution there was total illiteracy” (GARF 3 776, p. 27). In her speech, Shukurova also invited the guests to make use of their visit to Uzbekistan to learn about the transformation of the country. According to the account of her relative, DA, Shukurova loved her work at UzFS. In particular, DA remembered that when, as a child, she went to visit Shukurova at her workplace, she found a welcoming and friendly atmosphere, could meet foreign guests as well. Additionally, Shukurova ofen invited guests to her home as well (according to DA, Shukurova liked receiving guests in general, and DA celebrated several New Year parties and some other holidays === [PDF page 130] === Internationalism from Tashkent 117 at her home). According to DA, as part of her work, Shukurova had traveled to several Eastern European and Asian countries, but particularly frequently to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), to meet women there. She had published a pamphlet about that country (conversation with DA, October 3, 2023). At the same time, Shukurova’s personal and professional life, like that of Yadgar Nasriddinova (even in this case invisible from the ofcial biography), was also infuenced by the internal conficts within Uzbekistan’s (male) Soviet elite: according to DA, afer Nasriddinova’s transfer to Moscow, Shukurova was forced to leave her job at the UzFS and became the director of the Lenin Museum in Tashkent. Tis was connected to her husband’s work in Nasriddinova’s apparatus, which, afer changes within Uzbekistan’s leadership, led to his arrest. It is remarkable, however, that in post-Soviet Uzbekistan, and long afer her death, during the process when the government of independent Uzbekistan was developing a new approach to gender equality and looking for stronger contacts with the UN, Shukurova’s book on the Soviet politics of the emancipation of women, published in 1970, was consulted (Komitet zhenschin 2007, 103). However, Shukurova’s name and activities seem to be largely forgotten. Tus, on the basis of these short biographical fragments, so suggestive of Central Asian women’s participation in South–East internationalism, it is possible to say that their presence was quite visible at the time (even if almost forgotten now). Although their participation and visibility were arranged by the Soviet center as part of the cultural Cold War strategy, their practical engagement with the transnational networks and South–East gatherings seems to ofer possibilities for the exchange of ideas and mutual learning between women from diferent peripheries. Not least, such encounters and networks opened up opportunities for building connectivities and solidarities as alternatives to those expected by the Soviet center, and focused around common experiences of colonization, economic exploitation, discrimination, and racialization. On the other hand, obviously, the Soviet center depended on women like Rakhimbabaeva or Shukurova—without their active involvement, it would have been much more difcult to spread the “Eastern bloc” infuence in the newly independent countries with predominantly non-White population. In the next section of this chapter, I explore further how some of the networks === [PDF page 131] === 118 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery and afnities created by the eforts of Central Asian women were maintained, as well as how they contributed to the transformation of Central Asia and Tashkent into the center of women’s internationalism under the Cold War. Uzbekistan’s “Friendship Society” and Its Women’s Section: Building Transnational “Sisterhood”? Te concept of “sisterhood” was already being criticized in feminist publications for leading to the invisibility of hierarchies between women; primarily, those between women of the “First” and the “Tird” worlds (Mohanty 2003). However, the title of this section is connected not so much to the “global sisterhood” imagined by “Western” feminist activists as to a form of communication that I found in letters preserved in the archive in Tashkent. “Dear sister,” in contrast to the ofcial WIDF way of addressing colleagues— “Dear friend”—can be found in letters both sent and received by the Uzbek Society for Friendship with Foreign Countries (or UzFS). Tus, this section explores the context in which this particular form of “sisterhood” was created, and how it was enacted through political travel to and from Tashkent and correspondence maintained by the women’s section of the UzFS in Tashkent. Tis part of the chapter also explores how the activities of the UzFS’s women’s section were producing Tashkent as a place of transnational connectivity. I start in the late 1950s, before Hujuma Shukurova became head of the UzFS in 1961. Tis was the moment when, in the context of the post-Stalinist transformation of the Soviet Union and growing anticolonial movements in Asia and Africa, the work with foreigners in Tashkent and UzFS itself began to undergo signifcant changes. Te documents preserved in the NARU demonstrate that, as early as 1959, Tashkent and UzFS expected a sharp growth in the number of political tourists. Indeed, Tajieva, head of the UzFS before Shukurova, wrote in her report that, in 1959, the international connections of this organization were expected to expand while the city would receive more foreign visitors. Tere were also plans to open departments of Uzbek Friendship Societies in the People’s Republic of China, India, and some Arab countries (NARU 2661 63, p. 2).25 === [PDF page 132] === Internationalism from Tashkent 119 At the same time, two of the frst South–East international events organized in Tashkent in 1958 (the Afro-Asian Writers’ conference and the flm festival that I introduced above) exposed a lack of infrastructure and insufcient experience in dealing with many foreign guests coming simultaneously. Tese frst attempts to organize international events in Central Asia were managed mainly from Moscow, but the continuation of such activities obviously required greater involvement by the local hosts and substantial changes in hospitality infrastructures. For example, according to Tajieva, the planned growth in the number of international delegations that were expected to visit Tashkent, together with the need to organize activities for about 120 foreign students (including from Albania, China, India, Guinea, Burma, and Afghanistan) already living in the city, required the opening of a new institution, the House of Friendship, in Tashkent (NARU 2661 63, p. 2). Tis House of Friendship was expected to become a public space featuring exhibitions about the lives of people in the USSR and organizing about 100 diferent mass events every year. Apart from these mass events, the House of Friendship should be able to preserve diferent materials accumulated during the process of its activities, and these materials should be available to visitors in the reading room. However, although the idea of opening the House of Friendship in Tashkent gained support from Moscow (a letter about it was sent from the Moscow headquarters of the organization and signed by Popova, the head of the CSW at the time26—NARU 2661 63, p. 6), several practical problems needed to be resolved prior to the opening. Indeed, the archival materials show that part of the house that was considered suitable for such an institution was occupied by ofces of the Ministry of Foreign Afairs and by the ofces of the UzFS itself. In order to transform the building into the House of Friendship, some of its previous tenants frst had to move out and be transferred to another building nearby, which was being used as housing for city inhabitants. Furthermore, the building chosen to house the Friendship Society had to be repaired (costing 50,000 rubles) and a large hall inside (costing 350,000 rubles) had to be constructed. In addition to the costs of moving and rebuilding, the opening of the new institution required the expansion of the staf at the UzFS: the director, the manager for organizing mass events, the manager responsible for books, and several cinema technicians had to be hired. === [PDF page 133] === 120 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Tus, on the basis of this document, it is possible to say that, in the years between the mid-1930s (when the two travelogues discussed at the beginning of this chapter were written) and 1958–9, Tashkent seems not to have had much international visibility or many foreign visitors. Tus, the (re) internationalization of the city led to signifcant changes in the lives of its inhabitants, and also afected the status of the city, both within the USSR and globally. Te opening of the House of Friendship and plans to expand the international work of the UzFS were further discussed at a plenary meeting of its members on February 26, 1960 (NARU 2661 63, p. 66). Te protocol for the meeting demonstrates that participants had many ideas for improving the activity of the organization, while many of the speakers did not limit themselves to discussing how the achievements of the Sovietization of Uzbekistan had to be presented to guests but also brought into the discussion other themes important for both Uzbeks and the inhabitants of Central Asia in general, including issues of national language, national and regional historical heritage, and broader issues connected to the economic and cultural development of the region. Indeed, some of the speakers directly connected plans for increasing exchange with Asian and African countries to new opportunities for strengthening those elements of religious and national culture that had been repressed during the Stalinist period. For example, one of the speakers advocated an expansion in the teaching of the Arabic language in one of Tashkent’s schools due to the need for more people wellqualifed to translate books about (Soviet) Uzbekistan to be sent to Arabspeaking countries (NARU 2661 63, pp. 5–6). Te representative from the Department of Oriental Studies of the University of Central Asia, Maksudov, in his speech and with reference to the difculties of fnding translators for the participants at the 1958 conference of writers from Asia and Africa, argued for an improvement in the situation with the help of intensive language courses. In particular, he informed his listeners that a two-year course in the Arabic language would be made available at his department for agricultural specialists who planned to travel abroad to countries of the (non-Soviet) “East” (NARU 2661 101, p. 47). Te representative from Tashkent’s Intourist (the organization dealing with foreign tourism) stated that there had been === [PDF page 134] === Internationalism from Tashkent 121 signifcant growth in tourist fows to the republic—while in 1956, Uzbekistan was visited by only 156 foreigners; in 1957, the number had increased to 241; and in 1959, it had exploded to 1,350 tourists coming from thirty diferent countries (NARU 2661 101, p. 30)—and he suggested serious improvements in the tourist infrastructure. It is possible to understand from this that foreign visitors to Tashkent, regardless of their country of origin, were considered to require higher levels of comfort than Soviet travelers. Noting the special honor bestowed on Tashkent inhabitants in the form of receiving foreign tourists, the speaker expressed his regret that the city was not yet fully ready to receive visitors: the construction of the new hotel was unfnished, while the existing facilities had problems with hot water and elevators (NARU 2661 101, p. 34). Finally, the representative from the tourist organization also noted the lack of qualifed translators. Another speaker, Zufarov, the director of the National Library of Uzbekistan named afer Alisher Navoiy, advocated that more money be invested in buying literature in foreign languages, describing the current expenditure on this aim—3000 rubles—as unsatisfactory. Money, according to him, should also be requested for repairing ventilation in the building and expanding book depository space (NARU 2661 101, p.48). In demanding better funding, Zufarov pointed, not to foreigners, but to the needs and demands of the new, highly qualifed, professional cultural elite of the republic: according to Zufarov, more and more Uzbek people would like to read “foreign literature, including ‘our’ specialists and engineers” (NARU 2661 101, p. 39). It is possible to suppose that reading foreign literature would also support the growing numbers of people who were expected to be able to travel abroad and to communicate with foreign guests at home. While hospitality required knowledge of foreign languages, some participants in the discussion also advocated the importance of increasing the use of the national, Uzbek, language and promoting Uzbek culture and history in the context of developing relationships with foreigners. Indeed, Maksudov (whom I mentioned above as a supporter of teaching the Arabic language) also expressed his hope for the revival of the national languages in the context of growing East–South connections. Indeed, according to him, presenting the city to foreign guests in a proper manner corresponded to speaking the national language—Uzbek. (I want to remind readers here of Golden’s memoirs === [PDF page 135] === 122 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery discussing the cultural life in Tashkent, which she described as dominated by the Russian language, not least due to the Second World War evacuations to Tashkent from the Soviet center; see the frst section of this chapter.) While the protocol does not record whether Maksudov further explained the importance of speaking the national language in front of foreigners, it is possible to imagine that probably he meant that broader use of Uzbek instead of Russian in front of foreign guests could function as a kind of Cold War counter-propaganda. It would undermine the well-known argument of the “Eastern bloc’s” Cold War counterpart about the Russifcation of the non-Russian nations of the USSR. Tis can be considered to be implied through Maksudov’s words: “guests would see that the local population speaks the native language and studies in the native language” (NARU 2661 101, p. 88). Finally, and interestingly enough, Maksudov even pointed out possible problems with accepting his proposal: the specialists from Moscow (sent to work to Uzbekistan) might have problems in this case because they could not speak Uzbek. Discussing the use of the Uzbek language in the context of a meeting dedicated to improvements in hospitality suggests that receiving foreign guests had revealed multiple tensions existing in Uzbekistan’s society in connection with the country’s relationship with Moscow. But, at the same time, it demonstrates hope for an improvement in the situation due to a possible restructuring of these relationships in the context of the growing international visibility of the city, not least revising Russifcation in the name of better hospitality. Tese tensions and hopes seem to be relevant to the female hosts of international events as well. Apart from certain tensions and hopes around language, the discussion about the necessary changes in Uzbekistan’s hospitality also involved issues of the representation of culture and history. Indeed, Maksudov suggested that, while guests should be shown a larger part of the country (not only the capital city) and its beautiful nature, it would also be important to show them Bukhara and Samarkand as well as other cities of the Fergana Valley. It is possible to suppose that Maksudov considered that visits to these historical places, which also had visible monuments of Islamic tradition and monuments indicating the embeddedness of the history of Uzbekistan in pre-colonial Asian cooperation and cultural connections, would contribute to the building of Uzbekistan’s own relationships with their East–South guests, not mediated by Moscow. Maksudov === [PDF page 136] === Internationalism from Tashkent 123 also suggested ofering foreign (South–East) researchers coming to Uzbekistan on a friendly visit the opportunity to give lectures at Central Asian universities. It is easy to imagine that the realization of this proposal could form the beginnings of a really intensive exchange of ideas (but it hardly could receive support from the Soviet neo-imperial center). Finally, Maksudov also suggested publishing more books written by famous Uzbek writers of the past, such as Biruni or Ibn Sina, and in this case, he skillfully used the Cold War-related argument: according to him, these books were mainly available only as translations into Western languages (NARU 2661 101, p. 91). Tis last suggestion can be seen not only as supporting Uzbek national culture but also as an attempt to decenter Western knowledge and languages and bring in a postcolonial perspective to a much greater extent than was usually permitted by ofcial Soviet rhetoric. While it is difcult to determine how much of these ideas were put into practice, as for translators, already mentioned above article by Layla informing about 1962 seminar for African women in Tashkent proudly reported that Uzbek female translators, graduates of Tashkent Pedagogical University, all speak three languages (native Uzbek, Russian, and either English or French). Te article was accompanied by a picture of women in European-style dresses made of traditional Uzbek cloth (ZM 1963 1: 10). A document of UzFS from 1966 informed that from 1965, some materials on Uzbekistan started to be published in Arabic and Farsi language as well as in Uzbek language using the Arabic script27 (NARU 2661 175, p. 3). Also the report of the UzFS to the Uzbekistan’s Communist Party Central Committee informed that the bulletin Soviet Uzbekistan Today began to be published in Spanish (NARU 2661 542, p. 32). Te discussion also featured several female participants, one of whom, Kayumova, probably a researcher specializing in India, shared her experiences of attending a teachers’ congress in India (NARU 2661 101, pp. 93–4). As the only person in the Soviet delegation to India who could speak Hindi, Kayumova proudly stated that she had enjoyed particular popularity among the Indian hosts: she gave nine press conferences and, during a meeting with the Indian president, Jawaharlal Nehru, could communicate with him in “his own language.” Some of her remarks also suggest that postcolonial connectivity and mutual infuences were being imagined through such encounters with Indians. According to Kayumova, the example of her communicating in Hindi === [PDF page 137] === 124 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery inspired some conference presenters from India, who had originally planned to present in English, to give their talks in their native languages. Tus, as it is possible to see from the protocol of this meeting, which took place in Tashkent in 1960, the reactivation and expansion of contacts with foreigners in general not only led (Soviet) intellectuals and civil servants in Tashkent to hope for the rebuilding of centuries-long economic and cultural contacts with neighboring nations, but also revived hopes for the development of the country’s own economy, language, and culture and, in addition, the building of postcolonial East–South connectivity. Nevertheless, the document also suggests that the transformation of Tashkent into a place for transnational encounters continued to depend—ideologically, fnancially, and logistically— on decisions taken in Moscow. Afer describing the discussions on hospitality around the work of the UzFS in the 1960s, I now move closer to the work of its women’s section, created in 1963 and led by Hujuma Shukurova, head of the UzFS from 1961. Tis section was created during the process of preparing for the WIDF Women’s Congress taking place in Moscow in 1963: Tashkent was seen as crucial for political tourism in connection with the congress, due to Central Asia’s experience of “overcoming colonial legacies,” which was considered to be useful for the delegates from newly independent countries. Information about the creation of the women’s section was published in one of Uzbekistan’s newspapers in the Russian language in 1964 (unfortunately, the title of the newspaper from which the article, preserved in the NARU collection, was taken has been clipped out) under the title: “Women of all the continents are friends” (NARU 2661 138, p. 56). Tis article informed its readers that the women’s section of the UzFS, created more than one year previously, “works actively.” It also named some of its members (apart from Shukurova), including the vice president of the regional Soviet Executive Committee, Khafza Asletdinova, secretary of Uzbekistan’s Trade Union, Mamura Yuldasheva, poet Etibor Akhunova, head of maternity hospital number 5, candidate of medical sciences, Zakhida Jamilova, and vice editor of Uzbekistan’s women’s journal, Khalida Arkharova. Tus, it is clear that the women’s section included well-educated Uzbek women who held leadership positions in the Soviet administrative and cultural hierarchy and were able to represent the achievements of Soviet emancipation and the === [PDF page 138] === Internationalism from Tashkent 125 positive results of dealing with the colonial legacies to foreign guests in a way that would be most benefcial for Moscow and the “Eastern bloc” in general. Te documents preserved in NARU further confrm that women in Tashkent, and Uzbek women in general, were expected to play a special role in the preparations for the WIDF Women’s Congress of 1963 (NARU 2661 122, p. 45). In particular, a letter sent by Shukurova to Moscow, to the head of the CSW, Nina Popova, informed her about the hospitality program developed by the section and assured Moscow that the Tashkent women’s section was well prepared to meet those Congress delegates who had expressed an interest in visiting Tashkent in connection with their attendance at the Congress in Moscow. In particular, Shukurova mentioned preparing an exhibition on the women of Soviet Uzbekistan, planning the projection of the flm My Friends, and securing translators for the expected guests (NARU 2661 122, pp. 1–4). Te document dealing with preparations for the event also contained information about sending personnel to the airport to be ready there, waiting for the guests to come and preparing groups of children to greet the guests with fowers, as well as preparing a program of visits according to the expectations of the female political tourists: visiting enterprises and cultural institutions, and demonstrating a center for mothers’ and childrens’ healthcare. What might this work mean for the Uzbek women who participated in meeting the foreign female guests? Depending on their role in hosting the guests, such meanings might, of course, be very diferent. While handing over a bunch of fowers at the airport could be attributed rather to curiosity, looking at Tashkent from the perspective of the guests, engaging in simple and supervised, but still spontaneous, conversations could contribute to thinking about similarities and diferences with respect to culture, religion, oppression, and problems that needed to be overcome. Tus, each of the encounters during the process of one or another event, all of which were carefully ideologically planned, had some potential for establishing peripheral (with respect to the superpowers) connectivity. Some indications of this are particularly visible through some of the letters preserved in the archive in Tashkent. Te work of the women’s section of the UzFS was not limited to particular events, but one of its important functions seems to have been the arrangement of study trips and other political tourist activities, as well as the maintenance === [PDF page 139] === 126 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery of connections established during the previous visits of female political tourists. As already noted in Chapter 2, these established connections were seen by the central Soviet women’s organization, the CSW, as a resource for planning further visits or student fellowships, gathering more information about the situation of women in a particular country, and disseminating information about the activities of Soviet women’s organizations. However, as the documents preserved in Uzbek archives show, these Uzbek women were not simply part of the women’s organization whose whose headquarters was situated in one of the Cold War centers, but they presented themselves, and were addressed by their guests, mainly as women from Uzbekistan, a Central Asian (post)colonial country. Tus, the archival documents reveal that UzFS women’s section representatives can to some extent be seen as proper subjects of transnational connectivity, distributing information about women, culture, and social life in Uzbekistan and maintaining their own contacts with East– South women. Te documents also suggest that Tashkent’s peripheral way of doing connectivity difered somewhat from the centralized way of dealing with guests at the CSW in Moscow (for more about Soviet employees of the CSW, see Gradskova 2021). Indeed, due to the large number of CSW guests and extended CSW staf, the female political tourists at CSW headquarters in Moscow were divided among employees specializing in diferent continents and languages, while the responsibilities of diferent staf members frequently changed. However, in Tashkent, where the number of guests was smaller, I found a lot of letters to female visitors written by Shukurova herself. Furthermore, the length and style of these letters were somewhat diferent from those I read in the archive in Moscow: more letters (but not all!) sent from the UzFS seem to be rather personal and more emotional in their content. In what follows, I further explore the feelings and types of relationship that can be “read” through these letters in order to learn more about the peripheral way of doing South–East connectivity from Tashkent, as well as tracing the postcolonial (and neoimperial) aspects of this internationalism. As I mentioned above, the archive in Tashkent preserved diferent kinds of letters sent and received by the members of the UzFS and its women’s section. Some of these were short, standardized letters reminding people about the === [PDF page 140] === Internationalism from Tashkent 127 meeting in Tashkent and asking about the work of the women’s organization to which the former guest belonged. For example, this was the case in the letters sent by Dilbar Ikramova from UzFS, who used the same template to address several participants at the 1962 seminar on the education of African women in Tashkent. In this letter, Ikramova asked if the knowledge the African participant had acquired during the seminar was helping her work, and if her organization was regularly receiving the UzFS’s materials they had sent from Tashkent (NARU 2661 122, p. 98). However, even in such a letter, it is possible to fnd small diferences—the sender addressed her recipient as “sister,” rather than “friend,” as used in the letters sent from Moscow (Gradskova 2021). Tis form of address—“sister”—appeared more frequently in the letters sent and received by Shukurova. Some other letters were sent as part of longer communications with (personally) unknown foreign correspondents who had not (yet) visited Uzbekistan. Such communications, on the initiative of the foreign sender, could be imbedded in the assumed similarities between Uzbek women and postcolonial South–East women. For example, the representatives of the National Congress of Women of Sierra Leone, in their letter written on the ofcial letterhead of the organization, informed the recipient that the letter they had received from Tashkent was read at the general meeting of the organization. Te senders from Sierra Leone considered it important to assure their friends in Uzbekistan that the “women of Sierra Leone are working hard to consolidate our hard-won independence.”28 Further on, the letter informed the women of the UzFS about their hopes of building a nation free from all forms of exploitation, about their attempts to eradicate illiteracy among women, and at the end, they proudly conveyed that the organization already had one female MP and three women on the local council (NARU 2661.138, p. 70, February 5, 1964). Later in the letter, the representatives of the organization of women in Sierra Leone returned to the issue of the assumed historical and geopolitical similarities between women in Uzbekistan and in Africa: “Dear friends, as you know, colonialism has divided us for centuries, therefore we have very little knowledge of your country and people, whom we are very anxious to know.” It was in this context that the writers of the letter came closer to their reason for writing: they expressed the wish “for two of our women to visit your great === [PDF page 141] === 128 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery country in order to erase the misunderstandings created by the imperialist powers” (NARU 2661, 138, p. 70), thus demonstrating their interest in visiting Tashkent and Uzbekistan in order to discover the truth between the diferent stories about the lives of women in Uzbekistan circulating on diferent sides of the Iron Curtain. Although, in her answer to this letter, Shukurova asked her correspondents a rather standardized set of questions about the Sierra Leone women’s organization activities, she also addressed these women as “sisters.” Some letters received in Tashkent were sent with the hope of acquiring useful materials and expertise that Uzbek women could share. For example, a letter from the leader of the Nigerian women’s organization and WIDF vicesecretary, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, inquired about the possibility “to send us papers to tell us how it could be well operated, and also papers and diagrams, showing the materials needed, and any material you think useful” for a small nursery “for the beneft of our working mothers” (NARU 2661 138, p. 68, February 22, 1964). Tis letter from Ransome Kuti started by ofering greetings on the occasion of the 8th of March and addressed UzFS women as “sisters.” Similar to the women from the Sierra Leone organization, the Nigerian correspondent also seems to have assumed similarities between the (post) colonial experiences of women in the two countries and, afer mentioning the short time since Nigeria had achieved independence, she expressed the hope that Uzbek women could “show us the way to develop happily.” Some of the letters from East–South women sent to the UzFS were probably inspired by publications or stories about Soviet achievements in overcoming colonial legacies and developing modern and well-functioning systems of education, healthcare, and motherhood protection. Indeed, the aspiration to improve the childcare system was the reason for the Uganda Women’s Friendship Association’s letter to UzFS. Women from this Ugandan organization inquired about the possibility of sending between two and four women who spoke good English to Tashkent so that they could learn about the experience of caring for children. Te representatives of the Ugandan organization also expressed their desire to acquire books explaining how “Soviet Women [...] have managed to rear their healthy babies” and the programs “by which you have so far succeeded in giving your children that sound kindergarten, primary, and secondary education which is so much === [PDF page 142] === Internationalism from Tashkent 129 admired by all visitors to your country.” Tis letter was signed by “your most ever loving sisters” (NARU 2661 138, p. 93), and it received a positive answer signed by Shukurova and Ikramova. Tey informed their Ugandan “sisters” that the Soviet Association for Friendship with the Peoples of Africa (situated in Moscow) had placed at the UzFS’s disposal several fellowships for inviting students from African countries, and that the UzFS was ready to ofer one of these to the Ugandan women’s organization (NARU 2661 138, p. 102). Unfortunately, the documents preserved in Tashkent (NARU) do not inform us whether the women’s organization in Uganda was able to use this opportunity. However, this and the above correspondence can help us to understand that the East–South networks, even though they ofen relied on the resources of the Soviet center, operated mainly due to peripheral actors, and this led to the creation of a special kind of connectivity outside of Moscow’s direct control. In contrast to these letters sent to representatives of the South–East women’s organizations interested in communication with Uzbek women, as well as materials and study trips, the archive has also preserved several letters indicating well-established relationships, frequent meetings, and some personal friendships. Tis can be seen in the example of Shukurova’s letter to a female activist from Ceylon, Suria (Shukurova traveled there frequently according to her relative, DA—conversation with DA, October 3). Shukurova starts her letter by making reference to pleasant memories about her previous visit to “beautiful Ceylon” and continues by remembering her correspondent’s visit to Uzbekistan during which she met, among other people, Shukurova’s mother and her son (original in Russian NARU 2661 267, p. 14; English translation, p. 13). In continuation, Shukurova’s letter, preserved among Shukurova’s ofcial papers in the UzFS archival collection, seems to mix several diferent taxonomies and to move from private to ideologically required content and then back to the private. One of the subjects of this letter is an ideologized narrative about UzFS’s preparation for the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth. However, another part of the letter, in which Shukurova writes about her personal sorrows and problems, looks more like a letter to an intimate friend. Indeed, the letter informs the addressee in Ceylon about Shukurova’s grief afer losing both her parents during the course of three months: “something is broken inside of me, I am walking like a somnambulist.” === [PDF page 143] === 130 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery While this letter can be considered exceptional and was connected to the sudden loss of family members, several other letters sent by Uzbek women preserved in the collection suggest that expressing personal emotions and building connectivity through shared experiences and feelings (and not assumed ideological similarities) was not so rare. Tis way of communicating also invited rather personalized answers. For example, a letter written by Layla, a Jordanian exile living in East Berlin (see section 2 of this chapter), who visited Tashkent in 1962 and published an article about the seminar on education for African women, starts her letter by expressing her gratitude for the visit: the “lovely times I had with you, in your lovely country, every face I met, every scene, every action of solidarity and kindness will live forever in my memory.” Later in the letter, however, Layla also describes her feelings as a mother of two seriously ill children placed in the hospital in Berlin (NARU 2661 122, pp. 124–5), implying that her Uzbek correspondent should be able to understand her feelings as a mother. Finally, several letters that I found in the archive demonstrate that, in spite of the ideologically informed programs of visits by foreign female guests organized with the help of the UzFS, the tourist gaze of the East–South visitors did not always correspond to the hosts’ expectations. Indeed, some of the letters of gratitude afer visiting Tashkent and Uzbekistan allow us to see that those aspects of Soviet Uzbekistan’s reality that were seen as specifcally valuable and memorable to guests did not always coincide with the ideological programming of the tours. For example, the letter from Zahia Salman, representing Lebanon’s Women’s Society for the Protection of Lebanon’s Children, to the head of the Oriental University, Mahbuba Kadyrova, stressed the “tenderness and delicacy” of the host, who is addressed in the letter as “Dear sister Mahbuba.” Afer thanking the host for the opportunity to visit “the beautiful city of Tashkent,” and carefully explaining how and in what part of her house she had placed the gif and souvenirs brought home from the trip, the sender asks to send her special greetings, frst of all, to “his holiness Mufi,” and only later to the head of the kolkhoz she visited and to Ms. Shukurova. Tus, the combination of important and interesting people whom the political tourist met was probably not exactly the one expected by her hosts (NARU 2661 138, p. 172, June 10, 1964). Similarly surprising for the hosts was probably the report about another visit by a member === [PDF page 144] === Internationalism from Tashkent 131 of the Communist Party of Algeria, Leila Mekki, who, according to the report, was particularly impressed by visiting the home of one of UzFS’s employees, Dilnora Ismailova, and meeting all of her family (NARU 2661 138, pp. 241–5). Te report stated that Mekki spent fve hours in Ismailova’s house, was received by the whole family, and became particularly close with Ismailova’s mother. According to the report, Mekki not only told them about her life but also sang songs in Arabic and at the end invited the whole family to visit her and stay at her house if they ever traveled to Algeria (NARU 2661 138, p. 243). Of course, together with such letters and reports, the archive has also preserved documents showing that some guests did not react to the attempts by women working at the UzFS to maintain contact. While the reasons for this could difer, it is possible that some of them might not have been so happy about their visit. For example, one of the preserved internal reports informs us about the difculties of maintaining contact with several female visitors to Tashkent in the context of the 1963 WIDF Congress: Women from Japan and Indonesia—participants at the World Women’s Congress in Moscow—visited Uzbekistan in June 1963 afer the Congress. Tey were received in Uzbekistan very warmly; they lef their addresses and all have promised to write. However, up until now only Kimiko Sakaki, from Japan’s Women’s Association, has answered our letters. (NARU 2661 122, p. 35) Concluding this part of the chapter, it is possible to say that, in spite of its small size, the women’s section of the UzFS seems to have been important for East–South transnational connectivity. Bound by multiple Soviet regulations concerning communication with foreigners and, signifcantly, by the tacit normativity of self-censorship, the networks created in Tashkent difered from those managed from the Cold War (Soviet) center in at least two respects. On the one hand, meeting Asian and African women in Tashkent allowed Uzbek women to speak in the name of Uzbek national cultural identity, even if it was framed as part of the “Soviet” Uzbek identity. It also could have contributed to acquiring knowledge about postcolonial women’s rights activism abroad, including activities connected to fghting the legacies of European economic, racial, and cultural domination. On the other hand, while continuing to be the objects of the (neo)imperial politics of the (Soviet) center, the women === [PDF page 145] === 132 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery involved in receiving female East–South political tourists were able to build specifc relationships of emotional closeness, which might have been mutually benefcial for women from diferent Cold War peripheries. Conclusion Te analysis of the autobiographical texts undertaken at the beginning of this chapter suggests that, while Central Asia was considered to be a rather difcult destination for a foreign woman to travel to during the frst decades of the Soviet period, the travelogues of those few women who did manage to reach Tashkent and Central Asia (and, in one case, the memoirs of the child of one such woman) present a unique picture of the processes taking place in the region, including the controversies surrounding the Soviet struggle against colonial legacies and women’s seclusion. Te so-called Soviet emancipation of Central Asian women was guided by ambition from the Soviet center, and the scripts for overcoming colonial legacies were heavily impacted by (unrecognized) superiority and aspirations for whiteness as a part of this Soviet civilizing campaign. Simultaneously, the biographical texts also indicate that the Soviet course of action (e.g., with respect to fghting gender inequality, racialization, and colonial segregation) had already begun to be used for claiming the superiority of the Communist “East” with respect to “progress” and “overcoming colonial legacies” in other parts of the world before the proper start of the cultural Cold War in the late 1940s. Yet these individual accounts, in particular Golden’s memoirs of growing up in Tashkent in a mixed family with parents originating from the United States, demonstrate the variety of intersectional inequalities to which women navigating this space could be subjected. While some of these were connected to “old” imperialist legacies (like the antisemitism or Russian cultural superiority visible in diferent aspects of relationships with the “natives”), others, including gender and national inequalities with respect to party work, were part of the new Soviet system. Analyzing transnational communication from Tashkent and Central Asia, or with the participation of Central Asian women, it is possible to conclude that === [PDF page 146] === Internationalism from Tashkent 133 the latter were entitled by the Soviet government to fulfll the role of mediators for the interests of the (Communist) “East” and South–East women from postcolonial and developing countries. Women selected for these roles were mostly socialized into the Soviet system and at least partially shared the ofcial views on women’s roles and duties with the central (Communist) leadership in Moscow (or East Berlin, where the WIDF headquarters were). At the same time, due to their belonging to a colonized and “peripheral” (racialized) Soviet minority, they had experiences that made them signifcantly diferent from women at the Soviet center (or Soviet “West”). Tus, in spite of the assumed similarity of all “Soviet” women, the women from Tashkent and Central Asia could sometimes fnd common meanings and sensibilities with their South– East communication partners more easily. All of this meant that Central Asian women acted at the transnational gatherings not only as transmitters of (Soviet and Communist) propaganda or culture, but also as co-creators of the South–East women’s peripheral community, spanning Cold War ideological, physical, and cultural borders. Teir internationalist work can also be seen as overcoming disruptions in regional connections caused by the politics of the Soviet center. Te work of the women’s section of the Uzbek Friendship Society is particularly remarkable in this context. Indeed, the communication, which overly followed the ofcial (Soviet) regulations for meeting guests, showing them the lives of Soviet women, and maintaining a connection with them afer the end of their visit, sometimes led to the building of individual friendships and solidarities. Tis last point is particularly visible in the imagined “sisterhood” emerging from the correspondence. While multiple censorship frames, stemming from the Communist Party discipline that the Uzbek hosts had to follow, and the Central Asian hosts’ self-censorship (and even the logic of the Soviet colonial archival collection I was working with in Tashkent), make it difcult for us to fully understand what the women working in the women’s section of the UzFS really thought about international women or Uzbek women’s own attitudes toward Soviet education, ethnic and national traditions, or religion, attention to the specifcs of the transnational gatherings can help us to learn more about women’s subjectivities at the Cold War periphery. === [PDF page 147] === 134 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Still, analyzing transnational communication from Tashkent and Central Asia or with participation of the Central Asian women, it is possible to conclude that the latter were entitled by the Soviet government to fulfll the role of mediators of the interests of the (Communist) “East” and South–East women from postcolonial and developing countries. Women selected for these roles were mostly socialized in the Soviet system and received benefts in the form of career advancement and the possibility to travel abroad. At the same time, they seem to partly share Soviet ideology and ofcial views on women’s roles and duties with the central (Communist) leadership in Moscow (or East Berlin, where the WIDF headquarter was). However, due to their belonging to the colonized (and racialized) Soviet minority, they had experiences that made them signifcantly diferent from women in the Soviet center (at the Soviet “West”). Tus, despite the assumed similarity of all “Soviet” women, the Tashkent and Central Asian women, as well as their South–East communication partners, sometimes could more easily fnd common meanings and share sensibilities. All of this made the Central Asian women to act at the transnational gatherings not only as transmitters of (Soviet and Communist) propaganda or culture but also as co-creators of the South–East women’s peripheral community spanning over Cold War ideological, physical, and cultural borders. Finally, it is important to note that the high level of involvement by the diverse women of Uzbekistan and Central Asia in the peripheral East–South connectivity challenged the status of Central Asia as a periphery, transforming it into one of the centers of global women’s internationalism. Notes 1 https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/central-asia-and-the-global-cold-war. 2 See the article by Adrienne Kacsor (2023). 3 Faizulla Khodjaev was accused of anti-Soviet activity and murdered in 1937. For information about the rehabilitation of Khodjaev under Khrushchev, see Mukhitdinov 1994. === [PDF page 148] === Internationalism from Tashkent 135 4 “Proletarian tourism” was a voluntary movement of the early Soviet period, uniting those interested in a healthy lifestyle and hiking. 5 Again, Maillart showed a good knowledge of the political situation when she responded that other foreign travelers, who were members of the Communist Party, Vaillant-Couturier and Kisch, did not have any problems accessing Central Asia. 6 Or the “Laboring East,” as Halle translates it. 7 Hujum has been the focus of research by several historians of Central Asia (Kamp 2006; Northrop 2004). Tey have shown that the Bolshevik leaders in Moscow started this campaign of “attack” (how hujum is translated) on women’s seclusion through mass unveiling out of ideological considerations, without taking into account the vulnerability of women. Te campaign of mass unveiling led to a number of female victims: many women who took of their face coverings on March 8, 1927, were killed by their husbands, relatives, or other men. 8 Wayland Rudd (1900–1952)—African American actor, https://www.blackpast.org /global-african-history/rudd-wayland-1900-1952/. 9 Paul Robeson (1898–1976), a famous African American actor, singer, and civil rights activist. At the beginning of the Cold War, he was interrogated by the Commission on Anti-American Activity and lost his freedom to travel abroad for several years. 10 Afer conferences in Cairo, Beirut, and New Delhi, one more conference of AfroAsian writers took place in Central Asia, in Almaty in 1973. 11 In its transformed form as Tashkent Film Festival, this festival usually dates its history from 1968. 12 Here it is important to note that Layla’s husband was in prison in Jordan as a Communist. In her letter sent to UzFS’s head, Hujuma Shukurova, on October 26 1962, she informed her that her husband and his friends are celebrating the day of October revolution in prison (NARU 2661 122, pp. 124–5). 13 For example, interest in Dinmukhamed Kunaev, the prominent Communist leader of Kazakhstan in the 1980s, grew only recently (presentation by Didar Kasymova at the ESCAS conference, Almaty, September 24, 2023). 14 I am very grateful to Shokhjahon Rashidov for sharing her contacts with me. 15 https://www.gazeta.uz/ru/2023/03/08/they-were-the-frst/. 16 It seems that they were accused of inspiring (anti-Russian) ethnic tensions in 1969, which started with football fan mobs https://www.mk.ru/editions/daily/ article/2005/05/11/196475-izgnanie-iz-hlopkovogo-raya.html. === [PDF page 149] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery 136 17 https://rosslovo.ru/news-history/sobytiya/sobytiya_6421.html. 18 ”Yadgar Nasriddinova. Geroi novoi i noveishei istorii Uzbekistana. Istorii Anvar Mirzo.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7HRUh9YAwY. 19 Among those rehabilitated was also Faizulla Khodjaev, the young Soviet Uzbek leader whom Maillart met in Tashkent in 1932. 20 According to Mukhitdinov, it was his initiative: he pointed out to the Soviet leadership that many women in India are visible in politics and, thus, it would be better if the Soviet delegation also included women. 21 According to Rakhimbabaeva, before 1917 women in Uzbekistan had fve masters—Allah, Emir, bay, mullah, and husband. 22 https://bookatour.me/uzbekistan/attraction/the-alley-of-writers-tashkent.html. 23 See, for example, information about Zulfya at the portal “Uzbekistan’s literature” (in Russian): https://www.ziyouz.uz/ru/literatura/literatura-sovetskogo-perioda /175--1915-1996. 24 It can be read in his ofcial fle at the Communist Party register that is in possession of Shukurova’s relatives and that I got kind permission to photograph. 25 Another document reveals plans for opening ofces of Uzbekistan’s Friendship Society in some African countries as well: Ivanov, the representative from the headquarters in Moscow, shared plans at the UzFS meeting in 1960 for opening ofces in Alexandria (Egypt), Ghana, and the Republic of Guinea (NARU 2661 101). 26 For more on Nina Popova, head of the CSW, see Ilic 2011. 27 Tis was particularly important because the Soviet center, afer several “reforms” of the Uzbek language alphabet, alienated Uzbek speakers from historical Arabic writing, substituting it frst with Latin and then with Cyrillic alphabet. 28 Sierra Leone became independent in 1960. === [PDF page 150] === Te Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and Internationalism from Havana As I have already stated in Chapter 1, starting in the early 1960s, Cuba and its capital, Havana, became one of the most signifcant centers for anticolonial, Tirdworldist, state socialist, and Non-Aligned networks. At the same time, the Cuban revolution of 1959 spoke the language of women’s rights and gender equality (Espín 1991), but Cuban revolutionary leaders wanted to see women’s activism as unifed in order to make women participate in the activities planned by the state.1 It was upon these foundations that the new unifed organization of Cuban women, the FMC, was created in 1960 (Chase 2015; Macias 2016). Te new lives of women in revolutionary Cuba and their engagement with the world were highlighted by the FMC publication, the journal Mujeres (Women), published from 1961,2 while the FMC coordinated the global networks of Cuban women. Internationalist thinking was part of the revolutionary transformation of Cuban society; Cuban women, as well as the whole population, were expected to embrace internationalism. Te Cuban policies of internationalism— internacionalismo—have attracted a lot of attention among researchers. Indeed, afer the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959, “internationalism” was declared (and continues to play this role ofcially despite the fundamental changes in post-Castro Cuba3) to be one of the central principles of the functioning of the Cuban state. Te policies of internationalism were aimed to help the liberation and anticolonial movements in diferent countries, which included supplying of arms and direct military involvement. Te ideas of spreading the revolution—known frst of all through Che Guevara’s famous words about the creation of “two, three, many Vietnams” (Paranzino 2022), === [PDF page 151] === 138 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery his own involvement with African anticolonial struggle, and, not least, his death in the partisan war in Bolivia in 1967—contributed to the growth of the global Cold War tensions (Westad 2005). It was precisely the fear that many other Latin American (as well as Asian and African countries) might follow the Cuban revolutionary example that caused US politicians to aim for the political isolation of Cuba. However, it was not least the misfortune of the partisan operation in Bolivia and some other countries, as well as the death of Che Guevara himself, that demonstrated how such fears about a fastspreading revolution were somehow exaggerated. At the same time, recent research shows that Cuban politics of internationalism4 played an even more important role inside the country. According to Isaac Saney, for example, “beyond the extension of revolution and anti-imperialism, Havana considered internationalism a crucial tool in the radical transformation of the society and the construction of socialism” (2009, 113), making internationalism contribute toward the fostering of a new consciousness of the Cuban people by bringing solidarity and humanity into focus. Cuba’s internationalism, which included the act of sending humanitarian support to about ninety countries in diferent parts of the world, has also been seen as an important factor for the internal stability of the regime and as a tool for constructing faith in the ideals of the revolution (Harriss 2009). Tus, “internationalism” later became a cornerstone for the continued survival of Cuban socialism (even if the latter experienced a vast transformation) and for the Cuban regime through the crisis of the 1990s, linked to the end of state socialism in Europe (Harriss 2009; Saney 2009, 117). Furthermore, studies on the impact of Cuban internationalism indicate not only its crucial role in the anti-Apartheid and anticolonial struggle in Africa (Gleijeses 2013), but also highlight the infuence of Cuba on anticolonial and anti-imperialist solidarity movements worldwide (South–South solidarities according to Stites Mor 2022) and, not least, further speak of the signifcant practical help provided by Cuban professionals who were sent to other countries (Anderson 2013). Despite global Cold War research being more focused on Cuban military aid, primarily to Angola (Westad 2005), new research on the Cold War in Latin America suggests that humanitarian aid was no less important for the cultural Cold War. For example, a recent study that investigated the Cuban medical help sent to Nicaragua afer the Sandinista === [PDF page 152] === Internationalism from Havana 139 revolution of 1979 implies that, although the Cuban government was very interested in seeing more countries with a political system similar to the Cuban one, the Cuban doctors’ mission to Nicaragua should be seen rather as humanitarian—all while sending Cuban doctors abroad also benefted Cuba’s practical interest in its doctors’ professional training (Anderson 2013, 203). As a result, sending Cuban doctors to Nicaragua seems to contribute to a positive image of the Cuban state globally. However, while the participation of Cuban women in transnational activities before the Cuban revolution of 1959 has been the subject of several studies (see Marino 2019; Chase 2019; Ramírez Chicharro 2022), the participation of Cuban women in the state politics of internationalism and transnational networks afer the Cuban revolution has received much less attention (but on FMC leader Vilma Espín’s transnational work, see Torres Santana & Chase 2023, 985). In particular, the efects of Cuban women’s involvement in the global discussions on women’s rights and the improvement of women’s status during the UN Decade for Women 1975–85, as well as their involvement in deliberations on the regional level in Latin America, would be important to explore. However, while a comprehensive analysis of the interactions between the Cuban women’s organization and Cuban women on the one hand and international women’s organizations, UN bodies, and women’s organizations in diferent countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America on the other would need a book of its own, I will in this chapter discuss some of the aspects of these interactions, networks, and connections. But, before doing it, I will frst, on the basis of the previous research, introduce the broader context of Latin American women’s political activism in which Cuban women’s internationalism was taking place; I will also indicate some of the main discussion points concerning post-1959 Cuba and FMC gender developments within this context. In order to approach the place that the Cuban women occupied in the transnational women’s activism during the Cold War, it is important to consider not only Cuban activists’ belonging to the “Communist” East but also their geopolitical, genealogical, and ideational connections to feminist ideas and practices developed in a broader non-European, “Tirdworldist,” and postcolonial framework, including the one of the Americas (Marino 2019; Ramírez Chicharro 2022). Te postcolonial and “Tird World’s” feminist === [PDF page 153] === 140 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery scholars have convincingly demonstrated that women in Asia, Latin America, and Africa face multiple forces of oppression and hence resist not only imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and the oppressive cultural norms of their societies but also gender inequalities within the resistance movements that aim to fght these systems of oppression (Jayawardena 1986; Mohanty et al. 1991, 13). It ofen leads, and specifcally in Latin America, to the integration of feminine and feminist strategies into these movements (Stephen 1997, 12). Looking at Cuba’s place in “Tird World” women’s activism from a more practical perspective, it is important to remember that in the early 1970s, women of several African nations were still fghting for their independence (Strippoli 2022) and against Apartheid (Lundin 2019; Stites Mor 2022), while women in many countries of Latin America found themselves facing dwindling possibilities of infuencing the public sphere, not least due to the disruption of democracies, as well as lack of welfare state provisions and social security (Bouvier 2009; Leon 1994; Escobar & Álvarez 1992; Rivera Berruz 2023). Against this background, women’s organizations in Latin America ofen acted together with the Lef, and feminism as a cause was considered to be less urgent, or even alien (Bouvier 2009). Furthermore, not having achieved mainstream recognition at the international level, feminine and feminist activists from the “Tird world” countries usually lacked understanding of the specifc conditions and demands made by the “mainstream” feminist activists (Mohanty 2003). During the frst UN conference for women in Mexico City, the “Tird World” women were accused by some of the North-Western participants of not fghting enough against the patriarchy (Olcott 2017; Bonfglioli 2021). In this context, Cuba’s declaration of a revolutionary approach to diferent inequalities, the fact that women were among Cuban revolutionary leaders, and the frm stance on internationalism (demonstrated not least by women’s participation in military brigades in Angola—Hatzky 2015; Jiménez Rodríguez 2011) all had an important symbolic meaning for women in Latin America (as I have shown in Chapter 2, Ana Montenegro, a Brazilian feminist in exile, stressed the symbolic importance of Cuba in her memoirs). Furthermore, in the 1970s, women in some countries in Latin America were involved in clandestine paramilitary and partisan groups (regarding Mexico, see, e.g., Mendez Alvarado === [PDF page 154] === Internationalism from Havana 141 2015) and the example of the Cuban military women—and several FMC leaders having a guerrilla past—could have served as inspiration. Despite the FMC and, in particular, its leader Vilma Espín, not presenting themselves as “feminists” (Torres Santana & Chase 2023), it is easy to suppose that the socialist ideas of women’s emancipation stemming from Cuba in many ways coincided with the aspirations of the Lef and infuenced women’s movement in Latin America. On the other hand, however, the Cuban version of gender equality and the image of the new “emancipated” Cuban woman provoked a lot of discussions both among women’s activists back then and among researchers—continuing even now. While some research demonstrates the positive results of Cuban women’s involvement in waged work with respect to their professional and family autonomy (Nuñez Sarmiento 2010; see also Safa 2010), according to many researchers, women in Cuba—but also in the case of other revolutions, like that in Nicaragua 1979—were fnding themselves in a situation of “mobilization without emancipation” (Molyneux 2003, 38–60), when issues of class took precedence over gender issues (Stephen 1997, 12). According to research on women’s activism in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, women have, coupled with an improvement regarding the social situation in many communities, strongly contributed toward a return to democracy and a defense of human’s rights (Escobar & Álvarez 1992; Leon 1994; Molyneux 2003); in many countries, women also started to mobilize for more than specifc local issues, such as for specifc identities, including the identity of Afro-Latina, indigenous woman and lesbian (Lebon 2010; Rivera Berruz 2023). However, as I already stated in Chapter 1, the early 1970s in Cuba were characterized by closer ties with the Soviet Union, as well as by the growing censorship of the so-called “grey years” with their repressions against intellectuals and nonheteronormative people. All of it, together with the FMC having the status of the singular women’s organization,5 the visible problems of the fght against racism in Cuba (Benson 2016) and the migratory crises of 1980 known as the one of Mariel, when hundreds of Cubans lef the country (some of them also being exiled as non-conforming to the system—Hamilton 2012, 117–48), prevented many Latin American feminists from closer cooperation with Cuban women’s organizations and from seeing Cuba as an example to learn from in that period. === [PDF page 155] === 142 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Finally, it is important to note that the UN Decade for Women and the conference of the IWY, taking place in Mexico City, contributed to a growing activism of women on the continent, not least exemplifed by the birth of many grassroots women’s and feminist organizations and initiatives (De Giorgi 2018; Morant 2006; Stephen 1997). According to De Giorgi, this process can be qualifed specifcally as Latin American second-wave feminism of the 1980s (afer the frst wave that developed around enfranchisement), which, among other issues, addressed problems of poverty and political violence (De Giorgi 2018, 50). One of the most important markers for it was the feminist gatherings (Encuentros feministas), the frst of which took place in Bogota in 1981 (there were six such Encuentros between 1981 and 1996). Already at the frst Encuentro, issues of women’s reproductive and sexual rights were discussed; it was also there that the recommendation to establish November 25 as the Day against Gender Violence was made (Rivera Berruz 2023). Te number of participants at the following Encuentros—Lima 1983, Bertioga (Brazil) 1985, and Taxco (Mexico) 1987— grew and reached 1,500 participants in Taxco (Rivera Berruz 2023). Due to several factors I named above, Cuban women did not participate in the frst Encuentros and did not play any important role in this new feminist movement on the continent. However, four FMC representatives took part in the fourth Encuentro in Taxco, Mexico, in 1987 (see Sternbach et al. 1992, 224), thus, recognizing the growing importance of the feminist gatherings for regional geopolitics, even if with a delay. Still, in the context of these developments in the 1980s and the growing NGOization of the women’s movement on the continent in the 1990s (Stephen 2010; Maier & Lebon 2010, 9), Cuba does not have any specifc place and is only mentioned briefy in most of the studies produced afer the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union (see Escobar & Álvarez 1992; Leon 1994; Rivera Berruz 2023). Te end of the Cold War, coupled with the WIDF’s loss of global infuence (Gradskova 2021), seem to contribute to a further diminishing research interest in the role that Cuban women played in the global and regional (in Latin America) mobilizations of women in the 1970s to 1980s. Tus, the aim of this chapter is to discuss some of the events and forms of Cuban women’s internationalism, as well as their presentations, contradictions, and efects, with a main focus on the less studied period of the 1970s to early === [PDF page 156] === Internationalism from Havana 143 1980s. During this period, the Cuban government lost some of the hopes it had about bringing into existence several more revolutions, strengthened its ties with the Soviet Union, and reinforced censorship over cultural production, while, at the same time, continuing to place internationalism at the center of its internal and external politics, including within the framework of the UN Decade for Women and state socialist cooperation among women. How were the ofcial FMC publications presenting the life of women abroad and Cuban women’s place in women’s internationalism? How much and in which ways was coming together in Havana similar and diferent from other East–South gatherings? What can be said about Cuban women’s travel as a part of internationalism? What role did Cuban women play in the change of women’s status in Latin America and globally? And, fnally, how is women’s internationalism remembered in Cuba in the context of postsocialist authoritarian (and ofcially, still socialist) system? In what follows, I frst explore how Cuban women’s international networks were outlined on the pages of Mujeres during the 1970s and early 1980s. Te second section is dedicated to Cuban women’s travel to transnational women’s meetings abroad and to hospitality for transnational gatherings at home. With the help of the Cuban and Soviet archival materials that were available to me, I explore how the FMC was building its networks while dealing with pressures from the Cold War’s main blocs. Te last section of the chapter is dedicated to Cuban women’s participation in the internationalist missions initiated by the Cuban state. It is based on the critical reading of the book by Limbania Jiménez Rodríguez who used stories of the former participants of the internationalist missions, collected by her in the post-Cold War Cuba, for creating their collective portrait. Here I also pay attention to how women’s internationalism of the 1970s to 1980s is remembered in Cuba. Te FMC Journal Mujeres and Cartographies of Cuban Women’s Internationalism Founded in 1961, soon afer the creation of the FMC itself, its periodical publication, Mujeres, became the leading journal for women in Cuba and, === [PDF page 157] === 144 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery due to restrictions limiting access to the international feminist press, the main source of information for Cuban women about women’s lives and activism in other countries as well. Mujeres was expected to serve the purposes of the revolutionary transformation of Cuba and women’s status and lives there. Together with discussions on FMC activism in the provinces and information about diferent aspects of women’s life, including fashion, sexuality, pleasure, and contraception, this journal published information about Cuban women’s transnational connections and can also help to explain the international interests and (imagined) worlds of friendship of Cuban women’s organizations. Tis section is predominantly based on an analysis of journal issues from the years around the UN Decade for Women, between 1975 and 1985, which are available in the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami. During this period, the journal was published twelve times a year; it contained a lot of (mainly black and white) photographs and was produced on relatively low-quality paper. While the information about Cuban organizations and important events in Cuba was presented predominantly through direct reporting or interviews with participants, events abroad (probably due to a lack of fnancial resources) were discussed mainly on the basis of the narratives of Cubans taking part in these events or with the help of interviews with foreign guests visiting Cuba. Furthermore, from time to time, materials from the Soviet archive mention that the journal Soviet Woman (published by the CSW) and Mujeres also republished some of each other’s articles (GARF 3 5799, pp. 4–12). However, it is important to note that Mujeres difered signifcantly from periodical publications produced for Soviet women, most noticeably because of its publication of material on sexuality, sexual health, and contraception. While the journal Mujeres as a whole deserves a separate study of its content, in this section I focus only on how the journal presented foreign women and the place of Cuban women in transnational women’s networks to its Cuban female readers. In order to do so, I look more closely at a number of special sections of the journal dedicated to women and people outside Cuba, as well as at articles, interviews, and reports dealing with international events, visits, and the lives of women in specifc countries. Tis analysis can help us understand how the leadership of this Cuban female organization interpreted the Cold War international maps of allies and enemies, as well as what problems were === [PDF page 158] === Internationalism from Havana 145 considered to be most important globally. Indeed, Mujeres can be seen as a major source of information about dominant Cuban discourses concerning gender equality in Cuba and a basis for the FMC work for solidarity between women from a transnational perspective. During the 1970s, one of the regular sections was “Te Friendship Corner” (Rincon de la Amistad), usually on pages 42 and 43 in every issue of the journal. Tis section published information about foreign countries, focusing specifcally on one in every issue. Text about that country’s history and current situation was accompanied by colored illustrations and maps. Te published materials mainly discussed the country in general terms and usually did not pay much attention to the situation of women or the women’s movement specifcally. What did the editors of the journal consider important to communicate to their readers about these countries? If we look at the material on Mexico as an example (Mujeres 1978 1: 42–3), the entry started with the country’s geography but paid a lot of attention to the lives of the indigenous population from the time of the European conquest of the continent up to the present, and to its cultural heritage and languages. Te article also informed readers about Mexico’s war for independence and the present-day problems of Mexican society, including its high unemployment rate. Te article was accompanied by pictures of Mexico City, some cultural heritage sites, and a picture of the Mexican president, Lopez Portillo, presented as a reformist leader of the country. In another issue, the same section was dedicated to Paraguay (1978 2: 42–3), and presented this country under the subtitle “Tyranny and dependence,” mainly focusing on problems of its economic dependence on international consortiums and on the military dictatorship that was bringing terror to its citizens. In contrast to the article on Mexico, this one had a special section dedicated to the situation of women, describing the difculties faced by married women in fnding work and highlighting women’s activism in the countryside, where they had organized themselves to defend their rights as landowners. Te presentation about Paraguay also informed readers about child poverty in the country. It is fair to say that the countries enjoying central place in the section “Te Friendship Corner” represented Latin America, Africa, and some East- and === [PDF page 159] === 146 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery South-European countries, mainly state socialist ones. During 1978–9, for example, the materials in this section were dedicated to Puerto Rico, Hungary, Poland, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Libya, Benin, Cyprus, Guinea-Bissau, Yugoslavia, and Mozambique, among others. Furthermore, the journal published materials about diferent activities in connection to “Friendship Corner,” symbolically bringing together women from diferent countries. For example, one of the issues from 1978 published a text by Ires Davila dedicated to the diferent meanings and expressions of solidarity, including pictures of “corners of friendship”—exhibitions dedicated to solidarity and cooperation with particular countries organized in Cuba as a part of the International Youth Festival (Mujeres 1978 8: 8–9). In contrast to “Te Friendship Corner,” with its encyclopedic and educational style, the section “In the diferent continents” (Por los continentos) was dedicated to women’s movements, important international events, and female and male activists from foreign countries during the twentieth century. In 1978–9, for example, the materials in this section dealt with the activities of famous Communists, such as Georgy Dimitrov from Bulgaria (1978 6: 73), and Vilma Espín’s presidency of the Cuban Committee participating in the UN’s International Year of the Child (1978 6: 73), as well as diferent countries’ preparations for the Youth Festival in Havana in 1978 (1978 5: 70–1). Tis section also dedicated space to Angolan women fghting at the front (1978 3: 70) and to the female Jamaican ambassador to Cuba, Lucille Maud Mathurin (1978 7: 70). “In diferent continents” also drew readers’ attention to negative developments in the “capitalist” world— discrimination of women in the United States (Mujeres 1978 6: 27); the lives of US indigenous populations (Mujeres 1978 9: 71), and growing levels of criminality in Israel (Mujeres 1978 2: 71). Tus, it is possible to say that this section instructed the Cuban women about revolutionary Cuba’s geopolitical friends and enemies, including in the realm of women’s involvement in international politics. Together with these two sections, in 1975 the journal also published one sub-section dedicated specifcally to the countries and cultures of Latin America: “From our America” (De nuestra America). Te title itself indicates direct connection to Cuban anticolonial (going back to Jose Martí, one of the === [PDF page 160] === Internationalism from Havana 147 central fgures of the Cuban struggle for independence) and anti-imperialist thinking (see Retamar 1997; Díaz Canals 2016). One of the issues in this section speaks about Argentinian gauchos, but also informed readers about the situation in Chile under the military dictatorship (Mujeres 1975 1: 52–3), while number three published material about the dancing tradition from South America, cueca (Mujeres 1975 3: 52–3). Tus, in contrast to the other sections, which also published material on Latin American countries, the aim of this section seems to have been to contribute to building a new (Pan-American) cultural identity for Cuban women in the spirit of anti-US imperialism and Che Guevara’s ideas on building new solidarities across the continent (and not least, as a propagandistic answer to the “Alliance for Progress” program proposed by the President John Kennedy in 1961 at a conference supported by the Organization of American States (Che 1961)). Apart from these special sections, Mujeres published articles in the form of reports and pictures, as well as some focused on examples of Cuban experiences of practicing solidarity and internationalism. In the years 1978 and 1979, the countries that received most attention within the framework of solidarity were Vietnam and Angola. Among the articles on Vietnam were some informing readers about the situation of children in the country (Mujeres 1979 5: 22–3) and about Vietnamese women (Mujeres 1978 9: 18–19). Among the articles dedicated to solidarity with Angola, it is possible to fnd texts about a Cuban mothers’ internationalist organization supporting Angolan school students at a school for African children (Mujeres 1978 5: 4–5; also Mujeres 1980 11: 50–1) and about a unit of Cuban teachers who were preparing to work in Angola (Mujeres 1978 2: 48–9). Tis last article, by Alicia Berdasco, was entitled “Soldiers of Education” and described the students on the courses preparing volunteers, mainly men and women aged nineteen years, to serve as teachers in Angola’s primary schools as part of the “Che Guevara” pedagogical detachment. Te article shows the students on these courses to be enthusiastic about their future task of helping to fght the legacies of colonialism. Such publications aimed at presenting Cuban women as being a part of the fght against colonial legacies and imperialism, and thus, as having agency to directly infuence politics and, not least, to improve the status of women abroad in practice through travel as part of the solidarity detachments === [PDF page 161] === 148 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery organized by the Cuban government. It is thus possible to say that already at the level of ofcial expectations, the construction of the female self in Cuba difered a lot from the one in Uzbekistan, where it was mainly centered around the demonstration of achievements rather than on practical involvement with transnational solidarities on the everyday level. During the early 1980s, Mujeres partially changed the composition of its sections and, in connection with the ongoing UN Decade for Women, started publishing a section directly addressing the situation and activism of women abroad, as well as chronicling remarkable women of the past and present: “Woman in the World” (La Mujer en el mundo). For example, in the issues from 1981, it is possible to fnd an article about the UN General Assembly adopting changes to its program of the second fve years of the UN Decade for Women (Mujeres 1981 3: 46) and about Angolan women (Mujeres 1981 5: 46). Te issue from the summer of 1985 contained an article about the Second World War sniper from Soviet Ukraine, Liudmila Pavlichenko,6 as well as an article on discrimination against women in Venezuela (Mujeres 1985 7: 52–3). Not least, a big interview with the secretary general of the UN Conference in Nairobi, Leticia Shahani, was published afer her visit to Cuba (Mujeres 1985 4: 8–9). Tus, it could be said that, in contrast to other sections, which aimed to tell readers about positive developments in friendly countries and to contrast life in Cuba with life in countries that had not experienced a socialist revolution, during the 1980s the journal started to pay more attention to the attempts made by global governance organizations to infuence women’s status and to stress the agency of individual women (however, mainly also from countries seen as ideologically close). At the same time, the journal continued to report on the South–Eastern countries, solidarities, and connections that had previously been its focus. As previously stated, the events and people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union took an important place in the journal. Together with articles on this region published under the specifc sections that I have already mentioned, Mujeres published other material, the majority of which was about the Soviet Union. Tese included Soviet-style propaganda texts about the achievements of socialism in the USSR (Mujeres 1973 8: 7), or about the twenty years of Soviet–Cuban friendship (Mujeres 1980 5: 26–7), which were probably copied === [PDF page 162] === Internationalism from Havana 149 directly from the Soviet press as part of cooperation between women’s journals from two countries. Te last mentioned article, for example, was accompanied by a large picture showing Fidel Castro and Leonid Brezhnev (with Castro’s hand on Brezhnev’s shoulder) and, on the second page, by a smaller picture of the leaders of women’s organizations of the two countries: Vilma Espín and Valentina Tereshkova. Tese pictures were probably intended to symbolize Soviet–Cuban unity on several levels; however, women’s cooperation only took second place. Nevertheless, it is possible to see that such publications usually paid same or even more attention to Cuban leaders and participants in bilateral meetings than to Soviet ones. It is also important to note that, although the journal repeatedly gave space to informing readers about Soviet women, the choice of the geopolitical perspective and individuals created a narrative that was quite diferent from that of Soviet publications and focused primarily on women who had fulflled military tasks in the past or other extraordinary women (almost entirely avoiding issues of the ordinary lives of women in the Soviet Union). Together with articles on Valentina Tereshkova, which focused on the frst female astronaut’s biography (Mujeres 1978 6: 50–1), and the famous Ukrainian sniper I mentioned above, the journal published an article about Nadezhda Popova, titled “Te Soviet Komsomol Woman,”7 which presented an example of a woman who was ready to defend her country as a pilot during the Second World War (Mujeres 1973 2: 10). Tese presentations of Soviet women were probably intended to create a good example for Cuban women, who were expected to defend their land, including by the use of arms. Furthermore, publications about state socialist countries also included information about various aspects of social and cultural politics that could illustrate similarities in socialist development or cultural connections. For example, Mujeres published material about the social protection of maternity and children, including about kindergartens in Hungary (Mujeres 1979 4: 74–5) and a maternity hospital in Czechoslovakia, with a picture of newborn babies; the last article also informed its readers about the help that mothers in that state socialist country could receive during pregnancy (Mujeres 1979 5: 58–9). Te articles about women in state socialist countries also included information stressing diferent forms of connections with Cuba: in 1978, for example, the journal published an article === [PDF page 163] === 150 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery on teaching the Russian language to foreigners in Moscow (Mujeres 1978 10: 58–9). Finally, it is important to note that, among the articles about the Soviet Union, several were dedicated specifcally to the borderlands (non-Russian and colonial parts) and presented, for example, Turkmen carpets (Mujeres 1980: 43–4), or the Moldovan poet, Ian Renitse (Mujeres 1980 6: 13). Apart from women from the state socialist countries, Mujeres presented to its Cuban readers many prominent women from Latin American and African countries—usually approached from the perspective of Tirdworldist solidarities. Many of the women who were interviewed by Mujeres brought together problems and struggles concerning the interests of their own countries and peoples with issues connected to the status of women in society and their rights. At the same time, in several cases, their motherhood was also stressed. For example, issue two from 1978 published information about a visit to Cuba by two highly positioned women: Beverly Manley, the wife of Jamaica’s president and the head of a women’s organization in Jamaica (Mujeres 1978 2: 14–5; a special interview with Manley was also published in 1979 10: 13), and Graça Machel, the minister for education and culture in Mozambique, and the wife of its leader, Samora Machel (Mujeres 1978 2: 22–3). Tis second interview, addressing Machel as “comrade,” discussed the nationalization of education, the reforms taking place in Mozambique, and the participation of writers and artists in the revolutionary process, as well as work opposing discrimination against women and for the elimination of illiteracy among women. Jeanne Martin Cissé was also the protagonist of an article in Mujeres, published in 1973 and dedicated to women in Guinea (Mujeres 1973 2: 84–5). Praising Cissé’s important role in women’s rights activism at the UN level and informing readers about her earlier visit to Cuba in 1971, the article simultaneously paid attention to her role as a mother, noting that, as the mother of six, she always took at least one of her children with her every time she went abroad, including to UN meetings. Mujeres published articles about African American civil rights activists and protesters against the war in Vietnam as well. In particular, the article dedicated to Angela Davis and Billy Dean Smith, a Black American soldier suspected of killing of two ofcers as a protest against the war but acquainted by a jury, was published in connection to their visit to Cuba in 1973. While the interview with Davis === [PDF page 164] === Internationalism from Havana 151 focused mainly on the Vietnam war and anti-war solidarity (Mujeres 1973 2: 86–7), the journal connected Davis to women’s problems in the next issue: a picture of her visiting a kindergarten in Cuba was published (1973 3: 12). On the basis of this brief analysis of the publications in Mujeres, it is possible to say that, while the journal mainly ignored the ideas, discussions, achievements, and activism of women in countries defned as “imperialist” or “capitalist,” it paid special attention to women in Africa and Latin America, focusing particularly on Cuba’s and FMC’s cooperation with them. Meanwhile, women from the state socialist countries were presented selectively: Mujeres addressed mainly those aspects of the lives of women at the state socialist “center” that could be compared with the lives of Cuban women at the periphery or were relevant as progressive examples. Finally, the internationalism of Cuban women was presented as a result of the Cuban revolution of 1959, mainly ignoring earlier participation of Cuban women in Pan-American feminism (see Marino 2019). As a result, Cuban female readers received a highly selective view of women’s problems and global agendas. Such a selective picture aimed to construct an attractive image of women in specifc regions in order to bring these distant women closer to the Cuban reader. Te journal promoted the active involvement of Cuban women in fnding solutions for problems of underdevelopment and gender inequality worldwide, but prevented them to learn about many new developments in feminist thinking. Coming Together in (and via) Havana: Meanings, Efects, and Contradictions Te publications of Mujeres explored in the previous section suggest that the FMC presented transnational cooperation and solidarity work with East– South women’s organizations and networks as an important part of life for women in revolutionary Cuba. However, what can be said about the interest in the Cuban experience inside the East–South networks and the infuence the Cuban women had there? How much and in what ways were the women’s gatherings in Havana diferent from other South–East women’s gatherings, including those in Tashkent? === [PDF page 165] === 152 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery In this section, I look closer at some examples of Cuban women’s political tourism and hospitality—from representing Cuba at the UN conferences to their activities as part of the WIDF agenda to the organization of events in the name of improving women’s status in Havana. I also introduce the school for Latin American female activists, which opened in Havana in 1978 (I will discuss this school more in detail in Chapter 7). It is important to note that, similar to many women’s organizations in postcolonial countries, the new (post)revolutionary women’s organization in Cuba was itself partly a result of women’s internationalism. Indeed, according to Michelle Chase, the participation of the Cuban women’s delegation, headed by Vilma Espín, in the frst Latin American women’s conference, organized by the WIDF in Santiago de Chile in 1959, had an impact on the future Cuban women’s organization, the FMC, which was created in 1960 (Chase 2019). Being the only women’s organization in the country afer 1960, the FMC replaced the previous Cuban representative on the WIDF, the Democratic Organization of Cuban Women, and became an active participant in the WIDF’s transnational activities. In particular, the FMC leader, Espín, was elected as a WIDF board member and served as the WIDF vice president from 1965 till the end of the Cold War (Torres Santana & Chase 2023, 626). Cuban women’s cooperation with women of the state socialist countries increased, and the FMC members found inspiration in how gender equality was organized there. For example, when the frst delegations of the FMC regional leaders visited and travelled through to the Soviet Union in 1965 (see Chapter 2), they did so in order to learn more about the Soviet model of equality and, in particular, about childcare and women’s work outside of home. Te FMC’s broader involvement in the WIDF’s activities led to a situation where a much bigger number of Cuban women, as compared to before 1959, were taking part in women’s transnational gatherings sponsored by this organization. Such gatherings ofered Cuban women the possibility to share their revolutionary experiences in the South–East networks. For example, Cuban women were invited to speak at several seminars on women’s education, organized in Africa (Khartoum 1970; Algiers 1974) and Latin America (Lima 1974) where they shared the Cuban experience of the successful literacy campaign. As a result of new involvements in the East–South networks, Vilma Espín (the head of the FMC until her death in 2007) and several other FMC === [PDF page 166] === Internationalism from Havana 153 leaders—including Yolanda Ferrer and Dora Carcaño—have reached big visibility internationally. Ferrer was a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, an MP, and later, from 2007, became the head of the FMC; she also became the one responsible for the publication of the works and ofcial biography of Espín.8 A short flm produced by the Cuban Parliament (dedicated to commemorate Ferrer afer her death in 2023) presents her surrounded by women’s activists from diferent countries.9 Dora Carcaño (1934–2021) was born in Spain to Republican parents who went into exile afer the civil war and came to Cuba in 1944.10 During the 1980s–2000s, Carcaño served as the head of the WIDF Ofce for Latin America11 and it was she who was in charge of the school for Latin American women organized in Havana in 1978. Te Cuban women’s delegations actively participated in all UN Women’s conferences of the IWY and the UN Decade for Women, where they raised issues of gender equality and East–South solidarity. Te Cuban women’s delegations also took part in the preparatory work for the conferences, in particular, those in Copenhagen (1980) and Nairobi (1985). For example, in the context of the preparations for the UN Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1980, the FMC high-level delegation visited Iraq (Mujeres 1980 6: 76–7) and India (Mujeres 1980 8: 74–5). During their visit to India, the FMC delegation—Vilma Espín and Yolanda Ferrer—invited by the National Federation of Indian Women, was also received by the Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi. According to the article in Mujeres, the FMC delegation participated in ten public meetings in diferent parts of the country, where they explained the role of Cuban women in society during the twenty-one years that had passed since the revolution (Mujeres 1980 9: 73). Te material preserved in the FMC Documentation Center in Havana suggests that the participation of Cuban women in the WIDF’s activities in the 1970s–80s was connected to their cooperation with women’s organizations in Latin America, both members and non-members of the WIDF. Indeed, Cuba was ofen delegated responsibility to speak in the name of the WIDF at diferent events concerning Latin America, thus fulflling Cuban leadership’s aspirations to be presented as a leader of “our America.” For example, in March 1981, the WIDF general secretary, Mirjam Vire-Tuominen, invited the FMC === [PDF page 167] === 154 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery to send one of its representatives to participate in a conference of the Costa Rican women’s group “Women’s Equality in Society” (San Jose, June 1981); the participants at this gathering were planning to discuss, among other things, the upcoming WIDF Congress in Prague the same year (FMC documents, DC). Among the letters that the FMC received from WIDF headquarters in East Berlin during the same year was an invitation to join the celebration of the anniversary of Simon Bolivar, as well as a conference on solidarity with Uruguay organized in Barcelona by a Catalan organization. Together with these letters demonstrating the FMC’s “responsibility” for issues relating to Latin America in the WIDF, the Documentation Center has also preserved several documents shedding more light on the gatherings of Latin American women in connection with WIDF events and the FMC’s role there. For example, it has preserved minutes in Spanish of a meeting of Latin American members of the Bureau of the WIDF that took place in East Berlin in 1981, which was convened to discuss the results of the WIDF Congress in Prague that had taken place the same year. Te participants included famous leaders of South–East women’s networks, such as Fanny Edelman, an Argentinian Communist, former WIDF general secretary and leader of the Union of Argentinian Women (UMA) (for more on Edelman, see Valobra & Casola 2023) and Vilma Espín, head of the FMC. Te wife of Chilean president, Salvador Allende—who was murdered by the military dictatorship —Hortensia Bussi de Allende also took part in this meeting. Te informal tone of communication suggests that most of the participants had known each other for many years, and the general atmosphere of the meeting seems to have been very relaxed. Some of the speakers were addressed as “Comrades,” including the event’s chair, the Cuban representative on the WIDF Secretariat, “Comrade Dora” (Dora Carcaño), who opened the meeting. Nevertheless, some institutional and age hierarchies were visible: Fanny Edelman, for example, said that probably it would be more appropriate for her to address the participants as “dear daughters” (DC p. 9). Te topics discussed included the celebration of the frst anniversary of El Salvador’s Liberation Front, Farabundo Martì, congratulations to the women of Belize on their independence, as well as discussions about further solidarity with women from those countries in the region who were seen to be living in === [PDF page 168] === Internationalism from Havana 155 particularly difcult situations. According to the agenda, these countries were Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, and Cuba, thus suggesting that assumptions about “difcult situation” were made not least on ideological grounds (i.e., indicating the danger posed by “US imperialism”). However, some of the speakers presented the situation in their countries as particularly difcult due to a combination of factors. Te representative from Nicaragua, for example, spoke about hostile US politics, extreme poverty, and state debt (DC 5, 1981). Some women spoke about the events in their countries in more detail than others. Edelman, representing Argentina, spoke about the military dictatorship, arrests, torture, and the serious deterioration of the economic situation in Argentina, but also about the resistance by democratic forces. Vilma Espín in her speech remembered how difcult it had been for the Cuban people to fght imperialism in the past and expressed her pride in the new generation fghting imperialism in other countries. In this way, Espín established a certain hierarchy in the room: “we” referred to those who had already achieved some results, while “you” (of whom she was proud) were still on the way (DC p. 16, 1981). Indeed, problems that women in Cuba had were not mentioned at all. Furthermore, Espín also demonstrated that she cared about the development of the women’s movement in Latin America: she said that, during the congress, she had shared her opinion with a journalist from Czechoslovakia about the importance of special attention being paid to female activists from developing countries during the congress (DC p. 15, 1981). However, the picture of harmony between the FMC, the WIDF leadership, and leaders of some of the women’s organizations from Latin America cannot be taken for granted and hides many contradictions and disagreements present in these relationships and rarely detectable in ofcial publications. As I already wrote, the FMC became an active participant in the WIDF’s transnational activities immediately afer its founding. As early as 1961, a WIDF delegation was invited to visit Cuba, and three of its representatives— Elena Vilcoci, Margareta del Ponce, and Zinaida Lebedeva—spent three weeks traveling to diferent parts of the country, observing changes in the social organization and women’s lives, and meeting Cuban women. Information about this trip was published by Lebedeva, the Soviet representative at the WIDF Secretariat in East Berlin at that time, in the form of a travelogue in === [PDF page 169] === 156 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the WIDF journal (ZM 1961: 8). Tis travelogue presented Cuba as a country experiencing a process of economic and social transformation in its attempt to build a secure and happy future for all its citizens. However, the FMC leaders did not plan to limit their internationalism only by working in the WIDF structures. As I have already stated, starting from the frst post-revolutionary years, the new Cuban revolutionary government saw itself as the leader of broader lefist movements and diferent organizations aspiring to revolutionary social change on the Latin American continent (inspired in part by Che Guevara’s ideas about “our America”—see above). One remarkable example of the politics that aimed to make Cuba a leader among those advocating radical political and social change in Latin America and Tirdworldist solidarity was the organization in Havana at the beginning of 1963 of the Congress of Women of the Americas (Congreso de mujeres de toda América). Tis Havana Congress was attended by delegations from most of the Latin American countries, with Mexico alone sending ninety-six women (Jiménez Álvarez & Reyes Castellanos 2000, 101), and was addressed by the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro. According to him, the women of the whole of America (the women of North, Central, and South America) had to become revolutionary.12 Tis congress was instrumental in strengthening East–South relationships at the Cold War peripheries: as well as forging cooperation and solidarity between the women of the American continent, the congress also declared Cuban women’s solidarity with women’s organizations in Africa and Asia. While this Congress is sometimes mentioned as being among the WIDF events, in practice it included only two representatives of the WIDF, namely General Secretary Rosa Jasovich and Elena Vilcoci, a member of the Secretariat, while neither its discussions nor its decisions received much attention in the WIDF’s publications. Furthermore, some of the documents preserved in the Soviet archives show that the Congress of 1963 in Havana, which took place in the same year as the WIDF Congress in Moscow, was an object of concern for Moscow and some of its close allies in Latin America. Tese concerns seem to have only grown bigger in the context of the multiple conficts that were part of the Moscow Women’s Congress; not least, those connected to the Soviet–China split (see Chapter 2). For example, the classifed report about the 1963 WIDF Moscow Congress written by Vera Kuteishchikova,13 with reference to the Mexican delegate to the Moscow === [PDF page 170] === Internationalism from Havana 157 Congress of 1963, Clementina Bassol, stated that the Congress of American Women in Havana did not “fully correspond to the WIDF program.” Te report also expressed concern that the “Chinese” might use the Cuban women’s organization for their own political goals (GARF 4 165, p. 201). Moscow’s concerns in relation to the Congress in Havana in 1963 were only one aspect of the tensions between the Soviet and Cuban women’s organizations that were perceptible during almost the whole frst post-revolutionary decade. In spite of the great interest expressed by FMC members and leaders in Soviet practices of gender equality (for more about the visit of the delegation of Cuban women to the USSR, see Chapter 2), not least in the institutions of public childcare (Espín 1991), the organization of Cuban women ofen demonstrated a certain independence and, even more importantly, its own understanding and ways of practicing internationalism. Such relative independence being enacted at the Cold War periphery led to irritation in the center. Tese tensions are visible, for example, in the classifed documents written by Lebedeva in connection to her frst visit to Cuba in 1961 as a part of the WIDF delegation. According to Lebedeva’s report, the FMC invited the WIDF delegation to visit Cuba and specifcally insisted that Lebedeva, who spoke Spanish, must be a part of this delegation (GARF 4 149, p. 28). However, in contrast to the report published by the WIDF journal, in her classifed report sent to the CSW (GARF 4 149, pp. 46–53), probably as a response to the CSW’s preoccupation with Soviet–Cuban relationships in general, and the relationships between the FMC and CSW in particular, Lebedeva pays special attention to the Cuban hospitality shown toward her, the representative of Soviet women and of the WIDF: In all the medical and children’s institutions we were shown condensed milk from the USSR and we received their gratitude, at the textile factory we were told that most of the cotton they use was sent from Uzbekistan. Also everywhere where Castro speaks, he speaks about our [Soviet] petrol, that we [the USSR] buy sugar at prices that are higher than international ones, other Soviet help also gets to be acknowledged. (GARF 4 149, p. 49) While it appears that Lebedeva is happy with the Cuban hospitality she is enjoying and the Cubans’ attitudes toward the Soviet Union, it is important === [PDF page 171] === 158 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery to note a certain superiority in her way of viewing Cuba: the Cubans were expected to show gratitude to the USSR and to follow the Soviet approach to transforming society, including reforms to the status of women. As I noted, the relationships between Cuban and Soviet women again became somewhat strained in the context of the Chino–Soviet split, and the discordances became particularly visible at the Moscow WIDF Congress in 1963. According to Kuteishchikova’s report, while many Latin American women who came to the Congress understood the “deadly danger of Chinese politics,” some women, and among them the Cuban ones, did not support Moscow in its confict with China (GARF 4 165, p. 202). While Kuteishchikova’s report does not discuss in detail the opinions of members of the Cuban delegation to the Moscow Congress, materials of the RFE/RL, preserved in the OSA collection, suggest that at least some members of the Cuban women’s delegation were not satisfed by the “sof” character of the discussions and positions toward “imperialism,” and that they were expecting stronger support for Vietnam and a critique of the ofcial Soviet “peaceful coexistence” doctrine at the WIDF Women’s Congress in Moscow. Tus, while the representatives of the Cuban delegation did not travel on from Moscow to Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese government, as did the delegations from Albania, North Korea, and some African countries (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 531), their sympathies seem not to have tended toward the Soviet side. At the same time, it is important to note that the years between 1963 and 1966 were a period when the East–South connections between peripheries started to include Soviet Central Asia to a greater extent than before. Indeed, in 1963, at the invitation of the Soviet government, Fidel Castro visited Tashkent, where Uzbekistan’s Communist Party frst secretary, Sharaf Rashidov, became his principal host. Pictures from the visit that can be found on Uzbek internet websites suggest the great importance of this visit by the Cuban revolutionary leader to the Soviet “Eastern” republic. Indeed, the connectivity seems to have been built not only at the ideological level but also at the emotional and everyday levels, with some pictures showing Castro wearing traditional Uzbek clothing, the chapan.14 Te connections thus established were further confrmed during the Tricontinental Conference in Havana: it was Rashidov who headed the Soviet delegation in 1966. === [PDF page 172] === Internationalism from Havana 159 Te Tricontinental Conference of 1966 further strengthened Cuban East– South (not necessarily Communist) connections (Garland Mahler 2018), which also infuenced the FMC’s work. In practice, this meant a reinforcement of the Cuban women’s organization’s East–South peripheral solidarities, rather than following Moscow’s geopolitical priorities. In this context, the central Soviet women’s organization, the CSW, continued to express concerns about Cuban women’s organization’s ideological position up to the late 1960s. For example, a letter sent to the Soviet ambassador in Cuba, Soldatov, on March 29, 1969, informed him about developments in the relationships between the Soviet and Cuban women’s organizations in the context of preparations for the next WIDF Women’s Congress, in Helsinki in 1969. Tis letter, sent by the representative of the CSW leadership, informed the Soviet ambassador that, at a meeting of women from ten state socialist countries in Moscow (March 13–15, 1969), the FMC was represented by Dora Carcaño and Lupa Belis and that, although before the meeting they had expressed some critical comments, at the meeting itself the Cuban delegation took a position that did not difer from that of other participants (GARF 3 2257, report by Fedorova). Still, according to documents preserved in Moscow, the CSW seems to begin to fully trust Cuban women only during the 1970s (the period known in Cuban history as the “grey period,” 1971–6, due to greater control by the state over cultural production and intellectual activity than before—GordonNesbitt 2015). It was during this period that, in 1973, the WIDF bureau meeting took place in Havana for the frst time (WWW 1973 3: 5–7, Mujeres 6: 4–5). In April of 1978 Havana hosted conference of women’s organizations of state socialist countries, where delegations from Eastern Europe, as well as from North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, were present (GARF 3 4488, p. 38). Te conference discussed preparations for the upcoming UN Year of the Child. Te guests are said to have visited the museum of the city of Havana, attended a concert, and to spend a day at Varadero beach, thus, completing the tourist part of the program as well. Furthermore, the Soviet report about the second congress of the FMC, which took place in Havana in 1974, did not note any special concerns or criticism with respect to how discussions there were going—thus, they were seen by the Soviets as mainly corresponding to their === [PDF page 173] === 160 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery expectations. Te report states that the congress celebrated the achievements of the organization and planned work for the further involvement of housewives in education and social work, opening more kindergartens, and achieving a more gender-equal distribution of housework (GARF 3 3536 p. 118, pp. 136–8). Te late 1970s also seems to have been a time of friendly relationships between the leaders of the Soviet (Tereshkova) and the Cuban (Espín) women’s organizations, with Espín sending personal greetings to Tereshkova and her family (GARF 3 2257, p. 49, March 21, 1978). Te Soviet fle on relationships between the FMC and CSW from this period has preserved a program showing the CSW delegation visiting Havana (March 1978) and meeting the FMC leadership, while the sightseeing part included a variant corresponding to Soviet ideological hospitality: visits to the memorial marking the site of revolutionary struggle in Cuba and the museum of Granma15 were combined with visiting a kindergarten and a hospital (GARF 3 2257, p. 36). Finally, the Soviet internal report about the FMC’s work during the 1980s preserved in the Soviet archives indicates quite harmonious relationships between the two organizations and specifcally notes positively that, starting from the 1970s, the number of materials published by Mujeres about the Soviet Union in general, and “about solutions to the women’s question in the USSR” in particular, was growing, while the journals Soviet Woman and Mujeres had established periodic exchanges of materials published by the two journals (GARF 3 5799, pp. 4–12). Te FMC’s collection shows that Cuban women played an important role in organizing, supporting, and hosting international East–South gatherings, such as the seminar dedicated to the situation of working women in the felds and in the city (Mexico City 1983) and on peace, development, and the happiness of women in South–East Asia (Hanoi 1984). Both of these seminars counted on the support of several important international bodies, including UN organizations (the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (henceforth, CEPAL) in Mexico City and UNESCO and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifc (henceforth ESCAP) in Hanoi). Finally, it is worth mentioning that the report on the fourth FMC congress (held in 1985) proudly wrote about this organization === [PDF page 174] === Internationalism from Havana 161 as an important part of the international women’s movement, contributing to the activities of the UN Decade for Women, cooperating with (state) socialist and NAM countries, and undertaking extensive work as international experts (FMC, iv Congress, 1985, pp. 106–32, Cuban Heritage Collection). Despite the seemingly full understanding between Cuban women and the WIDF in the 1970s to 1980s, I suggest looking at their relationships rather as widening as a result of reaching an agreement around the balance of power and interests. Indeed, the USSR and East European state socialist countries continued having difculties in spreading their infuence among Latin American women (see chapter on hospitality), ofen being confronted with agendas and discussions that seemed somehow alien and difcult to understand as they were developing in the context of the general antiCommunist atmosphere and authoritarian regimes of Latin America in the 1970s to 1980s. Transferring “responsibility” for Latin American women to Cuba in this case looked rather logical. In turn, while demonstrating support for Soviet politics in the region, Cuba could continue its own politics with respect to women that diverged a lot from the politics of East European state socialist countries. Indeed, Cuba could continue signifcant military and humanitarian help to Angola, Mozambique, and, later, Nicaragua, and several other countries, as well as sending Cuban women as part of the internationalista missions and keeping close ties with radical activists from diferent countries. Finally, it continued acceptance of broad political exile from Latin America (it was one of the reasons why Ana Montenegro felt herself there at home, see Chapter 1). Further, the FMC’s sexual and reproductive politics difered from those in the Soviet Union, primarily because they supported sexual education and oral contraception (see, e.g., Mujeres 1978, 11:67). Corresponding to the image translated to women inside of the country not least through Mujeres, the leadership of the Cuban women’s organization continued presenting themselves as those representing interests of East–South women at the international level. According to the articles published afer the UN conference and discussions at the Nairobi Non-Governmental Forum— “Final Point of the Decade?”—Cuban women contributed to discussions on a growing global awareness about the “role of women in development and === [PDF page 175] === 162 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery in society.” Te article suggested that the situation of women in Cuba should be seen as much better comparing to the one in many “underdeveloped countries” (paises subdesarrollados). Te latter could be defned as one of “the modern female slave” due to a total absence of nurseries, kindergartens, or health centers. Te article also stressed that prejudice, sexist cultural patterns, and discrimination on the grounds of race and gender are important hindrances on the way to the global improvement of women’s status (Mujeres 1985 7: 8–9). An article by Livia Agacino, published few months afer the conference, acclaimed the Kenyan women’s hospitality and again focused mainly on the issues important for underdeveloped countries, including the problem of external debt afecting women no less than men. At the same time, part of the article criticized the negative role of ofcial US representatives at the conference due to their lack of interest in discussing “political issues,” thus bringing the Cold War confict to the center of its presentation of the UN conference for Cuban women. Surprisingly, these articles did not provide much information about participants from the Eastern European state socialist countries (Mujeres 1985 10: 4–5). At the same time, the journal proudly reported on Cuban eforts at cultural diplomacy: following the invitation of the head of the Cuban state, Fidel Castro, more than ffy female delegates visited Cuba afer the conference in Nairobi to discuss the problems of external debt (Mujeres 1985 10: 6–7). Tus, the specifc power balance reached between the WIDF and the FMC in the late 1970s constituted the context within which the school for Latin American women was opened in Havana. Te school was part of the WIDF Regional Center (Ofcina Regional de la FDIM), which was inaugurated in January 1978 in Havana and, according to an article published in the WIDF journal in 1985 by Nancy Ruíz, the head of the school, its aim was to prepare leading members of the WIDF’s national organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean (WWW 1985 3: 7–8). In spite of its ofcial status as a school connected to the WIDF, its physical location in (Communist) Cuba, at a distance from the center of the Communist “East” while simultaneously close to Latin American social movements, guaranteed the school’s uniqueness. It seems that it was the school’s peripheral position (including inside the === [PDF page 176] === Internationalism from Havana 163 state socialist camp) that made it a lively place for South–East women’s transnational gatherings during the Cold War and even—for some time—afer its end. Indeed, being opened in the context of the UN’s Decade for Women, the school accumulated much educational potential and many contacts in the region. Receiving fnancial support from the Cuban government, and not only from the WIDF, the school continued its activities afer the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakdown of the Soviet Union, long into the 2000s.16 As I show in Chapter 7, during the frst ten years of its history, and in the context of growing tensions within the “Eastern bloc,” the school was already experiencing a signifcant transformation in terms of the content of its teaching and its students, and, as time went on, it was able to move away from the “Eastern (European) bloc” and the Soviet superpower while developing closer relationships with diferent lefist women’s organizations in Latin America. Indeed, it adjusted its educational programs to the needs of women in the region and, thus, came to be less dependent on the Cold War center in the Communist “East” at the moment of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Te school for Latin American women, known in Cuba as the school for “female cadres” (de cuadros femininos17), was opened on the premises of the school for Cuban activist women named afer Fe del Valle,18 created by the FMC for teaching its members, mid-level leaders from diferent parts of the country (OR course 1, 1978). An article dedicated to this school, which was published in Mujeres in 1975, described it as an important institution for realizing the goals of the Second Congress of the FMC that took place in 1974: the full integration of Cuban women into the political and social life of state socialist Cuba. Tus, the FMC’s mid-level leaders were expected to receive political and ideological training at the school to enable them to fulfll this task19 (Mujeres 1975 8: 18–19). Tus, the school for Latin American women, which opened in 1978, was aimed at using the accumulated Cuban experience of improving women’s status for establishing broader collaboration across the Latin American continent and to gain further strength in the cultural Cold War competition. Te Cuban women, however, were not expected to learn those feminist ideas that were not considered “revolutionary.” === [PDF page 177] === 164 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Describing Everyday Experiences of Internationalist Missions: Memories about Spreading the Revolution? Tis section aims to look closer at the Cuban women own presentation of their experiences of traveling abroad on internationalist missions launched by the Cuban state. Due to limited availability of the published memoirs, it is based on the book by the Cuban military woman Limbania Jiménez Rodríguez, containing an overview of the oral history project led by her in the 1990s. In contrast to the ofcial presentation of how Cuban women see women from other countries, in Mujeres, the book published by Jiménez Rodríguez in 2011 brings to light the mundane aspects of female Cuban volunteers’ participation in the internationalist missions abroad. Before looking in more detail at the stories presented in Jiménez Rodríguez’s book, however, it is important to discuss the context in which the stories were collected and published. It is not very easy for foreign researchers to gain permission to collect oral history materials in Cuba20 and, because of this, every publication founded on the basis of individual stories has enormous value for historians. At the same time, as in the case of the other autobiographical materials discussed in my book, their use requires special refexivity around regimes of political propaganda and censorship, as well as around an ofcial state socialist ideology on women and internationalism (as I have discussed above). Obviously, the material presented in the book by Jiménez Rodríguez is a result of selection, classifcation, and analysis conducted by its author, who is the supporter of the Cuban state. Furthermore, the book was published in Cuba and under continued state censorship, which undoubtedly infuenced the text on various levels of its production: the women who were telling their stories had chosen how to present their “internationalism,” while analyzing these stories the author of the book was guided by the dominant Cuban discourses about internationalism and, not least, when preparing the book for publication the publisher had to think about censorship rules. Tus, in order to understand what the information presented in the book can tell us (and what it cannot) it is important to take into account the discursive === [PDF page 178] === Internationalism from Havana 165 context of the interviews and these multiple levels of supervision, control, and (self)censorship. In the case of this book, both its importance for studying South–East women’s internationalism and the specifc difculties with validating the information contained within it are connected to the biography of its author herself. Following the information that can be found on Jiménez Rodríguez— from this book and her earlier publication, a pamphlet on women in Angola (1985, 2011)—it is obvious that the author herself has the past of a Cuban female “internationalist.” Jiménez Rodríguez was born in 1936, took part in the clandestine struggle against Batista, and served in the Cuban Revolutionary Military Forces afer that. Similar to some of the women she interviewed, she took part in Cuban military operations in Angola. On the other hand, Jiménez Rodríguez has a licentiate degree in social sciences, and afer collecting information in Angola, also using oral history, in 1985 she published a pamphlet entitled “Women Heroes of Angola,” dedicated to fve members of the Organization of Angolan Women21 who were murdered by the Portuguese army in 1967 during Angola’s war for independence.22 Te information about the author published on the cover of the frst book informs the reader about Jiménez Rodríguez’s experience of political travel outside of the military: she was one of the participants in the Moscow Youth Festival (in 1957) and in the Congress of Educators in Warsaw the same year (Jiménez Rodríguez 1985, 2). Tus, when Jiménez Rodríguez became part of the Cuban military, she already had some experience of traveling abroad on political business; however, we do not know anything about her involvement in women’s rights issues. Also, it seems to be particularly difcult to expect a critical perspective from her with respect to the intentions of the Cuban government or the motivations of women. On the contrary, it seems that similar to her pamphlet from 1985, Jiménez Rodríguez wrote the book about Cuban women who participated in missions abroad, published in 2011, to glorify, this time the Cuban women who participated in humanitarian and developmental, but also military, aid, mainly to countries in Africa (and predominantly Angola), but also Asia (such as Vietnam or Iraq) and Latin America (predominantly Nicaragua).23 At the same time, the book, even in such a form, contains very interesting, sometimes unique, information about these women’s experiences, feelings, and everyday === [PDF page 179] === 166 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery lives. Tis makes it an important—even though very difcult to analyze— source for my study. Tus, what can be learned about the women who were sent by the Cuban government on these special missions abroad? Who were they, how did they present their participation, and what can we learn about their experiences from Jiménez Rodríguez’s book? Her book is divided into several sections, describing women’s memories regarding their motives for traveling, their departure and travel to their destinations, their work in the foreign country, communication and everyday life there, and their evaluations of the experience of traveling abroad as internationalists. Te book is said to be based on about 300 oral history interviews collected by the author and her colleague in the late 1990s in Cuba, but only about half of these interviewees are mentioned by name at the end of the book.24 Te interviewed women mainly traveled abroad between 1971 and 1991. However, most of them probably cannot be named “political travelers” in a literal sense: some of them were dedicated mostly to pursuing their professional work and spent between one and two years in their respective countries. Nevertheless, their experiences are important for discussions about women’s internationalism at the Cold War periphery for several reasons. Some of them were working directly with representatives of women’s organizations and represented the FMC, while others participated in fghting illiteracy among women and improving women’s status through their work. Finally, as Jiménez Rodríguez describes them, most of these women perceived themselves as being on a political mission: even when working as medical or teaching personnel, these Cuban women saw themselves as performing the political and revolutionary task of helping East–South women to overcome colonial legacies or improve social security, or they were contributing to raising the level of education in the country. Tus, through working as nurses or medical doctors, for example, these Cuban women could share not only their professional knowledge but also their vision on development, rights, gender equality, and solidarity as women coming from revolutionary Cuba. According to the list of about 160 interviewees directly referred to in the book, most of the women were sent out by the Cuban Ministry of Health === [PDF page 180] === Internationalism from Havana 167 and Education. However, the list also includes some other professions, including military professionals and the FMC cadres who helped to organize the work of women’s organizations in Angola. Due to the book’s goals and, probably, the political context in which the interviews were collected, the author presents these Cuban women’s desire to use their knowledge to “help” women in other countries as the most common and principal motivation for their involvement (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 19). Tis would correspond to the expectations held by the Cuban society of women, which can be deduced on the basis of the journal Mujeres that I briefy analyzed above. Te author does not refect specifcally upon possible diferent interpretations of their motivations, such as “a great opportunity in my life,” which could have several possible explanations (Hatzky and notes that many Cubans who went to Angola were pursuing personal motive, 2015, 22), including a unique opportunity for traveling abroad, which can be considered important. However, the material presented in the book suggests that, similar to the cases of other state socialist countries when Eastern European or Soviet citizens embarked upon travel to provide help to other countries to overcome colonial legacies (see, e.g., Burton et al. 2021, on GDR citizens work in Africa), the possibility of travel abroad could itself be a serious motivation for many women. Indeed, taking into account the fact that traveling on business, including internationalist missions, was almost the only way to travel abroad for Cuban citizens afer 1959, this is very likely, and several women remembered their participation in the mission as their frst trip abroad. Indeed, the Cuban government, similar to the Soviet one (see Golden’s memoirs, Chapter 2), feared that those who were dissatisfed with the “socialist” system would emigrate (or engage with the media or secret services in the “Western” camp).25 Tus, it is also possible to speak about the tourist gaze of many volunteers, who observed new cities and agricultural traditions, as well as unfamiliar customs and cultures. At the same time, Jiménez Rodríguez pays special attention to the specifcs of doing internationalism while having a female reproductive body and being surrounded by gendered norms which—as can be seen in the stories—meant that the Cuban women had the main caring responsibilities within the family. In === [PDF page 181] === 168 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery particular, the author pays great attention to women’s status as mothers (which is also presented in a diagram in the appendix to the book) and their assumed maternal and caring responsibilities. In particular, the quoted stories provide many examples of how the problems of childcare (and also care for other relatives) were a preoccupation for the departing women, and the solutions that they found. Most of the women traveling abroad were mothers, according to Jiménez Rodríguez, and about half of them had underage children (more than 90 percent, mainly either one or two children), and about 19 percent had children under the age of fve (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, appendix). Te quotes from interviews cited by Jiménez Rodríguez suggest that it was mainly grandparents and female relatives who were asked (or volunteered) to take care of the children while these women were abroad; in some cases, relatives moved in with the children, and in others, the children moved to their homes (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 24–9). As well as describing, rather sentimentally, the moments of leaving families and friends on the day of departure, Jiménez Rodríguez paid a lot of attention to women’s stories about their experiences of traveling toward their destinations. Indeed, for many women, it was not only their frst trip abroad in their lives, but they were fying or traveling on an oceangoing ship for the frst time as well (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 34). Tus, the moment of leaving Havana and starting the journey was particularly memorable for those departing to fulfll their “internationalist duties” in Africa or Asia. Additionally, some of the interviewed women remembered that, in some cases, the journey itself was very dangerous due to fying in older models of planes (which were already considered obsolete in many other countries), as well as in cases of transporting arms together with people in the same plane (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 40, 51). Tus, it is possible to suppose that even the Cuban women departing to undertake professional work as teachers and nurses still might fnd themselves in the situation of a kind of traveling adventure and had to fnd solutions to situations that not only challenged established gender roles but also carried a threat to life. Arriving at their destinations, and in spite of their special training programs before departure, many of the women were surprised and dismayed by the situation they found themselves in. Tis was connected not only to obvious === [PDF page 182] === Internationalism from Havana 169 dangers in the context of ongoing war and conficts (as in the cases of Angola and Nicaragua), but the women were also dismayed by their housing conditions (such as sharing a small living space with a host peasant family in Nicaragua— Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 80), a lack of food supplies and clean water, language problems, or a lack of communication outside of the workplace. While many informed Jiménez Rodríguez that they were proud to be “helping” people in the host country, the stories of Cuban women that are recounted in her book also contain information about being depressed and severely afected by the poverty of the people at their destinations. Some of the women were also very unimpressed by some of the discriminatory traditions and customs they encountered in the host societies (not least, female genital mutilation or female seclusion—Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 207–8). However, the interviewees whom Jiménez Rodríguez quoted mainly described themselves as ready to adapt to the local conditions, including the physical deprivations mentioned above. In addition, some of the interviewed women stated that they were willing to share a part of the local customs and traditions even if they did not look very attractive at the beginning. For example, eating with one’s hands together with the local women was an example of showing friendliness and respect to the local population (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 207). In several cases, in particular in Nicaragua, where the Cubans shared the same language and ofen lived with the family in small peasant houses, they said that they felt themselves to be rather well “integrated” into their new “families” and commented about bringing gifs (such as school materials in the case of Nicaragua) when returning from holidays in Cuba (Jiménez Rodríguez 2011, 123). Tus, many of the women quoted in Jiménez Rodríguez’s book were described as feeling themselves to be women internationalists even outside of their work, particularly when teaching the local women about gender equality, women’s rights, and how to fght against domestic violence. In general, the book by Jiménez Rodríguez presents an interesting picture of ordinary Cuban women’s East–South internationalism realized through the Cuban state’s decisions and toward countries chosen by it, but still involving a lot of individual women’s initiatives. In addition to highlighting the insecurity of the receiving countries, these stories simultaneously === [PDF page 183] === 170 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery portrayed Communist Cuba as a developed and secure nation. Furthermore, it is possible to state that, in many cases, Cuban women’s participation in the internationalist missions abroad led to the creation and strengthening of personal and professional connections between them and women in the host countries and, thus, contributed to South–East networks as well as to the spreading of new international norms for the rights of women. Although the author’s story is not generally in confict with the ofcial Cuban narrative, it can be seen as also supporting the conclusions of more recent research on Latin America, which stresses the importance of Cuban revolutionary missions, specifcally to Africa, for strengthening Cuban society’s internal cohesion and external position vis-à-vis both superpowers (see, e.g., Spenser 2008, 384–5). On the basis of the analyzed documents and published overview of women’s memories of traveling to other countries with a mission of (Communist) internationalism, it is possible to state that, in the Cuban case (as well as in the case of women from Central Asia), state politics of internationalism had many diferent meanings and was ofen used for changing goals. Indeed, the FMC’s East–South internationalism was connected to the ideological and geopolitical choices and preferences of the Cuban leadership (to which the head of the FMC, Espín, also belonged). While the Cuban women’s organization, the FMC, could not act autonomously from the state or the party apparatus in its internationalism (similar to women’s organizations in the Soviet Union and Uzbekistan), still, it seems that East–South transnational networks opened the possibility for more diverse activities and individual initiatives in the interests of women; not all of them were directly sponsored by the state. Te memories discussed in the book by Jiménez Rodríguez, in spite of the limitations connected to the glorifcation of women on “revolutionary mission” and to censorship regimes, illustrate the success of both the FMC and the Cuban government in spreading internationalist ideas (as expressed in Mujeres) among Cuban women, and, at the same time, the complexity and multiplicity of reasons and scenarios for participating in transnational activity and East–South connectivity between women on an individual level. === [PDF page 184] === Internationalism from Havana 171 Conclusion Concluding this chapter, it is possible to say that Cuban women have played an important role in women’s internationalism during the 1970s and 1980s with Latin America as an important focus. Te FMC representatives, who spoke on revolutionary changes in the lives of Cuban women at UN conferences, transnational gatherings, seminars, and other events dedicated to women’s rights, contributed to the global changes in the status of women. Te geopolitical position of Cuba in Latin America and its government’s special eforts to stress the achievements of gender equality in the postcolonial, non-White, and anti-imperialist country, thanks to the revolution, indicated the possibility of change in other parts of the (imagined) “our America” (nuestra America). It made the voices of the representatives of the FMC and the experiences they shared be heard by many women’s organizations who struggled against poverty, and who worked for the improvement of women’s status in their society at their agenda. While many women’s organizations in Latin America considered themselves to be rather a part of the Lef. Cuba’s status as a “dangerous” Communist country during the Cold War as well as its geopolitical isolation in Latin America was not seen as that big of a barrier for communication between women’s organizations because many of these organizations in Latin America considered themselves to be on the side of the Lef already. Indeed, Cuban women maintained good relationships with many women’s organizations in the region and more broadly in the “Tird World.” On the other hand, while the Cuban women’s international visibility was connected to Cuba’s geopolitics of “Tirdworldism” and solidarity (a signifcant part of internacionalismo), the FMC’s strength in the region was also partly secured through logistical and fnancial support from the state socialist countries, in particular the Soviet Union, and the WIDF. Te analysis of the FMC journal for Cuban women, Mujeres, also suggests that the Cuban women were widely exposed to discussions about women’s activism and status abroad, however, mainly in South–East. At the same time, as the publications of Mujeres implied, the women of Cuba were expected to make international connections selectively, depending of the Cuban state’s === [PDF page 185] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery 172 choice of ideological friends and enemies. Indeed. Mujeres, similar to the WIDF journal, did not publish critical material concerning the situation of women in those countries that were seen as “friends” and allies. As for those female political tourists who were visiting Cuba, it is easy to suppose that, as in the case of Central Asian hospitality, international female guests were presented only with a part of the gendered and racialized reality. Still, some of the guests could fnd the Cuban approach to dealing with inequalities useful; I am going to discuss it further while exploring the school for female activists in Havana in Chapter 7. While women who participated in internationalist missions organized by the Cuban government during the late Cold War period do not seem to have much visibility in contemporary Cuba, the book by Jiménez Rodríguez suggests not only the special place they had in Cuban society during the period when these missions were propagandized by the Cuban government but also the impact they had on some of the communities and societies in which they worked, not least with respect to women’s rights and gender equality. On the other hand, while the women who traveled were interested in the main aim of their mission, their decision to become “internationalists” was also connected to other, more practical, interests, like traveling abroad or getting working experience in another country. It is also worth noting that, as opposed to the Soviet political tourists, Cuban women internationalists generally were seen as being closer to the women they worked with on an everyday level (even if “sisterhood” is not mentioned in the book), not least due to similarity of their appearance to the Black and Brown communities they were helping and because of the Tirdworldist ideology of state internationalism. Notes 1 It is important to note that the "revolutionary" order in the country functioned not least through limitations of civil rights and forced labor system existing until 1968. === [PDF page 186] === Internationalism from Havana 173 2 It was the only journal for women until 1980, when a new journal for younger women, Muchacha, started to be published by the same editorial house. https:// www.ecured.cu/Muchacha_ (revista). 3 https://www.presidencia.gob.cu/es/noticias/solidaridad-e-internacionalismo -banderas-sagradas-de-fdel-castro/. 4 I want to diferentiate between Cuban state politics of “internationalism” and a specifc women’s internationalism I discuss in this book, following Sluga. 5 Independent feminist grassroots in Cuba had more possibilities for developing only in the 2000s—(see Maidana et al. 2021). 6 It is important to note that, in the context of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, Pavlichenko has been reclaimed as part of Ukraine’s heroic past by some of Ukraine’s internet portals: see https://uinp.gov.ua/istorychnyy-kalendar/lypen /12/1916-narodylasya-lyudmyla-pavlychenko-snayperka. 7 Te article by Iraida Campos was entitled “Nadezda, la komsomola que no enviejese” and was dedicated to Nadezhda Popova. 8 Granma, https://www.granma.cu/cuba/2015-06-17/presentan-en-cienfuegos -libro-sobre-vilma-espin. 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKQocj5Rv0w. 10 Dora Carcaño was born in Spain. During the 1980s–2000s, Carcaño served as the head of the WIDF Ofce for Latin America https://www.tercerainformacion.es/articulo/actualidad/memoria-historica/27/09/2016/cronicas-de-la-revolucion -cubana-dora-carcano-araujo/. 11 https://www.tercerainformacion.es/articulo/actualidad/memoria-historica/27/09 /2016/cronicas-de-la-revolucion-cubana-dora-carcano-araujo/. 12 www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1963/01/16.htm. 13 Kuteishchikova was a professional Latin Americanist working in the newly created Institute of Latin America in Moscow (this institute has played a similar role in Soviet foreign politics as the Institute of Africa, see Rupprecht 2015). 14 https://centralasia.media/news:1347042. 15 Granma was the name of the boat that transported Cuban revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba. 16 During 2023, the leadership of the Regional Ofce expressed the hope that the school could open to students again (personal communication with those working at the WIDF’s ofce). 17 Tis unofcial name for the institution indicates the ideological proximity of the idea of this school to the preparation of other “cadres”—for party work, work to eliminate illiteracy, and so on. === [PDF page 187] === East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery 174 18 Te name of the building comes from the name of a female activist who tragically died in an arson attack organized by anti-revolutionary forces in 1961, Fe de Valle Ramos. 19 Te school’s director was Tania Sera. 20 See, for example, about oral history projects from the UK: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/cuban-oral-history/index.page; see also Christine Hatzky— about the presence of Cuban ofcials during some of her interviews of former Cuban volunteers in Angola (Hatzky 2015, 23). 21 https://amecopress.net/El-libro-Heroinas-de-Angola-un-preciado-legado -historico. 22 Now they are the national heroines of Angola, and the Day of Women of Angola is celebrated on the day of their assassination. 23 Among these countries is also Armenia (probably in connection with help with the consequences of the earthquake of 1988, when it was still part of the Soviet Union). 24 Te author wrote that some interview transcripts were lost. 25 Tere were only a few periods afer the Cuban revolution of 1959 when the Cuban government allowed emigration (and even encouraged the emigration of those who were considered non-conforming with the regime, including homosexual people and criminals), the best-known being the case of Mariel in 1980 (Hamilton 2012, 117–48). === [PDF page 188] === Internationalism, “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights While the two previous chapters were centered on two geopolitical localities at the Cold War periphery that were important for women’s transnational coming together and connectivity through established networks, this chapter and the next are dedicated to selected issues that were at the center of interest for East–South networks as important for the improvement of women’s status. Tese issues were discussed at a number of transnational meetings, seminars, and other forms of East–South women’s gatherings, not least those taking place in Havana and Tashkent. As I have already mentioned, East–South gatherings were ofen dedicated to a combination of themes and were frequently presented as anchored in the discussions led by UNESCO, the ILO, UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), CEPAL, and some other global and regional organizations. At the same time, and in spite of their advocacy of global cooperation, these South–East women’s gatherings partly refected cultural Cold War preferences and prejudices, while the state socialist hosts’ non-ofcial agenda was about gaining advances for the “Eastern bloc.” Tis is visible in the material published in the WIDF journal; as I have already shown, reports on diferent seminars and congresses, such as the case of Moscow Congress of 1963, did not refect the conficts or diferent opinions expressed at these gatherings. Instead, the journal presented the event in such a form that it would better correspond to the Soviet hosts’ agenda. Nevertheless, it seems to be important to pay attention to the reports/declarations/refections connected to the events taking place at, or originating from, the South–East periphery and appearing in the WIDF’s journal, which was published in East === [PDF page 189] === 176 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Berlin in several languages. Indeed, for many South–East activists in diferent countries who did not travel abroad very ofen, the WIDF’s ofcial publication constituted one of the most important sources of information about the problems of women’s status and solutions that were being discussed at the global and regional levels. Terefore, I have used the WIDF journal and some other ofcial documents and publications resulting from women’s gatherings and networks as one of my main sources for this chapter and the next. When available, I have also used archival materials concerning the preparations for and evaluation of diferent events (in the form of reports or correspondence). In order to further challenge the omissions and silences of the ofcial WIDF publications, I have also used some other documents, including research publications from the Cold War period, as well as RFE/RL reports (OSA) produced with the aim of uncovering “the truth” about Moscow politics (as I have already mentioned, however, these documents were ofen also a part of the cultural Cold War, presenting the parts of the truth that corresponded to the interests of the “Western bloc”). Due to lack of space and sources for exploring all the issues and problems at the center of East–South women’s internationalism, in this book I have chosen two examples of such issues, which were seen as central to a “better future” and development from the perspective of the South–East women’s networks. Firstly, in this chapter, I explore how motherhood, reproduction, and reproductive rights were approached by the South–East gatherings and networks during the Cold War, and, secondly, the next chapter deals with issues of literacy and the education of women. Te East–South women’s gatherings and networks of the 1960s addressed women’s status issues through a heteronormative lens, assuming that all women were mothers or intended to become mothers in the future. Tus, in what follows, I further analyze how women’s role as “mothers” and the reproductive capacities of women’s bodies were addressed by the participants in the South–East gatherings at the Cold War peripheries during diferent time periods, and what their contributions were to global visions of fghting the “colonial legacies” and building a better “future.” I also shed light on how these visions were contested. In the frst section, I explore how the rights and duties === [PDF page 190] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 177 of mothers were presented in the documents and publications generated in connection with East–South women’s networks, with a special focus on the ofcial reports of the meetings and articles dedicated to motherhood, childcare, and family politics. Te second section deals more specifcally with women’s reproductive rights. Mothers’ Global Rights and Responsibilities In her book Gender and Nation, Nira Yuval Davis shows that discussions on the “future of the nation,” as well as those on the politics of motherhood, are not gender neutral. Rather, they typically assume that women have particular rights and responsibilities to their nations based on the unique reproductive capacities of their bodies (Yuval Davis 1997, 27–33). Many of the frst women’s and feminist organizations and activists in diferent countries also began with the idea of biological divergence between male and female bodies, but, in contrast to conservatives, presented these diferences as the reason for equality of rights, which would be benefcial for the whole nation. In this case, the “motherly” qualities of women should serve for the nation as a whole. Tis argument was used, for example, in the demands for universal sufrage by Swedish feminist Ellen Key in the early twentieth century, who advocated At the same time, many women’s rights activists and feminists argued that women’s civic responsibilities could not be fulflled without special support for the socially important maternal functions. It was not only socialist feminists, such as Klara Zetkin (Hervé 2023, 33–58) or Aleksandra Kollontai, who advocated state care for mothers: indeed, during the frst half of the twentieth century, the governments of many European countries started introducing maternity leave for working women, building maternity hospitals, and training midwives; in the 1930s and 1940s, this was followed by child allowances for families with low incomes, and other protective measures for mothers. Although they took a diferent shape in every European country, these reforms constituted the foundations for the development of the European welfare states (Bock & Tane, 1991). Troughout the twentieth century, feminists === [PDF page 191] === 178 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery and women’s organizations in many countries outside of Europe, especially in Latin America, utilized maternalism to advocate for their rights and drive societal change (Pieper Mooney 2009; Marino 2019). Te Bolshevik program of revolutionary transformation was sympathetic to these maternalist ideas, and the Soviet state declared that motherhood had to be protected. Among other reforms, this led to the establishment of a special state institution, the Institute for the Protection of Mothers and Children. In the pamphlets distributed by this institution to non-Russian women in the Soviet borderlands in the 1920s, care for the mother was declared to be at the heart of the politics of transforming women’s status, overcoming colonial legacies, and building a bright (Communist) future (Gradskova 2018, 2022b). Starting in the 1930s and continuing up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, state socialist “care for mothers” was presented as a specifc achievement of the people-centered socialist form of governance, as well as the ethical system it is based upon, making this form of governance radically diferent from the exploitative “capitalist.” Te positive example of care for mothers in the state socialist “East” was widely propagated, not only in Europe but also among the peoples of developing and postcolonial countries: as I have shown in Chapter 2, almost all the study trips and excursions that were part of the women’s gatherings in Central Asia or Cuba included visits to maternity hospitals, prenatal clinics, nurseries, and kindergartens. Because mothers’ and children’s welfare was central to the Cold War’s “Eastern bloc” propaganda, both internally and globally, in this section, I explore how the construction of the “mother” was approached by East–South women’s networks. What needs and demands from mothers were expressed by women at these South–East gatherings and in publications? How far is it possible to speak about South–East cooperation around the protection of motherhood and childhood in practice? I am interested in the infuence of the legislative and organizational practices of the Soviet and Communist “East” on the “South” and non-Communist “East,” but this section also explores if, and if so how, women from the Cold War peripheries were learning from each other. Te WIDF journal and other WIDF publications play a crucial role in this section because this organization was the most vocal internationally in arguing for “mothers” as a special political category in the context of East– === [PDF page 192] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 179 South connections. Te presentation of women as mothers was at the center of the WIDF’s worldview and practical work: the woman was seen as having the interconnected roles of mother, worker, and citizen, and this model needed to unite women globally in fghting for their rights (Za ravnopravie 1953). Mothers, from this perspective, were perceived as important actors protecting the welfare and well-being of their children, and also peace, the condition that was so important for the survival of their children and the world itself. In turn, improvements in the conditions for the protection of mothers’ and children’s health and education were also connected to the goals of disarmament: states were expected to spend less money on arms and preparation for new wars and instead to provide better conditions for mothers and children. Similar to earlier feminist constructions of mothers as valuable citizens, the WIDF’s vision of women as mothers assumed the centrality of children in women’s lives as obvious, “natural,” and not needing any justifcation. As I show further below, this vision proved to be shared by many South–East women’s organizations, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, while the fgure of the “mother” seems to have worked as a kind of unifying symbol uniting women holding diferent ideological views. Nevertheless, constructing women as “mothers” did not leave space to discuss other aspects of women’s aspirations and rights with respect to reproduction, including the desirability of having children at all, or the role of fathers in the family and in the upbringing of children. As I show in the second part of this chapter, presenting every woman as a mother could also be used to justify the state’s abuse of women’s reproductive rights; for example, by limiting abortion and contraception. Still, during the early Cold War years, the “natural” criterion of having a body able to bear children, while applied to all women, including those living in the colonies, seems to have been used as the basis for some radical claims being made globally. Indeed, the declarations of South–East gatherings demanding access for every woman to healthcare, childcare, and food, as well as the right of mothers to be free from work in connection to childbirth and lactation, were important contribution to the demands for positive change in women’s status globally. Given that women in colonial and developing countries ofen did not have these basic needs covered under the framework of the system of colonial === [PDF page 193] === 180 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery domination, the vision of motherhood expressed in the WIDF publications challenged the colonial system itself. Tis likely contributed to the negative response the WIDF delegation received from several colonial governments when they sought to visit various colonial and newly independent countries in Asia in 1947, including those of Vietnam and Indonesia. As a result, the WIDF delegation was only able to fully carry out its plans in independent India (see Chapter 2). Te reports of the delegation afer visiting India did not show a lot of progress and noted a lack of maternity hospitals, a lack of maternity leave for working women (e.g., at a tea factory), and very limited availability of kindergartens. Tis led the WIDF report to come to the political conclusion that neither the British imperial government nor the Indian independent government in its early years were meeting the needs of mothers (GARF 1 97). Many of the participants in the South–East women’s gatherings showed themselves to be sympathetic to the WIDF’s vision of protecting motherhood and demanded reforms to reinforce state care for mothers and children, considering this to be a progressive way of guaranteeing women’s rights and societal development. In particular, representatives of diferent women’s organizations in postcolonial countries defended the important role of mothers and demanded changes. Te speech by Huguette Daninthe,1 representing the Union of Guadeloupe Women, at the WIDF’s Vienna Congress (1958) is a good example of how maternalist thinking had proliferated inside the WIDF in the form of contributions from South–East women (AHPCE, 155—IV Congreso, 1958, 77–8). Daninthe proudly started her speech by declaring the importance of the creation of the independent organization of women in Guadeloupe, previously part of the Union of French Women, while a signifcant part of her speech was dedicated to the problems of mothers in Guadeloupe. In particular, she claimed that, while “our role as mothers starts during the frst months of pregnancy,” it is very difcult to fulfll this role due to the absence of laws protecting maternity. According to Daninthe, women in Guadeloupe experienced insufcient prenatal care, were forced to work right up to delivery day, and sometimes gave birth at the plantations or on the bus on the way to hospital (AHPCE 115—IV Congreso, 1958, 77–9). Tus, Daninthe presented women’s activism in the country as oriented toward the practical goals of improving the situation of mothers while simultaneously stressing that the === [PDF page 194] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 181 nature and size of this problem were diferent from the problems around motherhood experienced by French women. It is important to note here, however, that Daninthe does not mention the possibility of women deciding how many children they want to have despite such discussions, according to Nicole Bourbonnais, being present in the Caribbean already starting from the inter-war period (Bourbonnais 2016; see also on discussions around contraception as a way of saving lives of mothers in early Cold War Chile— Pieper Mooney 2009, 47). Daninthe’s speech described the women of her organization as fully understanding their responsibilities as mothers. And these were not limited to caring for the health of their children, but also for their upbringing and education. And it was precisely the acceptance of their gendered roles and responsibilities as mothers that had led women in Guadeloupe to become political activists: in contrast to men, they were thinking frst of all about improving the situation of mothers and children. According to Daninthe, about half of the children of school age in the country could not read or write, and instead of going to school, many had to care for their younger brothers and sisters at home. Getting an education was also difcult because the school buildings, according to Daninthe, were overcrowded, while the school environment was “infected” with racism. Tus, in order to fulfll their responsibilities as good mothers, women in Guadeloupe had to organize themselves independently: not only from men but also from the women’s organizations at the core of the empire. At the same time, as this presentation at the international congress suggests, cooperation with mothers from other peripheries was welcomed (notably, Daninthe, a representative from the French Caribbean, was likely such a women Cissé was eager to meet when she made her frst trip to the WIDF Congress in Europe with her newborn, see Chapter 2). I have already shown that the WIDF journal regularly published information about well-functioning childcare systems in the state socialist “East,” including Tashkent and Central Asia, which were usually presented as formerly “culturally backward” areas where colonial legacies had been overcome. Tis contrast between colonial neglect of the needs of mothers and children and the socialist state’s “care” for mothers was also reproduced in some countries of === [PDF page 195] === 182 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the European “East” (ofen seen as Cold War peripheries inside Europe—see Dragostinova 2021), including Romania. For example, an article published in the WIDF journal in 1961 informed readers about the participation of African women’s organizations in the Congress on the Protection of Mother and Child organized in Romania that year (ZM 1961 2). In this article, Romania was described as a formerly “backward country,” which in 1938 had the highest children’s mortality rate in Europe. Te article suggests that, afer visiting a hospital, a kindergarten, and a factory where most of the workers were women (and assumed to be mothers or future mothers), the guests from the postcolonial “South” could vouch for the fact that “progress was everywhere.” Tus, the Romanian hosts encouraged their guests to think that, by following the political solutions applied in this Cold War periphery, African countries could also achieve good results with respect to the protection of mothers and women’s role in the economy and society. Later on, the journal began to report on the transformation of care for mothers and children in some postcolonial countries as well. In 1965, the WIDF’s journal published an article about women in Mali who had organized a special competition for the “best baby,” aimed mainly at highlighting the importance of healthcare for mothers and children (ZM 1965 7: 10). Tis article was published in connection with the conference on protecting the health of mother and child that took place in Bamako (Mali) and was co-organized by the All African Women’s Conference (or PAWO, headed by Cissé,2 see Chapter 2), the World Health Organization, and the WIDF. Later, in 1975, during the IWY, the WIDF’s journal published one more article about happy motherhood in Mali (WWW 1975 4: 50), where the presentation of mothers and children was in many ways similar to those describing happy motherhood in the USSR, Czechoslovakia, or Romania. Malian children were shown in photographs eating, dancing, and participating in various activities led by women, while a short accompanying text stated that the mothers and fathers working at the tobacco factory in Bamako “are not worried about their children.” It continued by reporting that more than 400 children, aged from six months to six years, attended the nursery school, where they were not only well cared for, but were vaccinated, could participate in interesting activities, and were learning about their national culture. Tus, this article stressed that === [PDF page 196] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 183 care for mothers and children and, in particular, special institutions caring for the children of working mothers, contribute to the well-being not only of women and their children, but also of the nation as a whole. In turn, this could serve as an example for other countries in Africa and, simultaneously, as an argument against the politics of population control advocated by (Western) demographers and politicians (see section 2 of this chapter). While the articles published by the WIDF journal were intended to score points in the cultural Cold War, archival documents indicate that the organization of maternal care was a signifcant focus of interest for South– East female political tourists and correspondents in Soviet Central Asia. For instance, the letter from the Ugandan women’s organization to UzFS in Tashkent, as mentioned in Chapter 3, highlights this interest (NARU 2661 138, p. 93). Indeed, in their letter, Ugandan women asked many questions about the organization of kindergartens and other ways of bringing up “healthy babies.” Tus, it is not surprising that visits to maternity hospitals, kindergartens, “palaces” of pioneers (vocational clubs), and summer camps were so central to the East–South encounters. Following the idea that mothers’ rights were mainly seen by the WIDF as connected to their responsibilities—to care for their children and to protect peace—it is important to note that East–South networks were also involved in transnational activities focused on mothers’ role as peace activists. In particular, in 1955 the WIDF organized the World Congress of Mothers in Switzerland. Te Appeal for the World Congress of Mothers connected women’s bodies’ ability to produce children with their “obvious” interest in the protection of peace: “In the name of life we give, to save our children we call you to unite,” stated the Congress Appeal (IISH—WIDF Collection). Te participants at the congress discussed important issues related to protecting peace for the future of their children and preventing the use of arms in colonial wars (IISH, WIDF Collection). Te Spanish-language Boletín especial de Información produced by the WIDF in Berlin on May 13, 1955 (IISH—WIDF Collection) stated that, by organizing the Congress of Mothers, the world’s mothers had demonstrated how great is their desire to protect their children from all the horrors of war. Te connection between motherhood and support for peace was repeatedly reproduced in the reports on East–South women’s gatherings and in many === [PDF page 197] === 184 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery ofcial publications. A good example of this is the article “Because they give life” published by the WIDF journal in 1965. It described women’s work for peace in diferent countries—from Europe to Chile and Australia—and specifcally noted that, when French women protested against the war in Algeria, many of them took their children to the peace demonstrations, leading female peace activists to be associated with “mothers” (ZM 1965 3: 8–9). It is important to note that maternalist ideas—bringing together protection of the rights of pregnant women and mothers, healthcare and education for children, and actions for justice and peace—were not exclusively produced by the networks infuenced by the Communist “East.” Bringing together peace, well-being and motherhood, as I have already mentioned, was characteristic of the ideas and strategies historically used by diferent women’s organizations in Europe, but also during the whole of the twentieth century in Latin America (see Pieper Mooney 2013, 2009; Marino 2019). In the case of revolutionary Cuba, for example, the centrality of the fgure of the mother for women’s movements in the continent, according to Torres Santana and Chase, importantly contributed to the role of mothers being “persistent in the narrative of the Revolution—mothers were described as doing a very special kind of internationalist work” (2023, 619). Tus, it is possible to speak about multidirectional infuences between networks and organizations: starting from the established traditions of women’s activism in Latin America, the FMC further developed maternalist activities as part of its East–South networks, including, as I mentioned in Chapter 4, by taking care of (or “mothering”) Angolan teenagers studying in Cuba (Mujeres 1978: 4–5). In turn, the FMC’s maternalism reinforced the South–East networks’ maternalist claims. Meanwhile, the WIDF as a transnational organization was further encouraging care for mothers, spreading it to new geographical areas and expressing it through new forms of activity. Tis is visible, for example, in the organizing of solidarity funds to build a hospital for mothers and children in Hanoi in 1975. According to a pamphlet distributed by the WIDF at the UN Women’s Conference in Copenhagen (1980), He Ti Que, head of Vietnam’s women’s delegation, informed the conference attendees that the hospital, headed by a female doctor, started to treat patients in 1979 (DNA KVINFO, Materials from Alternative Women’s Conference, 17). === [PDF page 198] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 185 Finally, East–South support for the rights of mothers and calls to the mothers of the world to become politically active in defending “the future of their children” seems to have gained traction during the 1960s and 1970s and, in spite of Cold War tensions, to have infuenced global political thinking about women’s status more generally. For example, the WIDF report on the meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in Tehran in 1965 (ZM 1965 6: 14–15) demonstrated satisfaction concerning the problems of mothers, including the importance of childcare institutions and the problems of working mothers, which became more central internationally. Soon, the journal would return to this theme once again: according to an interview with Cissé about the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting in Geneva in 1966, published by the journal (ZM 1966 3: 13), this meeting also discussed the issues of childcare institutions and opportunities for women to work part-time (although these issues were not included in the fnal declaration). It is important to note also that, together with the promotion of the rights of women as mothers, the East–South networks paid a lot of attention to the situation of children in diferent countries, frequently citing the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959). In 1966, the World Conference for Children was convened by the WIDF in Stockholm. According to the invitation letter, signed by the WIDF general secretary, Argentinian Rosa Jasovich-Pantaleon, while the status of children in today’s world has improved, “many problems still have to be solved, problems which continue to concern all those who have the fate of children at heart” (IISH WIDF Collection, from March 31, 1966). Tus, the conference welcomed experts in the feld of children’s welfare, who discussed questions of education, schooling, health, and the right of children to a happy life. Te report from the conference, in which representatives from ffy countries took part, was published in the WIDF journal (ZM 1966 4: 4–5) and thus, probably, was able to inspire more South–East network participants. It is important to note, however, that, as in the case of many South–East gatherings, the reality of the meeting difered somewhat from its presentation in the journal. In the case of the Stockholm conference, the WIDF ofcial publications stressed the unity of the conference participants but, according to the RFE/RF reports, the conference was realized within the very tense atmosphere of the === [PDF page 199] === 186 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Soviet–China split. Indeed, according to this report, China presented the event as having a “pro-imperialist” character (HU OSA 300/80/1 box 531). Te progress of the welfare states in the “West” during the 1960s and 1970s, changes in legislation with respect to mothers’ and children’s welfare there (primarily as a result of the feminist activism of the late 1960s in Western Europe and North America), and the adoption of new laws addressing the protection of pregnant women and mothers in some developing countries infuenced the reception of East–South rhetoric around the rights of mothers and children. While it preserved its positive potential for changing the situation in many countries (not least contributing further to discussion about women’s rights as human rights—see Burke 2010), it lost part of the relative exclusivity it had enjoyed during the earlier years of the cultural Cold War competition. However, it was particularly during this period that the East–South networks, working according to a maternalist paradigm, came to be widely involved in the transnational activities for children’s rights, realized in the context of the UN International Year of the Child, which was declared for 1979. Importantly, the WIDF journal published materials dedicated to the UN Year of the Child in practically every issue of 1979. Tus, motherhood and children seem not only to have dominated the agendas of South–East women’s gatherings, but also to have served as a goal able to unite many women’s organizations that were otherwise following diverse political agendas. However, as I show in the next section, in the context of the contraceptive revolution of the 1960s, particularly connected to the availability of the pill, and the growing visibility of new feminist organizations in diferent parts of the world, including the Americas, the centrality of motherhood in the activities of East–South women’s networks started to be a source of growing contradictions and conficts. “Care for Mothers” versus “Birth Control”? While, historically, the reproductive capacities of women’s bodies have been seen as an important object of social control, it was only in the late nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries that regulations in this sphere === [PDF page 200] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 187 moved to the center of scientifc and public discussions. It also became an object of the state’s reproductive politics, just as it later became the object of attempts at international regulation. “Reproductive thought,” as Varsa and Szikra (2020) call it, together with welfare regulations, also included diferent restrictive components: from eugenics (focused on the “quality” of children born and frequently interpreted in racialized terms) to bans on abortion. Despite the post–Second World War condemnation of eugenics, Varsa and Szikra (2020) argue that “reproductive thought” continued to shape national debates on public health and welfare. Trough transnational exchanges, this infuence also contributed to the globalization of policy applications in these areas. Te ideas about “population control” in developing countries can be seen as part of this “reproductive thought,” in this case connected to one of the visions of a supranational “better future.” Indeed, growth in the populations of the “South” was seen by many economists and politicians in the countries of the “North” (Connelly 2008; on Sweden, see Berg et al. 2021) as a “population crisis,” and the rapid growth in the number of people was perceived as a hindrance to “development,” while the solution to this problem was expected to be control over the number of births. As previous research has demonstrated, the concept of “birth control” reached peak popularity in the late 1950s and 1960s. However, family planning programs later faced intense criticism for their inefciency and violations of human rights, a concern that became evident at the UN World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974 (Connelly 2008; Gupte 2017; Bracke 2022). Indeed, according to Maud Bracke, a coalition between countries of the Communist world and developing nations (in particular, PAWO and the Indonesian Women’s Organization, Gerwani) was instrumental in turning the discussions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women toward the importance of using family planning “respecting” individual choices about family size (Bracke 2022, 757). Meanwhile, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the feminist movement had been advocating every woman’s right to decide the number of children she wanted to have and, importantly, promoting free abortion and contraception. Not least, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, further IPPF, was created in 19523 (Claeys 2010; Hartmann 2016). Further sophistication in the means of contraception and, in particular, the appearance === [PDF page 201] === 188 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery of the pill in the 1960s contributed to advances in the struggle for reproductive rights (Bracke 2022). At the same time, according to Connelly (2008, 361), the issue of birth control infuenced and divided women throughout the whole of the UN Decade for Women. Finally, however, as is well known, at the Population and Development Conference that took place in Cairo in 1994, feminists contributed to adopting a resolution establishing that contraception is an issue of rights and health, not of population control. State socialist reproductive politics, and their connection to ideas of women’s emancipation on the one hand, and restrictions and discrimination on the other, have recently moved into the center of interest for researchers. Indeed, Mie Nakachi has studied diferent periods in the development of Soviet pronatalism, starting with Stalin’s criminalization of abortion between 1936 and 1955. She pointed out that, afer lifing the ban on abortion, the Soviet Union, in contrast to many other countries, did not have a “contraceptive revolution,” leaving abortion as the main method of birth control (Nakachi, 2015, 291, 2021). Corina Doboş (2018) has shown that the decision to ban abortion in Romania in 1966 was explained by the Communist government in terms of a potential lack of workforce for development. However, according to Adriana Iordache (2014), this decision was also fueled by the aspirations toward national greatness. At the same time, several countries of Communist Europe did not restrict abortion and had rather developed politics of sexual education and contraception; for example, the GDR and Czechoslovakia (McLellan 2011; Lišková 2018). Nevertheless, the history of state socialist reproductive politics also includes eugenic elements in regulating the reproduction of ethnic minority women, such as the Roma in Czechoslovakia (Schmidt 2020). Tus, this section explores how the East–South networks were approaching those aspects of “reproductive thought” and politics that were less visible in the declarations focused on “care for mothers” and did not belong to the main narrative about progress, development, and overcoming colonial legacies. In particular, I explore changing attitudes toward the politics of “birth control,” which can be followed through the publications of the WIDF journal that speak, among others, in the name of East–South women’s networks, as well as contradictions of reproductive politics at the Cold War peripheries. === [PDF page 202] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 189 In contrast to “care for mothers and children,” the themes of “population control” or “birth control” seem to be relatively invisible in the documents of South–East gatherings until a very late period: the 1970s. As I have shown in the previous section, the countries of state socialism strongly promoted state support for motherhood as their answer to the problems of poverty, inequality, and, later on, (under)development. However, during the frst decades of the application of Western-backed programs of population control, particularly in India, neither the countries of the “Eastern bloc” nor the WIDF expressed a specifc position with respect to these programs. For example, they were not immediately declared anti-women or “capitalist.” Reading the articles in the WIDF journal, it is possible to believe that, during the early days of the WIDF, the issue of population control was still not marked as a strictly Cold War issue, and thus, some variations of opinion were allowed. For example, the fourth congress of the WIDF in Vienna adopted a resolution entitled: “Necessary conditions helping woman to fulfl her roles of mother, worker, and citizen,” stressing the need for social and state support for mothers (ZM 1958 7–8: 9). However, the publication of this resolution was accompanied by the comments of several guests from diferent countries, and it is there that it is possible to read the opinion of an Indian guest who suggested the importance of control over population growth in countries such as India, where the population was growing very rapidly (ZM 1958 7–8). Nevertheless, the beginning of the “Western” campaign of mass propaganda and distribution of contraceptives as a way to overcome poverty in developing countries and to avert the danger of overpopulation for the whole planet (see Connelly 2008) in the 1960s led to the further politicization of the issue and to fundamental divisions not only between the “Eastern bloc” and the “West” but also within the “Eastern bloc.” In contrast to the protection of maternity and the rights of mothers that were repeatedly addressed and emphasized at most of the gatherings and declarations, the issues of contraception and reproductive choice were not mentioned as subjects at the South–East meetings for long periods of time, and neither were these topics discussed in any of the correspondence available to me. It seems that reproductive rights were addressed only in cases when such themes were at the center of international discussions led by the UN, and === [PDF page 203] === 190 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery some position had to be expressed. In particular, such moments corresponded to two big population conferences, both taking place in Eastern Europe: the 1965 UN conference in Belgrade and the UN Population Conference in 1974 in Bucharest. In 1966 and, probably, in connection with the second World Population Conference organized by the UN and the Yugoslav government in 1965 in Belgrade, the WIDF journal published an article by Italian Professor of Demography and member of the Italian women’s organization, Nora Federici, entitled “Family planning and the demographic problem” (ZM 1966 1: 44–5). On the one hand, this article stressed the importance of individual choice: it is good if women can have as many children as they want. However, the author also warned about the use of contraception: it can be dangerous for health, and, if easily accessible over the counter, it might lead to problems. Terefore, the use of contraception, specifcally the pill, must be controlled by the health authorities, and all its efects must be carefully studied. Furthermore, the author also warned against abortion rights being used too freely by women. Together with these arguments, presented from the position of women’s individual rights and care for their health, the article also touched upon the perspective of the common good—a “better future”—stating that if the number of births were to decrease sharply (as a result of the use of contraception or abortion), some sectors of the economy might face serious problems. In relation to developing countries, the author did not see any need for special programs of birth regulation: the number of births there, according to her, would decrease with improving educational and cultural levels among the population. Tis article is interesting because, although it discusses “women” in general, it also addresses their diferent needs. Indeed, according to this text, women in developing countries should be able to decide for themselves about their reproduction. Tis would help to mark the place of the WIDF in the global cultural Cold War confrontation, that is, suggesting that the “West”—attempting to control biths in developing countries—is wrong. At the same time, the frst set of ideas seems rather to be addressing women in the Communist “East”; indeed, the ban on abortion in Romania in 1966 and the lack of contraception in the USSR in the 1970s were explained to the population in similar terms, === [PDF page 204] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 191 as being “health dangers” and threatening a common “future” (Doboş 2018; Nakachi 2015, 307–8). Te second article, addressing reproductive politics and “birth control” in developing countries, was published by the WIDF journal in connection with the UN Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974.4 It was entitled: “Population and development, a socio-economic problem: UNO conference in Bucharest” (WWW 1975 1: 53–5) and directly engaged with the discussion with the “West” responding to the further politicization of the issues of population control in the context of the global cultural Cold War. Indeed, as I have already mentioned with reference to Connelly (2008), by 1974 many postcolonial and developing countries had started to view programs of population control, realized in cooperation with and the support of Western and international organizations, more skeptically and, thus, the WIDF had to state its position more clearly as well. Similar to the one from 1966, this article also presented the problem of population as connected to “the wellbeing and happiness of humanity across the whole world” (WWW 1975 1: 54). Te article declared “the right of the couple to decide how many and when to have children” while noting the importance of “the equal rights of the woman in the family” and “protection of mother and child.” Tus, this article criticized “compulsory and involuntary sterilizations” as a violation of women’s rights and stated that such sterilizations had taken place in large numbers. However, the article also argued that “family planning or artifcial methods for reducing the population alone will not change moral codes” (WWW 1975 1: 55). Indeed, a large part of the article was centered around the importance of transforming socio-economic conditions around the globe and, specifcally, in “developing countries.” Tese countries must have control over their own natural resources and access to technological and scientifc progress. Furthermore, it argued that women in these countries who were not participating in productive labor should be seen as another unused resource and that their involvement in production could contribute to development. In continuing, the article stated that the proper use of the Earth’s resources can guarantee food for everybody, thus implying that the capitalist economy was not able to use natural resources properly due to its focus on competition. Large military spending and the arms race were also named as === [PDF page 205] === 192 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery factors hindering economic prosperity. Finally, the article invited global-level politicians to see women as important actors for social change: “Women, on an equal footing with men, must play their part in development and peace” (WWW 1975 1: 55). Tus, we can see that the ofcial position of the WIDF had not changed signifcantly, but, together with arguing in favor of care for mothers, it also insisted more clearly than before on the right of every woman to decide for herself the number of children in her family. However, in contrast to the broad support for policies for the protection of maternity and children inside East– South networks, the politics around birth control and reproductive choice became very divisive and led to many conficts and contradictions. On the one hand, the WIDF’s declarations seem to clearly oppose the voices of many Western demographers and politicians, who continued around the 1974 UN population conference to present the number of births in “underdeveloped countries” as a common threat, but also, as Connelly noticed, implicitly, as a threat due to the growth of the “brown” population (Connelly 2008). During the early 1970s, some international publications advocated population control quite openly. For example, one of the contributors to an international scientifc volume dedicated to the topic, Managing the Planet, wrote: Most concern with the population explosion has been expressed for the underdeveloped countries, which are being held back by the production of excessive number of children who are consumers, but not producers, who grow up hungry, and ofen with less education and job opportunities that were available to their parents. (Hoagland 1972, 80) Te author continued by stating: “Tere are only two solutions to the social disease of overpopulation. Te one is to increase death rates and the other is to decrease birth rates” (Hoagland 1972, 83), thus implying that birth control was the only choice lef for those thinking about the common “future” from a humanist and liberal position. Some of the media materials preserved in the OSA provide further information about the widespread fears of a doubled population, which was also refected by a media campaign during the period before the conference in === [PDF page 206] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 193 Bucharest in 1974 (HU OSA 300/120/3 box 271). For example, a symposium of demographers, diplomats, and physicians that took place in Rensselaerville (in the state of New York) demanded two billion USD “to curb population growth in the world’s poor countries,” thus forging a direct connection between poverty and “excessive” reproduction. Comparing such ideas with the discourse of “care for mothers” produced by the South–East networks, it seems plausible to suggest that the latter ofered a more women-centered path toward the future. However, on the other hand, as I show further below, the defense of “care for mothers” ofen rendered invisible the indiference to women’s right to decide whether or not to become a mother, and the number of children to have. Indeed, the pre- and post-Bucharest conference discussions also included a stronger voice in defense of parents’ and individual women’s right to choose the number of children they desired in their family. Tis was presented by the IPPF, which obtained Category 1 status at ECOSOC UN in 1973—Claeys 2010), as well as several American feminists who traveled to Bucharest in order to defend the right of women to decide if and how contraception should be used. Tese actors were concerned about the slow development of family planning (only thirty-fve countries had adopted a comprehensive family planning program, according to the IPPF—HU OSA 300/120/3 box 271, “$2-billion Urged for Birth-Curb Plan,” by Kathleen Teltsch, New York Times, 7 May 1973). And, although the WIDF was attempting—as described in the article I discussed above—to accommodate women’s right to reproductive choice into its discourse of “care for mothers,” in practice this was quite a difcult task due to the pronatalist politics of several countries in the Communist “East.” From this perspective, the organization of the UN Population Conference in Bucharest, the capital of state socialist Romania, which was seen by the “Eastern bloc” as an advantage, only made the “Eastern bloc’s” position more difcult. Indeed, the location of the conference was described in the “Western” media as “problematic” due to the lack of reproductive choice for Romanian women. For example, the OSA’s Cold War archive has preserved an article from (probably, although it is unclear) the Washington Post of February 26, 1974, entitled “Population Meeting Picks Problem Site.” Te article suggested that, in the context of the ban on abortion in Romania since 1966 that had lef only very few possibilities for having an abortion (when a woman already === [PDF page 207] === 194 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery has four children, or in the case of rape), while contraception was practically unavailable, the suitability of the capital of Romania for such a congress could be questioned (HU OSA 300/120/3 Box 271). In the context of the cultural Cold War, the example of the United States as a good country for human rights due to the availability of family planning was also presented in the “West” in order to denounce the lack of rights in the Communist “East”: “In the United States fertility has been declining steadily for several years.” Furthermore, the the US Government stated that in the United States of America family planning assistance was made available even for those who could not aford it (HU OSA 300/120/3 Box 271, Te Department of State of the United States of America Bulletin, Bucharest, August 19–30 1974, p.7). Indeed, the lack of reproductive freedom in Romania, the host country for the UN conference, infuenced how the defense of “care for mothers” was perceived by diferent participants at the conference, even though it was made in the name of South–East women. According to the American feminist Betty Friedan (quoted in Bonfglioli), who was attending the conference and propagating women’s liberation, the conference participants were unimpressed by Romanian women’s double burden and lack of reproductive freedom (Bonfglioli 2016a, 530–1). It is interesting to note, however, that, paradoxically, a partial improvement in the position of the Romanian hosts at the conference was made possible, according to Doboş, by the Romanian Communist leadership, who stressed the peripheral status of the country and presented Romania as a “developing socialist country” (2018). According to this vision, a drop in the fertility rate could lead to problems in achieving the country’s developmental plan and might damage the positive dynamic of economic development in the country (Doboş 2018). Tus, it is possible to state that the logic expressed in the articles published in the WIDF in 1966 and 1975 mainly coincided with the justifcation for the lack of reproductive freedom given by the Romanian government at the UN conference and, similar to the Romanian authorities during the 1974 conference, in spite of its positive tone, hid the limitation of women’s rights. Te negative consequences of such policies for women’s rights and ofen also their lives in East–South Cold War peripheries were diferent from those resulting from the “birthcontrol” policies pursued in “Western” peripheries, but no less signifcant. === [PDF page 208] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 195 Te heated discussions about women’s rights, with the active participation of Friedan, continued at the Alternative Conference (Tribune) during the UN Women’s Conference in Mexico City. According to Bonfglioli, it was there that the discussion on reproductive rights between feminists developed fully into one more dimension of the cultural Cold War: “Western” feminists and their global supporters defended reproductive rights, while portraying East– South women as being against such rights—together with other forces, seen as conservative, including the Catholic Church (Bonfglioli 2016a, 530–15). Tus, it is possible to say that, in defending “care for mothers,” the Communist “East” found itself in an unexpected alliance with international political actors who were otherwise not seen as friendly by the “Eastern bloc,” which threatened to complicate further South–East connections. At the same time, opinions around an individual woman’s right to decide about the number of children she wants to have difered signifcantly among South–East women’s organizations and governments (including, as I have already explained, the fact that the Cuban women’s journal supported sex education and informed women about contraception). Tus, in practice, the question of reproductive rights led to divisions and negatively infuenced the connectivity of East–South women at the global events taking place during the UN Decade for Women. Although many East–South women continued to cooperate around the centrality of motherhood for women, as Friedan had noticed, the growing discord between declarations about “care for mothers” and the demographic policies of the Soviet Union and some other state socialist countries, such as Romania, led to further discrepancies. Not least, it contributed to conficts between state socialist countries and their female citizens. On the one hand, as the research on Soviet dissident women’s organizations and individual women demonstrates, the lack of reproductive rights in the Soviet Union that already existed in the late 1970s became further politicized as a Cold War issue by the struggle of female dissidents. For example, the authors of the feminist texts that appeared fve years afer the Bucharest UN conference in the Soviet dissident journal Zhenschina i Rossia accused the Soviet authorities of being responsible for the difcult conditions for mothers that existed due to their double burden, poor-quality care in kindergartens, === [PDF page 209] === 196 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery and the hard life of those women who were bringing up their children alone (Malakhovskaia 1979; Golubeva 1979, 53–7). Anna Sidorevich, who studied publications by Soviet dissident women from Leningrad, demonstrated that neglecting women’s needs, including the “inhumane” conditions that women experienced while giving birth and undergoing abortion, was a central focus for the criticisms of dissident feminists (Sidorevich 2023). While several of the Soviet dissidents behind Zhenschina i Rossia were forced to leave the Soviet Union, Natalia Malakhovskaia, shortly afer being expelled, took part in the alternative UN Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1980, where she criticized the Soviet authorities for discrimination against women (“Livet i Sovjet...” 1980). Tis led to a partial “exchange” in the positions in the cultural Cold War, whereby, this time, it was the “Western bloc” advocating a form of “care for mothers” through improving conditions in maternity hospitals and facilitating reproductive choice for women through access to modern contraception. On the other hand, the discord between the Soviet center’s politics and Central Asian women’s reproductive choices was growing. Indeed, it was during the 1970s that Soviet demographers started to notice (Heer 1977) a signifcant imbalance in the growth of the population within the Soviet Union: according to some of them, special measures needed to be taken in the region of Central Russia in order to stimulate women to have more children (in this region, a decline in fertility similar to that of many developed countries was observed), while in Central Asia and the Caucasus the population was growing very rapidly. According to Heer, this demonstrated tendencies characteristic of developing countries. Indeed, in 1959, births in the Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Tadjik, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republics constituted about 12 percent of all births in the USSR, while in the 1970s this had increased to 19 percent (Heer 1977, 229). Using the works of Soviet demographers and personal conversations with them, Heer has shown that the rapid growth of the South–Eastern population inside of the “Eastern bloc” and the Soviet Union itself led to a preoccupation with the growing size of the population in the Soviet Southern borderlands that could easily be compared with those expressed in the “West” in connection to the growth of the “brown” population outside of Europe. Indeed, according to Heer, by the 1970s Soviet === [PDF page 210] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 197 demographers were warning that the dramatic increase in the Central Asian population could have a negative efect on local standards of living (Heer 1977, 240; Nakachi also wrote about similar views of demographers from the Soviet center, see Nakachi 2015). Tey also advocated a number of political measures that might reverse the situation in Central Asia. In particular, according to Heer, among Soviet demographers there was “near unanimity” that the gap between Islamic and non-Islamic populations “should be reduced by increasing the birth rate in areas where fertility is low.” However, the demographers from the Soviet center also addressed East–South women’s high fertility rates. For example, with reference to one of the best-known Soviet demographers, Boris Urlanis, Heer stated the “inappropriateness of maintaining a physiological level of fertility” that could lead to problems with a woman’s health, as well as tearing the woman away from public work and forcing her to spend her life within the household. According to A. Ya. Kvasha, another well-known Soviet demographer whose views Heer discussed, “a large number of children prevents the growth of cultural level of the mothers,” which is why he recommended reducing support to mothers afer the birth of their fourth child (Heer 1977, 241). Tus, by the end of the 1970s, the ideas discussed at the East–South women’s gatherings entered into confict with the changing policies of the Soviet center. Indeed, the Soviet thinking around reproductive politics during the late 1970s to 1980s was infuenced by the ideas of stratifed reproduction: power relationships rewording the reproduction of diferent women diferently depending on the kind of children the state wanted. While some women were encouraged to raise children, others were discouraged (the term was introduced by Shelly Colen—see Ginsburg and Rapp 1995; Riley 2018). As in many other parts of the world, the Soviet variant of stratifed reproduction emphasized racial and gender diferences. In contrast to the (predominantly male) demographers from the Soviet Russian center, who expressed a preoccupation with the disproportionately high birth rate at the imperial periphery, the voices of women from Uzbekistan were criticizing reproductive politics and inadequate “care for mothers” administered from the Cold War (Soviet) center. Tese voices became more perceptible during the period of Perestroika. For example, a === [PDF page 211] === 198 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery special issue of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences journal dedicated to the ffieth anniversary of the Soviet hujum campaign (see Chapter 1), published in 1987, highlighted several critical voices. Tus, V. G. Chebotareva noted that for mothers of four or fve children to become involved in productive work, a lot of investment was required, not least in childcare facilities (thus, it is possible to understand that such facilities were not available for everybody in the countryside of Uzbekistan, even at the end of the USSR). Also, according to Chebotareva, the politics of care for mothers required the creation of new workplaces and greater investment: according to the article, the material base of education and healthcare in Uzbekistan was lower than that of the central USSR. One child in public school cost an average of 240 rubles in the USSR, while in Uzbekistan, only 203 rubles per child were invested (Chebotareva 1987, 15). Te same could be said with respect to investments in nursery schools and kindergartens: there was a median sum of 530 rubles spent per year for each child who attended kindergarten (and 630 rubles for those attending nursery) at the USSR level; however, in the Uzbek SSR, this sum was lower than the average for the whole country, constituting only 443 rubles. Furthermore, as the population census from 1979 has shown, together with high fertility rates, the women of Central Asia demonstrated higher levels of childlessness (Chebotareva 1987, 17): for a population of 1000 women, there were 239 women in Russia, 223 in Ukraine, 237 in Belarus, 326 in Uzbekistan, and 350 in Turkmenistan who did not have children. According to the author, this was connected to the lower level of prophylactics and hard working conditions in agriculture in Central Asian countries. Furthermore, even young Uzbek women and girls were lagging behind women in the central part of Russia with respect to health, not least due to poor sports training in schools, the mass involvement of children in hard agricultural work,6 and a poorly balanced diet. Te last two factors can be directly attributed to the imperial politics of the Soviet center: the cotton felds were extended at the cost of farms and vegetable gardens, thus there was less food production in Uzbekistan than previously. Te author of another article in the same anniversary issue of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences journal dedicated to hujum, R. A. Ybaidullaeva, criticized === [PDF page 212] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 199 the situation with respect to the protection of mothers’ and children’s health in the republic (1987, 18–24). She noted particularly difcult working conditions in predominantly women’s enterprises and gave the example of her visit to the sewing factory named afer the 8th of March in the city of Kattakurgan, where 300 women worked in a room with a temperature around 60 degrees centigrade without running water, refrigerator, or dining room (Ybaidullaeva 1987, 21). Furthermore, as though answering the concerns of demographers from the Soviet center, whose preoccupations with the increasing birthrate in Central Asia were discussed by Heer (1977), this Uzbekistani author stated that, in practice, many women in Uzbekistan did want to limit the number of children they had. However, according to her, it was mainly “inter-family regulation of childbirth” (probably, she meant that the husband took care of preventing conception) that could be used in practice, while medical help and information still did not correspond to women’s expectations. She also mentioned that “limiting and control of childbirth” per se cannot guarantee the good health of either the children or their mothers, and that it was better services for the population that were needed. Finally, in order to present a full picture of the poor health of Uzbek women, Ybaidullaeva also drew attention to ecological problems. At the end of the article, she states that the solution to many of these problems will help women to realize the “roles of Motherhood” (written with a capital letter in the original). Indeed, according to Ybaidullaeva, every woman in Uzbekistan should be able to determine the number of children she will have and when they will be born, as well as having access to contraceptives, abortion, and irreversible birth control when she believes that her reproductive stage has ended. Tus, at the end of the Cold War period, women from Central Asia saw multiple problems in practical application of the “care for mothers” that was discussed at many East–South women’s transnational gatherings while also demanding reproductive rights. It is possible to say that being aware of the South–East women’s networks’ declarations on “care for mothers” and informed about reproductive rights agenda promoted by the UN, some high-positioned women of Uzbekistan challenged shortcoming of the Soviet reproductive politics. While women in one Cold War periphery, in Soviet Central Asia, could begun to demand their rights publicly during the Perestroika, including === [PDF page 213] === 200 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery “care” as mothers promised by the Soviet state, women in Latin America and the Caribbean already had a rather long history of women’s activism for reproductive rights. For example, the frst Birth Control League was organized in Jamaica already in 1939 (Bourbonnais 2016, 74). Afer the victory of the Cuban revolution, 1965 marked the year when Cuba became the frst country in Latin America to decriminalize abortion. In the context of growing discussions regarding reproductive rights in Latin America in the 1970s, not least in connection to the UN Decade for Women, the Cuban government, as I already mentioned, chose a diferent path concerning reproductive rights compared to Soviet politics: Cuban women had much better organized information about and access to control over their reproduction (frst of all through diferent means of contraception), and enjoyed more information about sexuality, than women in the Soviet Union or Romania. Tese politics contributed to a positive image of Cuba among women’s organizations in Latin America as well as on the UN level. Not least, in the 1980s, with the support of the UN, the FMC became one of the organizers of the important gathering that took place in Havana and helped to further develop East–South women’s cooperation. Tis was the NGO Forum of 1984 that brought together 358 delegates from 39 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in order to prepare for the UN Women’s Conference in Nairobi (GARF 3 6121; according to the documents preserved in Moscow, it is reasonable to suppose that the Soviet representatives did not play an active or visible role at this conference). Te UN was represented at the conference by Nita Barrow7 from Barbados, head of the ECOSOC Planning Committee, while the FMC was the main host. Te Forum discussed issues of development, women’s education, equality at work, health, and peace and was noticed by feminist academic publications (see Safa 1985). Te documents that came out of the Forum demonstrate that the delegates in several discussion groups stressed the importance of sex education and family planning, including support for young women’s access to family planning, the development of birth-control programs based on the interests of the couple and, especially, the woman, as well as reproductive rights as part of national health policy (GARF 3 6121, NGO Regional Forum, 45). Tus, among other things, the conference participants recommended that sexuality be recognized as a source of physical, mental, and social well-being; === [PDF page 214] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 201 they also advocated that sexuality should be liberated from ideologies that consider women to be mere sex objects. Not least, the document sought “to achieve reproductive rights on the basis of the woman’s desire” (GARF 3 6121, NGO Regional Forum, 48). Conclusion Te materials studied in this chapter demonstrate that the South–East gatherings and networks mainly began from a maternalist interpretation of a woman’s identity and a woman’s role in society. Indeed, not only was motherhood seen as an obvious part of life and central to the self of the individual woman, but it was a woman’s capacity to give birth and to nurture a child that was seen as defning her special place and responsibilities within her community, her country, and internationally. Tus, early South–East women’s internationalism could be seen as an internationalism of mothers: together, they could demand rights at their workplaces and healthcare for themselves and their children— not only in their own societies, but also globally. Furthermore, as mothers, women could denounce the wars that were destroying the lives of their own or other mothers’ children, as well as demand care and education for their children—also internationally. In this context, the successful examples of care for mothers and children drawn from the (Communist) “East,” which were demonstrated to female political tourists visiting such Cold War peripheries as Tashkent and Havana, and distributed through the WIDF’s ofcial publications, had to symbolize a possible (good) future for South–East women in other parts of the world. On the other hand, assumptions about the centrality of motherhood for individual women, together with examples of successes in solving mothers’ “problems,” facilitated East–South women’s international stance against population control. However, even though they were quite successful in this, the family planning demanded frst by some feminist organizations and later (from the mid-1970s) also defended by the “Western bloc,” proved to be “difcult” to integrate into the construction of “care for mothers,” and became one more reason for conficts within the South–East women’s networks. Indeed, the ideas about a === [PDF page 215] === 202 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery woman’s right to decide how many children she wanted to have went against state socialist management of the population; this became particularly visible at the site of the UN Population Conference of 1974. Still, there were some peripheries, including state socialist Cuba, that, in contrast to the conservative politics of the Soviet bloc’s center, played an important role in the East–South reproductive rights internationalism. Finally, it is important to note that the presentation of success of the “care for mothers” policies at the peripheries, and primarily in Soviet Central Asia, came to be subverted by the politics of the Soviet center during the fnal years of state socialism. Te preoccupation of the Soviet (Russian) center with the “excessive” growth of the (“brown”) population in the colonial borderlands and the inferior “care” available to mothers there bore a similarity with discourses and practices that had been criticized by the South–East women’s networks during the earlier Cold War period. However, how much this infuenced South–East networks needs to be the subject of future research. Notes 1 Huguette Daninthe (1927–2023) was a writer, social worker, and head of the Guadeloupean Women’s Organization. Her husband was the head of the Communist Party of Guadeloupe and she was also a member of the party. According to the obituaries, Daninthe, however, was primarily an important person for the women’s movement in the country. https://www.guadeloupe.franceantilles.fr/actualite/societe/huguette-daninthe-alias-lucie-julia-sest-eteinte -plus-connue-sous-son-nom-dautrice-lucie-julia-huguette-daninthe-sest-battue -toute-sa-vie-pour-les-droits-des-femmes-la-premiere-assistante-sociale-de -guadeloupe-est-decedee-samedi-a-lage-de-96-ans-955005.php. 2 Cissé remembers this conference as the frst one where there was also a discussion on menopause, a taboo topic in Africa before that (Cissé 2009, 106). 3 However, it is important to note that this association, together with the Population Council, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, in the early 1960s was involved in programs aimed at lowering family size in developing countries; it also embraced the human rights discourse, particularly in the context of the UN Human Rights Conference in Tehran in 1968 (Bracke 2022, 753–6). === [PDF page 216] === “Care for Mothers,” and Reproductive Rights 203 4 Te WIDF sent several of its representatives to Bucharest, and, even if Ana Montenegro does not mention this conference in her memoirs, she seems to have participated there as well. 5 See more on the misunderstandings between Latin American and “Western” feminists around sexual politics in Laville 2002. 6 See Golden’s memoirs about her work picking cotton while she was at school in Tashkent in the late 1940s (Chapter 3). 7 Nita Barrow (1916–95)—was a nurse and Barbadian politician, and president of the World Council of Churches. In 1985 she was the convenor of the NGO Forum at the UN Women Conference in Nairobi. === [PDF page 217] === [Blank page] 204 === [PDF page 218] === East–South Women’s Networks and Education for Women Visions, Discussions, and Practices Afer exploring how women’s reproductive rights and their social role as “mothers” were approached by the East–South networks, in this chapter, I move on to another important set of issues discussed by these networks: education and literacy for women. According to a UN report, in 2010 women still comprised two out of three adults who could not read and write.1 At the same time, for several decades, education and literacy have been recognized to be empowering for women; according to Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO between 2009 and 2013, education has a “positive ripple efect on all development indicators.” Bokova stated that investing in women’s literacy carries very high returns: “It improves livelihoods, leads to better child and maternal health, and favors girls’ access to education.”2 However, the data about literacy and education suggests that, in practice, up to now, women still face more barriers to accessing education than men. Looking from a historical perspective, it is possible to say that early feminist theorizing already understood diferences in the education of men and women as factors that infuenced their unequal positions in society (see, e.g., Wollstonecraf 1989 (1792)). Later on, and in particular during the 1960s to 1980s, feminist activists advocating the importance of education for women had some disagreements about the content of education and the methods of teaching: is receiving the same education as men a guarantee of equality or, rather, must the curriculum and teaching in general be changed due to being male-centered and male-biased? (see Howe 1977). On the other hand, colonial === [PDF page 219] === 206 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery systems of education were deeply embedded in the structures of imperial domination and became a central target for reform as seen by the anticolonial intellectuals and liberation movements (Madeira & Gosso Correira 2019). For countries that achieved their independence in the post–Second World War era, the linked issues of literacy and the reform of education became one of the frst tasks for the postcolonial governments in many countries. At the same time, research on the Cold War has demonstrated that education was one of the most important tools used by the superpowers and two blocs to establish and maintain “friendly political regimes in foreign countries” (Tsvetkova 2008, 199; Bu 1999; Katsakioris 2019; Ivancheva 2019). Tus, it is not surprising that issues of education were at the center of South–East women’s transnational networks and gatherings. While a complete analysis of the diferent aspects of South–East cooperation around education for women during the Cold War would require a book of its own, the aim of this chapter is limited to an analysis of the role of the South– East gatherings and networks in discussing education for women and making eforts to solve the problem of illiteracy. In order to do so, I start with two large gatherings that brought together South–East women to discuss work for women’s literacy. Te second part of this chapter explores how education for women was discussed by East– South women’s networks within the Cold War context and how ideas around education and literacy for women were changing during the time period under consideration. Exchanging Experiences on Literacy and Education for Women As stated above, the elimination of illiteracy and the development of women’s education were important focuses for East–South women’s gatherings due to their signifcance not only for women’s rights but also because literacy was seen as an important foundation for postcolonial development. At the center of this section are two seminars dedicated to literacy and education for women: Tashkent (1962) and Khartoum (1970), which are particularly interesting from === [PDF page 220] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 207 the perspective of the involvement of South–East networks and distinctive approaches to education. In addition, these two particular seminars have lef behind a lot of diferent materials, including ofcial documents, classifed correspondence, and WIDF journal articles. Using the example of these two seminars, I explore how much and in what ways the East–South gatherings contributed to the project of literacy for women. What ideas, practices, and problems were at the center of the discussion? How were the peripheral connections created, maintained, and challenged? And, fnally, how did these seminars and other activities infuence the Cold War peripheries where they were taking place? Te frst seminar on education, which was held in Tashkent in 1962 (but also included several days in Moscow and study visits to other Central Asian countries), was a pioneering initiative for the Soviets that came to fruition in the specifc context of Khrushchev’s attempt to (partially) “reopen” the Soviet Union. It also coincided with the emergence of the new postcolonial states in Africa, both of which increased the opportunities for political tourism. Te seminar was organized by the CSW, acting as the WIDF’s representative; the seminar also enjoyed support from UNESCO. While the archival documents available to me do not give a clear answer to the question of how the idea of organizing such a seminar was conceived, or specifcally why it was held in Tashkent, on the basis of the available sources it is possible to say that, together with the seminar’s openly declared aim of contributing to improvements in education for women in newly independent African countries, its Soviet organizers aimed to give an impressive presentation of the USSR’s achievements in the sphere of education and in overcoming colonial legacies in Central Asia. Furthermore, the USSR’s growing participation in UNESCO and Soviet aspirations of further incorporation into the UN’s global governance system (for more about this, see Porter 2018) could be seen as additional incentives for organizing this event. Indeed, the seminar was connected to UNESCO’s general aim of improving education in developing countries (even though, as I demonstrate in more detail below, UNESCO’s focus during that period was more on education for men, who were seen as the ones who would directly contribute to the economy and development). In her speech at the opening of the seminar in Tashkent, the CSW’s leadership member, Lidia Petrova, said that the CSW, through its Soviet === [PDF page 221] === 208 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery representatives at UNESCO, had applied to its director with the suggestion of organizing such a seminar in Tashkent (GARF 3 775, p. 11). Indeed, this seminar can be seen as one of the earliest examples of the USSR’s successful cooperation with UNESCO, and its representative, Ruth Lazarus, participated in all the meetings and study trips. She not only expressed her satisfaction with this seminar in the ofcial Soviet reports but, according to historian Louis Porter, gave a very positive evaluation of it in the draf of her internal report intended for UNESCO (Porter 2018, 398). Tus, following Porter, who stressed that the USSR’s attempts to use UNESCO for its cultural diplomacy resulted, among other things, in expanding the infuence of UNESCO over “the communist world” (Porter 2018, 398–9), it is plausible to suggest that the seminar in Tashkent was one of the earliest exposures of women in Tashkent and Central Asia to UNESCO’s work and goals. Indeed, the organization of the seminar in Central Asia made UNESCO better known there. Te African participants in this seminar seem to have been found through already existing contacts and connections of the CSW and WIDF. However, the archival documents show that women’s organizations from several countries chose not to send their representatives to the seminar, explaining it in terms of business (but, probably, also due to carefully choosing sides in the context of the Cold War confrontation). Indeed, Libya, Cote d’Ivoire, Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), and Rwanda cited difculties in participating, while Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), the United Arab Republic (as Egypt was known at that time), Algeria, and Sudan did not respond to the invitation at all (GARF 4 156, p. 8). Furthermore, countries such as Zanzibar, Somalia, and Guinea sent only one participant each, although they were ofered two places (Report by Lisenkova, GARF 4 156, p. 9). As a result, women from about ffeen African countries, including Ghana, Gambia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Guinea, Mozambique, Morocco, and Somalia, participated in the seminar. Due to the presence of such diverse participants, the work of the seminar proceeded in three languages with parallel translation: French, English, and Russian. In contrast to the European or American (predominantly male) intellectuals visiting Central Asia during the inter-war period (see Hollander 1997), the female guests at the seminar on education seem to have been largely unknown === [PDF page 222] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 209 to the Soviets. Tey thus represented the potential, but also the challenge, of developing relationships and making some of the guests into allies who would support the Soviet side in the cultural Cold War. Due to this latter aim, afer the seminar was over, the Soviet organizers made brief reports about every African guest, which I found in the CSW archival collection in Moscow. Tese reports contained information about the female guests’ political and cultural backgrounds as well as some of their impressions of visiting the Soviet South– East. Te choice of Tashkent as the primary location for the seminar could be explained both by the need to demonstrate Soviet achievements in this particular region and also by assumptions that there existed special cultural and historical links (due to their common experiences of being colonized) between Central Asia and Africa. Indeed, Tashkent could be presented to the guests as a “postcolonial” city of the “East,” and the center of a region characterized by an economy based on agricultural production and a nonEuropean (non-White) population. Te WIDF did not send a separate delegation to the seminar (being represented there by members of the CSW), but afer the seminar’s end, the WIDF journal published an article written by a female activist from the Middle East who was living in exile in East Berlin and working for the WIDF Secretariat—Layla; she was very impressed by everything she saw (I wrote about her article and her letter to the UzFS in Chapter 3; ZM 1963 1: 9–12). If we look at this seminar from the perspective of the Cold War periphery and the Central Asian participants, we can note that, probably, for many women in Central Asia working in universities, kindergartens, and factories, the guests at this seminar were the frst African women and, in some cases, also the frst foreigners in general, whom they had ever met. And even though we know that some of Uzbekistan’s highly positioned women, such as Ishanturaeva or Rakhimbabaeva, were already traveling abroad and meeting South–Eastern women at home (see Chapter 3), talking with women from diferent African countries during their visits to schools, universities, and kindergartens still seems to have been quite an important and new experience for many women in Central Asia. As the archival documents show, although the seminar’s program was planned mainly from Moscow and even though === [PDF page 223] === 210 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery state surveillance related to meeting foreigners was in operation, the archival materials suggest that many excursions enabled the guests and Tashkent’s hosts to spend time together and to communicate extensively; in particular, during the study trips (such possibilities, however, should not be over-evaluated due to the self-censorship of both the Central Asian hosts and their African guests). Te main presentation concerning the battle to overcome women’s illiteracy was made by Zukhra Rakhimbabaeva. As the author of a PhD dissertation on a similar topic, and one of the few Uzbek women with experience of contact with foreign South–Eastern women, Rakhimbabaeva gave an informative overview of the campaign, while the representatives from other Soviet republics—a school director from Armenia, Sarkisyan (GARF 3 775, p. 180), and a representative of the parliamentary commission on high and special secondary education from Azerbaijan, Gusseinova (GARF 3 775, p. 190)—in their short interventions indicated that there were a lot of similarities with the history of women’s education in their countries. Sarkisyan, for example, stated that while listening to Rakhimbabaeva, she mentally found herself in Armenia—“it was as though Rahimbabaeva was speaking about Armenia” (GARF 3 775, p. 180). Even though this focus on similarities rather than obvious diferences between Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan could be partially explained by the ideological requirement to focus on the liberating nature of Soviet politics everywhere, the participation of representatives from diferent Soviet republics could be seen as bringing a certain diversity into the communication. Finally, participants of the seminar could meet highpositioned Uzbek women such as Nasriddinova as well as Tamara-Khanum, an internationally famous Uzbek dancer and musician (Fannina Halle wrote about her in her book from 1938, see Chapter 3). Te agendas for the seminar clearly indicate that the hosts connected education for women with women’s rights (not least, the freedom to dress and look as they choose) and to the development of the country through overcoming colonial legacies. For example, Tajihon Abdullaeva, a schoolteacher from Tashkent, stressed that she could easily understand why women “of the developing countries in Africa” pay so much attention to the problem of education, connecting it to the history of Uzbekistan, where women “looked at the world through a paranjee” (GARF 3 775, p. 3). === [PDF page 224] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 211 As for the African women, from the classifed reports, it is clear that most of the seminar guests from Africa were visiting the Soviet Union for the frst time, while the ofcial protocols show that in their seminar interventions they spoke about the diferent problems women faced in their countries with respect to education. Te African women seemed to have been impressed by the achievements in relation to women’s education in Central Asia, not least due to their constant comparison with the situation at home. Tus, we know that Priscilla Gumane from Mozambique (GARF 3 775, p. 100) compared the life of women in the Soviet Union which, according to her, was full of freedom and opportunities, with the sufering of women in Mozambique under colonial domination. Further on in her talk, she connected Portuguese rule in the country to police surveillance and segregation, adding that women were subjected to forced labor and sexual violence (GARF 3 775, p. 104). Te representatives of African countries that had only gained their independence recently, however, reported the frst achievements on the way toward transformation and proudly shared their experiences with other participants. For example, Ms. Ayn Edb Hayet ben Salah, representing the Union of Women of Tunisia, stated that, while until recently most girls could not access education at all and only two women in the country had yet achieved a PhD degree afer completing their studies in Paris (GARF 3 775, pp. 29–37), the new Law on Personal Status adopted in 1957 had signifcantly changed the situation for women in many respects: this law prohibited polygamy and enfranchised women. Importantly, women in Tunisia could now access the same education as men. A similarly positive evaluation of the development of national education was given by the representative from Ghana, Sofa Doku, an MP and deputy secretary of the National Council of Women of Ghana (GARF 3 775, p. 44). Te seminar participants were ofered an extensive program of excursions and study visits, primarily in Tashkent and Uzbekistan, but also group travel to other Central Asian Soviet republics. For example, one group spent four days traveling through the Kyrgyz Republic, including women from Cameroon, Togo, Somalia, and Ethiopia. According to the report presented by Omoyele Gadarbe from Togo, the head of this group, the trip allowed the guests to realize how impressive the changes in terms of development were in Frunze (now Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan) and in the republic more widely. Reproducing === [PDF page 225] === 212 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the information the group had learned from their hosts, Gadarbe presented these changes by means of a Soviet-style narrative, similar to the one that can be found in Halle’s book of 1938: from a place where there were no secondary, special, or higher education establishments, the Soviet Kyrgyztan’s capital had transformed itself into a large cultural center where the guests could visit the Academy of Sciences, University, and medical and pedagogical institutes of higher education, as well as many technical and secondary schools (GARF 3 377 p. 161). Although the guests apparently did not have the chance to learn about the Islamic educational traditions of the region or the violent nature of the Soviet transformation, some of the visits and conversations they had might be genuinely meaningful. For example, the female political tourists appreciated a concert at the Pioneer’s Palace and asked the hosts many questions about the organization of afer-school activities for children. Te next day, the guests were received by a group of prominent Kyrgyz women: ministers, deputy ministers, MPs, and representatives of the city council (GARF 3 779 p. 162). Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Culture, K. Konduchalova, when meeting the African guests, gave them an overview of the current situation in terms of the development of the economy and culture in the republic, placing particular emphasis on the importance of issues of education. On the third day of the seminar, participants were given a guided tour of the University. Together with these objects connected to education, the seminar participants also visited other places that were usually included in the list of excursions for foreign female guests as I noticed before: a sewing factory, a collective farm, and an agrarian exhibition. Te guests also attended a theater performance. Tus, it is reasonable to suppose that, in reality, diferent members of the group are likely to have had diferent opinions and to value some of the visited objects more than others. Such impressions depended also on the political and economic situation in their countries of origine. Te visit to the Tajik Republic looked rather similar. Te group consisted of seven women: representatives from Guinea, Mali, Morocco, and Tunisia, along with the representative from UNESCO, Ruth Lazarus. Te report written by Ramaytulaite Bagura, the leader of the group (GARF 3 779, p. 164), stated that inspecting the organization of education in this Soviet republic was the main aim of the study visit; in particular, the guests met the deputy === [PDF page 226] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 213 head of the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik Soviet Republic, I. Rahimova, and visited the republic’s central library (including an exhibition of books on Asia and Africa), as well as schools and professional colleges. Te special point of interest was a boarding school that encompassed all levels of education, including a nursery and kindergarten (GARF 3 779, p. 165). However, although the guests witnessed “happy and healthy” looking children, the report shows that the group was not united about this experimental form of education. According to Lazarus, it is not obvious from a psychological perspective that such an educational complex, housing children from one year of age to 18, and where children are separated from their families so early, is better than an ordinary boarding school where children start when they are seven years old. However, such critical evaluations, according to the ofcial report, do not spoil the generally positive impressions gained by the guests of Tajikistan and its women. At the same time, the classifed reports from the CSW collection in Moscow show that, as in the case of other visits, some of the Soviet seminar participants3 were collecting information about the guests. Te preserved reports recorded opinions expressed in personal conversations with hosts and translators; the analysis shows that, as in most other cases, it was primarily opinions about Soviet institutions and the Soviet system in general that the hosts were interested in. For example, they noted that Fanta Diallo from Mali found a lot of similarities between Mali and Uzbekistan, in particular that everything was connected to the production of cotton and irrigation, and she stressed that she had learned a lot from the visit (GARF 4 156, p. 28). As a result, she was evaluated by the CSW’s employees as a person who “was learning about the Soviet reality with great interest” and “very friendly and positively refected upon everything she has seen” (GARF 4 156, p. 28). Dorothy Kashaija from Tanganyika (now Tanzania) was described as a person who had been sent to the seminar by the wife of the president of the country, Julius Nyerere. She was particularly impressed by the hospitality of the Soviet people who, according to her, did not diferentiate between people belonging to diferent races (GARF 4 156, p. 32). Tus, the CSW evaluation of her was also very positive. However, reports on several other participants noted lack of “interest” or of “understanding” of Soviet reality. === [PDF page 227] === 214 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Te contacts during the seminar itself were not the endpoint of diferent forms of communication. As can clearly be seen from classifed correspondence found in the archival collection, the CSW was able to use the information it had collected for developing future contacts and cooperation, including future invitations to visit the countries of the “Eastern bloc” or to become involved in the WIDF’s structures at diferent levels (GARF 4 169, pp. 87–8, Classifed report from May 24, 1963). Indeed, the Tashkent seminar participant from Mozambique, Priscilla Gumane, who was positively evaluated by the Moscow representatives, was later suggested as a participant in the congress of the WIDF in Moscow (see more in Gradskova 2022a). Furthermore, as I have shown in Chapter 3, women working at the UzFS were tasked with remaining in contact with the seminar participants in the hope of continuing cooperation between women’s organizations. Finally, it is easy to suppose that the African participants at this seminar passed on information about Central Asian women more widely in their countries and, thus, some of the letters from unknown women’s organizations that UzFS was receiving—some of which I discussed in Chapter 3—were the results of these transnational contacts initiated in Tashkent. Tus, it is possible to say that the outcomes of the seminar in Tashkent and Central Asia can be analyzed on several levels and from diferent perspectives. On the one hand, presenting Tashkent and Uzbekistan as a developed country implied the presence of a certain hierarchy between the women in the room (with Soviet Uzbek women having the position of experts). On the other hand, the seminar was an important opportunity for African women to come together to discuss the problems of education. Although many (but not all) African countries were independent by that time, there were not many women’s gatherings taking place inside Africa (the Pan-African Women’s Organization, for example, was only formed in the same year). Even though in only a limited fashion, personal encounters between (some) Uzbek women and women from Africa also took place: although the Soviet leadership hoped that the guests would “learn” about Soviet achievements in the economy, development, and women’s rights, it is easy to suppose that the women from Uzbekistan were also “learning” from their guests. Indeed, the seminar ofered opportunity to the Central Asians to meet strong, infuential and politically === [PDF page 228] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 215 active African women. Finally, as I have already mentioned with reference to Porter (2018), such events meant that practices of cooperation with international organizations and participation in internationalism were seen as related to women’s interests and opportunities; women coming together and solving problems through transnational communication was becoming a norm. To conclude, it is important to state that having international guests was connected to improvements in the tourist infrastructure of the city of Tashkent (and other Central Asian cities—see Chapter 3 for more on the discussions in the UzFS in 1961), as well as Uzbek women becoming translators and demonstrating their knowledge and achievements. Afer exploring the seminar in Tashkent, I now move to the next one, which took place in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, eight years later, in 1970. Like the seminar in Tashkent, this one was also realized in cooperation with UNESCO, but it had a narrower and more practical focus; the Khartoum seminar was dedicated to fghting illiteracy among women in Africa. While that meeting was presented as the WIDF’s event accomplished with support from UNESCO, it was the Sudanese Women’s Union, a member of the WIDF, that was the main host. Te archive in Moscow has preserved several documents and letters concerning the organization of this seminar, and these suggest that the design of the event was undertaken mainly by the (Sudanese) hosts (GARF 3 2423). At the end of the seminar, the WIDF journal published some of its presentations in full (WWW 1970 3), obviously hoping that they would be of practical value to African and other East–South countries. Te correspondence between the WIDF Secretariat in Berlin, the CSW, and the Sudanese women’s organization, preserved in the Moscow archive and translated from English, tells us that the preparatory committee of the conference included fve women from Sudan’s organization, representatives of the Sudanese government, Cecile Hugel, representing the WIDF as its general secretary, and also a representative of PAWO (at the moment when this document was being written, the last of these was expected to be decided upon in coordination with the head of this organization, Cissé (GARF 3 2423, p. 1)). Te document gives the impression that already several months before the === [PDF page 229] === 216 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery seminar, women from the preparatory committee in Sudan had accomplished impressive work in collecting fnancial support: the Sudanese women’s organization had secured an agreement that the Ministry of Work would cover the local transportation of participants, while every base organization of the Union of Sudanese Women was also expected to donate a specifed sum of money for the organization of this event (GARF 3 2423, p. 4). Te hosts also organized a broad information campaign, advertising the seminar through a public celebration of the day of the elimination of illiteracy, a special pamphlet, a weekly TV program, radio programs, and the distribution of materials through Khartoum University (GARF 3 2423, p. 2). Te Sudanese Women’s Union also reached an agreement with the Ministry of Education about the possibility of using the ministry’s premises for organizing schools and courses for women. Te correspondence between the co-organizers of the conference also reveals insecurity surrounding this conference due to the unstable political situation in Sudan and the danger of a military coup. Nevertheless, the local organizing committee prepared a program of visits and excursions that included visiting new houses in one of the city districts as well as visits to social institutions and the department for adult education; the program also included some entertainment (GARF 3 2423, p. 3). It is important to mention that, according to the Soviet classifed correspondence, one of the leaders of the Sudanese Women’s Union, Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a member of the Sudan Communist Party, even had plans to make some space at the conference to celebrate the centenary of Lenin’s birth (GARF 3 2422, p. 164; see also Gradskova 2021) that were not realized. But apart from this point, the program did not look specifcally “Communist” and ideological. Despite many eforts by the Sudanese organizers to secure fnances for the seminar, it seems to have required more fnancial support than the local eforts could raise. A letter from Rakhimbabaeva—at that time a representative of CSW at the WIDF headquarters in East Berlin—informed the recipient in the CSW that, in September 1969, the Secretariat of the WIDF had discussed the Khartoum seminar and decided to apply for fnancial aid from UNESCO (GARF 3 2422, p. 105). Tus, the WIDF money used for the seminar (mainly for African participants’ travel to and from Khartoum—GARF 3 2423, p. 107) === [PDF page 230] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 217 was added to by UNESCO to fnance other aspects of the organization of the seminar. It is possible to see from the documents that Layla (Salwa Zayaddeen, author of an article about the seminar in Tashkent in 1962 I mentioned earlier) had also played an important role in coordinating the organizational eforts for this conference, not least, by traveling to Sudan and observing the preparations at the venue. As already stated, the conference proceedings were published in a special issue of the WIDF journal (they were also preserved, sometimes in a more complete form, in Russian translation in the Moscow archive). Te published speeches show that the conference became an important venue for the East– South exchange of experience with respect to fghting illiteracy. Women from twenty-three African countries and from the Middle East—Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Iraq—took part in the conference (GARF 3 2423, p. 8). It seems plausible to suggest that, for women in Khartoum, it was a very special occasion, enabling them to meet women from other continents, including Soviet Uzbekistan and Cuba, as well as women from other African countries. Te speakers at the seminar condemned colonialism, defended the importance of literacy for women, and described how they were working to improve the rate of literacy among women in their countries (GARF 3 2422 p. 1; WWW 1970 3: 64–5). For example, Lucienne Goddot, representative of the Central African Republic, connected adult women’s learning with the possibility of gaining employment in the future. Tis is why she advocated the creation of a specially designed textbook for adult women, rather than using textbooks for children. Souad Abdel Aal, one of the representatives of the Sudanese Women’s Union, informed attendees that the courses for women provided by her organization did not limit their task to teaching literacy but were also trying to provide the women attending courses with various practical skills, such as sewing or embroidery. Such skills could help these women to contribute to their families’ fnances or could even lead to later fnding gainful employment as a dressmaker (WWW 1970 3: 37). Te representative of the ANC (African National Congress) and member of the Secretariat of PAWO, Magdaline Resha,4 spoke about the rights of women as workers and, in particular, stressed that education could help them to fght the exploitation that women were sufering under the colonial system (WWW 1970 3: 29). While most of the === [PDF page 231] === 218 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery participants saw the colonial system as the main reason for the high illiteracy rates in their countries, Resha’s speech was particularly sharp: bringing together slavery, colonialism, capitalism, feudalism, and imperialism, she stressed that the “dominant nation or class” was always trying to keep the exploited one in ignorance (GARF 3 2423, p. 29). She argued that fghting illiteracy was a way to fght both colonial legacies and the injustices of the postcolonial world. Many seminar participants defended women’s education as important for economic development, but also for the nation. Fatima Ahmet Ibrahim connected illiteracy with legacies of colonialism, and in particular attributed gender disparities in education to the colonial system: imperial governments preferred to give more rights to education to men. Embracing maternalism, she stated that one of the challenges of the new independent states in Africa was the “uneducated mother,” who, due to her role as educator of the next generation, could be a barrier to the progress of both society and the family. For example, a mother who does not know the basic facts about nutrition endangers her children’s health and afects the whole family’s well-being. Such a mother will also have difculties in teaching her children to be good citizens and may pass on “to her children all the false ideas and harmful traditions and customs that she has inherited” (WWW 1970 3: 21). Neglecting the education of women can also cause other problems in the family, including leading to divorce and polygamy (due to misunderstandings between spouses having very diferent educational levels). Tus, according to Ibrahim, “to educate the mother” is a particularly important task of the newly independent countries when they are thinking about the future and development (WWW 1970 3: 20). Another representative of the Sudanese Women’s Organization, Abdel Aal, defended every person’s right to education, but also stressed the importance of education for women due to their special family responsibilities: “Te role of woman as the guardian and administrator of the family and as creator and educator of children, on whom the future of our country depends, and her role as family economist calls for the education of women according to modern principles” (WWW 1970 3: 35). Te representatives of the Revolutionary Union of Congolese Women, Marie-Jose Mankele and Emiliene Botoka, expressed similar ideas: “Educating women means making them aware of their role as capable housewives and mothers, responsible for the health, the moral, physical, and cultural education === [PDF page 232] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 219 of their children, the future heirs of the important enterprise of national construction” (WWW 1970 3: 66). Tus, they argued that, together with literacy skills, women attending schools and courses needed to learn other practical skills concerning family life. In particular, they presented an educational handout prepared especially for women that, together with teaching women to read and write, informed them about their bodies and pregnancy (WWW 1970 3: 68). Advocating education for housewives as a means of building a strong nation difered from the Soviet interpretations of goals for women’s education; it demonstrates that conference in Khartoum brought together female activists with a variety of perspectives on women’s education. Some of the speakers paid special attention to the role of women’s organizations in fghting illiteracy. Ahmed Ibrahim, for example, considered the work of women’s organizations to be difcult, not least due to a lack of understanding of the connections between literacy and rights: “Not even educated women were convinced they had rights to win” (she defned this as the “backwardness of women”), but defended the importance of their work and advocated common actions by women’s organizations with workers’ and teachers’ unions (WWW 1970 3: 21–3). Many presenters discussed practical issues connected to the organization of schools and literacy courses for women, including their location, schedule, and teaching materials. For example, using the experiences of the Sudanese Women’s Union, Abdel Aal suggested that a time between 11:00 a.m. and 13:00 p.m. is the most convenient for those mothers whose children attend school or daycare (WWW 1970, 36). Also, according to her, in order to educate mothers, it was important to solve the problem of childcare: in the case of the literacy courses organized by the Union of Sudanese Women, mothers could bring their children with them and older sisters would play with some of the smaller children while mothers held babies in their arms during the class, even though this was not very comfortable. Maria Santos, representative of the Angolan women’s organization, shared her experience of organizing schools for overcoming illiteracy in the zones of Angola controlled by the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola—MPLA (WWW 1970 3: 63). According to this speaker, such schools used special programs and materials, and their students were already learning to read and write afer completing thirty-one lessons. === [PDF page 233] === 220 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery In this context, it seems that the historical experiences of fghting illiteracy presented by the speakers from the USSR and Cuba might have attracted the interest of the audience. Zukhra Rakhimbabaeva, for example, gave a lengthy talk entitled: “Experiences of eradicating illiteracy among women in the USSR” (WWW 1970 3: 40). In contrast to most of the African speakers presenting the experiences of their organizations, Rakhimbabaeva started her speech with the role of the state in eliminating illiteracy in Uzbekistan. In particular, she spoke about opening the University of Central Asia in Tashkent in 1920, allocating money for women’s education, and passing a decree about special privileges in the fght for literacy, such as a shortened working day for those attending literacy courses (WWW 1970 3: 41). However, Rakhimbabaeva also gave examples of women’s initiatives that were rather specifc to Soviet Central Asia, such as organizing tearooms for women in order to explain the importance of education and to stimulate women to read (WWW 1970 3: 47). Finally, in her talk, Rakhimbabaeva also spoke about local resistance to women’s education from the traditional elites, and about political education (such as the collective reading of newspapers) (WWW 1970 3: 48). However, her lengthy speech obviously “omitted” many events surrounding the campaign for literacy in Soviet Central Asia: obviously she did not mention Soviet repression of Uzbek intellectuals or the Russifcation politics of the Soviet center in Central Asia (see Chapter 1). Still, in the context of other presentations at the seminar, some parts of Rakhimbabaeva’s intervention may have been interesting to African women, in particular those concerning the role that the nation-state can play in solving problems of education for women. Unfortunately, it is unclear from the available documents how useful Rakhimbabaeva found the experiences of African women’s organizations that she listened to. Indeed, the educational system estableshed in Uzbekistan from Moscow was strictly centralized. But, we may suppose that she was able to learn other things from her African “sisters,” things not available in Soviet Uzbekistan, for example, concerning the activities of independent women’s organizations in postcolonial countries. In contrast to Rakhimbabaeva, who used her knowledge as a professional historian to describe the campaign in Central Asia taking place about forty years previously, the representative of the FMC, Cordelia Navarro Garcia, drew === [PDF page 234] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 221 upon the fresh experiences of the FMC campaign of the early 1960s. She also shared the language of “underdevelopment” and discussed practical solutions for fghting illiteracy in the absence of enough teachers (WWW 1970 3: 51). As in Sudan, the FMC presented a case for the widespread use of radio and TV to distribute knowledge, as well as paying attention to adjusting school schedules to production cycles, giving the example of three distinct school schedules activated in Cuba, depending on harvesting and sugar production. Finally, the presenter stressed the important role of the FMC in organizing literacy campaigns. Summarizing the presentations in Khartoum (unfortunately, neither the archival materials nor the journal have preserved questions or discussions around the presentations), it is possible to state that the seminar ofered an opportunity to voice diferent experiences and prospects of women’s education; it seems also to have created a good atmosphere for non-hierarchical communication between East–South women. From this perspective, it is interesting to note that, similar to the letters sent and received in Tashkent, the communication in Khartoum was based on the assumption that the interests and worldviews of women are closely allied, which lay behind the use of “sister” when addressing each other. For example, Goddot expressed her gratitude to her Sudanese “sisters” for organizing this conference (GARF 3 2421, p. 1); the term was also used by Rakhimbabaeva, who ended her speech with “Dear Sisters!” (GARF 3 2422, 44). Tis contributed to the welcoming environment, but it also positively infuenced broader transnational postcolonial connectivity, particularly between East–South women. Afer my analysis of these frst two seminars on education, which frmly placed Tashkent and Khartoum on the global map of women’s internationalism, and thus challenged their peripheral status, in the second part of this chapter, I discuss the development of women’s education, paying close attention to its specifc place in the cultural Cold War competition. Women’s Education and Its Diferent Agendas Tis section discusses the perspectives of East–South women’s networks on the goals of education for women, as well as teaching methods and the problems === [PDF page 235] === 222 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery of building functioning education systems. Its aim is to explore the place of women’s education in the context of the South–East women’s gatherings and networks focused on women’s rights and global development. How were these goals to be reached, and what practical steps were taken? Following Marxist ideas about the importance of equal participation in socially signifcant work by all members of society, regardless of gender, women’s waged work (for the state economy) became one of the most distinctive features of the state socialist regimes, and the idea of women’s salaried work within the national economy was widely refected in the WIDF publications, as well as in many East–South gatherings where the WIDF played an important role. At the same time, it was specifcally women’s work outside of the home that constituted one of the central points of confrontation in the cultural Cold War. According to Laville, for example, diferent ideals of women’s status with respect to work inside (as housewives) or outside (waged work) of home were crucial for American representations of the Cold War confrontation in the 1950s (Laville 2013). Indeed, the opportunity for women not to work for a salary was presented as a special achievement of the “West,” ofering a “better option” to women, which was usually contrasted against the requirement for everybody, including women, to work in the Communist “East.” Te conficting issue of women’s waged work infuenced attitudes toward women’s education globally. Te Soviet state aimed to maximize women’s involvement in the workforce and was already defending the development of women’s education by the 1920s. Tus, Halle’s book, published in the 1930s, refected this connection and demonstrated that the Soviet center’s active role in the campaign against women’s illiteracy and promoting equal access to education, together with goals of equality, also had the (neo-imperial) goal of efectively preparing women for full-time employment according to the needs of the Soviet center. During the 1960s, the Communist “East” established women’s waged work (mainly in the state economy) as a gender norm and, as I show further below, showcased this model to the postcolonial countries as a developmental tool. Simultaneously, as we can see from the publications about education in postcolonial countries produced in the “West,” while education was acknowledged as an important tool for economic and cultural development in the newly independent countries, women’s education—in line with the === [PDF page 236] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 223 diferences in Cold War views on gender roles in the “East” and “West” (see Laville 2013 and Chapter 1)—was generally not part of this construction. For example, the volume published by Hanson and Brembeck in 1966, dedicated to education and development, rarely mentions women as an important target of educational policies.5 Indeed, only a few of the authors in this anthology mentioned women, usually at the very end of their articles, and mainly as those whose education would be important for the formation and progress of the nation through being responsible for home-making and traditions (Ki-Zerbo 1966, 240). Meanwhile, another (male) author in the book demonstrated readiness to accept gendered pay discrimination in the name of development, suggesting that for poor African countries, female teachers—who were paid less than male ones—would be an important resource (Vaizey 1966, 372). Tus, it is possible to state that issues of education at the Cold War peripheries were embedded in the cultural Cold War’s conficting views on development, work, and diferently justifed gender roles. Te changes in global views on women’s role in development were rather slow (Jain 2005), even though the book by Danish feminist, Ester Boserup, published in 1972 (Boserup 2007), already convincingly demonstrated the importance of education for women’s work and for development. In connection with the Communist “East’s” vision of the future, in which women’s involvement in waged work would grow, the WIDF’s documents and publications and East–South gatherings’ programs and declarations not only expressed strong support for full gender equality in education but directly demanded professional education and training for women. Tis is visible, for example, in the early reports of the WIDF delegation’s travels through the colonized territories and newly independent countries in 1947 (see Chapter 2). Te WIDF journal, meanwhile, stressed not only the importance of education for women but also the benefts of moving rapidly from women’s seclusion and illiteracy to signifcant increases in both literacy and women’s involvement in productive work outside the home. Te example of Central Asia was used particularly frequently to demonstrate this. Tus, an article by Maria Teresa Gallo in the WIDF journal from 1959 informed readers about women’s broad enrollment in school and university education in contemporary Uzbekistan (ZM 1959 12, 20–1). According to the article, this had led to prosperity in === [PDF page 237] === 224 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery the country, as well as to women’s empowerment: describing her meeting with Yadgar Nasriddinova, the head of Uzbekistan’s Parliament, the Supreme Soviet, Gallo argued that she was able to achieve her high position thanks to the new educational opportunities for women ofered by the Soviet state. Te connection between women’s work, national development, and education for women was the subject of many articles in the WIDF journal. For example, in 1959, another WIDF journalist, Maria Luisa Vicentini, published an article dedicated to the problems of mis-correspondence between the education provided for women and the job market’s opportunities and demands (ZM 1959 9: 14–15). Exploring the announcements of those women who were looking for work in her country, Chile, and in some other countries of Latin America, Vicentini found inconsistencies between the professional education (or lack of it) that women received, women’s need to work due to their difcult economic situation or that of their families, and the jobs that were available on the market. Tus, Vicentini suggested that overcoming discrimination in the job market required much efort, including an expansion of the opportunities for improving women’s professional qualifcations, expanding childcare facilities, and fghting open discrimination. Another article from the same year, 1959, by Lilavati Banker, addressed industrialization in India and women’s place in it. Similar to Vicentini, Banker demonstrated inconsistencies between education and the job market: getting an education as a girl in India did not necessarily mean access to a well-paid and professional job aferwards. Furthermore, even though India had enacted a law about opening nurseries at enterprises where married women were working, these requirements were ofen ignored by companies’ management, not least through falsifcation of the marriage status of women employed there. Tese and similar publications in the WIDF journal suggest that the right to education was defended by the journal primarily on the grounds of its importance for remunerated work. Finally, some of the articles in the WIDF journal directly attacked the position of women activists on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain: Rosa Jasovich, during her time as the WIDF general secretary, criticized “bourgeois feminism” for being “too narrow,” while arguing that contemporary women who received an education understood that participation in the production process and in social life is the “primary condition of women’s emancipation” (ZM 1963 3: 4). === [PDF page 238] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 225 With many new states in Africa declaring their independence and emphasizing the importance of education for the whole population, including women, as well as in the context of strengthened South–East links, the issue of education for women gained new prominence within the East–South networks. Tis was expressed particularly strongly at the seminars on education for African women in Tashkent and Khartoum discussed above, and the success of the rapid elimination of illiteracy in Cuba also became incorporated into the Cold War narrative of the Communist “East” about the value of gender equality and the right to education in general. Tus, the issue of literacy gained particular visibility in the WIDF journal, while its achievement was seen as connected to the end of the arms race and militarization. An article by Nicole Martin in the WIDF journal from 1963, summarizing UNESCO’s colloquium on education in African countries, stated that reducing military expenditure globally by only 1 percent would enable “Africa” to become literate (ZM 1963 3: 21–4). Tis and other articles that connected education and development saw the elimination of illiteracy among women as the frst step toward their professional education and their future contributions to the economies of the postcolonial countries. As already mentioned, the demands for equal access for women to all levels of education became much more widespread in the early 1970s as a result of the new wave of the feminist movement in the “West,” but also globally (see Chapter 4 on Latin American second-wave feminism in the 1980s). Tis reinforced the Communist “East’s” claims about its expertise in connection with the issue of women’s education, particularly in developing countries. Te WIDF Congress in Berlin in 1975 discussed the problems of education at one of its commissions, while the commission’s preparatory document claimed that illiteracy “is one of the worst forms of discrimination against human beings” (IISH—WIDF Collection). It allowed the Communist bloc, not least, to demonstrate its commitment to the principles of global cultural justice endorsed by UNESCO. Te number of East–South gatherings dedicated to women’s education and co-organized between the WIDF and UNESCO signifcantly increased during the 1970s: seminars and conferences at least partly organized around issues of education for women were held in New Delhi (1971), Algiers (1974), Lima (1974), and Almaty (1975). In contrast to the conference in Khartoum, where representatives of women’s organizations shared their experiences of teaching === [PDF page 239] === 226 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery women to read and write, many of the later conferences (and to a lesser extent those in New Delhi and Algiers) featured much greater participation by governments and experts. Although none of these conferences were ever presented in the WIDF journal through such detailed reports as the one in Khartoum, and not many archival materials are available, in what follows I briefy discuss their place in East–South women’s networks in connection with education, using the available information. Information about the seminar in New Delhi provided by the WIDF journal was modeled in accordance with the Khartoum seminar and, together with Indian women, it featured presentations by representatives of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Bangladesh, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union (ZM 1972 2). Te last of these, however, was not represented by a Central Asian woman but by Galina Maslova from the central women’s organization. Te seminar that took place in Algiers, on March 3–9, 1974, was mainly dedicated to overcoming illiteracy, but it can also be seen as important for strengthening cooperation between North African women’s organizations, the WIDF, and PAWO (GARF 3 3414, p. 75). Cuban reports on the seminar, for example, stressed the impression that the Cuban presentation—by Aleida Legon Padilla and Nancy Iglesias—had a strong impact on the participants (FMC DC). Te seminar in Almaty was attended by representatives of twenty-six countries, but in this case, the journal published only a general overview of the gathering, including cultural events and sightseeing (WWW 1975 4: 22–7). In contrast to the seminars in Khartoum and New Delhi, which were dedicated to practical work for overcoming illiteracy, the seminar in Almaty took on a broader task: to discuss the participation of women in the economic development of their countries and the education of the next generation. However, this seminar also had a more maternalist tone together with stressing women’s responsibility in front of the nation. Indeed, the head of the CSW, Valentina Tereshkova, described the growing involvement of women in diferent spheres of professional and social life and highlighted the signifcance of women’s role in society in connection with their reproductive functions: “Woman is fulflling an important social function—the continuation of the human species” (GARF 3 3679, pp. 15–16). As can be understood from the archival materials and this article, despite taking place at the periphery, this === [PDF page 240] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 227 particular seminar seems to have been designed rather as one of the WIDF’s events dedicated to the IWY, and it enjoyed an (unusually) large participation by high-level international guests. Together with the head of the CSW, present were Helvi Sipilä, the UN representative responsible for the IWY, as well as the WIDF president, Freda Brown, and general secretary Fanny Edelman. A large proportion of the journal’s publication was dedicated to them, leaving no space for much information about what possibilities for communication were lef for other participants, including those from Kazakhstan. Te seminar in Lima, in October 1974, was organized by the Peru Women’s Union and explicitly focused on the elimination of discrimination against women in the sphere of education (GARF 3 3414, p. 69). “Conclusions and Recommendations of the Seminar,” published by the WIDF journal, demanded legal changes in the sphere of education and vocational training: the end of discrimination against women and racial discrimination, the same education for boys and girls in the same schools, as well as the provision of the necessary material conditions for this, including free primary education, granting social security benefts to all workers, and controlling prices (WWW 1975 1: 22). However, in contrast to the hopeful atmosphere in Khartoum, the articles about the seminar in Lima demonstrated a rather negative picture of the educational opportunities for women in Latin America, while not revealing much about how women’s organizations were working to improve the situation at the local level, apart from the demands expressed in the political declarations and, again, the presentation by Aleida Legon Padilla on the Cuban experience. One of the presentations at this seminar, entitled “Why Education is Not a Preparation for Life in Brazil” (WWW 1975 1:17–18), was authored by Ana Carmo (the real name of Ana Montenegro; I analyzed her memories of exile in Chapter 1). Unfortunately, the journal publication contains only selected parts from her speech and does not allow us to explore all of Carmo’s argumentation. However, even such a truncated version gives a picture of the enormous disparities within education in Brazilian society: 46 percent of the population was illiterate (more than half of these were women), while women constituted only about 20 percent of the economically active population. Tus, on the basis of WIDF journal publications dedicated to later South– East gatherings on education for women, it is possible to state that the === [PDF page 241] === 228 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery problems of literacy for women, their professional training, and equal access to education continued to be important topics of discussion. However, probably due to time moving on, the participating women lost some of their initial optimism about fnding an imminent solution to the problem. Furthermore, the seminars dedicated to education seem to have become more about bringing together experts to discuss access to existing forms of educational institutions, while paying less attention to feminist criticisms of the forms and content of education per se or to new perspectives on women’s education discussed by feminists in the “West” (see for example, Pálmadóttir and Sjöstedt 2022). When discussing the approach of transnational women’s networks to women’s education, it is important to note the special attention paid by the East–South gatherings and documents to racial discrimination in education and work. For example, the WIDF published a pamphlet entitled: “Efects of racism on the economic rights of women,” which was presented at the UN Women’s Conference in Copenhagen in 1980 (DNA KVINFO). Tis pamphlet had a foreword by Lucille Mair,6 general secretary of the conference, and presented the results of a seminar that had taken place in New York City in 1980 and was hosted by the US organization “Women for Racial and Economic Equality.” Criticizing the diferent negative efects of racism on the lives of women, the pamphlet stressed that a lack of fnances for education is connected to high military spending (“Efects,” p. 24, DNA, KVINFO). However, like the East–South women’s networks’ position on reproduction, its position on education also contained some hidden contradictions, not least in connection with educational politics in Central Asia. Indeed, as I have already mentioned, the special issue of the Uzbekistan scientifc journal dedicated to 60 years of the Hujum contains some information about growing diferences in education between Central Asia and the Soviet center, expressed by the author of one article, Chebotareva (see Chapter 5). Chebotareva did not provide data about diferences in fnancing school education, but the diferences in fnancing pre-schools that she did present (Chebotareva 1987, 15) suggest that, in practice, inequalities in education were growing. And it was in such Cold War peripheries as Central Asia, which during the 1950s had served as an example of women’s education for other (post-)colonial South–East countries and women’s organizations, that this discrimination === [PDF page 242] === Women’s Networks and Education for Women 229 was occurring. Tese diferences between the Cold War center and periphery meant that Central Asian women were, in practice, paradoxically, closer to their “sisters” in developing countries with respect to problems in education than it was possible to read into the East–South networks’ ofcial documents. Conclusion On the basis of the material studied in this chapter, it is possible to state that South–East women’s networks were among the frst to approach the problems of women’s illiteracy and gender-unequal access to education as a serious hindrance to development. Tis was tied to the Cold War-era Communist “East” vision of women as active contributors to the economy, in contrast to the “Western” camp’s emphasis on their role as housewives. However, in the context of this Cold War confrontation, the East–South women’s ideas around women’s education were not fully acknowledged. Indeed, education for women as an important goal of women’s internationalism is usually seen as only becoming central to the special developmental programs and special research much later, mainly in the afermath of the end of the Cold War, even though the issue of education for girls and women had been marked as a special problem in the Declaration of Mexico City (Benavot 1989; King & Hill 1993; Ker Conway & Bourque 1993). Tus, it is the 1980s that is usually described as the decade when the education of women started to be viewed as “a means to improve women’s social and economic status” (Ker Conway & Bouque, 1993, 1). Tis is also seen as the period when an understanding of the need to rethink and reorganize the feld of education in order to incorporate women really began to grow. Finally, it was the period when kindergartens started to be seen as an important way of helping in the work of spreading literacy and education for adult women because, in practice, this was the institution that allowed mothers of young children to come to class (Ker Conway & Bouque 1993, 301). As a result of all these changes, the education of women can now be seen as a special feld of global governance: for example, in April 2000 at the Dakar World Education Forum, then secretaryGeneral of the United Nations, Kof Annan, launched === [PDF page 243] === 230 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery a special initiative concerning education for girls: Te United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative.7 Tus, the East–South women’s gatherings of the 1960s and 1970s, which discussed education for women in the context of overcoming colonial legacies, were rather remarkable. At the same time, my analysis of these East– South women’s networks suggests that, in spite of the early advocacy of the importance of women’s education, and taking practical steps toward achieving it at the international level, the content and forms of teaching, including the patriarchal character of the formal system of education, were not specifcally challenged and new feminist approaches to education were not discussed. Notes 1 https://news.un.org/en/story/2010/09/350122. 2 https://news.un.org/en/story/2010/09/350122. 3 In this case, the reporters seem to have been CSW employees from Moscow (not from Tashkent), as the data was preserved there. 4 According to her biography, published at South African History Online, Resha was a well-known African transnational feminist activist. https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/magdaline-maggie-resha. 5 It is also remarkable that the list of organizations and periodical publications dealing with the issues of education include institutions situated in Western Europe, North America, and developing countries but do not mention any in the “Communist East.” 6 https://caricom.org/personalities/dr-lucille-mathurin-mair/. 7 https://www.ungei.org/who-we-are/our-story. === [PDF page 244] === A School Tat “Opens Up the World?” Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana Afer exploring how the South–East women’s networks and gatherings approached the issues of women’s literacy and education, in this chapter I focus on a special way of coming together: a school for female activists from Latin America in Havana. Te school I explore in this chapter has not been studied before. Tis is probably due to its Cold War status (the school for women organized in Cuba was primerely seen as seeking to spread Communist infuence in Latin America, in this case, by training female Communists), but it is probably also due to the difculties of conducting research in today’s authoritarian Cuba, which preserves Communist ideas as the ofcial ideology, while de facto ending up with a lot of state socialist socio-economic regulations (see Chapter 1). However, this school, situated at the periphery of the Cold War, is an interesting object to examine from the perspective of South–East women’s transnational networks and connections. I contend that the school played a crucial role in fostering transnational cooperation on women’s rights, particularly in the context of the UN Decade for Women. Much like the feminist Encuentros discussed in Chapter 4, the school served as a key institution that strengthened transnational networks and collaboration within Latin American women’s movements. According to archival sources preserved in Moscow, in the context of the UN Decade for Women, the WIDF was planning to organize several educational centers for female activists from South–East countries. While the aim of such educational centers was never made fully explicit, in the context of the growing global centrality of women’s rights, such an initiative (which was in fact connected to the WIDF’s ambitions to play a role in the === [PDF page 245] === 232 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery global Cold War) was hardly a surprise. In particular, the WIDF leadership and CSW had planned courses for members of women’s organizations from Asian countries that would take place in Ulan Bator, Mongolia’s capital, during summer breaks at the city’s university. However, as a letter from the head of the Mongolian women’s organization, Sonomyn Udval, shows, the plans did not progress far due to a lack of resources (the letter was accompanied by a list of items that the Mongolian organization needed help with in order to continue working on the plans for international courses for women—GARF 3 4949 1–2; Gradskova 2021) and, probably, a lack of special interest on the part of the Mongolian women’s organization. Another variant of the realization of a women’s educational program—for African women in Bulgaria—is well described by Kristen Ghodsee in her book (2018): the main teachers in this program were Bulgarian women, and both sides preserved warm memories of those encounters. However, it seems that the school in Havana became the most successful realization of the idea of an international educational center for female activists as planned by the WIDF, but also, later, resulted in the establishment of an institution that functioned for many years on a permanent basis. Te history of global women’s activism speaks of several schools and courses for female and feminist activists aimed at providing both theoretical and practical knowledge to support their participation in political and social life. For example, afer women gained the right to vote in Sweden in 1921, some activists from the women’s enfranchisement movement established a school in Fogelstad. Te purpose of this school was to educate women on how to efectively exercise their newly acquired citizenship rights (Knutson 2004; Rydström & Tjeder 2018). Tis school taught its female students about the government and political system in Sweden, and also supplied them with practical skills concerning ethics and hygiene, which were considered to be important at that time. Among the teachers at the school in Fogelstad were some of the frst female members of the Swedish Parliament: Elisabeth Tamm and Kerstin Hesselgren. It is interesting to note that the school organizers also invited Aleksandra Kollontai, a well-known Bolshevik feminist and the Soviet ambassador to Sweden, to teach its female students. Another Nordic school, which started as a grassroots feminist initiative during the late 1960s === [PDF page 246] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 233 and 1970s—a course at the Nordic Summer University—was explored by Valgerður Pálmadóttir and Johanna Sjöstedt (2022). According to these authors, the summer school was a place for transnational encounters between women activists across Scandinavia and became an important platform for interaction and coordination of the new women’s grassroots organizations in the Nordic countries. Furthermore, it is important to note that, historically, some educational institutions for women that initially aimed to achieve women’s general enlightenment and formal education, but were created in societies where women had previously been denied the opportunity to receive a systematic institutional education, could become spaces for the development of ideas about the fundamental transformation of society and women’s place in it. Here, it would be useful to mention nineteenth-century institutions of higher education for women in the Russian Empire1 that inspired many women to become members of various political and revolutionary organizations and parties (Engel 2004). But the most remarkable were the jadidist (see Chapter 1) schools for Muslim women in the Volga-Ural region, Central Asia and the Caucasus that led many Tatar and other Muslim women of the Russian Empire to defend education for all Muslim women, the cultural rights of Muslim people in the Russian Empire, and, indeed, to oppose imperial rule itself (Makhmutova 2006). As for Soviet history, despite the creation of several special educational institutions for the new leaders (including the University of the People of the East that Halle visited—see Chapter 2) and Comintern and party schools, all of them were gender-mixed and there were no special schools at the Soviet center that would exclusively prepare female politicians. Revolutionary Cuba established a series of special schools for women, with one of the most well known being the Ana Betancourt schools, which opened in 1961. Tese schools were specifcally designed for rural women, ofering training in dressmaking and sewing while also educating young women from agrarian areas about the new opportunities available to them in Cuban society (Díaz Canals 2016, 434). Furthermore, in the mid-1970s, a school for FMC activists was established in Havana, as previously mentioned in Chapter 4. To conclude this introduction on diferent educational institutions aiming to provide women with instruments for active political and social participation === [PDF page 247] === 234 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery and/or feminist education, it is also important to note signifcant diferences in their impact and trajectories. Indeed, historically and right up to the present, educational events and institutions for female activists have varied between more academic programs on the one hand, and those focusing on community and solidarity on the other (see, e.g., information about Tird World feminist schools built around the idea of solidarity).2 Tus, the school for women that functioned in Havana during the 1970s and 1980s can also be placed in this context. Even if the school was created as an attempt by the WIDF and Moscow to infuence the Latin American women’s movement and make it defend state socialist politics, the traditions of Cuban “Tirdworldism” and the aspirations of the FMC to play a leading role in the Latin American women’s movement made the Cuban leadership follow new developments in the continent, not least the new feminist wave (on feminism in Latin America seeMolyneux 2003; Stephen 1997; De Giorgi 2018) and also made them interact with representatives of these movements. As I already noted, in 1987 the FMC representatives even took part in one of the feminist Encuentros. While I was not able to fnd information regarding whether some of the Latin American students at the school in Havana had taken part in any Encuentros before or afer they had come to Havana, such a possibility cannot be excluded. In turn, the school organizers would also have had to be aware of it and plan the school environment and programs accordingly. Tus, as I will show in this chapter, the school, which started as a WIDF project, experienced signifcant changes when it came to its programs and students in the context of developments of women’s activism in the continent. Te aim of this chapter is to explore the place of the Havana school in the South–East women’s gatherings and in the development of women’s and feminist activism in Latin America more generally. In particular, I explore who the school’s students were, what they were learning at the school, how the teaching process was organized, what the school environment in Havana could mean to its female students, and how they might have interpreted it. I am also interested in the extent to which the leadership of the WIDF and FMC defned the school’s curriculum, and how the geopolitical challenges have infuenced the institutional changes. Finally, I am interested in what impact the school had on women’s internationalism at the Cold War periphery. === [PDF page 248] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 235 I start by presenting an overview of the available information about the school’s environment as well as its students and teachers. Ten, in the second part, I explore the educational programs and practices. Te chapter is based on an archive preserved at the WIDF Regional Ofce in Havana, as well as my observations while visiting the former school building and conversations in the Regional Ofce and at the FMC’s Documentation Center. Students, Teachers, and the Politics of Hospitality in the Havana School In the small room belonging to the WIDF’s Regional Ofce that functions as a school archive, I was able to study documents relating to the frst six courses—from 1978, 1979, and 1980 (the school organized two courses a year). I also consulted materials about one course in 1984 (course 13), course 15 (in 1986), 17 (in 1988), and some materials from the beginning of the 1990s. Te latter helped me mainly to see developments in the school afer the end of the Cold War. Although the types of documents that can be found in this institutional archive do not ofer the opportunity to fully explore how this school functioned (in particular, due to a lack of documents providing the names of teachers or programs for most of the courses), still the preserved materials—entrance questionnaires, students’ evaluations, and teachers’ reports—were useful for learning more about the encounters that were taking place there. In some cases, the archive also preserved examples of materials produced by the students—an internal newspaper, presentations— which could be consulted as well. Te preserved documents provided valuable insights into the evolving student demographics, the management of the school, the challenges and issues identifed by teachers, and their ideas for potential improvements. Finally, these documents enabled me to understand the somewhat diferent meanings that the school encounters had for individual women, as well as for East–South women’s connectivity and networks in general. Tus, this section seeks to explore the general organization of the school, including its material and economic aspects, as well as student body and staf. === [PDF page 249] === 236 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery I also attempt to reconstruct how the school was managed and how its work contributed to transnational East–South women’s networks. According to what I was told when visiting the Regional Ofce and the school premises (conversation with K., January 11, 2023), the Fe de Valle school (the one aimed for FMC members, preceding the WIDF school in the same building) was organized in the building of a former monastery. Situated in one of the central districts of Havana—Vedado—the school was geographically close to the FMC’s headquarters and ofered both classrooms for studying and students’ accommodation in the same building. Although, according to the WIDF documents, the school began to receive its international students only in 1978, the article published in Mujeres in 1980 suggests that some non-Cuban (mainly African) women were already attending the FMC school in the mid1970s, including those receiving special training for kindergarten personnel (Mujeres 1980, 8: 64–5). Te school premises were also used to accommodate participants at several other international events and gatherings, such as the International Youth Festival that took place in Havana in 1978 and the NAM Conference in Havana in 1979. Tus, during the 1970s and 1980s, the building itself seems to have been marked by internationalism. Te archival collection to which I had access has preserved data about students (in the form of answers to a short standardized questionnaire for arriving students that henceforth I refer to as the “entrance questionnaire”), and it is with these questionnaires that I begin. Te questionnaires from the frst school year preserved in the archive were rather short and consisted of very general questions such as the student’s age, country of origin, level of education, and organization, but, as time went on, the questionnaire for students was modifed and developed. In particular, the entrance questionnaires started to ask for information about students’ family situation, religion, number of children, and color of skin and eyes, which the school did not request during the frst few years. Tis interest in collecting more information about incoming students was probably connected to growing interest in the diversity of the student body, but, possibly, it developed due to previous conficts or problems that students or teachers had experienced or complained about. Tus, more detailed information about religion (even though only a few participants, mainly those from Ecuador, Mexico, and El Salvador, wrote that they were === [PDF page 250] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 237 believers—OR course 13, 1984) or small children lef at home could prepare the school staf for meeting students’ needs better. According to the preserved documents, the students on the frst course (January to April 1978) consisted mainly of women who were members of their countries’ lefist (mainly Communist) parties: out of twenty-one students, ffeen were members of Socialist and Communist parties (one was a member of the youth organization of one of these parties), two had memberships in other parties, and only one female student did not belong to any political party. As well as most of them being members of political parties, ffeen of the students were simultaneously members of women’s organizations, while one presented herself as a trades-union activist with good connections to one of the women’s organizations in her country. Tus, several of the women who attended the school’s frst course were not afliated with women’s organizations in their home countries and, presumably, dedicated themselves to party political work in general. Membership in Communist and other lefist parties should not be interpreted in this case as just ideological work or being in full agreement with Moscow’s line. Previous research has demonstrated signifcant diferences between the Communist parties of the region during the period under study, in terms of their views on practical work, problems they had to deal with as well as in their attitude toward the two main Cold War blocs (Concheiro et al. 2007; Vergès 2019, 247–8). Tis makes it easy to suppose that the female students at the school held a certain diversity of views as well, despite all labeling themselves “Communists” or “Socialists.” Furthermore, it is important to note that, in contrast to the Soviet archive, the archive available to me in Cuba did not contain any fles resulting from the hosts’ surveillance of their guests (in this case, female students) or describing the guests’ political views and attitudes toward the host country. However, it cannot be guaranteed that such fles did not exist. At the same time, it is worth noticing that a period of several months studying together (in contrast to the meetings and conferences, which lasted only a few days) opened up the possibility of private communication away from the presence of the Cuban school staf. Also, given that they mainly spoke the same language—Spanish—the female students in Havana, in contrast to the participants at many other South–East gatherings, === [PDF page 251] === 238 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery for example, in Tashkent, did not need intermediaries for their communication in the form of translators. Tis obviously contributed to more nuanced and varied communication among the students, and also allowed the guests to become integrated into many diferent activities in the host country and with its inhabitants’ everyday lives. Tis allowed a partial transformation of the “tourist gaze” and of the status of the guests as “political tourists.” It is plausible to suppose that attending the course contributed to the exchange of personal as well as political experiences, due to close contact between the students, not only in class, but also in the dormitory and during study trips and leisure-time activities. For example, some of the course reports mention that students used to celebrate birthdays together (OR course 1, 1978, Informe, p. 4). Te archival documents, however, only rarely disclose disagreements or conficts during school life. However, those few that do have supported my interpretation of the diversity of political views and visions of women’s status among the female students with which their Cuban teachers were confronted. For example, it is possible to read that two students from Mexico, who were taking part in the frst course, seemingly did not agree with each other on several (political) issues, according to the teachers’ report. Tus, the report suggested that, in the future, it would be important to treat students primarily as individuals, not as “representatives” of a particular country (OR course 1, 1978). Diferences in levels of education (which in the Latin American context were mainly connected to class diferences) also led to other kinds of problems and tensions. Indeed, some students arriving in Havana afer receiving a good formal education and being, university graduates, could nevertheless be seen as causing problems for the school leadership and teachers. For example, a report from course 6 noted that fve participants with a university education “did not contribute to group cohesion” due to their “attitude,” nor were they active in class (OR course 6, 1980). While this note could be interpreted in several diferent ways, it suggests that some of the course participants having higher educational capital may have displayed a superior attitude. On the other hand, the school was founded in order to enable its students to learn to work for an improvement in the status of women and to defend their rights. Tus, the school staf, when they met some of the frst year’s intake of students, who were sent to the school by their parties and political === [PDF page 252] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 239 organizations without any clear information about the content of the course, felt obliged to make them see social and political developments from a gender perspective as well. Indeed, some of the students arriving for the frst courses expected to be taught about strategies of political activism or Marxist theory. For example, one student from Honduras on the second course (1978) wrote that she had only been asked by her organization if she wanted to go to Cuba for the WIDF course and did not know what kind of course it was. However, even this student seems to have had a positive experience of the course: in her evaluation of the school, she wrote that she had learned a lot and that communication with “compañeras” was very important (OR course 2, 1978). Although most of the students on the frst course identifed themselves as “lefist women” in their evaluations, they nevertheless ofen indicated that they were aware that they had not come to a (Communist) party school, while some suggested that the women’s school should teach diferently and be open to women who did not belong to the Communist Party. Te information about the incoming students for the following year shows that the diversity of their political afliations had increased. It seems that, from the beginning, the school leadership considered the opinions of students to be very important and took them as guidance for improvement. Using Margareta Leon’s evaluation of Latin American women’s activism in the 1970s and 1980s— which she saw as realized in cooperation with “other subordinated groups” (Leon 1994, 13)—it is possible to say that, over time, the student body at the Havana school became more in step with women’s activism in Latin America more generally. Tus, corresponding to female students’ expectations for more diversity, the school departed further from the training of “female cadres” in a narrow sense. Indeed, women working in organizations defending the rights of diferent subordinated groups, primarily rural workers and the urban poor, became more strongly represented in Havana as time passed. For example, in 1980, several students arrived at the school on the mandate of women’s (and intersectional) organizations: two students from Brazil represented two diferent organizations: the Women’s Commission of the Workers Party and the Movement of Landless Agricultural Workers; the course also included representatives of two organizations in Ecuador: Women for Democracy and a smaller provincial organization, the Women’s Union of Pichincha. === [PDF page 253] === 240 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Representatives from the Association of Women of Nicaragua, which was connected to Nicaragua’s revolutionary government, were there, together with women from the Independent Organization of Agricultural Workers in Mexico, as well as women from two diferent organizations in Panama (Union Nacional de Mujeres Panameñas and Union Democratica de Mujeres Panameñas, both created in the context of the preparations for the UN conference in Mexico City but disagreeing on political issues—Aparicio et al. 2003, 247–8). Still, the school in Havana never completely stopped being a school for Communist (female) cadres: in all the courses, there were always participants representing women’s organizations directly connected to the Communist parties of their home countries. For example, in the 1980 courses, two students were sent by the Union of Argentinian Women (created in the 1940s by the Argentinian Communist Party). However, in general, the “organizations” to which the women belonged—and about which they were asked in the questionnaire— seem to have encompassed many diferent types of associations, groups, and networks, with varied grades of centralization, internal democracy, and ranges of activities. In particular, some “organizations” seem to have been mainly local grassroots networks focused around a number of diferent issues important to the women in their communities. Unfortunately, the brief answers given by the school’s students do not enable us to fully understand the extent to which the activities of these organizations and networks were connected to the danger of being arrested and/or which and how many of the women were acting clandestinely (or semi-clandestinely). But, in some cases, the brief entrance questionnaires give us a glimpse of the diferent contexts and insecurities surrounding women’s activism in diferent countries of Latin America. For example, a student from Peru, a member of the Communist Party and an administrative employee at the Women’s University in Lima, seems to have been dedicated mainly to legal activities. At the same time, a representative of the Organization of Democratic Women in Nicaragua, who attended school in Havana in 1978 and had completed only a secondary school education in her home country, presented her responsibilities in her country, which was undergoing a civil war, as “visiting diferent districts and organizing meetings of women.” It is rather unclear what the legal status of these activities was and what kind of dangers === [PDF page 254] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 241 they were connected to, but these activities obviously difered from those undertaken by the organizations in more politically stable and democratic societies. Additionally, the diversity of students’ involvement in the life of their local communities only increased with time. Te course 17 (1988), for example, included twenty-seven participants, among them a representative of the Organization of Landless Agrarian Workers in Brazil and a representative of an independent organization representing educational workers in Mexico. Tus, over time, the courses increasingly became a meeting place for women from an even wider range of political and social backgrounds. Some of the students’ written presentations, prepared at the end of the course, give information about the scale of their organization’s activities and the challenges they faced. For example, one of the students on course 5, Mercedes Artiaga from Ecuador, wrote her fnal paper about the work of her organization in disseminating basic knowledge about rights and helping to protect the social rights of inhabitants in some parts of the country (OR course 5, 1980). Artiaga stated that she had been sent to Havana by the “Federation of the Districts, Municipalities, and Parish of Guayas, Ecuador,” an organization that was founded in 1979 and was connected to the struggle of workers and those sufering unemployment. According to Artiaga’s report, this organization consisted of seven base organizations working in diferent provinces; it was successful in fghting against evictions and organizing free weekend medical services by volunteer doctors who visited distant localities in the countryside. Te student also stated that her organization ofered juridical help to an agricultural cooperative whose members were fghting to preserve their land (OR course 5, 1980). Finally, the fnal paper noted that, once a week, this organization had the opportunity to organize a radio broadcast for an hour, but cultural habits (football matches transmitted at the same time) impeded their work. While, in most cases, the school students did not provide such a detailed description of their activities, the names of their organizations, social statuses of students in their home countries, and functions that can be found in the archive suggest that the school had many female students who were working with underprivileged groups within the population, ofen those with low levels of education and/or living in the countryside. Tese were activists with a similar background to the woman whose memories of the UN === [PDF page 255] === 242 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery conference in Mexico City in 1975 were discussed by Jocelyn Olcott in her article from 2010—Domitila Barrios de Chungara, from Bolivia (Olcott 2010). According to Olcott, Barrios de Chungara was disappointed by the discussion on sexual and reproductive rights, having hoped to hear rather about the problems of “poor people” (like her) (Olcott 2010, 733). Tus, it is possible to say that the school in Havana could be seen as a space where feminist activists like Barrios de Chungara could access the knowledge they wanted frsthand. Te data given in the entrance questionnaires from later years demonstrate that course participants were of various ages. For example, Eda Cecilia Gutierrez from Panama described herself as a student, eighteen years old, when she arrived in Havana. On the fourth course, in 1979, another two students from Central America—from Costa Rica and Nicaragua—were seventeen-year-old students (probably high school students—OR course 4, 1979). However, many Havana school students were older, in their forties and ffies. Te entrance questionnaires from course 6 (in 1980), for example, enable us to conclude that about eight students belonged to the age group twenty to thirty years, fve were aged thirty to forty, while seven were older than forty, and one came to Cuba when she was still under twenty. Te students’ family situations also varied: married, single, and divorced women all came to Havana. In several cases, the women were over thirty and already had several children (such as a participant on the fourth course, Rosa Gadea from Nicaragua, a housewife and the mother of six children—OR course 4, 1979). Unfortunately, in the cases of those students who were described as having children, there is no information about where or in whose care those children were lef. However, both the documents and my conversations on the premises make it quite clear that mothers could not bring their children with them to the school in Havana. Drawing upon Jiménez Rodríguez’s analysis of women leaving Cuba for at least a year for an “internationalist mission” (see Chapter 4), it is easy to suppose that these Latin American women, who were coming to Havana for a course lasting several months, had to make similar difcult family choices and plan childcare arrangements with their extended families. As with their age and family status, students’ professions and occupations also varied a lot. For example, the students on the second course from === [PDF page 256] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 243 1978 included a professional fashion designer, recent university graduates, schoolteachers, secretaries, and technical workers, as well as an unemployed person. Although the students never wrote about their incomes, the information about their professions or family status reveals that the income of many of them was not high. For example, among the students on course 6 (in 1980), twelve were registered as employed, three others were university students, and six were housewives. While the reports and questionnaires do not address this issue directly, it is possible to deduce that for students coming from low-income countries or having low or no income, the opportunity to spend several months in Havana to study was seen as receiving special privileges and access to goods and services they had not had before, because the courses were generously supported by the Cuban government. Te report about the frst course, for example, informs us that sixteen out of the twenty-one students were receiving a small fellowship every month “to be able to move outside of the school” (OR course 1, 1978, Informe, p. 4), while all the participants were ofered accommodation in the school building (two students shared one room) and were given several free meals a day. Tey also had access to bed-changing services and washing machines and could visit a doctor free of charge. Indeed, visiting the doctor seems to have been very popular among the school students: according to the data collected by the school, the students on the second course, for example, made twenty visits to the general practitioner, thirty visits to the gynecologist, and forty-fve to the dentist (OR course 2, 1978). Finally, the school seems to have provided students with various recreational possibilities: the report of the frst course mentions that they were usually able to spend several days at the beach, including the famous seaside resort, Varadero. In terms of the countries and regions represented, the composition of students included representatives from most of the countries of South and Central America, with less participation by women from the Caribbean. For example, the very frst course had two participants from each of the following countries: Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Uruguay, and one participant each from Brazil and Honduras. Course 6 (1980) included students from Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Mexico, Peru, Chile, === [PDF page 257] === 244 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Te information about attendance of all the courses up until 1986 shows that most of the participants came from Ecuador (31), Panama (26), Mexico (21), Chile (17), Nicaragua (17), Peru (17), Argentina (10), and Costa Rica (10), thus, once again, indicating a lack of any direct correlation between the countries the female students were coming from and the Latin American countries with the most powerful Communist parties in the region. Furthermore, the diversity of countries from which participants came also increased with time: course 15 (1986) is described as the most numerous and the most representative. It included thirty-six women from twenty countries (OR course 15, 1986). Due to the lack of any entrance examination or test, from the start, the school faced the problem of students arriving with very diferent levels of preparation, motivation, and learning capacity. For example, among the participants on the frst course, there were six women who had a university education (while fve others had an incomplete university education), several others who had fnished high school, but two who had only fnished primary school. Among the participants on the second course, the median level of education seems to have been even lower: fve students there had only a primary education and four had fnished secondary school (but did not fulfll the high school educational requirements). So it is possible to suppose that the schoolteachers might have a lot of difculties in teaching such a diverse group of women, and this was a reason for concern among the hosts. As the school organizers themselves stated in their reports, for some of the women who lacked formal education, taking a course at the school for women in Havana was quite a challenging experience, requiring at the very least new social skills. Indeed, the report from the second course notes that some students on the second course had difculties taking notes during lectures, and students on other courses had problems giving presentations (OR course 2, 19783). In spite of these difculties, it is important to stress that the school was unique due to its goal of ofering the opportunity for underprivileged women to gain knowledge and leadership skills. Indeed, the school leaders assumed that it was these women who were doing the practical work within women’s organizations in Latin American countries. Due to the availability of dormitories for students, the school managers attempted, frst of all, to bring international students from abroad; however, === [PDF page 258] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 245 the student groups in some of the courses also included female political refugees who had been living in Cuba for several years (frst of all, those from Chile and Uruguay). For example, course 6 (1980) included three students from Chile, all of whom were Cuban residents. At the same time, as my conversation with a former school translator shows, some students came from countries that did not allow their citizens to travel to Cuba (conversation with T., January 9, 2023). Tey participated in the course under a false identity, and returning home from Cuba afer completing the course involved risks. At the same time, it is possible to suppose that at least some of these women decided to participate in the course out of curiosity, perhaps due to interest in Cuba and the Cuban revolution per se. Unfortunately, the center’s documentation does not include information concerning students’ previous visits to Cuba, but from reading the documents, it appears that many of them were visiting Cuba for the frst time when they arrived at the school. Shifing the focus from students to teachers, the archival materials reveal that information about the teachers is much more limited compared to that available about the students. What we know is that they were predominantly Cuban women and members of the FMC. Te documents preserved in the archive suggest that they took their tasks very seriously and attempted to make the classes and time spent by the international female students in Havana both useful and, at the same time, a pleasant experience. Due to having a common language—the majority of students spoke Spanish, although a few had English or French as their mother tongue and thus needed translation—communication should have been smoother than, for example, at the transnational gatherings and seminars in Tashkent. However, unfortunately, the preserved documents say very little about the student–teacher relationships or communication. Although the foreign students were obviously a rich source of information about the diferent countries of Latin America and women’s movements there, the school materials available to me do not pay any special attention to teachers learning from their students. However, as in the case of women working for the UzFS in Tashkent, communication with female activists from the diferent countries of Latin America could have contributed to providing a variety of new knowledge not available in (Communist) Cuba—from the work practices of independent women’s organizations and feminist and gender theory to === [PDF page 259] === 246 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery broader information about cultural and technical innovations not accessible in Cuba. In particular, the school materials from the early 1990s demonstrate the introduction of the concept of “gender theory” into the school program and use of the “feminism” that could be attributed to the school teachers’ broader international communication, not least with participants of the feminist Encuentros. At the same time, and even though none of the materials to which I had access speak about it, the teachers at the school certainly had to answer many questions from students, including those concerning shortages of goods in Cuba, and the lack of political freedom and the freedom to travel abroad or to emigrate (see Chapter 4). Te analyzed material suggests that the school had certain similarities with other gatherings of East–South women, including those in Tashkent. Te school participants were approached as needing to “learn” about a better (socialist) system for women, and they not only had to attend lectures but were also expected to mobilize their “tourist gaze” in order to become real students. Indeed, the school leadership, in collaboration with the FMC, developed a program of excursions, study visits, external lectures on important subjects, and cultural activities that aimed to give the female students information about Cuba (similar to the activities laid on during the seminars for women from Africa in Tashkent). For example, according to the plan of afer-school activities, the students on the frst course visited the museum of literacy, small agricultural cooperatives, the headquarters of the FMC, and the Cuban Trades Union organization, a maternity ward, and a kindergarten (OR course 1, 1978, Informe). Te students also attended lectures on diferent subjects, including Cuban labor legislation, the mass media, and the Cuban hero of independence, Jose Marti, and his views on women. Te cultural program included a visit to the art gallery, Casa de las Américas, a ballet performance, and a concert by the popular music band Nueva Truva.4 Te students on the second course, in the same year, 1978, spent part of their school time outside of Havana, visiting three diferent provinces (similar to how participants of the 1962 conference in Tashkent visited diferent countries of the Soviet Central Asia). However, later, such long visits were discouraged on the grounds of the brevity of the course. === [PDF page 260] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 247 Nevertheless, the exchanges and cross-communication during such trips and meetings can be seen as having been organized diferently from those taking place in Tashkent and Central Asia, involving local-level hosts and guests in the planning to some degree; at least, according to the intentions described in the reports. Indeed, some of the reports stress mutual learning: afer the students on course 6 (1980) visited Santa Clara province, the teachers reported an “excellent exchange of experiences”—thus implying not only guests learning from their hosts (OR course 6, 1980). Te students on this course also took part in voluntary work together with schoolteachers, thus leaving behind their roles as learners and tourists and becoming directly involved in the life of their host country. Furthermore, it is important to note that the school itself had been converted into an object of political tourism: it was receiving visits from delegations from Latin American countries, as well as representatives of the South– East networks more broadly. For example, the report from course 2 names delegations from Mozambique, Chile, Congo, Panama, Uruguay, the United States, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica as visiting the school. In terms of the WIDF leaders, it seems that Fanny Edelman, former WIDF general secretary and member of the Argentinian Communist Party, a women’s rights activist known throughout the whole Latin American continent (see Valobra & Casola 2023), was the most frequent visitor; she was also present at the school’s opening. Women from Eastern Europe also visited the school, but less frequently than women from Latin America or Africa. For example, the report from 1980 notes that a representative of the Czechoslovakian Women’s Union, Eva Kopecka, visited the school (OR course 6, 1980). Finally, given that the school was organized with direct participation by the FMC, all the signifcant moments of its life, and in particular, the beginning and end of each course, were attended by high-level representatives of the FMC, usually Vilma Espín or the head of the Regional Center (from 1990— Regional Ofce) for Latin America, Dora Carcaño. On the basis of these materials, it is possible to say that the school for Latin American women in Havana was an important location for transnational communication, a place to meet other women, exchange experiences, and establish contacts for the future. However, time spent in Cuba ofered === [PDF page 261] === 248 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery posibilities of exchange and communication mainly inside of school and Cuban women were not among the students. Being a part of the Cold War cultural confrontation, the school obviously had many ideological limitations, while its hospitality regime did not allow any extended criticism of Cuban reality or its leaders. In spite of this censorship, which obviously limited the discussions and contributed to students’ self-censorship, visible in the preserved selfpresentations, evaluations and speeches, the several months they spent in Havana contributed to students’ learning about subjects and themes important to women through an exchange of concerns and experiences that were beyond the direct control of the school’s managers. Tus, the growing diversity of the school’s students and alumni could contribute to the work of women’s, social, and political organizations in their home countries in many diferent ways. “America Is Waiting”: Between Knowledge, Geopolitics, and Activism Afer analyzing the general organization of the school, as well as reviewing the changing composition of its student body, in this part of the chapter I focus on the forms and content of the education the students were receiving, as well as on other experiences and knowledge they gained during their course in Havana.5 Unfortunately, the school’s archival collection did not preserve the programs of all the courses, or the teaching materials (with a few exceptions). However, the programs from some years, as well as a lot of materials concerning suggestions for improvements to the educational programs, can be found in the reports of both students and teachers. Te teachers’ reports, written by unnamed schoolteacher groups (unfortunately, it was not possible to locate information about how these reports were compiled or discussed), were usually written at the end of every course and contained recommendations for improvement. Te anonymous students’ evaluations, which were collected at the end of every course, were also intended to improve the education: students were asked to answer a questionnaire about their experiences at the school and to provide recommendations for how its performance could be improved. Finally, the archive has preserved several examples of the students’ examination papers === [PDF page 262] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 249 that had to be presented at the end of every course. For example, two of them, dealing with Nicaragua (OR course 3, 1979,6 OR course 4, 1979), were probably kept in the archive as being potentially useful for solidarity work or for the information of Cuban women. Some other examples include a paper on Ecuador, which I have already mentioned in the frst section of this chapter (OR course 5, 1980). Tus, this section aims to explain the content of the education women received in the school in Havana, based on the available materials. What kinds of knowledge did students gain from their classes? What can be said about the students’ opinions on the school, the education they received there, and their experience of visiting Cuba more in general? I start with articles published in Mujeres on the school Fe del Valle, created to train Cuban female leaders; it was ideationally and organizationally the predecessor of the school for Latin American women. According to an article from 1975, the program for training Cuban female leaders included courses on Marxist philosophy, political ideology, and the history of women’s movements (Mujeres 1975 8: 18–19). Another article about the Cuban school published in Mujeres in 1980 was accompanied by a picture and a short interview with Miriam Hernandez, one of the founders of the international school, who taught the history of the women’s movement (Mujeres 1980 8: 64–5). Given this context, it’s unsurprising that courses on the history of the women’s movement and Marxist philosophy were mentioned in both the students’ and teachers’ evaluations, even in later years. However, according to the teachers’ report on the frst course,7 the program had already been modifed from the beginning, and included modules dedicated to the situation of women in the countryside, women and work, and women at “home” (which seems to mean analysis of the gendered private sphere). Trying to answer the question on geopolitical authorship of the school programs and organization (a question that usually arises in connection with Cuba’s role in the Cold War—see Spenser 2008, 384–5), it is important to note that, as I already mentioned, in contrast to the publications in Mujeres, references to Soviet events are almost absent from the materials of the school available to me. It is also interesting to note that the Soviet archives do not contain much information about the school for Latin American women, === [PDF page 263] === 250 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery while the available information is reported by the Soviet embassy in Havana and seems to have been translated from Spanish (GARF 3 5799, 1–4). Such a presentation of the information suggests that the Soviets apparently did not have much infuence over the design of the Havana school programs or its pedagogy, and were not fully aware of the exact content or forms of the school’s teaching. As for the WIDF leadership, as I stated above, the representatives of the WIDF headquarters were obviously welcomed to the school, with Fanny Edelman, former WIDF general secretary, being a particularly frequent visitor. However, the documents in the archive of the Regional Ofce in Havana have not preserved any indications that teaching materials were produced or suggested by either East Berlin or Moscow. On the contrary, as the report from the frst course preserved in Havana noted, the WIDF was positively surprised by the profound knowledge the school was imparting to its students,8 thus implying a lack of full control over what was taught there, or how it was done. All of this suggests that the frst international courses were already based on programs of Cuban authorship, which in turn were based on those developed for the FMC female leaders. Tese programs, however, were expanded through paying particular attention to developments in Latin America and the postcolonial world, as well as through the diversity of experience available within particular women’s organizations from the continent, brought via the students’ presentations (as I demonstrated with the example of the presentation on Ecuador in the frst part of this chapter). Tis means that the training for women was rooted in the Latin American context, which included directing attention toward ideas that were less popular within the Soviet bloc. For example, the program for the fourth course included lectures on the international relationships within Latin America and on the New International Economic Order (NIEO) (OR course 4, 1979). Te latter was proposed by economists in developing countries and was centered around economic redistribution. While popular in Latin America, NIEO was viewed rather skeptically by many countries of the Eastern bloc, apart from Romania (Mark & Feygin 2021, 43). While the aim of the school was initially referred to as training mid-level leaders who could play a role in the “liberation of their people” in the future (OR course 2, 1978), the content of the education and its staf seem to have === [PDF page 264] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 251 been frequently updated, in part, following students’ suggestions. For example, with the passage of time, a focus on ideas of women’s liberation (and not only the liberation of people) became more visible in the teaching: the course from 1986 described the goals of the education provided at the school as preparing and building the capacity of women “for the common struggle,” and specifcally for “liberating women in their countries” (OR course 15, 1986). However, it must be noted that, in spite of the growing focus on “women’s liberation,” the school mainly avoided using the word “feminism” in its programs, probably due to the WIDF’s negative attitude toward the concept (the WIDF and the Soviet Union considered feminism to be a rather bourgeois movement, see Gradskova 2021, 162–3). Nevertheless, the growing focus on women’s liberation came to be refected in the changes in the school’s curriculum. Indeed, the program for the course from 1984 contained teaching modules about the rights of children, the UN, and the women’s movement (taught by Rosario Carcuro); modules on “Peace and Détente,” “Media and Communication,” and “Contemporary Politics” (taught by Laura Garcia); and on “National Independence and History of the Americas” (taught by Aleida Legon Padilla) (OR course 13, 1984, Informe docente). Here it is worth noting that the last of these teachers seems to have possessed considerable international experience and had participated in the conference on education in Algeria and in Lima in 1974 (see Chapter 6). During the 1980s, the school also expanded the number of invited teachers (which had previously been limited to individual lectures by Fanny Edelman or Chilean activist Julieta Campusano). For example, Gail Teixeira,9 from the Women’s Organization of Guyana, visited the school for some weeks and gave a course on the history of the Caribbean and on the women’s movement in this region; the students on that particular course included more participants from the Caribbean than usual, and more translators were helping with the process of teaching (OR course 13, 1984, Informe docente). As I have already mentioned, the school collected evaluations from the students at the end of each course; these evaluations were used to improve the school curriculum. For example, students on the second course suggested that it was important to have more time for discussions in order to process the information received in the lectures. Tey also selected severalthemes that === [PDF page 265] === 252 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery could provide deeper knowledge and, thus, should be given more space in the program. Such themes included the history of the women’s movement, the UN, and the WIDF. Later, the school curriculum also added several classes about human rights and the UN Commission for Latin America, CEPAL. Tus, the reports show that the school curriculum for later courses shifed its focus further toward information about international women’s activism and the UN, thus giving more knowledge on global governance. Afer the end of the second course, teachers suggested creating a special module about the WIDF’s history and activities and wrote to the WIDF leadership with a request to send them at least three or four issues of the WIDF journal for teaching. Another topic that was expanded as time went on was Latin American history, in particular, the section on colonization and the colonial period. We can see from the reports that this course was intended to give students a critical perspective on the wellestablished, Eurocentric vision of the “discovery” of the Americas and colonial history. Although the teaching materials for this course are not available in the archive, based on the presentation of Latin American countries in Mujeres (see Chapter 4), it is possible to say that the course on Latin American history taught at the school, together with its criticism of Eurocentrism, probably drew attention to the struggle for independence, as well as stressing similarities in the histories of diferent parts of the Americas. Furthermore, the school curriculum seems to have been modifed following global events in order to incorporate knowledge about UN decisions relevant to women’s rights. For example, materials from 1978, preparatory to the UN’s Year of the Child, contained an overview report about the situation of children in Latin America, as well as a report by Estela Suarez from Peru about the situation of children in her country (OR course 2, 1979). Te program from the last course I included in this analysis, course 17 from 1988, demonstrates a further transformation of the program in order to supply students with theoretical as well as practical knowledge. In contrast to the previous courses, this program included a module on the theory and practice of female leadership, a module on media and communication, and one on sex education (OR course 17, 1988). A module on defending the rights of women as mothers, workers, and citizens from 1988 introduced students to the concepts of the double burden (doble jornada) and invited them to study === [PDF page 266] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 253 several ILO conventions (OR course 17, 1988). But it is the inclusion of the course on sex education aimed at “eliminating prejudices” and, among other things, informing about contraception that is particularly remarkable due to the continuing lack of attention given to issues of sex education in the WIDF’s journal and other WIDF’s ofcial publications. Tus, returning to the interests of women working with the intersectionally underprivileged groups that I discussed earlier, with reference to Olcott’s article on the UN conference in Mexico City that she presented as seen by a Bolivian activist who did not understand the importance of sexual politics (Olcott 2010), it is possible to say that the school in Havana also seems to have introduced the issues of reproductive rights, as important for women of diferent social backgrounds and lefist views. While the school leadership could not directly infuence the selection of students, it did make eforts to infuence the forms of work as well as encourage students to bring all the materials necessary to inform other students about their countries (OR course 2, 1978, Informe de Desarrollo). Te teachers’ reports demonstrate that the organization of each course required a lot of coordination work. For example, in some cases, the invitations sent by the school were not utilized by their recipients due, for example, to economic reasons, and the quota for the respective countries was not fulflled. Tis might occur for various reasons, such as political and/or economic instability in the countries, or in the women’s organizations themselves. For example, a letter from the Dominican Republic dated October 1980 and signed by Lourdes Contreras de Isa presented an apology: the organization could not send their student to the school in Havana due to lack of fnances: even if the Cuban side promised to buy the travel ticket to Cuba from Panama, neither the organization nor the student herself had enough resources for traveling from the Dominican Republic to Panama (OR course 6, 1980). Te reports also show that the period when students were arriving at the school was a serious concern for the school leadership. Te Cuban authorities were helpful in terms of arranging prospective students’ documentation and travel. However, some reports state that traveling to the school, particularly from remote parts of Latin American countries with poorly functioning transportation systems, could sometimes take several days. As a result, some === [PDF page 267] === 254 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery participants were arriving in Havana too early or, sometimes, several days afer classes had already started. For example, the reports about course 6 (1980) inform us that some organizations were sending their representatives to Havana too early—with one arriving 10 days in advance—and expressed the hope that this would somehow be dealt with and would not recur in the future. As I mentioned above, each course ended with a student’s presentation that was designed to demonstrate each student’s ability to discuss women’s status and activism in her own country. Te presentation of a written paper was followed by an academic discussion in class, which meant that the examination also functioned as a form of exchange of experiences about diferent countries, the situation of women, and the work of women’s organizations there (OR course 1, 1978, Informe). For example, the archival fle for course 3 (OR course 3, 1979) contains the fnal paper signed by Aracely Guitierrez and dedicated to Nicaragua. Te eleven-page paper, dated May 30, 1979, started by giving a brief description of the geography and history of Nicaragua and then discussed the revolutionary movement and the situation of women in the country (with a focus on their occupations, level of education, and data on illiteracy among women). Te paper also described the activities of the women’s organization this student represented: the Democratic Union of Women of Nicaragua, created in 1978. It is interesting to note here that, while this organization was presented as “obviously not a feminist organization where the interests of women are juxtaposed against the interests of men,” the author described it as functioning through local groups (OR course 3, 1979, Student paper, p. 10) and dealing with a variety of issues, including family planning, drug abuse, and malnutrition, thus exposing several aspects of the feminist grassroots activities. Te preparations for the course and its fnal examination were expected to begin in the student’s home country before she traveled to Cuba. Te students had to collect and bring with them some materials about their countries and organizations. For example, the participants of course 4 received an ofcial invitation letter signed by the WIDF general secretary, Mirjam VireTuominen from Finland, which stated: “you must bring with you the statutes and program of your organization, documents and publications, a history === [PDF page 268] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 255 book, a geography book, a map of your country, a national novel, postage stamps, postcards, a typical object, and folkloric handicraf” (OR course 4, 1980, from 15.02, 1979). In students’ evaluations, the majority of them expressed their gratitude to the school, its teachers, and to Cuba, as was expected. However, some students included critical comments as well and, as I mentioned earlier, suggested some important improvements. Te creation of a library or documentation center (OR course 1, 197810) was one of those suggestions that was implemented (some documents I used for Chapter 4 are preserved in this documentation center). Other comments from the frst course evaluation included, for example, an expressed need for more information about horizontal women’s organizations in each period and shortening the part of the course dealing with issues of peace (OR course 1, 1978, Opiniones de las alumnas). Some reports suggested explaining difcult economic concepts, like “crises” or “infation,” while other students expressed interest in learning more about Cuban history (the school report mentioned later that a special lecture on this theme was organized for the students). Te archive has also preserved some materials from the ceremonies marking the end of each course, which were frequently celebrated in the presence of important FMC and WIDF guests. For example, the students on the third course expressed a hope that the “knowledge received will help us to work in our organizations,” in particular, in order to achieve “full equality” between men and women (OR course 3, 1979, p. 2). And it was this speech that ended with the declaration: “America is waiting”—which I have used in the title of this section—implying that the former school alumni were now expected to work for a better future for the women and people of the “Americas,” using the knowledge they had received and the transnational networks they had established during their time at the school in Havana. Similarly, the students fnishing course 5 (1980) stated that “the knowledge we have gained will allow the women’s organizations we represent to move ahead, and we can also support other people’s organizations and fght for our people to achieve unlimited freedom.” Tey continued by indicating the close connection between the emancipation of women and “development”: “In most of our countries, woman is reduced to her domestic roles, to === [PDF page 269] === 256 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery under-employment and to minimal participation in social, economic, and political life; this hinders the development of her capacities” (OR course 5, 1980). However, although these words can be seen as simply the gratitude of the “political tourists/students” who had the opportunity to travel abroad and spend several months in Cuba studying and exploring the life of the country, it is possible to suppose that the results of their education also encompassed many other aspects not mentioned in these speeches. Te women lef Cuba with a variety of impressions (as the reports indicate, not all of them were entirely positive), depending on the political and social situation in their home countries and the situation of women’s rights there, but also, importantly, due to their personal lives and experiences of political participation. Tus, the school alumni may have interpreted the words “America is waiting” in many diferent ways. At the same time, while not allowing us to see many important aspects of the school’s life, the archival material preserved in Havana suggests that the school became a place for maintaining and creating women’s networks, nurturing transnational thinking about “a better future,” and empowering connections between women out on the periphery of the Cold War. Conclusion Materials preserved in the internal archive of the WIDF’s Regional Ofce for Latin America reveal that the international school for Latin American women in Havana served as a hub for acquiring both theoretical and practical knowledge relevant to advocating for women’s rights and other marginalized social groups facing intersectional discrimination. Female activists had the opportunity to learn about the work of the UN and other international organizations while gaining a fresh perspective on the social, political, and economic histories of their countries. However, the opportunity to not only learn about the history of the women’s movement but also to learn from one another seems to be particularly signifcant. On the basis of the studied materials, it is possible to state that the general content of the education in this school was managed mainly from Havana (the FMC), and to a much lesser extent from the WIDF’s headquarters (and === [PDF page 270] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 257 even less from Moscow). At the same time, the teachers at the school were instructed to listen carefully to the opinions of the students and seem to have had signifcant autonomy with respect to decisions about improving the curriculum and teaching methods. In the context of the growing interest in women’s rights and feminism in Latin America during the 1980s, the school’s managers and teachers indeed had to be attentive to the students’ interests and opinions in order to maintain their engagement with the school and with Cuba more broadly. While the character of the preserved documents—mainly teachers’ reports and students’ evaluations—does not ofer the possibility of understanding the frequency or real character of discussions around the content of the education, the students’ course evaluations and teachers’ reports allow us to believe that the school leadership welcomed and encouraged some critical comments toward the content of the education. At the same time, however, the students were expected to respect and glorify Cuban achievements and Cuban reforms of women’s status; the latter presupposed a certain self-censorship regime, both in the classroom and during other events organized by the school. While the materials available to researchers about this school do not provide answers to all the questions that are of interest in the study of East– South internationalism, they nevertheless provide an excellent opportunity to rediscover an almost forgotten page in its history during the Cold War period. Te creation of such a school in Havana became possible to a large extent due to the peripheral position of the city in relation to the Cold War rivalry: a center of the NAM and postcolonial “South,” together with its ideological anchoring to the (Communist) “East,” and its physical situatedness in the Americas, part of the “West.” While the school was opened with support from the WIDF and enjoyed some fnancial support from that source and visits from some of its representatives (mainly those of Latin American origin), in practice, it was the fnancial support of the Cuban government, and the Cuban women, who played the central roles in the functioning of this school. On the basis of these materials, it is possible to say that growing ideological and geographical diversity among the students was an institutional response to the geopolitical challenges Cuba faced during this time (attempting to preserve === [PDF page 271] === 258 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery its status of “revolutionary” country in Latin America while becoming more and more involved into the “Soviet bloc”). As the school became more attentive to the interests of students, their preparation for the course became better (in relation to both information about the course and the materials they brought with them), while the school itself introduced several new courses into its curriculum and improved the content of existing ones. Following students’ interests, the school leadership also adjusted teaching methods, timing, and the variety of study trips and the school’s afer-class cultural program. Te documents preserved in the archive of the OR show that the school became a place for training in equality and solidarity as well as, for some students, probably, a place for reevaluation of the Cuban achievements with respect to women’s emancipation and racial equity. At the same time, and even though many students belonged to the middle class and better-of social groups in their home countries, the entrance questionnaires demonstrate that the school’s role was important in providing an education for women from families and milieus with economically and educationally limited resources. Te generous fnancial support of the school, including free medical care for students, opened up the possibility for some women, probably for the frst time in their lives, to participate in discussions about issues of political importance for women, and to enjoy some political and economic security (compare this with Rupprecht’s 2012 description of the impressions of Latin American students of their everyday life in the USSR). Afer reading the preserved school documents, it is possible to understand that the female students at the Havana school were very diverse in terms of their educational and professional backgrounds, as well as their interpretations of what was meant by “future” and “women’s liberation.” Tus, coming together for a course enabled them to learn from each other just as much as from their Cuban teachers. Indeed, gaining knowledge while attending the school was not limited to the knowledge received in class, but rather the results of the education can be evaluated as a product of the East–South women’s gathering that was taking place both inside and outside of the classroom, through experiencing everyday Cuban life and extra-curricular communication. Tis suggests the possibility of seeing the school as making an important contribution to the development of the women’s movement in Latin America, and as a factor === [PDF page 272] === Latin American Women Taking a Course in Havana 259 that infuenced internationalism and transnational connectivities, even if the ideological framing of the school partly limited possibilities of students to learn about feminist thinking on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Notes 1 Tese educational institutions were usually called “Women’s Courses.” 2 See, for example, https://thirdworldfeminism.com/. 3 Document’s original title: “Informe del trabajo desarrollado durante del segundo curso.” 4 “Nueva Truva” is a Cuban music movement of the 1960s, combining folk music with revolutionary lyrics. 5 Originally: “América está esperando.” From the speech by the graduates of the third course, in which they expressed their gratitude to the school for giving them the knowledge necessary for change (OR course 3, 1979). 6 Aracely Gutierrez, May 30, 1979. Exposición sobre la situación actual de Nicaragua, Organización de Mujeres Democráticas de Nicaragua (OR course 3, 1979). 7 Original title: “Informe sobre el primer curso de capacitación del centro regional de la FDIM” (OR course 1, 1978). 8 “sin imaginarse que el centro pudiera tomar el nivel de profundidad que tiene actualmente” (OR course 1, 1978). 9 Currently, Gail Teixeira is a Minister in the Government of Guyana—https:// mpag.gov.gy/our-minister/. 10 Document’s original title: “Opiniones de las alumnas.” === [PDF page 273] === [Blank page] 260 === [PDF page 274] === Final Refections Collecting materials for this book was quite a challenging experience, not only because of the geographical distances but also because of the geopolitical disparities between the two former Cold War peripheries that I chose for my analysis. In a world restructured by new geopolitical alliances and new lines of economic and ideological division, Tashkent and Havana are usually approached as two places that do not have anything in common. Indeed, these two former Cold War peripheries, which were important for South–East women’s internationalism during the global Cold War, are now perceived as merely incompatible as a result of their (non)transition (or their very diferent directions of authoritarian transition) and the new hierarchies between the regional and global centers as well as peripheries. Also relevant are the economic and humanitarian crises in Havana and, obviously, the Russian war against Ukraine, which challenge the paradigm of Cold War studies through the interrogation of how it has ended and what the global consequences of such an end are. It also brings great urgency to the analysis of these new tensions and their historical underpinnings. In this new context, do we need more knowledge about the Cold War peripheries and women’s networks that originated or were mediated there? By denouncing colonialism and racism, as well as demanding gender equality with respect to secondary and professional education, work, and family life, the South–East gatherings discussed in this book signifcantly contributed to the development of the transnational agenda of women’s rights. Tis agenda subverted the Cold War logic and paved the way to alternative visions of the “future” some of which are continuing to be valuable today. Te transnational networks further contributed to the exchange of experiences concerning overcoming illiteracy, involving women in social and political activism, helping disempowered women in the countryside, and demanding welfare for mothers as well as sexual and reproductive rights and education. Not least, the school === [PDF page 275] === 262 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery for Latin American women activists that opened in Havana in 1978, in the context of the UN Decade for Women, became one of the frst (before the frst Encuentro feminista in Bogota in 1981) unique spaces that brought together women from diferent organizations working for democracy and women’s rights. Tese gatherings, which continue to be largely invisible in the histories of feminism and women’s movements, created the global context facilitating signifcant changes in the transnational gender discourse of women’s rights and the adoption of documents infuencing women’s status globally. Te diverse material discussed in this book—from ofcial state socialist women’s journals to female participants’ individual memories—can tell us a lot about the rather robust connections between the diferent female actors who contributed to the broad international feld oriented toward improving economic and social conditions, changing women’s status in society, fghting neo-colonialism, and overcoming the inequalities lef behind by previous colonial domination. All of this constituted a part of the “better future” that was ofen alluded to in the women’s gatherings’ documents and declarations—a very broad term that in practice was flled with many contradictory ideas, practices, and plans. Many of the names of the individual women who took part in these gatherings, unfortunately, have been forgotten, but they should be seen as important historical actors who made cross-border connections and brought about change. Using a South–East (or East–South) gender lens to examine women’s networks and gatherings enables us to see the complexity, fragility, and changeability of the geopolitical belongings of the many women’s organizations and individual women who were transgressing the bipolarity of the Cold War logic. Meanwhile, the memories of some of the women I consulted show that they felt multiple gendered political pressures and, thus, had to answer them using a variety of ideological and everyday-level solutions, frequently through transnational networks. Te materials analyzed in the diferent chapters of this book not only confrm that the Cold War did not mean an almost complete cessation of communication across borders, but in addition, they show that such communication was enabled by journeys and gatherings in which female political tourists played a signifcant role. Women who were traveling to new === [PDF page 276] === Final Reflections 263 places, writing letters, and meeting other women to discuss issues ranging from women’s education in a specifc part of the world to international cooperation for the improvement of women’s status, state support for motherhood, or literacy from a global perspective, probably did not always think of themselves as internationalists—striving for global governmentality in the interests of women’s rights, and some of them were initially “dispatched” on this work by the state or party authorities. However, due to their contributions to discussions about international problems, and their engagement in thinking about progress, overcoming colonial legacies, and the improvement of women’s status everywhere, regardless of regional, national, or Cold War dividing lines, they can be considered a part of the history of twentieth-century women’s internationalism (as described by Sluga 2017). Women’s gatherings on the Cold War peripheries, such as Havana and Tashkent, cannot be seen as free from the superpowers’ open and hidden confrontational agendas and thus, free from Cold War surveillance, pressures, manipulations or regulations. Indeed, the analysis made in this book confrms fndings of previous research concerning state socialism’s use of the ideas of “emancipation” of women and “women’s rights” for geopolitical goals (Molyneux 2003; Donert 2022; Gradskova 2018), as well as misuse of humanitarianism for neo-imperial politics (see Nunan 2016). In particular, I show that, in spite of the attractive slogans of full equality between men and women, women’s organizations and institutions connected to the state—such as the FMC in Cuba or the women’s section of the Friendship Society in Tashkent—not rarely prioritized the interests of the state, party, and ideology over those of women and were against greater autonomy for women’s organizations, including in their transnational contacts. Furthermore, some of the events were organized (and many were fnancially sponsored) by the Cold War Eastern bloc and the Soviet superpower, which were aiming to achieve their own goals in the cultural Cold War. Indeed, the hospitality usually included writing reports about guests, their political views, and their loyalty to the hosts. Te guests were also expected to employ a selective “tourist gaze,” publicly appreciating the objects and events that the hosts were proud of, while not noticing other objects, people, and happenings that the hosts were pretending “did not exist.” However, the documents I have studied suggest that, on the one hand, this hard Cold War === [PDF page 277] === 264 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery framework was not the only one shaping transnational encounters and, on the other, the frames set up by the (in many cases Communist) hosts could sometimes be very convenient for the guests, who could use the gatherings’ and networks to achieve their own goals, like strengthening women’s role in the postcolonial state or defending women’s reproductive rights. Furthermore, the guests who traveled to both of the cities that were at the center of my interest in this book had many opportunities to “see” objects that they were not intended to see, to give their own interpretations of what they had seen, and, probably the most important aspect, to communicate with each other and discuss what they considered to be signifcant (however, such opportunities seem in general to have been much more frequent in Havana than in Tashkent). Still, the analyzed materials show that, while participation in the international gatherings and traveling always had its fnancial and emotional costs (and in some cases was directly linked to danger), most of the participating women were moved by their (diferent) understandings of justice, gender equality, and the “future.” While many women were dispatched, advised, encouraged, or supported by their political parties and male comrades, traveling to women’s gatherings and participating in women’s networks not only led women to become political actors at the international level but also, and no less importantly, to forge their own political subjectivity. Tus, their experiences during the gatherings at the periphery (e.g., at the school for Latin American women in Havana) cannot be measured exclusively in terms of how they were indoctrinated (e.g., by the Cuban state in the case of Havana) or the practical information they gained (such as how to organize kindergartens or textbooks for overcoming illiteracy among women), but also encompassed learning how to speak at political gatherings, sharing their views, thinking together, mediating psychological and ideological diferences, and fnding common ground. While some of the gatherings were very short and could only contribute a little to acquiring such knowledge and skills, the school in Havana ofered a course that was several months long and combined diferent aspects of learning. It seems that the school in Havana has made a particularly important contribution to East–South women’s internationalism during the Cold War. === [PDF page 278] === Final Reflections 265 Looking at women’s Cold War internationalism from the peripheries also allows for a contribution to the growing feld of decolonial criticism of the “Second World” emancipation project (see Tlostanova 2010; Boatcă & Tlostanova 2019) by exploring how the lineal vision of the progress did not allow sufcient attention to the diferences in women’s needs and demands. Te contradictions visible in the discussions around the politics of women’s reproductive rights mentioned in Chapter 5 are one example of this. Furthermore, the lineal vision of progress mainly ignored hierarchies between women created through the imperial politics of the past and (Cold War) present. It led ofen to the hosts’ celebration of an unproblematic “togetherness” of women, who in practice were shaped by racial, colonial, ethnic, and religious diferences (diferences existed also inside the hosts in Tashkent and Havana), while the Soviet center depended on women from “peripheries” for realizing its “developmental” agenda abroad. Tus, coming together in the name of women’s rights and overcoming colonial legacies made many participants think about their diferences, oppose authoritarian pressure, question hierarchies (including those hierarchies between women based on class, race, colonial legacies, and center-periphery that existed in the state socialist countries), and develop their own ideas about tactical and strategic unions. Studying women’s networks also brings the problem of racism into the light, both as an object the female activists were fghting against and, at the same time, as the “invisible” context and practices of the transnational relationships, hospitalities, and collaborations. Following discussions started by the recent publications on “invisible” racism in connection to Eastern Europe’s “claim for whiteness” (Baker et al. 2024, 2), this book further questions ideas of progress and development that were circulating globally during the Cold War. Indeed, it shows that women coming together at the Cold War peripheries not rarely subverted the “invisible whiteness” of East–South gatherings’ agendas and study-trip programs by making use of (non-White) religious and cultural heritage and by making personal and emotional connections to their transnational “sisters.” Finally, the engagement of women from the Cold War peripheries in political tourism for the promotion of women’s rights disrupted established patterns of tourism and travel entrenched in white male privilege. === [PDF page 279] === 266 East–South Women Internationalism at the Cold War Periphery Tese transnational gatherings in Tashkent and Havana could not solve all the problems of the women living there, nor could they transform the Communist system. However, they partially succeeded in transforming both these places and the women who, in one way or another, were involved in this transnational connectivity. Indeed, the transnational gatherings not only brought these places onto the map of international visibility as cities involved in politics by and about women, but also infuenced the two cities’ physically through improvements to old transport and tourist infrastructure and the opening of new centers and educational institutions, such as UzFS or the school for training female cadres that have been discussed in this book. While it was difcult for the hosts to satisfy all the needs and expectations of their guests (in particular, with respect to comfort), gaining the opportunity to visit distant places and come together led to many, not always expected, exchanges. Te efects of each gathering could be long-lasting and rather broad. Indeed, female political tourists brought home souvenirs and told diferent stories about the places, gatherings, and people they had met. Tese stories did not always correspond to the expectations of the hosts, especially in ideological terms. Last but not least, women living in host cities at the Cold War periphery (like Havana and Tashkent) also kept guests’ presents and told stories about the new ideas to which they had been exposed and the interesting people they had met (these stories were not necessarily the same as the ones preserved in the ofces in the form of classifed reports). Tus, these gatherings brought women living behind the Iron Curtain closer to other South–East women (who, perhaps not coincidentally, were frequently called “sisters” in Tashkent). While the direct impact of the gatherings and political travel on the individual women involved in (state-controlled) political activities needs further research, the materials studied in this book suggest that meeting women from postcolonial and developing countries was connected to learning about freedoms, ideas, and forms of political activism that were otherwise not accessible due to the division line formed by the Iron Curtain. Te attention I have paid to the mundane hindrances and pleasures of traveling, coming together, and writing letters has allowed me to distinguish implicit and minor details of communication, emotional attachment, and curiosity, as well as surveillance and (self)censorship. In turn, this helped === [PDF page 280] === Final Reflections 267 me to reconstruct parts of women’s robust and complex, although frequently invisible to historians, participation in the building of Cold War transnational connectivity. Despite their diferent and frequently conficting visions of a “better future,” East–South transnational networks and connections were part of the social change geared toward gender equality at the level of communities, but also from a global perspective. Finally, it is worth stating that the transnational gatherings discussed in this book brought new geopolitical meaning to the cities that I have addressed in the title and other similar peripheral places that became important for South– East women’s connectivity. Important political declarations were adopted there and subsequently not only the names of these places but also specifc buildings shown in multiple pictures became easily recognizable in diferent parts of the world. Te images of the streets, universities, and kindergartens—along with the women, children, and men inhabiting these geographical locations— were circulated by means of the press available on diferent continents and, importantly, in diferent UN divisions. All of this led to a questioning of the peripheral status attributed to the places where these transnational women’s gatherings took place, as the notion that they lacked importance for the cultural Cold War became increasingly subverted. Indeed, gendered crossborder connections transformed these places into a kind of core—into places that infuenced Cold War history itself. === [PDF page 281] === [Blank page] 268 === [PDF page 282] === Appendix Archival Sources, Periodicals, and Oral Sources Archival Materials Archive of the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam— Collection of the documents of the Women’s International Democratic Federation. Archivo Histórico de Partido Comunista de España (AHPCE)—Historical Archive of the Communist Party of Spain, Madrid—Organizaciones de mujeres; 6.1 FDIM. Blinken Open Society Archive (OSA), Budapest: #300/80/1 box 256, 257, Red Archive, “Women”; #300/5/90 box 123, AAPSO; #300/80/1 box 531, WIDF; #300/80/1 box 1057, Uzbekistan; #300/120/3, box 271, UNESCO. Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami: journal Mujeres; FMC, IV Congress. 1985. Havana. Te Danish National Archives (DNA), Copenhagen: Kvindehistorisk Samling— KVINFO collection (17, 18). FMC Centro de Documentación (Center of Documentation of the Federation of Cuban Women), Havana. National Archive of the Republic Uzbekistan (Uzbekiston Millii Arkhivi—NARU), Tashkent—fond 2661, Uzbek Society of Friendship and Cultural Connections with Foreign Countries. Ofcina Regional de la FDIM (WIDF Regional Ofce), Havana—collection of the materials from the school for Latin American women. State Archive of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennii Archiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii— GARF), Moscow—fond 7928, Antifascist Committee of Soviet Women. Periodical Publications Mujeres (Women)—journal of the Federation of Cuban Women—1973, 1975, 1978–82, 1985. Women of the Whole World/Zhenshchiny mira—journal of the WIDF—1958–85. === [PDF page 283] === 270 Appendix Oral Sources Conversation with DA, relative of Hujuma Shukurova, Tashkent, October 3, 2023. Conversation with K., employee of the WIDF regional ofce in Havana, January 11, 2023. Conversation with T., former translator at the school for women in Havana, January 9, 2023. === [PDF page 284] === Bibliography Literature and Sources Abashin, Sergei. 2021. Byla li Tsentralnaia Asiia koloniei (online lecture). syg.ma/@le isan-garipova/sierghiei-abashin-byla-li-tsientralnaia-aziia-koloniiei. Abrams, Lynn. 2023. Feminist Lives: Women, Feelings and the Self in Post-War Britain. Oxford University Press. “Agitation and Aid in Africa (I),” 2 October 1959. HU OSA 300-8-3:95/2-3; Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute: Publications Department: Background Reports; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest. “Agitation and Aid in Africa (II).” 1959, November 20. HU OSA 300-8-3-95,2-3; Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute: Publications Department: Background Reports; Open Society Archives at Central European University, Budapest. Alburquerque, Germán F. 2017. La Trinchera Letrada. 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University of Bonn. www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/88339/1/773389075.pdf. === [PDF page 303] === Index abortion 47, 179, 187–8, 190, 193, 196, 199–200 African socialisms 5 Women’s Conference 39, 49–50, 57, 182 aid 16, 36, 62, 138, 216 Almata/y 20, 106, 135, 136, 225–6 anti-Apartheid 138 anticolonial 4, 18, 28, 35, 46, 49, 54, 57, 64, 69–70, 73, 91, 118, 137–8, 146, 206 anti-racis(m/t) 6, 12, 91, 103 Argentina 29, 155, 244, 247 Berlin (East) 15, 20, 38–9, 52, 54, 60, 71, 104–5, 113, 130, 133–4, 154, 156, 163, 176, 209, 215–16, 225, 250 Brazil 8, 29, 37, 49, 51–5, 71, 142, 227, 239, 241, 243 Cairo 74, 80, 105, 135, 188 Carcaño, Dora 153–4, 159, 173, 247 Caucasus 1, 3–4, 10, 35, 41, 84, 97, 196, 233 Chile 29, 65, 147, 152, 181, 184, 224, 243–5, 247 Cissé, Jeanne Martin 39, 49–52, 68–9, 74, 88, 150, 181–2, 185, 202, 215 Committee of Soviet Women (CSW) 20, 52, 70–2, 75, 79, 81–2, 104, 113, 115–16, 119, 125–6, 136, 144, 157, 232 connectivity 2, 7, 11, 27, 43, 54, 65, 70, 104, 118, 123–6, 129–31, 134, 159, 171, 175, 195, 221, 235, 266–7 contraception 144, 162, 179, 181, 187–90, 193–6, 200, 253 Davis, Angela 150 democracy 12, 29, 30, 32, 34, 141, 240, 262 developing countries 36, 90, 133–4, 155, 179, 186–7, 189–91, 196, 202, 207, 210, 225, 229–30, 250, 260 dictatorship 29, 48–9, 145, 147, 154–5 dissident 29, 195 Dominican Republic 247, 253 Eastern bloc 3–5, 12, 14–16, 34–6, 38, 44, 52, 57, 65, 72, 74–5, 79, 117, 122, 125, 163, 175, 178, 189, 193, 195–6, 214, 250, 263 Ecuador 236, 239, 241, 243–4, 249–50 Edelman, Fanny 154–5, 227, 247, 250–1 El Salvador 154–5, 236, 244 Espín, Vilma 44, 48, 57, 86, 139, 141, 146, 149, 152–5, 160, 247 feminism 11, 52, 140, 142, 224–5, 246, 251, 257, 262 Ferrer, Yolanda 153 gender equality 2, 11, 29, 32, 48–9, 52, 76, 117, 137, 141, 145, 152–3, 157, 167, 170–2, 223, 225, 261, 264, 267 geopolitical choices 170 imaginary 5, 10 interests 89, 112 situation 85, 158 global governance 2, 9, 12, 16, 148, 207, 229 Cold War 3, 5–6, 10, 13, 21, 24, 28, 39, 45, 89, 138, 232, 261 Guadeloupe 180–1, 202 Guinea 16, 39, 49, 51, 69, 119, 136, 146, 208, 212 === [PDF page 304] === Index 291 Halle, Fannina 92, 95–8, 115, 135, 210, 212, 222, 233 human rights 10, 29, 30, 32, 48–9, 61, 96, 186–7, 194, 202, 252 Nicaragua 138–9, 141, 155, 161, 166, 169, 240, 242, 244, 249 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) 4, 14, 17, 37–8, 46, 161, 236, 257 illiteracy 18, 51, 59, 105, 112–13, 116, 127, 150, 166, 174, 206, 210, 215–20, 222–3, 225–6, 229, 254, 261, 264 India 6, 37, 64–5, 67, 68, 70, 81, 106, 111, 113, 118–19, 123–4, 136, 153, 180, 189, 224 internationalism (women’s) 1–2, 4, 7–8, 11–13, 17–18, 92, 114, 118, 134, 139, 142–3, 152, 165–6, 171, 173, 176, 201, 221, 229, 234, 257, 261, 263–4 internationalist mission 14, 48, 143, 164, 170, 172, 242 thinking 137 work 47, 133, 184 International Women’s Year (IWY) 11, 105, 142, 153, 182, 227 Ishanturaeva, Sara 66–8, 78, 209 Pan-African Women’s Organization (PAWO) 39, 49–50, 182, 187, 215, 217, 226 Panama 240–4, 247, 253 peace 67, 105, 161, 175, 183–4, 192, 200, 251, 255 Peace Committee 75 peaceful coexistence 10, 86, 112, 158 Peru 54, 227, 240, 243–4, 252 political tourism 23, 61–3, 66, 72, 87–8, 124, 151, 207, 247, 265 tourist 76, 78, 84, 86–7, 95, 98, 101, 109, 118, 125–6, 130, 132, 172, 183, 201, 212, 238, 256, 262, 266 population control 183, 187–92, 201 Jamaica/an 146, 150, 200, 247 kindergarten 1, 75, 78, 104, 128, 149, 151, 160, 162, 178, 180, 182–3, 195, 198, 209, 213, 229, 236, 246, 264, 267 Maillart, Ella 92–8, 135–6 Mexico 140, 142, 145, 156, 173, 236, 238, 240–1, 243–4 City 2, 38, 51, 140, 142, 145, 161, 195, 229, 240, 242, 253 mobility 60, 62, 65 Montenegro, Ana 39, 49, 51–7, 71, 140, 161, 203, 227 motherhood 6–7, 9, 128, 150, 176–8, 180–6, 189, 195, 199, 201, 263 Nairobi 17, 148, 153, 162, 200, 203 Nasriddinova, Yadgar 104, 108–12, 117, 210, 224 racialization 4–6, 15, 36, 84, 99, 117, 132 radical change 44, 156 claims 179 transformation 138 Rakhimbabaeva, Zukhra 105–6, 111–13, 136, 209–10, 216, 220–1 reproductive rights 176–7, 179, 188–9, 195, 199–202, 205, 242, 261, 265 Santamaría, Haydée 46, 57, 85–6, 158 self-censorship 22, 39, 131, 133, 210, 248, 257 Shukurova, Hujuma 107–8, 114–18, 124–30, 135–6 Sipilä, Helevi 227 sisterhood 118, 133–4, 172 solidarity 29, 36–7, 39, 45–6, 48, 54, 130, 138, 145–7, 151, 153–4, 156, 167, 171, 184, 234, 249, 258 Sri Lanka 78, 116, 226 stratifed reproduction 197 study trip 1, 77, 82, 125, 129, 178, 208, 210, 238, 258 === [PDF page 305] === 292 Tereshkova, Valentina 149, 160, 226 Tirdworld(ism/ist) 46, 137, 139, 150, 156, 171–2, 234 tourist gaze 59, 62–3, 76, 87, 93, 130, 167, 238, 246, 263 transnational networks 2, 18, 68, 102, 117, 139, 170, 206, 231, 255, 261–2, 267 Decade for Women 29, 139, 142–4, 148, 153, 161, 188, 195, 200, 231, 262 Population Conference 190–3, 202 Women’s Conference 2, 21, 32, 38, 153, 184, 195–6, 200, 228 Index UNESCO 1, 25, 54, 62, 72, 75, 105, 161, 175, 205, 207–8, 212, 215–17, 225 whiteness 15, 132, 265 women’s education 1, 17, 104, 106, 200, 206, 210–11, 218, 220–2, 225, Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) congress 66, 69–70, 85, 131, 154, 156, 158, 181, 225 Regional Ofce (for Latin America) 19, 173, 235–6, 247, 250, 256 Zulfya 103, 106, 114, 136 === [PDF page 306] === About the Author Yulia Gradskova is Associate Professor of History and Research Coordinator at the Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University (Sweden). Her research interests include Soviet and postsocialist gender history (in particular, politics of motherhood), transnational history and women’s internationalism during the Cold War, as well as decolonial perspective on Soviet politics of emancipation of “woman of the East.” Her last book is Te Women’s International Democratic Federation, the Global South and the Cold War. Defending the Rights of Women of the “Whole World”? (2021). Gradskova is the author of Soviet Politics of Emancipation of Ethnic Minority Women: Natsionalka (2018) and coeditor of several books, including Gendering Postsocialism: Old Legacies and New Hierarchies (2018, with Ildiko Asztalos Morell) and Gender Equality on a Grand Tour: Politics and Institutions—the Nordic Council, Sweden, Lithuania and Russia (2017—with E. Blomberg, Y. Waldemarson, and A. Zvinkliene). === [PDF page 307] === [Blank page] 294 === [PDF page 308] === [Blank page] 295 === [PDF page 309] === [Blank page] 296 === [PDF page 310] === [Blank page] 297 === [PDF page 311] === [Blank page] 298 === [PDF page 312] === [Blank page] 299 === [PDF page 313] === [Blank page] 300