ZERWANA GENEALOGIA. SPRAWCZOŚĆ DZIAŁACZEK SPOŁECZNYCH I POLITYCZNYCH W SOCJALISTYCZNEJ POLSCE I GRUZJI A WSPÓŁCZESNE RUCHY KOBIECE
BROKEN GENEALOGY. THE AGENCY OF WOMEN’S ACTIVISTS IN SOCIALIST POLAND AND GEORGIA, AND CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS

Summary/Abstract: The objective of this article is to challenge and destabilise existing approaches to state socialism as a historical period during which women remained passive observers of social and political realities. Beginning with the afterthought about the possibility of utilising some of the concepts and categories of feminist methodologies within the post-socialist context, I present results of the research conducted, between 2010-2014, with women active in communist parties and women’s organisations before 1989, in Poland and in Georgia. Drawing from in-depth interviews and archival documents, including the United Polish Workers Party and Women International Democratic Federation archives, I then examine three aspects of the experience of women active socially and politically under state socialism. First, I present diverse motives behind the decision to become a party member. Second, I explore the amount of autonomy that, in their own words, women active in the communist party and women’s organisations had at their disposal. And third, I look at the ways in which socialist activists can be positioned within existing narratives on feminism and women’s movements in post-socialism.

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