Keywords
Russia, Gender, Women
Abstract
This paper explores how sexual violence during the Russian Civil War, particularly perpetrated by the White Army, was used as a ubiquitous tool for genocide against Jewish women. From 1918 to 1922, Jewish Women in the Russian Empire faced pervasive sexual violence during the pogroms: periods of mass violence and riots targeting Jews. This wave of violence led to displacement, immigration, and a profound impact on culture, reshaping the Jewish community forever and serving as a driving factor in the Jewish diaspora. Previous scholarship fails to critically engage with sexual violence as a unique tool in itself, as opposed to a byproduct of mass violence. This paper fills that critical gap in research, arguing that sexual violence targets identity and community based on testimony from Jewish women, doctors, and children.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Fixler, Alisa l. (2026) "Bodies as Battlefields: Gendered Violence during the Russian Pogroms," Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal: 7 (1), 7-31. 10.24968/2693-244X.7.1.1 https://works.swarthmore.edu/suhj/vol7/iss1/1