Officially, women in the Soviet Union enjoyed a degree of equality unknown elsewhere in Allied countries at the time. However, long-standing norms of gendered behavior and stereotypes that cast women as morally weak, politically fallible, and sexually tempting meant that women in the army or living behind enemy lines were viewed with skepticism, seen as weak points easily exploited by the enemy. Concerned about sabotage, espionage, and ideological corruption, authorities categorized women who fraternized with the enemy—or who were suspected of doing so—as “socially dangerous,” a uniquely Soviet legal designation that exposed the accused to prosecution, imprisonment, and exile. Even without official sanction, women rumored to be involved with German occupiers were reviled, and treated accordingly, by their neighbors. By reading official reports against the grain and incorporating rare personal documents, Kazyulina provides a multifaceted study of the realities for non-Jewish Soviet women—in the army or resistance, or at home in occupied territories—during and after Nazi occupation.

Regina Kazyulina is the assistant director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and a visiting assistant professor of history at Salem State University.

Acknowledgements 
List of Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Terms 
A Note on Transliteration, Place-Names, and Terms 
Introduction 
1. Soviet Women Between the Wars: A Story of Contradictions 
2. Comrades or Spies: Women in the Red Army 
3. Scouts or Assassins: Women in the Partisans 
4. The Diary of a Komsomolka: Fraternization and the View from Below 
5. “Socially Dangerous” Women and Retribution After Liberation
Conclusion 
Notes
Bibliography
Index