Authors

Discussion

Within global menstrual history, the Soviet Union stands out as a peculiar case. While at least since the 1930s it claimed to belong to the group of ‘developed’ industrialized countries, the chronic neglect of light industry and personal care products meant that unlike other economies of similar size and structure, the Soviets never launched the manufacturing of reusable menstrual products until the socio-economic transition of the late 1980s. Consequently, throughout the 20^th century Soviet menstruators had to rely on DIY techniques and improvisational bodily practices to manage their cycles.

This paper builds on the collection of 70+ semi-structured oral history interviews about the experiences of the menstrual cycle in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia that I have gathered over the last several years. This analysis is supplemented by the readings of medical publications, popular press, fiction, and early Internet archives from the Soviet and the post-Soviet period. The paper also includes methodological reflections on conducting oral history interviews on menstrual trauma and analyzing this data.

I argue that the Soviet menstrual experience is overwhelmingly remembered in contemporary Russia as a kind of trauma that is either silenced through the preservation of the menstrual taboo or actively suppressed with the help of modern reusable products (usually imported from the West). This trauma is discursively linked to the shame culture around human body, sexuality and reproduction that is attributed to the Soviet past. While there is a growing awareness about financial and environmental benefits of reusable menstrual products, they are explicitly rejected as a kind of return to the dreaded ‘Soviet rags’. Overall, the paper suggests that the personal memory of past menstrual experiences informs not only the seemingly mundane choices of intimate care products, but also a range of socio-economic, environmental, and even political sensibilities.