Re/Production Cycles

Affective Economies of Menstruation in Soviet Russia, ca. 1917-1953

Abstract

English abstract: In this paper, I bring together radical early Soviet projects of transforming both reproductive bodies and productive time by focusing on the case of the female menstrual cycle. Echoing Emily Martin’s anthropological work, I examine the hidden affective economies of Soviet menstruation and place this discussion within the larger context of socialist politics of productivity and gendered citizenship. In doing so, I actively use the metaphor of ‘re/production cycles’ and highlight the double embeddedness of the female menstrual cycle in the politics of both reproduction and economic productivity. Focusing in particular on the introduction of ‘menstrual leave’ provisions for working women in the 1920s and the shifting reproductive policies in the Soviet Union under Stalin, I explore the peculiar dynamics of this re/production nexus and situate it within the larger context of Soviet modernity.