Gender Violence: The 1917–1922 Ukrainian Pogroms and the Challenges of Modernity

Abstract

By conducting a detailed analysis of the diverse evidence of mass rape of Jewish women in Ukraine during the Civil War pogroms, this article explores the impact of gender violence that was employed as a strategic weapon of genocide by pogrom perpetrators. Various accounts of witnesses, humanitarian workers, and medical practitioners suggest that there was a group of victims who demonstrated a similar set of reactions to the traumatic experience of mass rape. Further research established that this unique response is specific to the group of victims solely identified by their exposure to secular education. To discern how exposure to secularism shaped the traumatic experience, this study pursues in-depth analyses of victim narratives as they fall along gender lines. The established gender narrative patterns suggest that the Jewish women were particularly traumatized by the visceral, wild, and carnivalesque nature of the pogrom rape that was tragically juxtaposed against their commonly shared ethical values. Victims exposed to secularism had a more internalized and solitary experience of the gruesome ordeal, and, as a result, demonstrated less coping ability which resulted in a variety of outcomes ranging from acute despair and depression, to suicidal tendencies when the trauma proved unbearable to the victim. The most widespread outcome of pogrom rape among secularized survivors was to escape it by leaving terrible memories behind forever and concealing the traumatic experience.