COMRADE NATASHA RETURNS TO WOMANHOOD

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 141, 17 June 1936, Page 20

COMRADE NATASHA RETURNS TO WOMANHOOD

is restored to its original rights, and romance is no longer sneered at, writes Harry Speed in “Britannia and Eve.” Family life is now strongly propagated in Russia, and the married are preferred to “unregistered couples.” Having babies has almost become a national sportl

The perfume shops attain record sales, while the production of cosmetics rises sharply. Beauty parlours aro opened up under tho Soviet flag. Dancing is a crazo.

On New Year’s Eve fancy-dress balls were held all over tho country, and the newspapers published illustrated reports showing the dancing couples just as you see in the fociety papers here, or the Countess of So-and-So, tho pictures were captioned: “Comrade Natasha, record-worker of the factory belonging to tho Aerodynamic Institute, valsing with her husband, Comrade Ivan, best Brigadier in the assembling plant of the Ball-bearing Works, who has fulfilled his norms to 553 per cent! ” Fashion journals, tho possession of which was forbidden threo years ago, aro being printed and published, and dress shops go in for impressive window displays. Foreign fashion designers are invited, and paid enormous sums, to create special types of modern toilettes suitable for Russia’s women.

Comrade Natasha has returned to womanhood, but she has not given up her position in public lifo, nor has she loft the factory. Her interest in the pleasant and more beautiful sides of life is breaking forth simultaneously. The latest and perhaps most vehement drive on which tho Soviet propaganda machine has embarked is that for a more pleasant life. More comfort, tho development of good and individual taste, beauty, joy and gaiety! These are tho latest slogans which whip the popular mind into a new and forceful frenzy. Stalin said: “Russia is vast and rich in natural resources. We want more people to populate and develop the country.” With this request made through its highest exponent, the State has given itself into the hands of the women. Once they are called upon to fulfil their natural mission every accessory must be secured for them. Anything that helps to mako them more

working dress, which will bo extremely simple and may very well prove to bo the ideal type for its purpose, and the leisure-time dress, which will bo rather on tho pompous and rich side, stressing perhaps the wish to show off to themselves and tho world the “economic improvement and wealth gained under Socialism.”

Exposure to considerable hardship and heavy work in recent years have made the figure and features of Russian women tend towards a rather broad and masculine typo. It gavo the Russians a shock when the model dresses sent by an American firm arrived last May, and they had to search for over a week to find a girl suitable to weai them at a show, since all their professional models were too stout.

The working woman is definitely the ideal type in Russia’s official ideology. Yet now it is strongly emphasised that no kind of work need have detrimental offects on feminine beauty. Gloves are being worn more and more during working hours by factory girls. And the manicure is strongly in vogue. Beauty parlours in Moscow are open from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. and are always crowded. “Happy motherhood” is tho cry of the day. It has been taken up by the newspapers, the theatres and films. Picture postcards of pretty babies are even sold in the streets. A new film, “Maywinds,” treats the problem in the style which has now become orthodox Soviet morale. The heroine, a young sports girl, longs for a child. Her bus band insists that sho should not imperil her swimming records and good professional chances by taking upon herself this “unnecessary burden.” Needless to say, the solution is found in favour of the woman: the social insurance schemes, tho creches and kindergartens of Sovietland and the efficiency of modern science are shown to enable Natasha to satisfy her own, her husband’s and her country’s ambitious. She will provide Russia with a new citizen, go on defending tho swimming championships for her factory, and keep do ing her*part for the economic rccon struction.

This film is very typical and very delightful in its technique. It demonstrates the Soviet’s recipe for Comrade Natasha’s return to womanhood.

TRENDS OF MODERN RUSSIA

beautiful and attractive must bo conceded. I w'ould not say that this is a conscious reflection on the part of some government body, but it is at least the natural transformation going hand in hand with the other factors that have contributed the latest tendencies in Russia. As tho younger generation saw nothing of the upper classes who in their day used to set tho standard of stylo for tho wholo country, the new conception of beauty in appearaneo has developed on the basis of portraits o# kings and queens in tho museums, tho pictures of rich people in old books, and perhaps the models in some foreign fashion journals smuggled furtively across the border to bo sold at ten times their value after they were hopelessly out of date. Tho eagerness to do the right thing, however, is noticeably apparent. There aro State shops where frocks aro made to individual order, where the material and style can be chosen and alterations made to tho customer’s personal taste. Tho “Mosbelio” Trust produces confectionery, dresses and lingerie. The manager is a woman, Comrado Wladimirova, a former factory worker. She has a flair for fashion and her ideas aro original. She has just opened a demonstration theatre in tho centre of tho town. It is a very elegant and modern hall, and mannequin

New Conception of Beauty

parades are held all day long and also in tho evening for organisations and clubs as well a 3 for individual customers and all workers and employees of fashion stores and factories. Besides, a permanent dress display is installed in the Park of Culture and Rest, the popular amusement centre of Moscow, where as many as 30,000 women a day inspect tho nowost creations of the Mosbelio. Mannequins aro also sent to tho foctories and collective farms to demonstrate end advise tho women what stylo and colour will suit them best. It is hoped that through theso means the taste of the masses will be developed. The mannequins have to do more than just walk up and down gracefully. They have to take down suggestions and complaints as well as demands coming from the public, so that their notes may be carefully studied at the fashion conferences organised regularly by the Trust. The dress for tho Russian working woman is the great task Russian fashion designers have set themselves to evolve. They think that in this respect Russia should lead tho world. Called upon to give a forecast of the future trend of Russian fashions, one may feci tempted to say that there will bo two distinctly different types: the