S. Kartashov, Klasha. 1927
Translated by Sean Guillory
The story of Klasha Efimova exemplifies the gender conundrum that faced Komsomol women. Klasha’s beauty made her an instant hit with the boys. However, to her cell secretary, Klasha was a symbol of “petite-bourgeois ideology” that undermined her communist stance. He particularly pointed to her braids and bow as un-communist symbols. After Dmitruk shamed her in front of the cell, Klasha adopted the “Komsomol look.” She exchanged her bow, braids, and colored stockings for a leather cap. She even started smoking, a symbol of the so-called leather clad, cropped haired “fighting komsomolka.” Adopting the “Komsomol look” did not bring Klasha into the young communist fold, however. In fact, she became even more isolated as her masculinization made her unattractive to boys.
Original Source: I. Razin, ed., Komsomolskii byt: Sbornik (Moscow: 1927), pp. 324-25.
Suddenly, the door opened and in ran Dmitruk, the renowned secretary of our Komsomol cell.
He had a leather cap pulled over his thick brow, the collar of his jacket stood upright like a factory chimney, and his hands went from the pocket of his jacket to his nose and back in frantic excitement.
And we sat and waited for our young secretary to speak. He ran around the room and said: “Guys,” he said. “Do you know Klasha Efimova?”
And there sat Klasha. All eyes stared, waiting for what would be said about her.
Klasha was a favorite of ours. In front of us was a terribly pretty, well-dressed girl with a plaited braid, and in it a bow that bounced like some kind of butterfly.
It must be said that many of our guys liked her terribly. Many of them approached the other girls but their hearts laid more with this one. In a word, they liked her.
And then the secretary began to point at this very Klasha.
?First . . . Second . . . Third . . . according to all the points on the agenda,” he said. And then he concluded: the issue boiled down to him declaring that Klasha was a carrier of petite-bourgeois ideology. And then our secretary began to prove it by noting her brightly colored stockings, her bow and also her braids and other features.
?In short,” Dmitruk said to her, ?I advise you, Klasha, to get rid of all these trifles, and cut that mop and become a model komsomolka so you won’t bring any more corrosion into our iron ranks or become detached from the masses. Guys, don’t you agree?
And the guys responded:
“Ah, um, uh . . . Agreed . . .”
“And you, Klasha, must decide what is more valuable to you: our iron organization or some braids, which in our transitional period are no more than remnants of a barbarian ideology.”
“Well,” Klasha says, “Ideologically speaking, I agree with everything. The organization is more valuable.”
From this point forward our Klasha adopted the Komsomol look: She exchanged her bonnet for a cap, removed the bow and braids and got rid of the colored stockings. She even started smoking . . .
We then saw that our renowned secretary Dmitruk was a genuine activist and understood things like some kind of Napoleon.
Our komsomols stopped fancying her. No one walked her home and we went to the skating rink without her, and general attention to her went to zero.
From that time on the atmosphere was healthier. We didn’t go up to the girl; we didn’t go out with her. Why go out with a girl like that? It’s a man in a skirt, nothing more. But we have some very nice young ladies that go with us to the skating rink, and generally hang out. Very pretty girls; and they have braids and boots and everything is fine. But how everything that happens outside the bowels of our cell presents some kind of dangerous threat to our ideology is not clear. And even our renowned secretary Dmitruk altogether favors a certain girl among them.