Female Migrant Workers from Western Ukraine in the Late Soviet Village

Oral Histories of Gendered Life Courses and Economic Change

In the late Soviet Union, hired labor at collective farms became more common as the countryside struggled to retain a sufficient workforce. Migrant workers were especially welcome during peak seasons. This presentation explores the gendered dimension of seasonal labor migration by bringing forward the experiences of rural women from Soviet western borderland, Transcarpathia, who were frequent migrant agricultural workers.

From the early 1950s, short-term contracts in agriculture offered access to grain, a commodity that was in short or insufficient supply in some areas of Western Ukraine. This was an important incentive for rural families that relied on private household production for subsistence. By the 1970s, cash payments increased and added to the allure of seasonal work. Based on oral interviews, the presentation investigates women’s motivations to engage in seasonal work throughout their life courses, from adolescence to retirement, and in the changing contexts of late socialism, primarily the gradual increase in local employment opportunities, and the evolving living standards and consumption desires.

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