“A woman cannot be at the head of a military newspaper": the dismissal of N. I. Frank from the Omsk editorial office of the ‘Russian Army’ in February 1919

The publication for the first time introduces into scientific circulation the historical sources identified in the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA), which reveal the circumstances of cooperation and dismissal of journalist and writer Nina Iosifovna Frank (1891-1949) from the editorial office of the central anti-Bolshevik daily military newspaper “Russian Army”, published in Omsk from November 1918 to November 1919. It is about the statement of N. I. Frank to the responsible editor of the newspaper, Lieutenant Colonel Y. S. Gerken, and two reports of the editor to Colonel G. I. Klerzhe, Assistant Chief of the General Staff of the Military Ministry of the Russian government. The documents are dated April 1919, but they refer to the events of February 1919. The introduction to the documentary publication substantiates the relevance of the selected topic, describes the historiographical conflict and characterizes the historical context necessary for an adequate understanding of the essence and scientific significance of the published materials. It is shown that N. I. Frank was an energetic and emotional personality, striving for social and political influence and high social position. The information that appeared in memoirs, diary entries and obituary, and later in historiography that the journalist was allegedly the editor of the official military newspaper “Russian Army” turned out to be unreliable, but had some basis in reality. The published documents report about N. I. Frank's work as a freelance assistant to the editor of the “Russian Army”, who had access to internal office documentation, and her dismissal in February 1919 by order of Major-General N. A. Stepanov, the military minister of the Russian government, who believed that only servicemen and in no case women should work in the editorial office of the “Russian Army”. The published documents help to get an idea of the personal relations within the editorial staff of the newspaper “Russian Army” in the spring of 1919 and the everyday difficulties of the refugee employees who were forced to live in the premises of the editorial office. The documents make clear the subordination, military style of work and decision-making procedures in the newspaper “Russian Army”. The fact of a woman's collaboration in an anti-Bolshevik military newspaper and her subsequent dismissal suggest that under the conditions of the Civil War, the counterrevolutionary camp was undergoing a tacit reduction of women's gender roles, which had been expanded as a result of the revolutionary processes of 1917.