The article analyzes the content, methods of creation, and features of coverage of women’s issues in newspapers during the Great Patriotic War. The source base for the study was articles from the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia, published in the period from 22.06.1941 to 09.05.1945, as well as legal acts, official and statistical documentations. 307 newspaper articles were selected containing information about women in the USSR rear for the specified period. Based on the newspaper publications during the Great Patriotic War, the purpose of the article is to characterize the coverage of the women’s issue in the official discourse of the state. It was possible to find out the key plots of the newspaper articles using the methodology developed by the researchers. The authors come to the conclusion that Soviet women took on three main roles during the Great Patriotic War: citizens, workers and mothers. However, these roles were affected by wartime and changed significantly on a temporary or permanent basis. The image of a woman worker was characterized not only by inclusion in the care sector (kindergartens, nurseries and hospitals), but also by the rapid development of “male” professions and the use of female labor in the country’s national economy. The image of women as mothers is presented in the context of state protection. The age aspect of motherhood is revealed, the functions of young and elderly mothers are determined. As for the image of women as citizens, in this case the task of protecting the Motherland prevails. Plots of internationalism and plots dedicated to the women of besieged Leningrad are highlighted as additional, as an example of courage, firmness and self-sacrifice. The article concludes that the coverage of the women’s issue in the central periodical press of the war years was a reflection of the state’s social policy, an instrument for the transmission and formation of the most important values and meanings that made it possible to use the country’s human resources in the social and political spheres, in matters of population reproduction, as well as in labor and employment.
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