Sexual Infidelities: Ballad of a Soldier

Across time and geographic region, the question of sexual fidelity in wartime has been a prominent concern within discourses on the role that women play as participants on the homefront. Primarily, the fear surrounding sexual transgressions on the part of female citizens was a result of the conflation of an individual woman’s sexual behavior with the strength and sanctity of the nation. In the Soviet Union, where women were already tasked with materially supporting the war effort through their entrance into the labor force and participation in the military, Soviet women were additionally charged with “the apparently equally taxing and important work of waiting. In the wartime press, women’s steadfast devotion to their families and the men they loved spurred their wartime work and became a key marker of citizenship and patriotic duty” (Kirschenbaum, “Our Cities, Our Hearths, Our Families” p. 842). From this it follows that, when that sacred sexual boundary was violated by women through infidelity and promiscuous sexual behavior, it was representative of a larger betrayal of their country, by weakening the morale of the men fighting on the front and undermining the war effort. It was this narrative that found its voice in Thaw cinema, and the archetype of the unfaithful woman became a central figure in cultural representations of the homefront during the war.

This representation is played straight in Grigori Chukhrai’s 1959 war film Ballad of a Soldier. In one subplot, Alyosha, the eponymous soldier who has been given six days leave, diverts his path in order to deliver a gift of rationed soap to the wife of a fellow private, Pavlov. However, when Alyosha and his travelling companion, Shura, arrive at Elizaveta Pavlova’s apartment, they quickly realize that she has another man with her and that the two are carrying on an affair in Pavlov’s absence. Alyosha’s reaction upon this discovery is one of disbelief and judgment, as well as indignation on behalf the betrayal suffered by his friend. Furthermore, Pavlova’s response is one of humiliation and shame, as she pitifully begs Alyosha to keep her secret. She pleads: “don’t tell him what you’ve seen here… Don’t look at me that way, you aren’t old enough to understand”. Following this interaction, Alyosha decides that she is unworthy of her husband’s thoughtful generosity, and seizes the soap that he intended for her as a token of love and devotion. Ultimately, the character of Elizaveta Pavlova performs a superficial, secondary role in Ballad of a Soldier, and her infidelity serves as a contrast to the moral purity of the young, idealistic and self-sacrificing Alyosha.