“March 1953” is a 1994 short story by Russian author Ludmila Ulitskaya. The story focuses on the experiences of a twelve-year-old Jewish girl, Lilia, who is bullied by an anti-Semitic boy, Bodrik. By elaborating on multiple dimensions of one girl’s life in the Soviet Union while Joseph Stalin was the country’s premier, Ulitskaya reveals connections between personal experience and the complex gender, religious, and class dynamics of Soviet society after World War Two. The events of the story take place in the month and year when Stalin died. On one particular day, however, it is Lilia’s great-grandfather who dies, while Stalin is stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage and would die within three days.

The author weaves together another significant passage in Lilia’s life: the onset of her menstrual periods, with her ability to fight back against the boy, who sexually assaults her. In combination with the loss of an important senior relative, these events mark Lilia’s passage out of childhood toward more powerful, adult status. Bodrik escalates his school bullying by coming to her home. He initially insults her with a long-standing anti-Semitic taunt, blaming Jews for killing Christ. He combines this insult with sexual assault, thus aggressively connecting religious majority domination to gender domination.

Along with her realization of her physical power, Lilia is made to understand class dynamics when her grandmother insists on confronting the boy’s mother. His dominant status is far from complete, it turns out, as his family is poor while Lilia’s is middle class. The author thus shines light on the paradoxes and complexities of Soviet post-war society.