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WOMEN & THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: HOW BOLSHEVIK WOMEN ORGANIZED FOR SOCIALISM & THEIR OWN EMANCIPATION

By Rozh Em

[International Working Women’s Day march, Petrograd, Russia. (8 March 1917) (Public Domain)]

It is important for us, as revolutionaries of this generation, to honour the crucial role women played in both building the revolution and shaping the politics of the Soviet Union in the years following.

One hundred years ago, on February 23rd 1917, 50,000 women poured out of factories and onto the streets, sparking the first revolution in Russia that eventually led to the downfall of the Czar. It was on International Women’s Day that textile workers organized a labour strike with a strong anti-war message to condemn the exploitative and oppressive conditions most people were subjected to during the Czarist era. Essentially, this movement not only brought women together, but also masses of people who simply called for bread and peace. It became the catalyst for one of biggest revolutions that historically changed the world. However, the role of women and the women’s movement during the Russian Revolution, and the years following, are often undermined by bourgeois historians who tend to frame the revolution as a ‘masculine’ movement. Some historians, such as Richard Piper, even go so far as to argue that the revolution was “a coup” by a small portion of radical, male intellectuals, rather than it being a mass working class movement.1 This is because bourgeois historians do not focus and emphasize enough that the working class was organizing for many years, demanding basic rights. Therefore, contrary to opinions that call the women’s movement and the protest of February 23rd ‘minor’ or ‘almost accidental,’ women workers were in fact crucial to the Revolution. They were organizing themselves, creating unions and getting ready to fight militantly to alleviate their hardships years before the 1917 Revolution. Furthermore, after the revolution, the role Bolshevik women took in shaping the Soviet Union is often overshadowed by the role men played. Revolutionary women, such as Alexandra Kollontai, Inessa Armand and Nadezhda Krupskaya were only some of the many influential women that both shaped the revolution and the Soviet Union in the years following. As such, women not only played an integral role in the Russian Revolution, but their fight for emancipation and social change became yet another revolutionary development in the Soviet Union. Bolshevik women fought hard within the Party to put women’s emancipation on the Soviet Union’s socialist agenda. This article will assess how revolutionary women in Russia, particularly those in the Bolshevik Party, began organizing the working class for a historic revolution that both improved their own conditions and changed the course of the world.

“Bolshevik women fought hard within the Party to put women’s emancipation on the Soviet Union’s socialist agenda.”

To start, it’s important to recognize that the increasing oppression working-class women were facing led them to get more involved in key labour movements. During the Czarist era, women were marked as ‘backwards’ segments of society, and this misogynistic ideology justified the hyper-exploitation of women in Russia, leaving many without opportunities to get an education or the training needed to become skilled workers. Women were also known to be the key laborers in the household — confined to childbearing and constantly providing for their husbands. In the book, Women and Work in Russia, Jane McDermid and Anna Hillyar mention that the economic changes after the abolition of serfdom in Russia resulted in many families facing growing impoverishment, which eventually increased the number of women workers.2 By the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, many women became textile workers or found jobs in domestic services. Between 1901-1913, the number of women working in factories had grown by 59%, whereas for men the increase was only 29%.3 Even in industries where women were predominant, such as the textile industry, they were still paid less than men. Thus, not only were working hours long and exhausting, but the wages women received were barely enough to make a living. Sexual assault and harassment by both foreman and male workers in the workplace was a common occurrence. In 1914, the Bolshevik newspaper for women workers, Rabotnitsa, complained about the brutal and sexually abrasive treatment of women by men within the workforce.4 Historians such as Rose Glickman tells us that the “peasant legacy of female subordination to men was perpetuated in the sexual division of labour at the factory.”5 Subsequently, she argues that gender was significant in the development of the Russian working class because women became one of the most exploited segments of society.6 However, while women in Russia faced increasing oppression and exploitation, they did not remain passive. They began mobilizing themselves for changes.

As industrialization and urbanization began changing the economic system of Russia, there was also a rise of Social Democratic forces, which were predominately made up of radical intellectuals at the time.7 They began stressing the importance of preparing workers to both learn about their exploitation and how to lead their own revolutionary movements. Raising working-class consciousness was key to some of the powerful labour movements in Russia. Therefore, “workers’ circles,” such as The Brusnev circles of 1889-1892, began taking a vital role in the movement to raise the consciousness of the working class.8 Women were joining these organizations in small numbers, and from there, they created their own women workers’ circles. Their organizations mostly concentrated on the industries that women had greater roles in, such as the textile industry.9 The women’s circles also set up literacy workshops, which provided a space for women to read more about their own oppression. By the end of 1890, there were at least twenty workers’ circles.10 Some of the women within these circles radicalized and joined the Bolsheviks as communists took leading roles within these organizations. For instance, Anna Boldyreva, a working-class woman from the Maxwell Textile Mill, later became a representative of the Bolsheviks in trade union struggles after working with them in workers’ circles.11

Essentially, these organizations not only increased the level of class consciousness within the working class, but also became vital tools that allowed workers to collectively organize rallies and strikes, such as the 1890 general strike of textile workers, who were organized under the Ivanovo-Voznesensk workers’ union.12 This strike lasted over two weeks and successfully forced concessions from employers. As Mcdermid and Hillyar mention, women workers “did not simply take spontaneous action,” but were organizers and instigators of the movement, and thus, since the dissatisfaction women felt continued to exist after these strikes, “women were once again prepared to take to the streets” a decade later.13 Therefore, while some historians believe that the Russian Revolution emerged spontaneously, it’s clear that the ways in which women workers organized themselves in the years prior to the revolution explain why they played such an influential role in the large mass movements that occurred in the early twentieth century. So it is important to stress how labour activists put in tremendous effort in the years before the revolution to increase the political consciousness of people and unite them under working class organizations and unions. Although women workers were less organized than men, many were still militantly leading strikes to combat poor conditions, which is why women’s struggles were often correlated with different mass movements in Russia. For instance, women even played an important role during the 1905 movements that started some of the biggest protests against the Czar.

“...while some historians believe that the Russian revolution emerged spontaneously, it’s clear that the ways in which women workers organized themselves in the years prior to the revolution explain why they played such an influential role...”

On “Bloody Sunday,” thousands of workers in St Petersburg marched to the Winter Palace and presented the Czar of Russia with a petition listing off their grievances. Because of the Czar’s violent response to the protesters, resulting in the death of several people, strikes and protests escalated throughout the country. The events of 1905 instigated more labour protests that carried on into 1907 — creating an atmosphere that made revolution possible. In fact, the events that occurred in 1905 led to another “wave of localized industrial unrest culminated in a general strike of Ivanovo workers,” which predominantly included women.14 This eventually led to the establishment of the very first Workers’ Soviet in the country. Among the 151 individuals elected to represent striking factory workers, 25 were women. While this doesn’t seem like a large number, it’s still a victory for women to be taking leadership roles in labour struggles during a time when they were not seen as full human beings. One of the factories, known as the Kashintsev Cotton Weaving Mill, even elected more women than men to the Workers’ Soviet.15 Seven out of the eight elected were women workers. Additionally, within these Workers’ Soviet, only 15.6% of the men belonged to the Bolshevik Party, while 62.5% of the women were part of the Bolsheviks.16

Ultimately, many of the Ivanovo women workers became interested in revolutionary politics and the Bolshevik Party as they got more involved with women’s circles. Despite there being a clash between the feminists of the time and the Bolsheviks, there were also correlations and connections being built between these two forces.17 Women were not simply “duped” by the Bolsheviks, but made the conscious choice of joining their ranks. In fact, women workers were both the forefront of strike actions and among the workers whom the Bolsheviks were building a base with to expand their party, and make it more relevant to the working class.18 Therefore, women’s involvement with the Bolsheviks was arguably part of the reason why the Party became so successful. In her book, Bolshevik Women, Barbara Clements concludes that “Marxism appealed to young women because of its systemic critique of patriarchy.”19 Marxism and revolutionary political groups stood out for women because they were the ones who were properly assessing the historical and structural ways in which women were oppressed. Historian Richard Stites says that the Russian feminists of the time did not have a “binding comprehensive ideology,” other than solidarity.20 He even mentions that the question of emancipation was not clearly “moulded out” by feminists, whereas Marxists had a “more or less complete theoretical framework” on the question of women’s oppression.21 Therefore, many working class women were drawn to the Bolsheviks and began to view socialism as a path towards their emancipation — demonstrating the growing connection between women’s struggles and the fight for socialism. And on the other hand, the international communist movement also began paying closer attention to women’s issues. As Rosa Luxemburg stated in one of her speeches, “women’s suffrage is one of the vital issues on the platform of Social Democracy.”22 The international communist movement’s growing interest in the “women’s question” also explains why women began taking bigger roles within the Bolshevik Party.

[Clara Zetkin (left) & Rosa Luxemburg (right) on their way to the SPD Congress. Magdeburg, 1910 (Public Domain)]

Historically, misogynistic tendencies persisted within the communist movement as well. Many were even afraid of permitting women to vote because of stereotypes that marked them as the most ‘backward’ segments of society.23 For some within the communist and socialist movement, this implied that women were more conservative and religious in comparison to men — meaning that they could potentially vote for right wing forces.24 Nevertheless, this was not the view of everyone inside the revolutionary movement. Within the Second International, Clara Zetkin, well known German revolutionary and one of the founders of International Women’s Day, pushed to make all socialist parties work for the liberation of both men and women. Russian revolutionaries, such as Alexandra Kollontai and Vladimir Lenin, supported Zetkins’s efforts, and also worked hard to bring women’s emancipation to the attention of the Second International. In fact, Russian communists were some of the first to recognize the need to fight for the liberation of women. While some parties were hesitant, there was eventually a formal acceptance by socialist parties of women’s right to work, and the need to create special organs within their parties for women’s political education. 25 Thus, the fight to incorporate the struggle of women into the socialist program led to revolutionary changes within the socialist movement itself.

Soon enough, Marxist literature on the oppression of women, such as the works of Zetkin, Engels and Bebel, was being translated into Russian and distributed to women that took an interest in revolutionary politics. Furthermore, in 1899, Lenin suggested adding “the establishment of full equality of rights of men and women” into the Party Program.26 At the Second Congress in 1903, this addition was officially added. Lenin also demanded that women have the right to maternity leave and claimed that they should be guaranteed work in safe conditions, even suggesting that factories should hire women inspectors to check and ensure that workplaces were not harmful or dangerous spaces.27 Meanwhile, in 1900, Nadezhda Krupskaya, a well-known revolutionary who is most notably referred to as Lenin’s wife, wrote an article called “The Woman Worker,” which was one of the first pieces that analyzed the conditions of Russian women through a Marxist lens.28 She wrote about the overworked and undernourished village woman and peasant women, the underpaid factory women who were often forced into sex-work, and pregnant working class women who did not have job security or the right to maternity leave. Krupskaya’s article was being distributed to women who began participating in labour strikes in hopes of turning these labour movements from economic to political struggles.29 Near the end of the nineteenth century, Krupskaya was involved in organizing underground Marxist study groups, which is where she eventually met Lenin. By 1905, she worked as the secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Party, and the editorial secretary of the Party’s journal. For years, she exerted herself to teach masses of people who did not receive a proper education, which particularly, but not exclusively, included women. As such, Krupskaya wasn’t only known as “Lenin’s wife,” but as a true revolutionary who helped build the Party.

“By 1913, International Women’s Day was first introduced to [Russia]. To mobilize for this day, Bolshevik women set up city-wide women’s circles to push their anti-war line amongst women workers and the wives of soldiers...”

All the while, Alexandra Kollontai, another key revolutionary figure at the time, was also putting in an immense effort to bring working class women into the Party, or at the very least, to support its aims. She wrote major theoretical work on women’s rights and its relation to socialism. Additionally, she took a leading role in organizing women labour delegates, who had been elected from different factories to participate in trade union struggles. To avoid harassment from authorities, Kollontai disguised her meetings as “sewing circles” or “health talks on the harmfulness of corsets.”30 She would also participate in feminist meetings to draw women into the socialist movement. In addition, other Bolshevik women also headed unions. For instance, Sofia Goncharskaia was the head of the Union of Laundry Workers.31 In addition, Kollontai was one of the revolutionary women, along with other Bolsheviks like Konkordia Samoilova, who pushed to bring International Women’s Day to Russia.32 By 1913, International Women’s Day was first introduced to the country. To mobilize for this day, Bolshevik women set up city-wide women’s circles to push their anti-war line amongst women workers and the wives of the many soldiers who were forced to go to war. Moreover, women in the Bolshevik Party also took leading roles in organizing militant underground committees during the Revolution. Rozaliia Zemliachka and Elena Stasova were two Bolshevikichki who headed underground committees in Moscow and St. Petersburg.33 Elena Stasova ended up becoming the technical secretary of the St. Petersburg committee from 1901-1906.

Around the same time, the Bolsheviks launched Rabotniska, their first women’s magazine that was regularly distributed to women workers. This was one of the first attempts to create a Bolshevik women’s organ within the Party. Inessa Armand, another Bolshevik revolutionary, took a prominent role in creating this journal.34 Throughout her life, Inessa was always attentive to the poor conditions working class women were subjected to because she herself came from a poor working class background. Prior to getting involved with the Bolsheviks, she did charitable work for working class women within feminist circles, and even organized sex workers. Although she did tremendous work to build the Party, to some, Inessa was simply known as “Lenin’s close friend”.35 But the fact is, she was instrumental in making the Party focus more on women’s struggles. Her idea to create a women’s newspaper received strong support from Krupskaya, though other Party members in the Central Committee were initially skeptical of it. Ziva Galili’s article, “Women and the Russian Revolution,” explains how several women within the Bolshevik party worked hard to “convince the Party’s male leaders, in particular V.I. Lenin, to direct resources and energies to the organization of women workers. The centerpiece of that effort was the Bolshevik journal, Rabotniska.”36

History shows us that many women in the Bolshevik Party played key roles in the struggle for socialism. By 1907, 20% of the Party leadership were women, and of the 20%, more than 90% belonged to the Bolsheviks as opposed to the Mensheviks.37 One can even say that the work many Bolshevikichiki put into recruiting working class women led to the growth of the Party itself. However, some “critics of communism, as well as feminists”, view the pro-woman stance of the Party as simply a “ploy to mobilize support for the revolutionary regime.”38 While the Party didn’t explicitly declare that they were ‘feminists’, many women within it did genuinely aim to improve the conditions of women, and for them, their emancipation correlated with class struggle and liberation from capitalist exploitation. For these reasons, some historians refer to the entire 1905-1914 period as the time of the “proletarian women’s movement.”39

Essentially, the ways in which revolutionary women organized themselves was ground-breaking. It was truly an avant-garde movement, and different from many of the influential women’s movements occurring in other places at the time. Revolutionary women in Russia were taking leadership roles in trade unions, becoming head organizers for committees within the Bolshevik party, and writing innovative Marxist literature. Some revolutionary women were even taking part in armed struggle. Accordingly, these women often found themselves leading mass movements, which was radical for a time when women throughout different regions of the world were not even considered to be full citizens. Most importantly, the women’s fight for emancipation during the Russian Revolution led to material and systemic changes for working-class women — a development that was yet to occur anywhere else.

“By 1907, 20% of the Party leadership were women, and of the 20%, more than 90% belonged to the Bolsheviks as opposed to the Mensheviks”

After 1917, women’s emancipation was still on the Bolshevik agenda. The improvement to women’s conditions was arguably in and of itself one of the most revolutionary transformations in the world. In 1920, Lenin stated in Pravda that the “Soviet government is the first and only government in the world to have completely abolished all the old, despicable bourgeois laws which placed women in a position of inferiority to men, which placed men in a privileged position.”40 When the Bolshevik government took power, they implemented legislation that guaranteed the right of women to directly participate in social and political activity.41 Thus, they eradicated institutional barriers that prohibited women from engaging in politics. Only six weeks after the revolution, civil marriage was introduced to Soviet Russia.42 One year after this, in November 1918, Alexandra Kollontai and Inessa Armand organized the first conference of working women, which over a thousand women participated in.43 Eventually, this conference led to a variety of other changes in the country. There was a new civil code on marriage, which recognized equal legal status between husband and wife. In addition, the discrepancy between legitimate and illegitimate children was eliminated. Regulations around divorce were also minimized, making it much easier to go through the process. In January 1918, the Bolsheviks officially founded the department for the “protection of maternity and youth.” This department supported pregnant working class women and new mothers by ensuring a paid 16-week leave from work and setting firm safety regulations at workplaces. The Bolsheviks also created maternity clinics, which helped women raise their children. In the years following, the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to legalize abortion. Sex work was decriminalized in 1922. Sexual education programs were more openly available to youth, and there were health clinics that specifically treated sexually transmitted infections. As time went by, there was less stigma around sexual relations outside of wedlock. The Bolsheviks also created strong laws against sexual assault. Rape was finally defined as “non-consensual sexual intercourse using either physical or psychological force.”44

[Alexandra Kollontai (centre) with female deputies at the Conference of Communist Women of the Peoples of the East. (c. 1920) (Public Domain)]

One of the fundamental ways in which the Bolsheviks successfully transformed the lives of women was through changes they made to the “traditional family structure.” In 1920, Kollontai wrote an article called, “Communism and the Family,” which went as far as calling for ‘free love’ and questioning the traditional family structure.45 She argues that “housework ceases to be a necessity” under communism. She called for the creation of public restaurants and communal kitchens, and thought that children should primarily be supervised by experienced educators through public child care facilities and maternity homes. Above all, she believed in the withering away of the traditional family household, which she thought chained women to oppressive reproductive labour. Though her perspective on the emancipation of women was respected and publicized through women’s circles, Kollontai didn’t manage to influence the Bolsheviks as much as she wanted to. Nonetheless, the Bolsheviks still created more schools, kindergartens, day-cares, playgrounds, and public gardens, which helped working-class mothers by minimizing their work in the household. Because of her astounding commitment to the development of socialism in the Soviet Union, Kollontai eventually became the first ever woman ambassador.

Furthermore, to bring more non-politicized women towards socialism, the Bolsheviks formed the Zhenotdel in 1919, an apparatus within the Party that focused on women’s issues.46 Kollontai and Armand became the directors of this women’s organization, while others, such as Klavdiia Nikolaeva, Konkordiia Samoilova and Nadezhda Krupskaya, also helped launch it. The Zhenotdel was open to any women interested, not just Party members, and it encouraged young women to think about their struggles for full emancipation. Accordingly, education and consciousness-raising were key programs of the Zhenotdel.47 Krupskaya played yet another major role in the revolution by leading education programs initiated by the Zhenotdel. Eventually, she helped initiate 30,000 adult education classes for factory workers and peasants across the Soviet Union.48 The Zhenotdel also published pamphlets and launched the Soviet journal, Kommunistka. In general, women in the Bolshevik party wanted every working-class woman to understand that “the victory of socialism is turning the women worker, like the man, into the conscious creator of her own life.”49 Within a short period, membership in the Zhenotdel grew. By 1922, there were 95,000 delegates, out of whom 24.2% were working class women, 58.5% were peasant women, 9.4% were office workers, and 7.7% were housewives.50 Thus, the Party itself grew and attained 30,434 women members by 1924.51

As time went by, certain obstacles halted some of the developments that were being made. While the Soviet Union progressed in many ways, leaving even Western powers shocked by all the changes made to women’s status in Russia, there were still many setbacks because of the Civil War and imperialist interventions in Russia—all in which put heavy strains on the country and slowed down the revolutionary progress that was taking place. For instance, the Civil War led to mass unemployment, leaving many women without work.52 Thanks to the Zhenotdel, vocational training courses were arranged for women, and more jobs were created for them.53 The Zhenotdel also provided women, particularly single mothers, with housing benefits.54 It became clear that despite these hardships, working class women’s needs were still being taken seriously by the Bolsheviks, who continued to fight for socialism while half the world tried to stop them.

Overall, women contributed immensely to building socialism in Russia. Even though bourgeois historians don’t often associate the Russian Revolution with the many militant women who led and started up some of the first mass protests in 1917, it is important for us, as revolutionaries of this generation, to honor the crucial role women played in both building the revolution and shaping the politics of the Soviet Union in the years following. We must remember that women’s participation and leadership in the labour movement and workers’ circles during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries strengthened both the working class struggle and the movement for women’s emancipation. We must remember that revolutionary women were the ones who organized an anti-war labour strike on International Women’s Day — a strike that became the initial outburst of the 1917 revolution.

Likewise, it would be profoundly incorrect to argue that Bolsheviks solely paid attention to issues pertaining to working-class men. Not only does this erase the tremendous amount of work revolutionary women took in developing a strong Party line on the question of women’s oppression, but also it erases the work many Bolshevik women put in towards their own emancipation. These women dedicated their lives to both socialism and women’s rights. While the Soviet Union was not perfect and more certainly could have been done, as Lenin states, a revolution can take “one step forward and two steps back.” Even though the struggle for women’s emancipation was not close to being over, the accomplishments that did occur in the Soviet Union were revolutionary and historic.

__________________

1. Piper, Richard. The Russian Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.

2. McDermid, Jane, and Anna Hillyar. Women and Work in Russia 1880-1930. London: Longman, 1998.

3. Ibid. P. 89

4. Rabotnitsa (23 Feb 1914) no. 1, p.11

5. Glickman, Rose. Russian Factory Women: Workplace and Society, 1880-1914. Berkley: University of California Press, 1986.

6. Glickman, Rose. Russian Factory Women: Workplace and Society, 1880-1914. Berkley: University of California Press, 1986.

7. McDermid, Jane, and Anna Hillyar. Women and Work in Russia 1880-1930. London: Longman, 1998.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid. P. 63

10. Ibid.

11. McDermid, Jane, and Anna Hillyar. Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870-1917. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. P. 109

12. Ibid. P. 110

13. Ibid. P. 111

14. McDermid, Jane, and Anna Hillyar. Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870-1917. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. P.111

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Stites, Richard. The Women‘s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860-1930. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. P. 289-305

18. McDermid, Jane, and Anna Hillyar. Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870-1917. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. P. 110-114

19. Clements, Barbara E. Bolshevik Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. P. 51

20. Stites, Richard. The Women‘s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860-1930. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. P. 233

21. Ibid.

22. Luxemburg, Rosa. Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle. N.p.: Marxists Internet Archive, 2003. Accessed on April 16th, 2017.

23. McShane, Anne. Did the Russian Revolution Really Change? Film of a Public Form. London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 2012.

24. Ibid.

25. Stites, Richard. The Women‘s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860-1930. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. P. 237

26.Stites, Richard. The Women‘s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860-1930. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. P. 233-277

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Stites, Richard. The Women‘s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860-1930. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. P. 254

31. McDermid, Jane, and Anna Hillyar. Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870-1917. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. P. 110-114

32. Clements, Barbara E. Bolshevik Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997

33. Clements, Barbara E. Bolshevik Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. P. 68-81

34. Elwood, Ralph C. Inessa Armand: Revolutionary and Feminist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. P. 105

35. Ibid.

36. Galili, Ziva. “Women and the Russian Revolution.“ Dialectical Anthropology 15, no. 2/3 (1990): P. 121

37. Clements, Barbara E. Bolshevik Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. P.66

38. Galili, Ziva. “Women and the Russian Revolution.“ Dialectical Anthropology 15, no. 2/3 (1990): P.123

39. Stites, Richard. The Women‘s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860-1930. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978. P. 269

40. Lenin, V.I. To the Working Women (Pravda, No. 40. Feb. 21st 1920). Found in The Emancipation of Women: From the writings of V.I. Lenin. New York: International Publishers, 2011. P. 78

41. Ibid. P. 317-346

42. For improvements to women’s conditions see: Engel, Barbara A. Women in Russia 1700-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. P. 120-143

43. Ibid. P. 143

44. Ibid. P. 145

45. Kollontai, Alexandra. “Communism and Family.“ Komunistka (1920).

46. Clements, Barbara E. Bolshevik Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. P. 262-267

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid. P. 215

49. Clements, Barbara E. Bolshevik Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. P. 211

50. Kozlova, Natalia. ‚Solving‘ the ‚woman question‘: the case of Zhenotdels in Tver province. Found in Book: Women and Transformation in Russia. New York: Routledge, 2014. P. 100

51. Ibid.

52. Kozlova, Natalia. ‘Solving‘ the ‚woman question‘: the case of Zhenotdels in Tver province. Found in Book: Women and Transformation in Russia. New York: Routledge, 2014. P.99

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid.

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