The Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 was an attempted benchmark in the liberation of Soviet women. For the first time in Russian history the complete economic, political and sexual equality of women was put on an agenda. The Bolsheviks under Lenin and Trotsky conceived that with the development of industry and a planned nationalised economy, women would be given the opportunity to work outside of the home and, with the establishment of political democracy at all levels, would be able to play a full role in all spheres of political and social life. From the very beginnings of the Bolshevik Revolution, promises were made including ones to put women on par with men economically by allowing them to have equal opportunities of employment with men. These promises were officially announced in the first Soviet Constitution of 1918, with article 22 promising the establishment of the equality of Soviet citizens regardless of sex, race or nationality. Lenin particularly took an interest in women’s right, stressing the link between class and gender issues, and how communism was the way by which both issues could be resolved.
To bring about this goal, women would have to be released from the traditional confines of domestic chores, with childcare becoming the responsibility of society as a whole through the provision of cheap, good quality public dining halls, laundries, sewing centres, creches and nurseries.
However, economically the fledgling Soviet state was in shambles and by 1921 there was utter chaos and ruins in the economy following three years of the savage civil war. Industrial production was a bare 10 percent of the 1913 level. Agricultural production had fallen by 16 percent between 1917 and 1921. The working class in the cities was critically weakened and exhausted with many having being lost during the period of the civil war and with families having being fractured during the same period stability was missing along with the right means to livelihood. Coupled with the fact that the many promises made were simply not upheld, for the Soviet women any release from the confines of their traditional role in the households was merely on paper. Starvation also reigned in the countryside and the peasants began to resist the emergency restrictions of “war communism”, the forced requisitioning of grain, the militarisation of labour, etc. This was so because with the end of the civil war, the immediate threat of the restoration of the landlords was permanently removed.
By 1928 however, the bureaucracy was panicking and, in a complete about turn, switched to a programme of rapid industrialisation and forced collectivisation. This, coupled with the consolidation of a monstrous totalitarian state represented a turning point in the position of women. Millions of women were quickly brought into into the workforce, but where the involvement of women in work outside of the home could be generally construed as a progressive step, this mobilisation was based on coercion rather than opportunity and choice. In 1922 women were 22 per cent of the workforce but within ten years this figure had grown to 32 per cent. Between 1922 and 1937 out of 4 million new workers 82 per cent were women. Under the circumstances brought about by an oppressive bureaucracy, employment did not represents the potential for women’s liberation but, it meant increased oppression with the argument that, having a job outside of the home does not constitute liberation.
The political degeneration that was taking place in the Soviet state perfectly reflected the changes that were brought about by the bureaucracy. However, taken in a humorous way this degeneration could be seen in a contradictory process: women were increasingly becoming involved in production, yet for these women whatever gains that the revolution purported to bring about were wrung out with the crushing of political democracy for the working class as a whole. The bureaucracy also,working heavy handedly consciously brought about policies to bring women into production, or to expand the population. This was done so that it could consolidate its privileges, prestige and interests and not because of some hidden or apparent motives of altruism.
The first Five Year Plan put forth by Stalin in 1928-32 saw a marked increase in the participation of women within the Soviet economy. There was a drastic increase in number of women employed in heavy industry, as well in the more traditional area of light industry, where women made up two-thirds of the workforce. During the period of the drive to industrialise under Stalin in the period 1929-41, more than ten million women entered the workforce; with the percentage of them within the number of workers as a whole rising from twenty-four to thirty-nine per cent. During the Second World War, women had an increased role within heavy industry. A substantial amount of women were assigned to work in the iron and steel industries; making up forty per cent of the workforce by 1944. In the same period, women made up a similar percentage of the workforce in the oil fields, and were employed in other traditionally male dominated professions such as construction work, welders and miners. After WW2, the loss of a significant portion of the male population meant that the participation of women in these professions still remained as important. Although this can be seen as a positive development, the problem of women facing a double burden – having to go out and work for the state and then come home again and complete the household duties – is one that was still apparent. Thus raising the question of how much policy had affected traditional thinking on the role of women.
Originally published 15.10.2019