By Anoushka Rawat
Abstract
The Russian Revolution sought to mark the end of the Tsarist regime of the Romanov dynasty and establish the Bolsheviks in power. The February Revolution (March as per the Gregorian calendar) and The October Revolution (November as per the Gregorian calendar) took place during the freezing months of 1917. This article summarises the degree of female participation in the Revolution and their influence, which led to them gaining greater freedoms after the Bolsheviks seized power. It attempts to trace back the reasons for one of Vladimir Lenin’s statements that cropped up in a conversation with Clara Zetkin wherein he said, “Women workers acted splendidly during the Revolution. Without them, we should not have been victorious”.
Twin appearances of women in 1917
By 1917, the political landscape of Russia had undergone enormous changes. Considering the prevalence of a corrupt government, economic backwardness and repeated dissolution of the Duma (The Russian Parliament was established after the Revolution of 1905) by King Nicholas II, the population had lost faith in the Tsarist regime. Tensions surmounted because of Russia’s involvement in World War I, which drained the imperial treasuries and destroyed the lives of the general population. People turned against the then-leadership, starting the Revolution.
In 1917, women workers accounted for 40% of the total workers. With the World War, their social and economic woes heightened as the price levels of daily essentials rose dramatically and wages decreased. Consequently, it led to scattered protests by workers, especially women. It is a commonly accepted view that Russian women prominently participated in the Revolution only twice. The first instance was on 23rd February 1917 (8th March 1917 in the Gregorian calendar), which initiated the “Bread and Peace” movement. The second instance was in October when bourgeois women played a crucial role in defending the Winter Palace.
First, on 23rd February 1917 (8th March 1917 in the Gregorian calendar), about 7000 women from the Vyborg textile factory took the cobblestoned streets of the capital city, Petrograd (known as Saint Petersburg, today) to protest against the skyrocketing prices of bread. Before dusk, this protest had accumulated 90,000 men and women who vehemently chanted their demands, “ Bread for the workers. Down with high prices. Down with war. Down with monarchy.”. Even though the demonstrators came from all walks of life, the protest, led by female workers, students and peasants, garnered so much traction that it rapidly unfolded into the Revolution of 1917.
Women’s impact, as shown in Pravda, a Bolshevik newspaper, which reported, “…the first day of the revolution was Women’s Day. The women decided the destiny of the troops; they went to the barracks, spoke to the soldiers, and the latter joined the revolution. Women. We salute you.”. It was International Women’s Day, after all. Within a week, the crowd swelled up by another 40,000 male workers from the Putilov engineering factory, who seized the central avenue, Nevsky Prospekt, after dangerously crossing the frozen river, Neva. Both the military and monarchy failed to quell the uprising. Consequently, the Tsar abdicated his throne eight days later, on 2nd March 1917 (15th March 1917 as per the Gregorian calendar) and established a provisional government.
Second, on 25th October 1917 (7th November 1917 as per the Gregorian calendar), the Bolsheviks or the leftist revolutionaries, under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, set in motion a bloodless coup against the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky. Soon, the Bolsheviks seized control of governmental and administrative buildings and offices. However, the Provisional Government managed to gather the support of the bourgeois. The Winter Palace, which symbolised the monarchical remains, was especially defended by upper-class bourgeois women. Despite a defiant resistance, a new government was formed, under Vladimir Lenin.
Building a new society
Two groups of women:- the bourgeois feminists and the Bolshevik Sisters. The former consisted of upper-class women who supported the war, while the latter were working-class women against World War I. These working-class women were facing a double whammy, firstly because of their marginalised position as female and secondly because of the woes they faced as workers, as described in Alexandra Kollontai’s book, “The Social Basis of the Women Question”. Herein, she engages with the intersectionality between sex and class and provides a lens of class character to gender equality. She argues that women cannot access equality until we break the shackles of class privileges within this buds the idea of Bolshevism.
As mentioned above, the female-centric support base suggests that women in Russia were politically aware and had political leanings. Despite their seldom appearances, their influence on the revolution was immense. Moreover, it indicates that women were not restricted to the barriers of household and childbearing and rearing. They were encouraged to step out into society and work. Reasons for the high percentage of female labourers could be because men were mostly away as soldiers fighting in the war.
Apart from working in factories and manufacturing units, women worked as “Red Sisters” and “Red Guards”. As “Red Sisters”, they provided medical assistance. During and after the October Revolution, women enrolled as “Red Guards” performed various roles, including that of combatants.
The aftermath
This section attempts to trail the newfound freedom granted to women between the February and the October Revolutions and again after the Bolsheviks seized power. Historically, women from aristocratic families already had a set of freedoms that they could access., which included property ownership. But both upper and middle-class women could not choose occupations as per their will and were often paid less than the income of a middle-class man. Moreover, women belonging to all classes, the bourgeois, middle and proletariat, did not possess the right to vote, divorce and practice birth control.
With the end of the February Revolution, the Provisional Government granted women over twenty-five years the right to vote and hold public office. This opportunity was grabbed overwhelmingly by women. Even though their political rights widened, the Bolshevik women were not satisfied as the Provisional Government did not withdraw the support of Russia from the World War. The Bolshevik women believed that either a withdrawal or an end to the war would also end their social and economic misery.
Upon assuming power after the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks passed a series of laws that placed the Soviet Union among the top progressive nations in the world. On 29th December 1917, women obtained the right to divorce their husbands and get alimony legally. Secondly, the Code of Labor Laws 1918 limited the working hours of adults to eight hours and guaranteed 42 hours of uninterrupted rest each week. The labour laws also guaranteed maternity leave at full pay, additional allowances to breastfeeding mothers, and the legalisation of abortion in 1920. Lastly, the constitution of July 1918 secured political and civil equality between both genders.
Conclusion
Despite Russia lacking a collective feminist voice due to the existence of two different feminist camps wherein one of them wanted to accomplish equality within the political system and the other one sought to dismantle that system, ultimately, it was able to name itself as one of the gender-equal countries of the early 20th century. Essentially, the role of women in the Russian Revolution is best summed through Jane McDermid and Anna Hilyar’s book, “Midwives of the Revolution”. According to both authors, women played a vital role during the birth and final stages of the Revolution.
Author’s Bio
Anoushka Rawat is a second-year Bachelors in Global Affairs student at the Jindal School of International Affairs. She is deeply interested in gender studies and varied perspectives on feminism.
Image Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/womens-protest-sparked-russian-revolution-international-womens-day
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