User:Wcoz98/Zhenotdel

The Zhenotdel^[1] (Russian: Женотдел, IPA: [ʐɨnɐdʲˈdʲel]), the women's department of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), was the section of the Russian Communist party devoted to women's affairs in the 1920s. It gave Women in the Russian Revolution new opportunities until Stalin closed it in 1930.

History

The Zhenotdel was established by two Russian feminist revolutionaries, Alexandra Kollontai and Inessa Armand, in 1919. The Zhenotdel tackled many issues facing the lives of women in the Soviet Union. It mainly acted as a method for dissemination of information following the new laws and bills that the government had enacted for the benefit of women, and was especially focused on the education and integration of women into society as equals.

The organization was devoted to improving the conditions of women's lives throughout the Soviet Union, fighting illiteracy, and educating women about the new marriage, education, and working laws put in place by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In Soviet Central Asia, the Zhenotdel also spearheaded efforts to improve the lives of Muslim women through literacy and educational campaigns, and controversially, through compulsory "de-veiling" campaigns.^[2]

Abortion and Prostitution

One of the more important issues The Zhenotdel took on was abortion. The group persuaded the Bolsheviks to legalize abortion (as a 'temporary measure') and the Bolsheviks legalized abortion in November 1920. This was the first time in world history that women had won the right to free abortions in state hospitals.^[3]

The Zhenotdel viewed prostitution and abortion as key issues to be corrected, and abortion was viewed as a health problem; this allowed women to get safe, free abortions at state hospitals, but private abortions were still outlawed and guarded against with hefty fines. Prostitution was viewed as much more of a serious crime, thus the Zhenotdel strived to address the causes of prostitution through improving the daily lives of women.^[4]

Prior to the achievement of legalized abortion, and as a result of the hardships of war and prostitution, rampant and faulty illegal abortions were the main method. In addition, hundreds of thousands of children had reportedly been abandoned. The Zhenotdel felt that the state crucially needed to add some infrastructure and care for Soviet women such as day nurseries, cafeterias, and kindergartens, and they worked to achieve those goals. They succeeded in bringing higher literacy rates, and better healthcare for the women of the Soviet Union.^[4]

Through his process of Russification, and various Five-year plans, Joseph Stalin undid a lot of the work that the Zhenotdel had achieved. Concerning abortion and other women's issues, he came to power, made the practice illegal, and started to put his stamp on the Soviet Union.

Methods

The leaders of the Zhenotdel were committed communists, and worked as part of the Soviet state apparatus. Historian Elizabeth Wood has argued that the organization took an active interest in women's problems, and initially served as a conduit for women's issues from the people to the state.^[5] With little to no help from the government during their tenure, the Zhenotdel officials quickly learned that mobilization of the peasant women using grassroots avenues was the best way to achieve their goals; having women play an active role in their liberation was a key tactic for the department.^[6]

Aleksandra Artyukhina, the last head of the group, continued to lobby for support from the public, and tried to achieve women’s rights through the only Zhenotdel tactic that seemed to work when faced with an apathetic government and shutdown organization. ^[7]

Hujum and De-Veiling

Around 1927, the Bolsheviks and the Zhenotdel began a campaign in Central Asia designed to liberate the women of the area from the perceived backwards traditions of their culture, and to bring them into modern Russian society. In their eyes, removing the veil was a step up to modernity. Traditional practices in some areas of Central Asia dictated that women must be veiled and secluded from others in order to prevent premarital sex. The Hujum, meaning attacks on old ways of life, was a way to create a revolution of sorts for the Muslim women of Central Asia. By doing so, the Soviets believed that they would empower a population, millions strong, of newly modernized Soviet women. These women could bolster the Soviet work force, and help to accomplish Soviet goals in Central Asia. There was a wide array of mixed reactions to the Hujum, but eventually they saw some success. Thousands of women threw off their veils, but, at the same time, there was opposition. ^[8]

In the end, the Soviets succeeded in changing the lives of many women for the better, primarily in Uzbekistan, but they did not manage to completely change the culture of the region. Men who resisted the social shift murdered many women who chose to remove their veils. Ultimately, social change did occur. Salient achievements of the emancipation of these women took the form of ending seclusion, providing universal education and basic healthcare, and allowing more room for women in the public.^[9]

Kommunistka

Kommunistka was a Communist monthly magazine founded by Armand and Kollontai in 1920. The founders used the magazine as a vehicle to disseminate information and further their views and goals regarding women's emancipation. The magazine ceased publication in 1930, coinciding with the closure of the Zhenotdel.^[5]

Shutdown

The initial success of the Zhenotdel was derailed from within the Soviet government. In 1921, with the advent of Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP), the process of women's emancipation was slowly but surely devalued and defunded. The devaluation of women and women's work was even bigger in scope than just the Zhenotdel. Women workers around the country were targeted for unemployment by virtue of their sex and continued prevalence of traditional gender roles that went against what the Zhenotdel had been working for.^[5] The Soviet Union started to cripple the department, reducing its workers. Additionally, they did not let their department head attend crucial government meetings. These problems plagued the group during their operating period, and were a major detriment to their cause. By 1928, the processes of collectivization and industrialization were the primary concern of the government, and the Zhenotdel were viewed as a halt to their progress.^[6]

The group was eventually disbanded in 1930 after the government had paradoxically stated that they had completed their work, in accordance with the then-dominant theory among the members of the Zhenotdel that all women's issues in the Soviet Union had been solved by the eradication of private property and the nationalization of the means of production.^[10] Some Zhenotdel publicly shared that they felt the Party viewed their department as a joke. With the last holdout removed, the government would have no intention of continuing the emancipation process.^[4]

When industrialization became a major goal, the Soviet Union did make use of women workers, and the mobilization of the women workforce stymied the unemployment that had previously been rampant; however, without the Zhenotdel's programs, the work became the priority, not the role of women. ^[4]

Legacy

The Zhenotdel were important actors for the emancipation and improvement of the daily lives of women within the Soviet Union. Without their efforts, progress for women within the country may have been swept to the side, and much like the reasoning for their shutdown, the actions of the predominately male government decided the country's future. Progressively, non-government groups such as the Zhensektors and other local women's organizations took up the mantle of women's rights, and attempted to address women's issues through local and regional meetings.^[6]

Leaders

The Zhenotdel had five leaders during its 11 years of existence:

1919−1920: Inessa Armand
1920−1921: Alexandra Kollontai
1922−1924: Sofija Smidovic
1924−1925: Klavdiya Nikolayeva
1925−1930: Aleksandra Artyukhina

References

^ A syllabic abbreviation for "women's department" (Russian: Женский отдел, tr. zhenskii otdel).
^ Gregory J. Massell, The Surrogate Proletariat: Moslem Women and Revolutionary Strategies in Soviet Central Asia, 1919-1929, Princeton: Princeton University Press, [1978] 2015
^ Porter, Cathy (1987). Women in Revolutionary Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 0-521-31969-2.
^ a b c d Hayden, C. (1976). The Zhenotdel and the Bolshevik Party. Russian History, 3(2), pp.150-173.
^ a b c Elizabeth Wood (1997). The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-11658-1.
^ a b c Stites, R. (1976). Zhenotdel: Bolshevism and Russian Women, 1917-1930. Russian History, 3(2), pp. 174-193.
^ A. Artiukhina, To the Highest Level. January 18, 1930. Translated by Ward McKee. Original Source: Pravda, 18 January 1930, p. 4.
^ Northrop, Douglas T. (2016-10-01). Veiled Empire. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-0297-6.
^ Kamp, Marianne (2006). New Woman in Uzbekistan : Islam, Modernity, and Unveiling under Communism. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295802473, 0295802472. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
^ Wendy Z. Goldman, Women, the State and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993