LibGuides: Russian Revolution 1917-1927 Historical Inquiry: Bolshevik Women's Rights

Overview

The New Woman
Immediately upon assuming power the Bolsheviks passed legislation that made Soviet Russia the most progressive nation in the world on issues of gender.
Women and the Russian Revolution
Katie McElvanney explores how women’s lives changed during the Russian Revolution, tracing the history of female revolutionaries in Russia and the different ways women documented and participated in events.

Communist International, Resolution on the Role of Working Women. March 6, 1919
The Congress of the Communist International recognizes that the realization of all the tasks ...can be attained only by the closely united common effort of the men and women of the working class.
Decree on Abortion
People’s Commissariat of Health, On the Protection of Women’s Health. November 18, 1920
Family Law
This was at the time the most progressive family law in the world.
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It gave women the right to freely divorce their husbands without consent (but with no division of property), to have an abortion without the consent of the father, and to conduct her personal life without the tutelage of church or family.
Women under the Soviet System
The talents and energy of the women after the revolution, owing to free activity, grow like plants in the sunshine after a shower has just passed.
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This new life awakens the women of the proletariat and peasants; it gives them tasks and duties, experience and training; it transforms them into revolutionary fighters and co-workers of the Communistic Society.