Nadezhda K. Krupskaya
Preface to
The Emancipation of Women
From Writings of V.I. Lenin
Written: November 30, 1933;
Source: The Emancipation of Women: From Writings of V.I. Lenin;
Publisher: International Publishers;
Transcribed and HTML Markup: Sally Ryan.
In the course of his revolutionary activities Lenin often
wrote and spoke about the emancipation of working women in general
and peasant women in particular. To be sure, the emancipation of
women is inseparably bound up with the entire struggle for the
workers' cause, for socialism. We know Lenin as the leader of the
working people, as the organiser of the Party and Soviet
government, as a fighter and builder. Every working woman, every
peasant woman must know about all that Lenin did, every aspect of
his work, without limiting herself to what Lenin said about the
position of working women and their emancipation. But because
there exists the closest connection between the entire struggle of
the working class and improving the position of women, Lenin
often--on more than forty occasions, in fact--referred to this
question in his speeches and articles, and every one of these
references was inseparably bound up with all the other things that
were of interest and concern to him at the time.
From the very start of his revolutionary career Comrade Lenin
paid special attention to the position of women workers and
peasants and to drawing them into the working-class
movement. Lenin did his first practical revolutionary work in
St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), where he organised a group of
Social-Democrats which became extremely active among the
St. Petersburg workers, publishing illegal leaflets and
distributing them at factories. The leaflets were usually
addressed to the workmen. At that time the class consciousness of
the mass of the workers was still little developed, the most
backward among them being working women. They received very low
wages and their rights were flagrantly violated. So the leaflets
were usually addressed to the men (the two leaflets addressed to
the working women of the Laferm tobacco factory were an
exception). Lenin also wrote a leaflet for the workers of the
Tornton cloth mill (in 1895) and although the women working there
were most backward, he entitled the leaflet: "To the Working Men
and Women of the Tornton Mill." This is a detail, but a very
important one.
When he was in exile in 1899, Lenin corresponded with the
Party organisation (the First Party Congress was held in 1898) and
mentioned the subjects he wanted to write about in the illegal
press. These included a pamphlet called "Women and the Workers'
Cause". In this pamphlet Lenin intended to describe the position
of women factory workers and peasant women and to show that the
only salvation for them was through their participation in the
revolutionary movement, and that only the victory of the working
class would bring emancipation to women workers and peasants.
Writing in 1901 about the women who took part in the Obukhov
defence, about the speech delivered by a woman worker Marfa
Yakovleva in court, Lenin said:
"The memory of our heroic comrades murdered and tortured to
death in prison will increase tenfold the strength of the new
fighters and will rouse thousands to rally to their aid, and like
the eighteen-year-old Marfa Yakovleva, they will openly say:'We
stand by our brothers!' In addition to reprisals by the police and
the military against participants in demonstrations, the
government intends to prosecute them for rebellion; we will
retaliate by uniting our revolutionary forces and winning over to
our side all who are oppressed by the tyranny of tsarism, and by
systematically preparing for the uprising of the whole
people!"[CW, Vol 5, p248-9] Lenin made a close study of the life
and labour conditions of women factory workers, peasants and women
employed in the handicrafts.
While in prison, Lenin studied the position of peasants as
revealed by statistical reports; he studied the influence of the
handicrafts, the drift of the peasants to the factories and the
influence exerted by the factories on their culture and way of
life. At the same time he studied all these questions from the
viewpoint of women's labour. He pointed out that the peasant's
proprietorial psychology places on women a burden of unnecessary
and senseless drudgery (every peasant woman of a large family
clearing only the small part of the table she eats on, cooking a
separate meal for her own child and milking a cow to get only just
enough milk for her own child).
In his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia
Lenin describes how cattle farmers exploit peasant women, how the
merchant-buyers exploit women lace-weavers; he shows that
large-scale industry emancipates women and that the work at
factories broadens their outlook, makes them more cultured and
independent and helps them to break the shackles of patriarchal
life. Lenin said that the development of large-scale industry
would create the basis for complete emancipation of
women. Characteristic in this respect is Lenin's article "A Great
Technical Achievement" written in 1913.
Workers in the bourgeois countries must fight for equal rights for men and women.
In exile Lenin devoted much of his time to working out the
Party programme. At that time the Party had no programme. There
was only a draft programme compiled by the Emancipation of Labour
group. Examining this programme in his article "A Draft Programme
of Our Party" and commenting on #9 of the practical part of the
programme, which demanded "the revision of our entire civil and
criminal legislation, the abolition of social-estate divisions and
of punishments incompatible with the dignity of man", Lenin wrote
that it would be well to add here: "complete equality of
rights for men and women." [CW Vol 4, p239] (My
italics--N. K.)
In 1903, when the Party Programme was adopted, this clause was included in it.
In 1907, in his report on the International Congress in
Stuttgart Lenin noted with satisfaction that the Congress
condemned the opportunist practices of the Austrian
Social-Democrats who, while conducting a campaign for electoral
rights for men, put off the struggle for electoral rights for
women to "a later date".
The Soviet government established full equality of rights for men and women.
"We in Russia no longer have the base, mean and infamous
denial of rights to women or inequality of the sexes, that
disgusting survival of feudalism and medievalism which is being
renovated by the avaricious bourgeoisie ... in every other country
in the world without exception."
In 1913, studying the forms of bourgeois democracy and exposing
the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie, Lenin also dealt with the
problem of prostitution and showed how, while encouraging white
slave traffic and raping girls in the colonies, representatives of
the bourgeoisie at the same time hypocritically pretended to be
campaigning against prostitution.
Lenin returned to this question in December 1919, when he
wrote that "free, civilised" America was touting for women for
bawdy houses in the vanquished countries.[CW Vol 30]
In close connection with this question Lenin examined the
question of child-bearing and indignantly wrote of the appeal of
some intellectuals to the workers to practise birth control on the
grounds that their children were doomed to poverty and
privation. This is a petty-bourgeois view, wrote Lenin. The
workers take a different view. Children are our future. As for
poverty and so on, this can be remedied. We are fighting against
capitalism and when we win a victory we shall build a bright
future for our children....
And finally, in 1916-17, when he could see the socialist
revolution was drawing near and was considering what the essential
elements of socialist construction would be, and how to draw the
masses into this construction, he particularly stressed the need
to draw working women into social work, the need to enable all
women to work for the benefit of society. Eight of his
articles written in this period deal with this question, which he
links up with the need to organise social life under socialism
along new lines. Lenin saw a direct connection between this and
the drawing of the most backward groups of women into the work of
ruling the country, the need for re-educating the masses in the
actual process of social work.
Social work teaches the art of government. "We are not
utopians," Lenin wrote before the October Revolution. "We know
that an unskilled labourer or a cook cannot immediately get on
with the job of state administration. In this we agree with the
Cadets, with Breshkovskaya, and with Tsereteli. We differ,
however. from these citizens in that we demand an immediate break
with the prejudiced view that only the rich, or officials chosen
from rich families, are capable of administering the
state, of performing the ordinary, everyday work of
administration. We demand that training in the work of
state administration be conducted by class-conscious workers and
soldiers and that this training be begun at once, i.e., that a
beginning be made at once in training all the working
people, all the poor, for this work."
We know that the Soviet government has done all it can to
draw working women in the town and countryside into the work of
administration. And we know what great successes have been
achieved on this front.
Lenin warmly greeted the awakening of the women of the Soviet
East. Since he attached particular importance to raising the level
of the nationalities that had been oppressed by tsarism and
capitalism, it is quite understandable why he so warmly greeted
the conference of delegates of the Women's Departments of Soviet
regions and republics in the East.
Speaking of the achievements of the Second Congress of the
Communist International, Lenin pointed out that "the Congress will
strengthen the ties with the communist movement of women, thanks
to the international conference of working women called at the
same time."[CW Vol 31]
In October 1932 we observed the fifteenth anniversary of
Soviet power and summed up our achievements on all fronts,
including the front of women's emancipation.
We know that women took a very active part in the Civil War,
that many of them died in action but many others were steeled in
battle. Some women were awarded the Order of the Red Banner for
the active part they played in the struggle for Soviets during the
Civil War. Many former women partisans now occupy important
posts. Women have been persistent in learning to conduct social
work.
Delegates' conferences are a school of social work. In 15
years almost 10 million women delegates have passed through this
school.
At the time when we observed the fifteenth anniversary of the
October Revolution 20 to 25 per cent of the deputies of the
village Soviets, district executive committees and city Soviets
were women. There were 186 women members of the All-Russia Central
Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the
U.S.S.R. On this work they attain ever higher standards.
The number of women members of the Communist Party has also
been steadily growing. In 1922 there were only 40,000 but by
October 1932 the number exceeded 500,000.
Much progress has been made recently in fulfilling Lenin's
behest concerning the complete emancipation of women.
In the last few years large-scale industry has been
developing on a tremendous scale. It is being reorganised on the
basis of modern technology and scientific organisation of
labour. The socialist emulation and shock-workers' movement which
have now been widely adopted stimulate a new, communist attitude
towards labour. And it must be said that women are not lagging
behind men in this. Every day we see more and more front-rank
women workers who display great stamina and perseverance in
labour. Labour is not something women have to get used to. Under
the old regime the lives of women were full of continual, unending
labour, but it was the kind of labour that was looked down upon
and bore the imprint of bondage. And now this labour training and
perseverance in labour place women in the front ranks of the
builders of socialism and heroes of labour.
Collectivisation of agriculture was of the utmost importance
for the emancipation of women. From the very start Lenin regarded
the collectivisation of agriculture as a way of reorganising it
along socialist lines. Back in 1894, in his book What the
Friends of the People Are Lenin quoted Marx's words to the
effect that after "the expropriation of the expropriators" is
accomplished, that is, when the landowners are dispossessed of
their landed estates and the capitalists of their factories, free workers will be united into co-operatives and the communal ("collective", as Lenin explained) ownership of the land and the means of production they create will be established.
Following the October Revolution, which marked the beginning
of "the expropriation of the expropriators", the Soviet government
raised the question of organising agricultural artels and
communes. Particular attention was paid to this back in 1918 and
1919, but many years passed (as Lenin had predicted) before
collectivisation became extensive and struck deep roots. The years
of the Civil War, when the class struggle swept the country, the
progress of Soviet power in the villages, the help, the cultural
assistance rendered by the Soviet government to the
countryside--all this prepared the ground for collectivisation,
which is developing and growing stronger in the struggle against
the kulaks.
Small-scale and middle peasant farming shackled women, tied
them to the individual households, and narrowed their outlook;
they were in fact slaves of their husbands, who often beat them
cruelly. Small scale farming paved the way for religion. The
peasants used to say: "Each man for himself and God for all."
Lenin quoted this saying on many occasions, as it perfectly
expressed the psychology of a small proprietor. Collectivisation
transforms the peasant from a small proprietor into a
collectivist, undermines the peasants' isolation and the hold of
religion and emancipates women. Lenin said that socialism alone
would bring emancipation for women. His words are now coming
true. We can see how women's position has changed in the
collective farms.
The Congress of front-rank collective farmers held in the
middle of February is striking evidence of the headway made in the
collective cultivation of the land. There are now 200,000
collective farms, as compared with the 6,000 we had before. The
Congress discussed the question of the best way to organise work
on the collective farms. There were many women among the
delegates. Sopina, a collective farmer from the Central Black
Earth Region, made a fine speech which evoked thunderous
applause. When she takes a hand in collective-farm development,
the peasant woman grows in stature, learns to govern and to fight
resolutely against the kulaks, the class enemy....
Religion is losing Ground. Now collective-farm women come to the
library and say: "You always give me books that simply say that
there is no God. I know that without reading books. Give me a
book that will tell me how and why religion arose and how and
why it will die away." In the last few years there has been a
tremendous growth of political consciousness of the
masses. Political departments at the machine and tractor
stations' (whose membership also includes women's organisers)
will help not only to consolidate the collective farms, but will
also help collective farmers, men and women, to get rid of
surviving prejudices and cultural backwardness; lack of rights
for women will become a thing of the past.
Ten years have passed since the day of Lenin's death. On that
sad day we shall check the fulfilment of all of Lenin's
behests. We shall sum up the results. Lenin's behest concerning
the emancipation of women is being fulfilled under the guidance of
the Party. We shall continue to advance along this path.
November 30, 1933
N. Krupskaya