Families in 20th Century Totalitarian

States

Russia, Italy and Germany

Big questions of modernity can be

explored by looking at families

General Trends in 20s and 30s

•State became increasingly rigid regarding the family

•Decreasing fertility rate tied to:–Later marriage–Economic costs of having children–More literate=smaller families

RUSSIA

Marx’s Ideology

•Goal was: change state/economics

•MUST CREATE NEW PEOPLE!•Everything would start from scratch, including personal relationships –Doesn’t offer ideas of HOW

Russia

Marx’s Ideology

•Marx concerned with oppression of women –Marx saw marriage as a form of prostitution

–Both sexes should be liberated from monogamous family

–19th century bourgeois women had no rights

Russia

Bolshevik Ideology• What is a good Communist like? • If people don’t show up for work,

what do we do? • Government

– What is the role of the state? – Do we have one set of laws for

everyone?– What if people break laws? – Do we even need laws?Russia

•Family–Should there be marriage? –Do kids belong to their parents or do they belong to a collective?

–Should parents and kids live together?

–Should parents be obliged to care for their kids?

Russia

Bolshevik Ideology

Bolshevik Ideology

•Women–Were men more communistic than women??•Men worked in groups on farms•Women had worked in homes

–Would women slow down communism?

Russia

Family

•In 1917 denounced family as bourgeois institution

•Aleksandra Kollontai, 1923 –“The family, in its bourgeois sense, will die out.“

•But utopian and practical campaigns did little to change it

Russia

•At start, women were significant–Krupskaya

•Lenin's wife•Took charge of shaping culture •Organized literacy program•Banned many authors

–Alexandra Kollontai•Noblewoman turned Communist•Taught virtues of free love

Russia

Women (Zhenotdel)

•Decide to focus on urban women to bring change–Write popular fiction–Relationships should exist as long as they make women happy

•Most urban women educated so didn’t buy it

Russia

Urban Women

•Went after rural women •Rural women living same for

centuries–Under thumb of religion/men–Poor

•Sent emissaries out to preach divorce and abortion

Russia

Rural Women

•Political–Full equal voting rights–Elected to soviets

•Economic–Lower pay

•Social–Full legal equality in marriage –Free education led to new lifeRussia

Women’s Equality

Kollontai

•Soviet state would "lift the burdens of motherhood from women's shoulders and transfer them to the state.“

•The Love of Worker Bees–Woman communist in love with man with bourgeois tendencies (with a mistress)

Russia

Professional Women• Young women became professionals

– Parents were barely literate– Young women raised on 1920s

propaganda• Other women with less education or

lower aspirations care for home and children?

• Yet as girls were educated and entered professions, Soviet ideology on gender equality also changed

Russia

• “What the October Revolution has given to

working and peasant women”, 1920

• “Women, adhere to the cooperation”, 1917

Russia

Family Problems

•Problems in Stalin’s perfect society–Great impact in collectives

•Women fought each other in kitchens and bathrooms

–Millions of homeless children–Rising juvenile crime–Widespread male irresponsibilityRussia

Stalin Reorganized Party (1930)

•Rise of women threatened his structure of Party

•1930 reverted to traditional emphasis on family/motherhood– Ceremonial weddings came back– Paid child allowance if parents

married– Harder to get divorce– Strove to raise birthrate– Glorified motherhood– Banned birth control and abortion

•Russia

Women’s Employment• Rights took 2nd place to

industrialization– Women’s equality meant equal work

responsibility – Childbirth had negative effects on promotions– Equal rights postponed until communism

achieved

• Would improve family income/Russian economy– Collectivization forced peasants onto state farms – Urban women in work force increased

• Nothing changed at home– Worked outside home as much as men– Took care of household when not on job

Russia

•Water– 2/3’s of urban families got water from

communal tap– Doing laundry could take 2 days

•Food shopping– Traveled further to shop– Shortages caused long lines

•Needed:– Different attitudes about home

responsibilities– More and better childcare facilities– Better shopping arrangementsRussia

Women at Home

• ”Female delegate, stand to the fore!”, 1931

•“You, working women of all countries! Get into the front

lines with the fighters against the war, fascism and capitalist exploitation! USSR, Hurrah to March 8th—The International

Communistic Women’s Day!” 1936

Russia

Women’s Social Changes•By end of 1930s

– In theory, all jobs open to women– Only real change took place in image

state created for women•Many revolutionary ideals

discarded– Idea of free love abandoned– Kollontai shipped off to Norway

•Later complained "the women's question raised by the revolution had received a man's answer.“Russia

The Homeland-

Mother Calls!

WWII Patriotism

A Partisan's Mother

Russia

•Should be in collective– Guided toward Soviet ideology

•Began childcare– Rural women thought kids would be

kidnapped if they went to daycare

•Usually used corporal punishment– Husbands against wives– Parents against kids– Belt-Burying Campaign

•Must talk to kids, use reasonRussia

Children

Children’s Education

•Education controlled by state•In 1932, Stalin introduced

program of discipline and education–Fabricated Stalin’s role in 1917 revolution and his relationship with Lenin

•Books strictly censored Russia

•Children expected to join •Taught to be good communist•Emphasized outdoor activities

and clean living•Groups

–Octobrists for 7 to 9 year olds–Pioneers for 10 to 15 year olds–Komsomol for 14 to 28 year olds

Russia

Youth Organizations

• “Young Men and Women! Go to FZO

construction schools, learn to be

the best in your specialty!” 1941

• “Care for Children”1923Russia

• "Praised be the Great Stalin!" 1950

• “Long live the great Stalin!” 1931

Russia

ITALY

Ideology•Italian Risorgemento of 1861

–Created notion of woman as “Mother of the Hearth”

•Mussolini attempted to subjugate everything to state–Like Communism

•Had nostalgia for family that never existed –Communism wanted to make whole new family configuration

Italy

Family

•Women and family have only one purpose

•Battle of the Births–Nation’s virility measured by number of babies

–Create large number of people for cheap labor

– Imperialist expansionItaly

Women

• "Women must obey...my idea of her role in the state is in opposition to all feminism. Naturally she shouldn't be a slave, but if I conceded her the vote, I'd be laughed at.  In our state, she must not count.“ -----Benito Mussolini

• All women were “married” to Mussolini– Had them send him their wedding rings– Melted them down to have gold for

international market

Italy

Family Structure

• Mussolini needed population increase– Women moving to city more likely to

start controlling birth of children– Wanted to keep women in country

• Returned to Roman model– Men owned wives/kids– Husbands could use police to track

down run-away wives – Men could do anything with

adulterous wife/sister/motherItaly

Family Legislation• Reversed all laws giving women

rights• Bachelor's tax• Laws of Public Safety

– Abortions/birth control=crimes against state

• Took prostitutes off street• Granted family allowances

– Based on number of children – Birth and marriage loans

• Career preference to fathers of large familiesItaly

Propaganda toward Women

• Put out in school and on the streets • Women expected to be good wives

and mothers– Domesticity, maternity, and self-sacrifice

• Medals to women with many children– 17-20 children brought gold medal– Made winners national heroes

•Sent out across Italy on promotional tours •Pictures put in magazines and newspapers

Italy

Work Legislation•Italy did not need women to work

– Not very industrialized– Women legally paid 2/3 less than men

•Only allowed to work in jobs considered strictly for women– Telephone operators and secretaries – NOT teachers

•10% limit on female employment in offices

•Most restrictions ended during WWII

Italy

Women’s Daily Life• Upper class women had few freedoms

– Main function was to have/raise children– Active in “Fascist Women”

• Middle class women enjoyed more freedom– Worked

• Lower class women enjoyed most freedom– Little time for leisure– Usually bore more children than others

Italy

• June, 1936

Children•Realized family was most

influential part of child’s life– If regime could get adults to

believe, then children would, too

•Conformity– To create 'Fascist religion' regime

put together elaborate shows of national pride

– Young children most prone to these Italy

Children

•"The Government demands that the school be inspired by the ideals of fascism...it demands that the school at all levels and in all its instruction train Italian youth to understand fascism, to ennoble itself through fascism, and to live in the historic climate created by the Fascist revolution.“ ---Benito Mussolini

Italy

Children’s Education•Goals:

– To suppress intellectual independence– To teach ideology of Fascist state– To select and promote elite

•Textbooks taught woman's place in home– Duty was to procreate for good of

state – Teachers tried to deter girls from

getting higher educationItaly

Children’s Organizations•To create “Fascists without spot...

Fascist soldiers who would be conservators of national values and to secure military garrison of the new Italy."– Boys’ to produce good citizens/soldiers

•Uniforms•Mysterious rituals for sense of belonging

– Girls' to produce good citizens/mothers

Italy

Children’s Organizations•Figli della Lupa (four-and five-

year-olds) to the Fascisti Universitari

•Membership “voluntary”–Assured preferential treatment in

military service and careers –Pressured families and children

•Northern cities had 70% joining–Higher than other areas of ItalyItaly

• Children's school notebooks, 1935

• Children were required to use these notebooks with colored Fascist cartoons and quotations

from Mussolini on the

front and back

• 1934

• 1938

GERMANY

Blood Heritage• You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your

fathers and forefathers. You do not know those who have vanished in endless ranks into the darkness of the past. But they all live in you and walk in your blood upon the earth that consumed them in battle and toil and in which their bodies have long decayed. Your blood is therefore something holy. In it your parents gave you not only a body, but your nature. To deny your blood is to deny yourself. No one can change it. But each decides to grow the good that one has inherited and suppress the bad. Each is also given will and courage. You do not have only the right, but also the duty to pass your blood on to your children, for you are a member of the chain of generations that reaches from the past into eternity, and this link of the chain that you represent must do its part so that the chain is never broken. But if your blood has traits that will make your children unhappy and burdens to the state, then you have the heroic duty to be the last. – Faith and Action, 1938

Germany

• January, 1938, Commemorating Nazi seizure of power January 30, 1933

Germany

Ideology

•“Marriage … cannot be an end in itself, rather it must have the larger goal of increasing and maintaining the species and the race. That only is its meaning and its task.”– Mein Kampf

Germany

Family•Germany needed

–More soldiers–More mothers–More population to fill gained land•Lebensraum

• A man could have girlfriend to bear more children

Germany

Family Legislation•1933—Law for the Encouragement

of Marriage– 800,000 newlyweds got govt loan of 1000 marks– Woman agreed to not to work during loan– ¼ loan forgiven for each child

•1934—Encouraged ideal Germans to marry– Rigorous exams to prove purest German blood– Interracial marriages not allowed

•Banned birth control and abortion – Except for Jews, Gypsies, etc. who were

encouraged to abortGermany

• 1939• "The Führer Speaks"

Germany

• "Winter Solstice 1943"

Women•"The mission of women is to be

beautiful and to bring children into the world. This is not at all as...unmodern as it sounds. The female bird pretties herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him. In exchange, the male takes care of gathering food, and stands guard and wards off the enemy.“ –Joseph Goebbels, 1929

Germany

Women—Physical Constraints

• Hitler believed proper German woman should not flaunt her sexuality– Long hair put in bun or plaits – Not allowed to:

• Wear make-up• Have hair dyed• Have perms

– Only wear flat shoes and no pants– Be healthy to have babies

•No losing weight•No smoking

Germany

Breeding Program

•Women had biological purpose•Not social problem if unmarried

woman had child•Encouraged unmarried women

to have kids via Lebensborns–Women impregnated by racially

pure SS officers–Government openly publicized

them Germany

Women•A common rhyme for women:

– "Take hold of kettle, broom and pan,Then you’ll surely get a man!Shop and office leave alone, Your true life work lies at home." 

•Reich's Mother Service (RMD)– Nazis had complete control over

what women were taught – Courses on domesticity and

motherhoodGermany

Motherhood Cross•Awarded on Mothering Sunday

–Hitler’s mother’s birthday (August 12th)

–One of most important Nazi holidays

•Given for large number of children–Bronze—4 children–Silver—5 children–Gold—8 children

•Soldiers had to salute woman if she wore mothers’ medals German

y

Women•"In the Germanic nations there

has never been anything else than equality of rights for women. Both sexes have their rights, their tasks, and these tasks were in the case of each equal in dignity and value, and therefore man and woman were on an equality.“ —Hitler, 1935German

y

Women’s Employment•Weimar Germany had female

teachers, doctors and musicians• In Third Reich real men worked

– Only single women worked outside home

• Germany couldn’t afford to keep women out of workforce

• Problem of how to get them back to work after years of driving them out

Germany

Women’s Employment• Duty Year—1937

– Women could work 'patriotically' in factory to help Nazi "Economic Miracle"

– Marriage loan abolished• In 1939 Hitler was forced to call on

women fulltime– Worked in armament factories– Helped on farms– Accompanied Jews on railways to

concentration campsGermany

Opposition from women

•Many joined left wing groups•1933—Nazis opened first

concentration camp for women•Some committed suicide in

opposition to Nazis

Germany

• 1937/38

Germany

• 1940

• Advertisement for county

Nazi rally• 1941

• Mid-1930's• "Support the assistance

program for mothers and children"

Germany

• 1938• "Happy families are

the best foundation of our people."

• late in the war• "Mother! Fight

for your children!"

Germany

• 1939

• 1940• Hermann Göring with

his daughter Edda

Germany

• 1941• Commemorates January 30,

anniversary of Nazi seizure of power in 1933

• Major national holiday during Third Reich

New Germany’s Educational Principles

German people, German parents! The new Germany created by our people's chancellor Adolf Hitler places special demands on the German youth. The German youth are a foundation of the rebuilding of the German people and the German fatherland. The people and the fatherland place their hands on the shoulders of the youth and determine what educational and cultural values and goals are necessary for this youth to meet the needs of people and fatherland. This requires a truly national and social education for the German youth, and all involved in education has to serve these educational and cultural goals with their full energy. Parents and teachers above all! All those involved in education must have a clear and unified idea of the educational tasks before them. The four iron pillars of the national school and educational system are: race, military training, leadership, and religion! What Schools and Parents Need to Know About the Goals of National Socialist Education

Youth Groups•Had to undergo extensive

medical exams to prove true German blood by tracing back their lineage– No one with any Jewish blood

allowed to join•Brainwashed with Nazi ideology

– Taught they were superior race– Taught about inferior races

•Required for all youth by 1936Germany

Hitler Youth (HJ)•To groom boys into loyal soldiers•Taught boys to:

– Be aggressive – Develop strong sense of camaraderie– Believe in unquestioning loyalty and

brutality

•Activities– Songs to promote national pride and

devotion to Hitler – Daily rituals to teach discipline and

respect– Paramilitary drills– Beat other boys and people on street

Germany

• 1936/37• "Germany's youth

belongs to the Führer!"

Germany

• 1940• "Youth Serves the

Führer. All 10-year-olds into the Hitler Youth."

Germany

• 1944• Lead article titled

"Freedom and Heaven" – Last paragraph:

"Freedom is also the goal of the battle of our day. It grows from the behavior of us boys as we join the war and the front, from our inner conduct which results from a conscious return to the truth and genuine values of life, the values of art and culture, that we are defending from the arsonists of this war."

Germany

Germany

Girls’ Education

•“The goal of female education must be to prepare them for motherhood.” --Mein Kampf

Germany

League of German Maidens (BDM)

• Why girls joined– Part of national cause– Independence from parents

• Taught 3 K’s…kinder, kuche, kirche• Similar camps to those of HJ

– Learned basics of domestic life and child-rearing skills

– Taught their bodies were not private, but they belonged to national cause

– Strong emphasis on physical fitness• Worshipped Hitler as god-like figure

– Love letters to Hitler offering to have his childGerman

y

Germany

Resistance to HJ and BDM•3 resistance groups formed

– Some members publicly executed•Edelweiss Pirates

– Went on outings– Changed HJ song lyrics to protest

songs– Wrote anti-Hitler graffiti on

buildings– Style of dress went against fashion– Taunted HJ and physically beat its

late-night patrolsGermany

Resistance to HJ and BDM• White Rose Group

– Mostly university students– Distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets

• Swing Kids– Mostly upper middle class young

adults– Non-violent resistance– Swing clubs open to Jews

•Listened to American jazz

– Allowed young adults to think freelyGermany

Bibliography

• Michael Wilson, University of Texas at Dallas• pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/russ110/

russwomenslides.htm• womenshistory.about.com/• www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm• www.dickinson.edu/~history/dictators/• www.historylearningsite.co.uk/• www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/dpf/Fascism/

Education.html• www.majbill.vt.edu/history/ewing/• www.marxists.org/• www.northstarcompass.org/nsc0211/stalinera.htm• www.schoolhistory.co.uk/lessons/germany/women.html• www.touritaly.org/magazine/articles01/

WomenFascism.htm

Families in 20th Century Totalitarian

States

Russia, Italy and Germany