Women in Russia’s Revolution and Civil War

The Influential Female of Early Twentieth Century Russia

Addie MoorHIS 4650 Russian Revolution and Civil War

November 7, 2014

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Russian Revolution, Soviet Union, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks: these words all

call to mind certain people and images. Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky:

names that have become synonymous with Russia’s Revolution and Civil War. Yet it is

unreasonable to assume that their infamous names signify that they were most essential to

Russia’s Revolution. These three males were certainly important, but the women of that

era, often overlooked, were some of the most influential and active players in the

Revolution. Lady Muriel Paget opened the first Russian hospital to treat wounded

soldiers. Maria Bochkareva organized the first all-woman battalion. Nadezhda Krupskaia

and Alexandra Kollontai both assisted and advised Lenin. The Russian feminist

movement arrived at the perfect moment. Women’s goals of political and social equality

aligned with the revolutionary ideology. Through the beginning of the twentieth century

they played an increasingly integral role in the destruction of the tsarist system. From its

birth, Russian feminism facilitated revolutionary movements. It encouraged women to

speak up, to have a voice, to affect change. The feminist movement not only empowered

Russian women but also was vital in fostering the Revolution and Civil War.

The feminist movement in Russia arose in the early 1860s after Tsar Alexander II

enacted his Emancipation Manifesto. The newly free Russian peasants could own land

and businesses and use those to support their families. Female peasants often chose to

work outside the home, moving out of their native farming towns to bigger cities full of

work and equal opportunity. Although some women worked simply to feed their families,

a large portion of the woman workers strove to compete with the men, to be viewed as

equal and worthy of pay and recognition. Many Russian males were active feminists in

the initial stages of Russia’s women’s movement. As Nadezha Azhgikhina stated in her

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essay on Russian women’s potential, “[Nikolay] Chernyshevsky declared that women

had the right not only to education and work but even to free love.”1 Though women were

not granted equal opportunities until the Soviet government took power, the trend of male

support continued through the twentieth century. In a photograph of the 1917 Rally for

Women’s Rights in the Nevsky Prospect hordes of people, men and women crowd the

street, holding signs, petitioning for equal political rights.2

As more women entered the Russian workforce, they began the initial push for

equality. Demands for equal pay, freedom of profession, and access to education boomed

throughout the late nineteenth century. Most of the higher paying jobs, doctors and nurses

and other technical occupations, necessitated some sort of training or higher education.

Historically higher education, especially medical training, for women was frowned upon

in Russia. Barbara Alpern Engel explained the apprehension towards educated women in

her article, Women Medical Students in Russia, 1872-1882: Reformers or Rebels?

Progressive society applauded their efforts […] On the other hand official responded negatively. Perhaps rightly associating women’s desire for medical training with “nihilist” tendencies, they hastened to defend the family […] Women were fit only to be wives and mothers. To conservative officials, women’s very desire for education, because of its defiance of the traditional sexual order, proved radical intent. In 1864, women were barred from the medical academies on account of their alleged association with various kinds of radical activity.3

1 Nadezha Azhgikhina, “Empowering Russian Women: Will their Potential be Tapped?” in Russia's Fate Through Russian Eyes: Voices of the New Generation, eds. Heyward Isham, Natan M. Shklyar, and Jack F. Matlock (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 216.

2 “Women Demanding Political Rights at a Rally on Nevsky Prospect.” March 19, 1917. Photograph. From Russia In War and Revolution, 1914-1922 (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2009), 33.

3 Engel, Barbara Alpern. "Women Medical Students in Russia, 1872-1882: Reformers or Rebels?" Journal of Social History 12, no. 3 (1979): 394-414, http://jsh.oxfordjournals.org (Accessed November 23, 2014), 396.

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However, as the feminist movement grew, altering this mindset became increasingly

important. Several women’s rights groups formed to address this and other issues in

Russia’s social system. Typically established by educated emancipated women, groups

such as the Russian League for Women’s Equity (RLWE) and the Women’s Progressive

Party (WPP) largely addressed issues affecting the Russian middle class and intelligentsia

rather than the peasant population. WPP and RLWE were especially active during the

First World War. Both organizations established schools and daycares for working and

fighting parents. They set up hospitals, mobile nursing units, and provided training for

medical staff. In addition, many feminist organizations started petitioning for the

abolition of alcohol. Town meetings addressing abolition were held in Russian cities and

women would often protest at public houses selling alcohol, breaking the bottles of vodka

and demanding the end of alcohol sales to their husbands. These feminist groups did

much to improve social conditions for Russia’s women but little progress was made

towards political equality until the twentieth century.4

In 1915, as conflict was brewing in Russia, the government finally made a

concession for women’s rights. Olga Shnyrova, in her research on feminism and suffrage

in the Russian Revolution, records that on August 14, 1915 the State Duma met and

agreed to permit women to sit on local committees in charge of refugee movement. “This

appears to be the first occasion on which women have been granted the privilege of

serving on local government bodies.”5 Despite this, Russian women were still eager to

gain the right to vote and continued to pressure the tsarist government for women’s

4 Olga Shnyrova, “Feminism and Suffrage: Women, War, and Revolution 1914-1917,” in The Women's Movement in Wartime: International Perspectives, 1914-19, eds. Alison S. Fell, and Ingrid Sharp (Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

5 Ibid., 129.

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suffrage. However it was not until the fall of Tsar Nicholas II that concessions were

made. When the Provisional Government took power in 1917, women saw a fresh chance

to promote their movement. On March 19, 1917, more than forty thousand women

gathered on the Nevsky Prospect to protest political inequalities. After several months of

deliberation and discussion, the Provisional Government ultimately agreed to allow

women twenty-one and older to vote. Women’s suffrage in Russia occurred much more

rapidly than other world powers, including Britain, France and the United States. By

1920, Soviet laws regarding women’s rights had become some of the most progressive in

the world. Vladimir Lenin, in his speech at the November 1918 All-Russia Congress of

Working Women, addressed Russia’s progress when he said, “the Soviet government is

doing everything in its power to enable women to carry on independent proletarian

socialist work.”6 Lenin and the Soviet government also emphasized the importance of

fighting against the typical religious government and, “the influence of the priests, an evil

that is harder to combat than the old legislation.”7 In the initial years of Soviet control,

divorce and abortion were legalized and nearly all political restrictions on women were

removed, putting Russia at the forefront of the women’s suffrage movement worldwide.

Before Russia’s women strove for equal political rights, they simply wanted

equality in the workplace. The initial push for women’s rights came from the medical

field. In the past, few careers were available for gentry and middle class women. The

most common positions as a governess or teacher required no specialized education or

advanced knowledge. Female nurses were also standard until 1864, when a nine-year ban

on female medical students was instituted. When the ban was finally abolished in 1873,

6 V. Lenin, “Speech at the First All-Russia Congress of Working Women.” Speech, Russia, November 19, 1918. Marxists Internet Archive. www.marxists.org/archive/lenin, 3.

7 Ibid., 2.

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women were eager to rejoin males in the medical field. Almost immediately the

Women’s Medical Courses opened in St. Petersburg. Designed to train women as nurses,

the Courses were open for a mere ten years before Government fears of revolutionary

ideas and radical movements from these women caused them to shut the Courses down.8

Yet their impact was significant and, despite government efforts, the Courses would play

a key role in empowering and educating women about revolutionary ideas. Barbara

Alpern Engel, a prominent Russian history scholar, acknowledged the Courses’

importance in an article written for the Journal of Social History. The Courses trained

more than 700 women in one decade. These women were treated with unfailing respect;

both their male counterparts and their educators fully supported their aspirations.

Teachers often volunteered their time, waving their right to compensation in order to

support the women.9 The teaching staff at the Courses was largely comprised of

intelligentsia. Sympathetic to the ladies’ struggle for higher education and equal work

opportunities, the male teachers began to secretly train their students as doctors, fulfilling

the Governments fears of collaboration against their rule and laws.10

One such student was Emiliia Pimenova. Born in 1855 to moderately wealthy

parents, Emiliia recounts her desire to leave her small home-city for opportunity-filled St.

Petersburg in the autobiographical memoir, Bygone Days. Emiliia and her friends

frequently discussed their dissatisfaction with their society and its customs. As one of

Emiliia’s acquaintances described their situation, “[As prisoners] in the narrow confines

of provincial life.”11 The Women’s Medical Courses offered these young ladies an

8 Engel, Barbara Alpern. "Women Medical Students in Russia, 1872-1882: Reformers or Rebels?", 394.9 Ibid., 394.10 Emiliia Pimenova, “Bygone Days,” in Russia Through Women's Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist

Russia, eds. Toby W. Clyman, and Judith Vowles (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 324.11 Ibid., 328.

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opportunity to escape. There was one stipulation though: women could only enter the

Courses with permission from their husbands or, if they were unmarried, from their

fathers. To bypass this rule, many women entered into fake marriages. Emiliia Pimenova,

knowing her father would never give her permission, chose that path, marrying a young

man who also aspired to move St. Petersburg. Emiliia entered the Courses as a midwifery

student but soon encountered the teachers who wished to train the women as fully-

fledged doctors. She describes one amusing incident of the conflict between the

administration’s curriculum and the curriculum the professors wanted to teach.

Some time earlier at Professors Lantsert’s lecture on anatomy…several important visitors showed up in the auditorium unannounced. They were accompanied by members of the academy administration. Once seated, these ladies and gentlemen of the court asked the professor to continue. And then we could not understand what the professor was talking about: he switched to a completely different subject! Just a few minutes earlier he had been lecturing on the bones of the upper limbs and the chest, and now all of a sudden he was talking about pelvic bones of which we had never even heard. And coxal parts! We exchanged puzzled looks. When the guests left, he turned to us and said, ‘I hope you all understand that since our program is called “courses for learned midwives,” the lecture material must correspond to that…Do not be concerned, however. We, the professors, are on your side, and we shall do everything in our power to help you.”12

Emiliia Pimenova’s teachers had no desires to limit their students’ education and the

example set by the Women’s Medical Courses paved the way for many women to seek

higher education and equal work opportunities.

As Russia progressed into the twentieth century and world war seemed imminent,

the need for female medical staff increased. Males who had previously filled the positions

were being conscripted for the army and could no longer manage the hospitals alone. Not

12 Ibid., 328.

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surprisingly, women stepped up to the task. By the time WWI began in 1914, nursing was

a coveted position in Russia. The female nurse had two sides. On one hand, she was a

mother, a comforter and healer for the hungry and wounded soldiers. Yet these women

were in the heart of the battle. They experienced the same violence, filth, and lack of

supplies as the men fighting on the front. Therefore the women also needed to be fierce

and unwavering in the face of all the war brought. This had the effect of creating a sense

of companionship between the fighting men and female medical staff. The women felt

equal to their male counterparts in the war. Olga Lyatskovskaya captured this sentiment

in her popular poem:

If death comes I shall die peacefully,just as I flourished with brotherly love,and maybe now I have earned the rightto lie in the common soldier’s grave.

(Lyatskovskaya 1915)13

WWI brought out an immense sense of patriotism in Russian women. Their desire to

serve their country outweighed social standards or expectations. Even the tsar’s daughters

participated in the war efforts, donning nurses’ uniforms and assisting as they could.

Famous actresses, dancers, and singers devoted themselves to helping the wounded.

Rapidly, the new “fashionable woman” in Russia was one “who extended her activities

from the parlour to the hospital ward.”14

One particularly influential woman in WWI-era Russia was Lady Muriel Paget,

founder of the Anglo-Russian Hospital in Petrograd. The facility opened its doors on

February 12, 1916 when Lady Paget saw the lack of an organized medical system in

Russia. In a 1917 article by the British Medical Journal, the authors cite Lady Muriel

13 Olga Shnyrova, “Feminism and Suffrage: Women, War, and Revolution 1914-1917”, 125. 14 Ibid., 126.

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Paget as the leading force behind the creation of the Anglo-Russian Hospital and describe

its four sections:

(1) The hospital in Petrograd, in the Dmitri Palace on the Nvesky Prospect…and excellently equipped institution of 200 beds with a complete staff.

(2) The field hospital, a mobile unit in tents, with 42 ambulances and transport carts, 125 Russian sanitars, and 8 British nurses.

(3) A hospital in a large barracks at Lutsk.(4) A fleet of 22 motor ambulances which proved of the greatest value.15

Lady Muriel Paget organized the delivery of all necessary equipment and staff from her

home in Britain to Petrograd. When supplies were low, she took it upon herself to make

the necessary communications with the British Foreign Office. In a series of letters and

telegrams archived in the British Foreign Office’s microfilm collection, the details of one

of these exchanges is preserved. Lady Paget rarely wrote telegraphs herself but her

demands were always made clear. A June 1916 telegraph from Petrograd to the British

Foreign Office (BFO) reads, “Lady M. Paget proposed making appeal in English Paper

for further car…English drivers are only needed for ambulances to be run by Anglo-

Russian Hospital.”16 Lady Paget’s influence with the BFO was always obvious in the

communications between Britain and the Anglo-Russian Hospital. When she requested

supplies, an answer came the following day. She constantly checked the status of her

requests, and ensured all things were going according to her plan. When Mr. Stanley in

Petrograd sent Lady Paget’s request for 15 ambulances on July 1, 1916,17 Lady Paget

waited a mere six days before writing to the BFO, “Lady Muriel Paget is anxious to know

15 Herbert Waterhouse, Douglas Harmer, and Charles Marshall. "Notes from the Anglo-Russian Hospital," British Medical Journal (1917): 441-45 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2349230/?page=1 (accessed November 6, 2014), 1.

16 Petrograd to Sir Edward Grey, 29 June 1916, FO 371, 2744: 326.17 Mr. Stanley to Anglo-Russian Hospital, 1 July 1916, FO 371, 2744: 323.

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names of ships in which fifteen Anglo-Russian hospital motor ambulances have been

dispatched to Archangel and requires fifteen chauffeurs to be sent as soon as possible.”18

Without Lady Paget to drive its completion, the Petrograd hospital would never

have succeeded; even early on it was most often called “Lady Muriel Paget’s Anglo-

Russian Hospital.”19 Yet Lady Muriel still came up against opposition, especially after

1917 when the Bolsheviks came into power. In a 1918 New York Times article Lady

Muriel described one incident of conflict at the hospital. She had been away for an

extended period of time and returned to Petrograd to find the hospital under the control of

a Bolshevik committee of orderlies.

The rule of committees was the general Bolshevist practice and often it had strange workings. One of our hospital orderlies, for instance, was a very skillful carpenter, and consequently did all the repair work. The committee, however, decided that this was favoritism, so they brought him back to cleaning windows and scrubbing floors, and the carpentry had to go undone.20

The Bolshevik attempts to thwart Lady Paget’s influence were ultimately successful

when the majority of the British staff returned home in 1918, but in the few years her

hospital was open thousands of people were trained, helped, and healed.

At the same time as women were leaping to join the medical profession, an equal

number of women were looking to the military to fulfill their desire to be patriotic.

Alexandra Kollontai, the prominent Bolshevik propaganda writer and activist wrote in

1921,

The self-defense of the working class against bourgeois domination requires that women workers and peasants be used for the army and navy.

18 Lady Muriel Paget to FO, 7 July 1916, FO 371, 2744: 330.19 FO to Anglo-Russian Hospital, 17 July 1916, FO 371, 2744: 333.20 "Tells How Anarchy Is Sweeping Russia," New York Times (1857-1922), May 14, 1918,

http://search.proquest.com/docview/100279531?accountid=8570 (accessed November 6, 2014).

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The involvement of women, of women workers and peasants, in military affairs is dictated not by short-term political considerations, such as those that guided the bourgeois government in the imperialist war, but by the fundamental objectives of the working class.21

Kollontai emphasized the importance of the motivation behind women’s work in the war.

Keeping true with Bolshevik ideology, she criticized the bourgeoisie and their motives,

instead encouraging working class women to fight for their long-term goal of equality.

Most women were eager to join the war efforts but even the less eager were drafted into

the cause. Picton Bagge, a British ambassador to Russia, wrote to the BFO in March of

1916, “All village girls and women in neighboring [provinces] between age of 14 and 25

have been registered by police and as soon as possible will be sent to dig trenches on and

for defense of Odessa and Nikolayev. They have already done some work.”22 Despite the

seeming cruelty of these methods, German advances to the west and pressure from the

Allies led Russia to take the necessary course of action.

Though some women were forced to work for the war, others, like former candy-

factory worker Zinaida Patrikeeva, did not hesitate to join. In 1918, when Patrikeeva was

nineteen years old and working in a candy factory, her town was attacked by a group of

White Army men. As the soldiers bombarded the buildings with artillery shells,

Patrikeeva and fourteen other men managed to escape to a nearby town. There they

armed and mounted themselves with supplies from the local peasants and agreed to go

join the Bolsheviks and the Red Army. Patrikeeva recalls the instant unease the peasants

felt seeing a woman among the group. “I must have looked strange to the peasants—they

were not used to seeing women fighters. Some of them would laugh at me, while others

21 A. Kollontai, “The Woman Worker and Peasant in Soviet Russia,” in Selected Articles and Speeches. (New York: International Publishers, 1984),168.

22 Picton Bagge to Petrograd, 3 March 1916, FO 371, 2748: 49.

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said: ‘Don’t go with them, or you’ll be killed.”23 Patrikeeva never listened and with her

group joined an official detachment of the Red Army. To blend in with the men, she cut

her hair and sewed her dress into a pair of makeshift pants. Rapidly the men began to

view her as an equal. She fought and rode alongside them with matched ferocity.

Patrikeeva wrote, “As soon as the fighting began, I would dismount and shower those

White bastards with bullets.”24 In battle, with machine gun in hand, Patrikeeva would

often lead her comrades into battle. Newspaper articles celebrating her heroism were

published. The Bolshevik military leader, Comrade Voroshilov, personally thanked

Patrikeeva and her cavalry at the Red Army Congress of 1920. Finally, as the ultimate

honor, Patrikeeva, the only female in her unit, received one of the first Soviet military

awards for service to the state: the Order of the Red Banner.25

Zinaida Patrikeeva was unique for her place as the only woman in her cavalry unit

but there were also entire battalions entirely of women. The most well known is the

Women’s Battalion of Death, organized by Maria Bochkareva in 1917. In Roger

Markwick’s piece on Russia’s women soldiers Alexander Kerensky summarized the

purpose of the female battalion as motivators for the male units. According to Kerensky,

the female soldier was intended to drive the male soldier to fight to the death for his

country.26 Maria Bochkareva confirmed this sentiment when the New York Times

interviewed her in May of 1918, “The real reason for organization of women into

23 Zinaida Patrikeeva, “Cavalry Boy,” in In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War, eds. Sheila Fitzpatrick and Yuri Slezkine (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 119.

24 Ibid., 120.25 Ibid., 121.26 Roger D. Markwick, review of They Fought for the Motherland: Russia’s Women Soldiers in World

War I and the Revolution, Laurie S. Stoff, The Slavonic and East European Review 87, no. 1, (January 01, 2009), accessed October 09, 2014, 2.

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soldiery was that ‘it might prove an inspiration to Russian manhood’.”27 Though the

women were not successful in that sense, often demotivating male soldiers who were

ashamed to be fighting alongside females, they proved useful in other ways. During the

Bolshevik insurrection in October of 1917, the Women’s Battalion of Death provided

protection for ministers within Winter Palace up until the final storming. Those women,

with shaved their heads and typical male soldiers’ attire, constantly showed they could

handle the war.28 A position with the army or the navy was soon as coveted as a doctor or

nursing position. Women would disguise their sex to join the ranks of men, often not

discovered until they were injured or killed. Ogonek, a popular journal in the early

twentieth century, published a cartoon image entitled, ‘Then and Now.’ It pictured two

ladies: one is the well-dressed image of femininity while the other features a modern day

woman soldier wearing a soldiers’ cap and carrying a gun.29 Russian females were no

longer concerned with climbing the social ladder. Whether by joining the army or

providing care for those who did, they were determined to find some way to display their

patriotism. As Alexandra Kollontai wrote in her work, Women Fighters in the Days of the

Great October Revolution,

[The women] went wherever they were sent. To the front? They put on a soldier’s cap and became fighters in the Red Army…they worked in army communications. They worked cheerfully, filled with the belief that something momentous was happening and that we are all small cogs in the one class of revolution.30

27 "The War Situation," New York Times (1857-1922), May 23, 1918. 2, http://search.proquest.com/docview/100269051?accountid=8570 (accessed November 6, 2014), 2.

28 Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 (New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books 1998), 416.

29 Olga Shnyrova, “Feminism and Suffrage: Women, War, and Revolution 1914-1917”, 125.30 A. Kollontai, “Women Fighters in the Days of the Great October Revolution,” in Selected Articles and

Speeches. (New York: International Publishers, 1984).

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The final way Russian women contributed in the Russian Revolution and Civil

War was politically. Two key female in the Soviet government were Alexandra

Kollontai, a Bolshevik propagandist and confidant to Lenin, and Nadezhda Krupskaia,

Lenin’s wife and frequent advisor. Born in 1872 to upper-middle class parents, Alexandra

Kollontai developed a strong dislike of her parents’ society and the idea of tsarist

autocracy. When she was old enough, Kollontai moved abroad to continue her education.

In Zurich and London she encountered Marxism and was an instant enthusiast. While still

abroad, Kollontai began her career as a propagandist, advocating Marxism at every

opportunity. After moving back to Russia she continued writing propaganda, which

brought her under the surveillance of the tsarist government. Kollontai was soon forced to

move abroad to escape persecution. However this simply allowed her to promote

Marxism even more. She travelled across Europe and to the Americas spreading the

notion of workers rights and encouraging an international socialist movement.31

Above all, Kollontai opposed the war. A 1915 poster for her American

propaganda tour reads, “HALT! ENOUGH! ENOUGH! Europe Wants Us to Help Stop

the War.”32 Kollontai tirelessly petitioned for peace calling instead for a social revolution,

starting with the working class. In several speeches she criticized capitalism, claiming the

capitalist were using the war as a way to evade the social revolution. Kollontai appealed

to the international proletariat, “We do not want war! We demand peace! Down with

war! Long live the social revolution!”33 Her impassioned efforts were not enough though;

31 I. M. Dazhina, “An Impassioned Opponent of War and Champion of Peace and Female Emancipation,” in Selected Articles and Speeches. (New York: International Publishers, 1984).

32 “A Poster Announcing that Alexandra Kollontai is to Address a Meeting During Her Propaganda Tour of America” Photograph. From Selected Articles and Speeches. (New York: Progress Publishers, 1984) accessed October 9, 2014.

33 A. Kollontai, “The International Proletariat and War,” in Selected Articles and Speeches. (New York: International Publishers, 1984), 61.

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WWI began and forced Kollontai to abandon her anti-war campaign. She quickly turned

to Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik party, becoming a devoted supporter. Kollontai

completely supported Lenin’s ideology and wished to see his philosophies implemented

around the world. She wrote about Lenin in a piece entitled A Giant Mind, a Giant Will,

In those days it seemed to me that Lenin stood above the whole of mankind and that his extraordinary powerful mind could perceive that which was hidden from us all… When I thought about Vladimir Ilyich in those years, he seemed to me to be not merely a man but the embodiment of some nautral-cosmic force pushing aside the socio-economic crust that had formed over thousands of years of human history.34

Kollontai wasn’t simply a Lenin-devotee, though. Her experience abroad and wide

variety of contacts proved useful in the spread of socialist ideology and Bolshevik

influence.

After the October Revolution in 1917, Kollontai officially joined the Bolshevik

government. She and Lenin became close companions, exchanging letters and offering

each other advice. At a 1918 meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars

(Sovnarkom), Kollontai and Lenin were photographed sitting together in the middle of

the other Bolshevik Commissars. Kollontai was the People’s Commissar for Social

Security, which allowed her to aggressively promote,

the practical application of the Marxist principles of protection for mother and child, and the provision of health services and old-age pensions for working women…that women be given equal social status with men in everyday life, ‘For only then will women’s creative potential be able to develop to the full and women will be able to make their new contribution to the arts, science and state.35

34 A. Kollontai, “A Giant Mind, a Giant Will” in Selected Articles and Speeches (New York: International Publishers, 1984) 73.

35 I. M. Dazhina, “An Impassioned Opponent of War and Champion of Peace and Female Emancipation”, 12.

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Kollontai’s influence in the Bolshevik party gave her power to address specific issues she

considered of most importance: women’s rights and the spread of social democracy.

Although Alexandra Kollontai’s goal of equality for women coincided with the

goals of groups such as the RLWE and the WPP, Kollontai was largely unpopular with

the feminist groups and them with her. Members of these organizations criticized

Kollontai for trying to help the working and peasant women. They cited her father, a

military general, and her nice clothes and tidy appearance. Some even gave her the

nickname, “Kollontaisha,” a derogatory version of her own last name.36 But Kollontai had

previously denounced her wealthy heritage and constantly worked to reconcile herself

with the working population. She also countered the feminist groups’ critiques with

criticisms of her own. In her essay, The Social Basis of the Women’s Question, Kollontai

questioned whether working women should join with the feminist groups. She claimed

organizations such as RLWE and WPP used bourgeois methods and only addressed the

female gentry’s issues. Instead, Kollontai said, the working and peasant class should use

traditional methods of social revolution, to fight in other ways in an attempt to liberate all

people.37

Another significant female in the Bolshevik government was Nadezhda

Konstantinovna Krupskaia, the wife of Valdimir Ilyich Lenin. Born in 1869, Krupskaia

met Lenin while both wore working as propagandists for the educated worker in St.

Petersburg. When Lenin was exiled to Siberia in 1897, he and Krupskaia were married so

she could travel with him. Despite Lenin’s distrust of religion, the pair was unfortunately

36 Olga Shnyrova, “Feminism and Suffrage: Women, War, and Revolution 1914-1917”, 135.37 A. Kollontai, “The Social Basis of the Women’s Question,” in Selected Articles and Speeches (New

York: International Publishers, 1984) 16-36.

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required to hold their wedding in a church in order for the Russian government to

recognize its legitimacy.38 After their marriage, Krupskaia was able to use her new

authority to address the issue she saw as most pressing: education. Early on Krupskaia

struggled to find a blend between Marxism and the education system. Her time abroad

allowed her to study other countries’ systems and develop the best educational theory.

After the October Revolution, Krupskaia was appointed the People’s Commissar of

Education, the only female besides Alexandra Kollontai to sit on the Sovnarkom. Once in

a position of power, Krupskaia was able to address all of the pedagogical problems she

saw in Russian schools. Krupskaia accused the bourgeois control of education as the

source of the issue. “As long as the organization of schooling stays in the hands of the

bourgeoisie, labour school will be a weapon directed against the interests of the working

class. Only the working class can turn labour school into a tool for the transformation of

contemporary society.”39 Krupskaia performed extensive research on educational reforms

throughout her life, but it is important to note that her development of the socialist

education system always matched the principles in Lenin’s ideas on social revolution. As

Krupskaia wrote in her autobiography, “Throughout her life, from 1894 on, she always

did everything in her power to help Vladimir Ilich Lenin in his work.”40

The women of Russia’s Revolution and Civil War were more than just

bystanders. They were doctors and nurses, fighters and leaders, politicians and

revolutionaries. Despite being commonly associated with its male leaders, the Revolution

38 Orlando Figes, 1998. A people's tragedy: the Russian Revolution, 1891-1924, 147.39 Mihail S. Skatkin, Georgij S. Tsov'janov. "Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaia." Prospects 17, no. 2

(1987): 49-60. Accessed November 7, 2014. http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/krupskae.pdf, 2.

40 Nadezhda Krupskaia, “Autobiography,” in Fitzpatrick, Sheila, and Yuri Slezkine, eds., 2000. In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2.

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and its outcome were a result of many peoples’ actions. Russian women’s goal of

equality initiated the feminist movement, which in turn assisted in the advancement of the

Revolution. Without the support of Russian females, the Revolution would have lacked

the power it needed to affect change. These women were not simply fighting pawns; they

were influential, developing plans, establishing organizations, and leading men and

women towards revolutionary goals. Alexandra Kollontai, Lady Muriel Paget, and Maria

Bochkareva: they were just a few of many women who played significant roles in the

most momentous era of Russian history.

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Anglo-Russian Hospital to Mr. Stanley, 15 July 1916, FO 371, 2744: 334. (1)

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Lady Muriel Paget to FO, 7 July 1916, FO 371, 2744: 330. (1)

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