User:Rfgovaerts/First All-Russian Women's Congress

The First All-Russian Women’s Congress was the name given to two congresses. The first one was organized by the Russian Women's Mutual Philanthropic Society in 1908, from December 10 to December 17, in St. Petersburg. The second was organized by the women’s section of the Congress of Soviets Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasant’s Deputies in 1918, from November 16 to November 21 in Moscow. The 1908 congress was organized to cover women's achievements in education and philanthropy, their economic and social position as well as their political and civil rights and to explore and debate women's discontent and formulate an agenda for united action. The 1918 congress was organized for the purpose of winning support amongst women for the goals of the Russian Revolution during the Russian Civil War after Alexandra Kollontai had observed the toll of the war on women. Whilst the first conference was impressively organized and attended with many delegates having left with renewed enthusiasm to spread the message of solidarity amongst the different feminists groups, they were obstructed in their efforts to do so by the authorities. What was worse, middle-class feminist movements would not last beyond the Russian Empire.  In its immediate aftermath, the second congress appeared more successful than the first as it resulted in the recognition of a separate section devoted to women affairs, referred to as the Zhenotdel, or Women’s Department of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party. In 1930, however, Joseph Stalin officially abolished the Zhenotdel on the basis that special women sections were no longer needed as women had reached the same level of men and were now equal.

St. Petersburg City Duma where the First All-Russian Women's Congress of 1908 was held in the Alexandrovsky Hall.

First All-Russian Women's Congress, 1908

Background

In general, the women’s movement in Russia had little reason to be optimistic in 1908.  The Second Duma was dissolved in the Coup of June 1907, followed by arrests of deputies, restrictions on voting rights in favor of property owners and the commencement of the Third Duma dominated by conservative parties. Remarkably, however, even though the various women organizations had to observe the restrictions all social groups were subject to, it became apparent that they were not subject to the same scrutiny they experienced towards the end of the previous century. This had provided room for resistance to grow against autocracy within the intelligentsia and the increasingly prominent middle class or bourgeoisie, drawn to liberal ideas in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It was against this background that the then current women’s organizations in Russia, including the Russian Women’s Mutual Philanthropic Society (RWMPS), were inspired to explore and debate their discontent and formulate an agenda for united action.

The process to obtain consent from the authorities began in 1902, which finally lead to June 1, 1905 being fixed as the date of the congress.  Anna Shabanova, one of the co-leaders of the RWMPS together with Anna Filosova, was the main force behind the idea for the congress. As of January, 1905, however, with Tsar Nicholas II battling the forces of resistance in what became known as the 1905 Revolution, other feminists groups were encouraged to become publicly engaged. This lead the feminist groups to consolidate forces and form the All-Russian Union of Equal Rights for Women (Union) towards the end of February, 1905. Nicholas II, in an effort to appease the resistance, introduced reforms, including a form of representative government, the State Duma.  These reforms also lead to the authorities widening the scope of the originally planned congress of June, 1905, from merely covering women’s achievements in education and philanthropy to discussing their economic and social position as well as their political and civil rights. Consequently, the timing of the congress was moved to 1908. In the meantime, in 1908, the Union dissolved due to internal division but was succeeded by the formation of the All-Russian League for Women's Equality (the League) which took over the Union's involvement in the organization of the congress to start on December 10, 1908 in Petrograd. Zinaida Mirovich was the leader of the Union but her reputation and standing was such that she remained one of the organizing forces of the congress despite the demise of the Union. Publicity leading up to the congress was extensive with the effect that it became subject of community-wide gossip.

Organization and Proceedings

On December 10, 1908, Shabanova formally opened the congress in the Aleksandrovsky Hall of the St. Petersburg City Duma. The chairperson of the congress, however, was Filosova and she also gave the opening speech. The congress was well attended with the registration of 1,053 delegates. Approximately 750 came from the capital itself, 50 from Moscow and the rest from all over Russia. The ethnic make-up of the delegates was mostly Russian although national minorities were also represented including other slavic people and Jews.  Some of the delegates were part of the upper classes but the majority was middle-class and held professional jobs.  Other social classes, including factory working women and peasant women were poorly or barely represented. The organizers had not specifically excluded them but the congress took place during working hours. Few female workers would have been in a position to take time off work to attend.  Moreover, the authorities had mandated that only female members of clubs and unions could attend which made up a small percentage of the Russian female population.

The conference was divided into four separate sections covering women’s voluntary work, women’s economic position across social classes, political rights, and education. Each of these sections prepared committee reports, mostly without incident except when labor group delegates had to work together with other groups and especially congress organizing groups, which resulted in friction. Despite their small numbers, the worker delegates managed to leave a strong impression on the proceedings.

The congress was strictly supervised by the authorities. By the time it started, Tsar Nicholas II had recommenced his campaign of repression in an effort to regain control over increasing public participation in society brought about by his reforms for fear they would lead to more demands for reforms and further unrest.  A few days into the congress, an intense session lead to the meeting room being emptied by police.  Activist social reformer Kollontai, already well schooled in Marxism and economics, who led a group of forty fellow socialist supporters forming the Workers Group, had caused commotion by loudly criticizing the delegates for a lack of ambition in the objectives of the congress and accused them of elitist and bourgeois thinking. For Kollantai, women reformists should not be focusing on political rights like suffrage which would only benefit the privileged classes but instead should focus on economic issues and social justice, especially for proletariat women. Kollantai, who was especially watched by the police, had to flee the congress to avoid arrest.

Outcome

Despite the intimidating presence of the police, the congress was marked by a free and passionate exchange of ideas and opinions. When the congress closed on December 17, however, it had failed to reach agreement on political issues. The success of the congress was compromised by too many diverse factions pursuing different goals which produced an irreconcilability that could not be bridged. This was due, to a large extent, to the diverse views on the social and economic aspects of the subjugation of women. Delegates disagreed strongly on the roots of inequality and the best way forward to address them. For Kollontai it was essential that women became equal to men into a new socialist society, however, at this time, these ideas were not only too radical for Russian society’s traditional and conservative beliefs, even the Bolsheviks were not yet ready for them. The congress had only passed one resolution which was thought not to provoke the police and it stated that the “’principal goal’ of women must be the ‘establishment of a democratic system on the basis of universal suffrage without distinction of sex, religion or nationality’ as the ‘chief instrument’ for their full emancipation and liberation”. To further this goal, women were to ‘devote their energies both to existing general organizations and to the creation of separate women’s unions, which will unite and attract women in general to conscious political and social life”. The Workers Group, however, could not support this resolution and exited the congress.

Public Reaction

The delegates who attended the congress were not reflective of the make -up of women social reformers in Russian society at the time.  Social Democratic and Socialist Revolutionary parties counted in excess of ten thousand active women whilst only three thousand women were active in feminist organizations such as the RWMPS and the League. Kollantai had taken the initiative to form a separate women’s socialist club in St. Petersburg in 1907, but only managed to lead a delegation of forty working class women to the congress. Many political activists must have shared Kollontai’s doubts about feminism in Russia. Many men mocked the congress with one, right-wing deputy Vladimir Purishkevich, even calling it an “assembly of whores".

House of the Unions Building in Moscow where the 1918 Women's Congress was held

First All-Russian Women’s Congress of 1918

Background

The idea to organize this congress arose out of the Bolsheviks’ effort to win support amongst women which had started in earnest in June of 1917.  This effort culminated in the organization of a Petrograd women’s conference on November 6, 1917. Kollontai, Klavdiya Nikolayeva, Inessa Armand and Nadezhda Krupskaya, wife of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, took leading roles during this conference. One of the major proposals that came out of the conference was to reconvene the First All-Russian Women’s Congress on the first anniversary of the February Revolution which coincided with International Women’s Day in 1918. The planned date fell victim to a combination of political developments including the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and a special party congress which was organized to debate the Brest-Litovsk Treaty in March of 1918. Even though Kollontai had resigned her position as Commissar of Social Welfare over the treaty, she continued to have a strong influence within the Bolshevik Party.  Even though the Bolsheviks enacted decrees for the protection of women and child labor, social insurance, pregnancy leave and equal rights for contracting and dissolving marriage relationships, no program had yet been implemented for a broader emancipation of women.  All energy was focused on the Civil War.  By June of 1918, Kollantai, having observed the increasing toll of the war on women, managed to convince Yakov Sverdlov to authorize her to organize the First All-Russian Congress of Women Workers' and Peasants in November of that same year in Moscow instead.

Organization and Proceedings

Kollontai was assisted by Armand and Konkordiya Samoilova in the organization of the congress. Armand, who came from a different background from Kollontai, had developed very similar political views to Kollontai. Only 300 delegates had been expected to attend the congress. Instead, nearly 1,200 women, including approximately 120 peasant delegates, came to Moscow from all corners of Russia, which was considered remarkable given the hazards and dangers of travel during time of war.  In the absence of a sufficiently large venue for the congress itself as well as provisions and accommodation for the delegates, it required Kollontai threatening the party leadership with possible consequences of civil unrest, to get their assistance instead of their admonishment for poor planning, which allowed to congress to convene in the House of Unions on November 16, 1918.

The congress was opened by a speech of Lenin on November 19. Lenin confirmed that the Soviet Republic was committed to abolishing all restrictions on women’s rights. This was significant for it was unprecedented that a head of state had called for equal rights for women. Lenin also confirmed the unprecedented steps taken by the Bolshevik party in providing freedom of divorce, abolishing the concept of illegitimate children, removing political restrictions women were subject to prior to the Bolshevik Revolution and advocating the end of the double standard of sexual morality and prostitution.  He stated: “Nowhere else in the world have equality and freedom for working women been so fully established”. Notwithstanding Lenin's words at the congress, there was hesitancy on the part of the Bolshevik’s party leadership to give separate and special treatment to women in consideration of the danger of creating a split between the interests of men and women within the proletariat. That the Bolsheviks now realized they could not take the support of women for granted was evident when Lenin confirmed to the conference: “There can be no socialist revolution unless very many working women take a big part in it”. Kollontai’s speech to the congress confirmed her stature in the Bolshevik party for she took responsibility to explain the manner in which the family will be preserved in a communist state. She confirmed her sympathy for the confusion and concern caused to working women as well as men, as they saw “old ways and customs disappearing, and the entire existence of the proletariat family is taking a different shape”. She explained that a woman’s husband as the breadwinner turning the woman into a household slave, has become a dated capitalist and bourgeois notion and that women will now be able to count for support on the collective or the state.  This support would come in the form of housekeeping and raising children irrespective of whether the mother is married or not.  This will allow women, irrespective of being married or having children, to become productive members of the state. Moreover, the state of family or marriage will evolve from domestic slavery of women to “a comradely and loving union of two free, independent, self-supporting equal members of communist society”. The conference closed on November 21, 1918.

Outcome

Other topics covered were the role of women in support of the Civil War and women and the party, government, trade unions and education. The Pravda headline in relation to this congress “Mobilization of Women for the Red Front” was an indication that the party saw the congress primarily as a means organize women support of the war and that the other topics covered were of secondary importance.

Legacy

The lack of result of the 1908 congress was indicative that the middle-class feminist movement in Russia stood on its last legs. Even though the 1908 congress may have failed to encourage discussion of women’s issues in society at large, it confirmed that women were capable of taking initiative. Consequently, it contributed greatly to the feminist movement in Russia during final years of the Russian Empire.

The 1918 congress resulted in the formation of the Commissions for Agitation and Propaganda among Working Women. These were later reorganized into a permanent section devoted to women affairs within referred to as the Zhenotdel, the Women’s Department of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party, the former Bolshevik Party, which was set up in 1919 by the same two prominent Russian feminist revolutionaries, Kollontai and Armand, who had organized the second congress.