² Rabotnitsa. Ezhenedel'nyi zhurnal. Organ Tsentral'nogo Komiteta RSDRP(b) (Petrograd). II-i god izdaniya. Seven issues had been published in 1914.

³ First published in Zurich, , 1879. First English edition: Woman in the Past, Present and Future (London, 1885). Several different editions were published in Russian, the first in London in 1895 under the title Zhenshchina nastoyashchego, proshedshego i budushchego vremeni.Google Scholar

⁴ Cf.Stites, R., The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia (Princeton, 1978), pp. 236–38.Google Scholar

⁵ Kollontai, A. M., Sotsial'nye osnovy zhenskogo voprosa (St Petersburg, 1909).Google Scholar The original introduction is reproduced in id., Izbrannye stat'i i rechi (Moscow, 1972), pp. 61–81.Google Scholar The only earlier work on women by a Russian Marxist is an anonymous agitational pamphlet by Krupskaya, N. K., Zhenshchina-rabotnitsa (Geneva, 1901).Google Scholar This pamphlet did not make a theoretical contribution to the debate on a Marxist approach to the woman question, but its publication was the first acknowledgement from the RSDRP of the need for literature aimed specifically at women. An original copy of the pamphlet and a microfilm copy of Sotsial'nye osnovy are held by the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.

⁶ Kollontai, , Sotsial'nye osnovy, p. 4.Google Scholar

⁷ For more information on the zhenotdely, see C. E. Hayden, “The Zhenotdel and the Bolshevik Party”, and Stiles, R., “Zhenotdel, Bolshevism and Russian Women, 1917–1930,” both in: Russian History, III (1976), pp. 150–93.Google Scholar

⁸ For pre-1917 Bolshevik work amongst women, see Bobroff, A., “The Bolsheviks and Working Women, 1905–1920”, in: Soviet Studies, XXVI (1974), pp. 540–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ Istoriya rabochikh Leningrada (Leningrad, 1972), I, p. 467.

¹⁰ Ibid., II, p. 13.

¹¹ Sorokin, P. A., Leaves from a Russian Diary, enlarged ed. (Boston, Massachusetts 1950), p. 3.Google Scholar

¹² “Velikii den”', in: Pravda, No 2 (7 March). The article had been published as a separate leaflet by the Central Commitee of the Bolshevik Party some five days before. See Revolyutsionnoe dvizhenie v Rossii posle sverzheniya samoderzhaviya [Velikaya Oktyabr'skaya sotsialisticheskaya revolyutsiya, Dokumenty i materialy] (Moscow. 1957), p.8.

¹³ Katkov, G., Russia, 1917. The February Revolution (London, 1967), pp. 252–53.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Shlyapnikov, A. G., Semnadtsatyi god. Kniga pervaya, 2nd ed. (Moscow, 1923), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Kayurov, V., “Shest' dnei fevral'skoi revolyutsii”, in: Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya, 1923, No 1 (13), p. 158.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ibid.

¹⁷ Pervyi legal'nyi Peterburgskii komitet Bol'shevikov v 1917 g. (Moscow. 1927). p. 33: Revolyutsionnoe dvizhenie v Rossii posle sverzheniya samoderzhaviya, op. cit., p. 55.

¹⁸ Pervyi legal'nyi Peterburgskii komitet Bol'shevikov, op. cit. p. 40.

¹⁹ Ibid., pp. 45–46.

²⁰ Ibid., p. 69.

²¹ For examples of women's meetings' demands, see Pravda, Nos 4 (9 March ) and 8 (14 March).

²² For attendance figures, see ibid., Nos 6 (11 March), 9 (15 March) and 12 (18 March).

²³ Ibid., No 7 (12 March).

²⁴ Izvestiya, 21 March. There is some disagreement over the numbers on this demonstration. lzvestiya, the only available primary source to provide an actual figure, reported that 35,000 attended. However, Karpetskaya, N. D., Rabotnitsy i Velikii Oktyabr' (Leningrad, 1974), p. 41, who also cites this source, gives a figure of 3,500. Stites, The Women's Liberation Movement, op. cit., p. 292, cites a figure of “some 40,000”.Google Scholar

²⁵ Apart from “Velikii den”' (see note 12), no leaflets issued by the Bolsheviks during March were aimed specifically at women. Listovki Petrogradskikh bol'shevikov 1917-20 (Leningrad, 1957).

²⁶ A. M. Kollontai, “Rabotnitsy i uchreditel'noe sobranie”, in: Pravda, No 14 (21 March); id., “Nash pamyatnik bortsam za svobodu”, ibid., No 16 (23 March): ibid., No 18 (26 March ), article by L. Stal'. April editions of Pravda show an increase in the volume of articles aimed at women.

²⁷ Kollontai, , Rabotnitsa za god revolyutsii (Moscow, 1918), pp. 8–10:Google Scholarid., “Avtobiograficheskii ocherk”, in: Proletarskaya Revolyutsiys, No 3 (1921), pp. 261–302.Google Scholar

²⁸ Kollontai, , “Rabotnitsy”, loc. cit.Google Scholar

²⁹ Okhtinskii khimicheskii kombinat (Leningrad, 1965). p. 166, cited in Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy, op. cit., p. 42.Google Scholar

³⁰ Pravda, No 34 (16 April).

³¹ Ibid.

³² Stal', L., “Rabotnitsa v oktyabre”, in: Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya, No 10 (1922), p. 299.Google Scholar

³³ Glebov, N., “Zhenshchina v rabochem dvizhenii”, in: Pravda, No 26 (7 April).Google Scholar

³⁴ Kollontai, , “Tvorcheskoe v rabote t. Samoilovoi”, in: Revolyutsionnaya deyatel'nost' Konkordii Nikolaevny Samoilovoi. Sbornik vospominanii (Moscow, 1922), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

³⁵ Krupskaya's main area of work in 1917 was with youth. She wrote articles for Pravda on child labour, youth organisation and education. (See, for example, Nos 34 and 65 (7 June).) She worked in the Vyborg district, developing a network of schools, reading rooms and nurseries. McNeal, R. H., Bride of the Revolution (London, 1973), p. 175. Soviet accounts attempt to associate her with the 1917 Rabotnitsa, but in fact she wrote no articles for it, nor did she speak at meetings organised by the Rabotnitsa editorial board.Google Scholar

³⁶ Kollontai, , Iz moei zhizni i raboty (Moscow, 1974), p. 267. Soldatki: soldiers' wives, sometimes also used to refer to soldiers' mothers and daughters.Google Scholar

³⁷ Before the war the soldatka had ranked almost as low as the prostitute. When the war turned millions of peasants and working women into soldatki, the social stigma was forgotten, and soldatki were issued a monthly allowance of 7 to 9 roubles, but by the spring of 1917 this had been virtually wiped out by inflation. Cf., Stites, The Women's Liberation Movement, p. 305.Google Scholar

³⁸ Kollontai, , Iz moei zhizni i raboty, op. cit., p. 268. No precise date is given for this conversation, but it almost certainly took place in mid April. Obviously by this time any bureaux inaugurated by Slutskaya's plan had either folded, or they were not, in Kollontai's view, fulfilling their role.Google Scholar

³⁹ The proposals in this plan were subsequently accepted by the party in 1919, when they became the basis for the zhenotdely. Kollontai, , “Avtobiograficheskii ocherk”, loc. cit., p. 297.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Armand was active at this time amongst the working women of Moscow, where she published Zhizn' Rabotnitsy. a sister paper to Rabotnitsa, which had a circulation of 15,000. Shestoi s'ezd RSDRP (bol'shevikov). Protokoly, (Moscow, 1958), p. 158.Google Scholar

⁴¹ According to Kollontai, , Iz moei zhizni i raboty, pp. 269, 401Google Scholar (editorial note), the conference at which the resolution was to be put forward was the First Petrograd Conference of Working Women, which took place in November. However, as the proposals were drawn up in April, long before the decision to hold a women's conference was made, it seems likely that they were intended for one of the two party conferences held towards the end of April.

⁴² Kollontai, , Iz moei zhizni i raboty, p. 269.Google Scholar

⁴³ Id., “Avtobiograficheskii ocherk”, p. 297.

⁴⁴ Sedmaya (aprel'skaya) vserossiiskaya konferentsiya RSDRP(b), Petrogradskaya obshchegorodskaya konferentsiya RSDRP(b) (Moscow, 1958), pp. 27-34. This incident appears to have caused some confusion. Alix, Holt. in her otherwise accurate account in Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollontay (London, 1977), p. 114Google Scholar, states the minutes are from the Seventh all-Russian Congress, when in fact they are from the second session of the Petrograd City Conference (15 April). A mistake in interpretation is made by Clements, B. E., Bolshevik, Feminist. The Life of Aleksandra Kollontai (Bloomington, Indiana, 1980), p. 110. Clements interprets the chairman's reply to Bagdat'ev “zdes' net zhenshchin s reshayushchim golosom” as meaning that the proposal would be withdrawn because women in Russia did not as yet have the vote. In fact the chairman is referring to the fact that there were no women delegates with voting rights present. (The Provisional Government had granted the women the vote in its Declaration of 3 March.)Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Kollontai, , “Demonstratsiya soldatok”, in: Pravda, No 30 (12 April).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ The Trusteeship (popechitel'stvo) was the body charged with the administering of allowances and rations to soldiers' families.

⁴⁷ The whole of this account of Bolshevik activity amongst the soldatki following the demonstration of 11 April is taken from Dvoretskaya, , “Soyuz Soldatok”, in: Zhenshchiny goroda Lenina (Leningrad, 1963), pp. 77–81.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Kollontai, , “Na nashei linii ognya”, in: Pravda, No 51 (7 05)Google Scholar; id., “Pervaya zabastovka v Svobodnoi Rossii”, in: Rabotnitsa, , No 3 (20 05), p. 6.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Kollontai, “Pervaya zabastovka”, loc. cit.

⁵⁰ Kollontai, “Na nashei linii ognya”, loc. cit.

⁵¹ “Stachka prachek,” in: Pravda, No 51.

⁵² Kolbontai, , “Na nashei linii ognya”: Pravda, No 52 (9 May).Google Scholar

⁵³ According to Holt, , Selected Writings of Alexandra Kollontay, op. cit., p. 115,Google Scholar Kollontai reported to the “Executive Committee of Social Revolutionaries and Social Democrats”, but I have interpreted the title “Ispolnitel'nyi komitet SR i SD” as cited in Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy, op. cit., p. 53,Google Scholar as referring to the “lspolnitel'nyi komitet Soveta Rabochikh i Soldatskikh Deputatov”. Kollontai, herself, “Avtobiograficheskii ocherk”, p. 296, states that she took the matter to the Soviet and the Executive Committee. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a primary source which refers to the meeting of 8 May.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Barulina, A. T., “Rabota Petrogradskoi i Moskovskoi partorganizatsii sredi zhenshchin-rabotnits (mart-oktyabr' 1917 g.)”, in: V bor'be za pobedu Oktyabrya: Sbornik statei (Moscow, 1957), pp. 197–98.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Notices in Pravda of Rabotnitsa meetings supply us with our only information about the work leading up to the publication of the journal, as the minutes of these meetings are unavailable. Cf., Karpetskaya, Rabotnitsy, p. 7: “Unfortunately, material describing the activities of the editorial collective of the journal has not been preserved in the Central Party Archives.” Neither has available memoir material proved useful in this respect.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Anikeev, V. V., Deyatel'nost' TsK RSDRP(b) v 1917 godu (Moscow, 1969), p. 103Google Scholar. A further 2,000 roubles was given to Rabotnitsa by the Central Committee in July. Ibid., p. 206.

⁵⁷ See above, p. 139.

⁵⁸ Rabotnitsa, No 1-2 (10 May).

⁵⁹ Kollontai, , Rabotnitsa za god revolyutsii, op. cit., p. 12Google Scholar. An alternative figure of 40,000 is given in Shestoi s'ezd RSDRP(b), op. cit., p. 147. Porter, C., Alexandra Kollontai (London, 1980), p. 255, accounts for this discrepancy with the information that the original print-run of 40,000 was increased to 50,000 because of the demand. Unfortunately, Porter does not cite her source.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Rodionova, A. I., “Semnadtsatyi god”, in: Zhenshchiny goroda Lenina, op. cit.. p. 90.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Id., “Vash korrespondent”, in: Vsegda s vami: Sbornik posvyashchennyi 50-letiyu zhurnala “Rabotnitsa” (Moscow, 1964), p. 103.Google Scholar

⁶² Pravda, No 50 (6 May).

⁶³ See above, p. 139.

⁶⁴ Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy, , p. 48.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Pravda, No 56(13 May).

⁶⁶ ibid., No 66 (26 May).

⁶⁷ Ibid., No 80(13 June).

⁶⁸ Ibid., No 81(14 June).

⁶⁹ Ibid., No 92(27 June).

⁷⁰ Ibid., No 94 (29 June).

⁷¹ Sibiriakova, N. [Samoilova, K. N.], “Zhenskii trud i zadachi prof. soyuzov”, in: Rabotnitsa, No 7 (19 08).Google Scholar

⁷² The papers which replaced Pravda from 6 July to 26 October were published under the names Listok Pravdy, Rabochii i Soldat, Proletarii, Rabochii and Rabochii Put’.

⁷³ Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy, , p.82.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ See, for example, Zhenshchiny, goroda Lenina, p. 94Google Scholar; Vsegda, s vami, op. cit., p. 128; Zhenshchiny v revolyutsii (Moscow, 1959), p. 119.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Nikolaeva, K., “Slovo k molodym rabotnitsam’, in: Zhenshchiny v revolyutsii, pp.119–20.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Samoilova, K., Rabotnitsy v rossiiskoi revolyutsii (Moscow. 1920), p. 7.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Borisov, A., Fevral'skaya i Oktyabr'skaya revolyutsii i rabotnitsa (Moscow, 1926), p.19Google Scholar, cited in Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy, , p. 81.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ boyakh, V.. Sbornik vospominanii posvyashchennyi geroicheskoi bor'be vasileostrovtsev za 15 let (Leningrad. 1932), p.31.Google Scholar cited ibid.

⁷⁹ Tarasova, E., “Pod znamenem Bol'shevikov”, in: Zhenshchiny v revolyutsii, pp.136–37.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Samoilova, , Rabotnitsy v rossiiskoi revolyutsii, op. cit., p. 7.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Rabochii i Soldat, No 10 (3 August).

⁸² Kollontai, , Rabotnitsa za god revolyutsii, p. 14.Google Scholar

⁸³ Rabochii i Soldat, No 8 (1 August).

⁸⁴ Rabotnitsa, . No 9(1 09), p.12Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid., pp. 11–12.

⁸⁶ Rabochii Put', No 22 (28 September).

⁸⁷ Samoilova, , Rabotnitsy v rossiiskoi revolyutsii, p. 7.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Velikaya oktyabr'skaya sotsialisticheskaya revolyutsiya. Revolyutsionnoe dvizhenie v Rossii v avguste (Moscow, 1959), pp. 48–50.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Listovki Petrogradskikh bol'shevikov, op. cit., pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Kollontai, , “Avtobiograficheskii ocherk”, p. 299.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Ibid.

⁹² Rabotnitsa, . No 11(18 10). p. 14.Google Scholar

⁹³ Rabotnitsy i uchreditel'noe sobranie and K rabotnitse-izbiratel'nitse.

⁹⁴ Kollontai, , “Kak nado rabotnitsam gotovit'sya k uchreditel'nomu sobraniyu?’. in: Rabochii Put', No 36 (14 10); Samoilova. “Uchreditel'noe sobranie i rabotnitsy”, in: Rabotnitsa, No 11(18 10).Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Kollontai, , “Pervye shagi k sozyvu konferentsii rabotnits”. in: Rabochii Put' No 32(10 10).Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Ibid., No 35 (13 October).

⁹⁷ Ibid., No 38(17 October).

⁹⁸ Kollontai, “Konferentsiya rabotnits i partiinye raiony”. ibid., No 42 (21 October).

⁹⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰⁰ Stal, L.', Pechat' i zhenskoe kommunisticheskoe dvizhenie (Moscow, 1927), p.37Google Scholar,cited in Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy, pp. 103, 105. See also Listovki Petrogradskikh bol'shevikov, pp. 98–100, and Kollontai's leaflets cited in note 93.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Kollontai, , “Rabotnitsy zanimaite svoi revolyutsionnye posty!”. in: Pravda, No 171 (28 10).Google Scholar

¹⁰² Tarasova, , “Pod znamenem Bol'shevikov”, loc. cit., pp. 137.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Bol'sheviki v period podgotovki i provedeniya Velikoi Oktyabr'skoi sotsialisticheskoi revolyutsii. Khronika sobytii v Petrograde. I: Aprel'-Oktyabr’ 1917g. (Leningrad, 1947), pp. 347–48.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Rodionova, , “Semnadtsatyi god”, loc. Cit., pp. 91–92.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Graf, T. I. et al., “Proletarskii Krasnyi Krest”, in: Zhenshchiny goroda Lenina, pp. 106–12.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Listovki Petrogradskikh bol'shevikov, pp. 95–97.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Proletarskoe, Delo, 1 September, cited in Bol'sheviki v period podgotovki, op. cit., p.280.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Rabochii Put', No 42.

¹⁰⁹ Karpetskaya, , Rabotnitsy. p. 114.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Stites, , The Women's Liberation Movement, p. 306.Google Scholar The Provisional Government's Women's Death Battalions had received frequent criticism in the Bolshevik press. According to Porter, Alexandra Kollontai, op. cit.. p. 265. “The Bolshevik papers printed various articles protesting against the way these women had been manipulated to prolong the war, without questioning either their idealism or their capacity to fight.” In my opinion this assessment attributes to the Bolsheviks a more radical approach to the problem of woman's role in society than is in fact evident from a study of the Bolshevik press in 1917. Although contributions to Pravda and Rabotnitsa on the Women's Battalions did not question woman's capacity to fight. they did, however, attack the concept of a military role for women. Bolshevik articles called on women to organise detachments to work in the countryside, or to launder soldiers' clothes instead of joining armed battalions. See, for example, Vorob'evskii, L.. “Batal'ony smerti”, in: Rabochii i Soldat. No 7(30 08). One wonders what was the reaction amongst Bolshevik men to the participation of so many armed women in the October Revolution.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Gilyarova, . “V boyakh pod Pulkovom”. in: Zhenshchiny goroda Lenina. p. 105.Google Scholar

¹¹² “Predvaritel'noe soveshchanie rabotnits-delegatok na konferentsiyu”. in: Pravda, No 184 (9 November).

¹¹³ Samoilova, “Soveshchanie rabotnits i ego zadachi”. ibid., No 181 (5 November).

¹¹⁴ “Predvaritel'noe soveshchanie”. loc. cit.

¹¹⁵ “Pervaya konferentsiya rabotnits”, ibid. No 189 (14 November).

¹¹⁶ Rabotnitsa, , No 12(8 12), p. 11.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Ibid., p. 12.

¹¹⁸ Ibid., No 13(26 01 1918). p. 11.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Reference is to the list of candidates presented in Petrograd. The Bolshevik list in the Petrograd province did not contain a single woman. See Pravda, No 184.

¹²⁰ Rabotnitsa, , No 13, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

¹²¹ “Konferentsiya rabotnits”, in: Izvestiya, 23 November.

¹²² Kollontai, , “K konferentsii rabotnits”, Pravda, No 199 (25 11).Google Scholar

¹²³ “Konferentsiya rabotnits”, loc. cit.

¹²⁴ Samoilova, , “Konferentsiya rabotnits i organizatsionnaya rabota”, in: Pravda, No 200(26 11).Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Stal', “Rabotnitsy — organizuites'!”, ibid., No 198 (24 November).

¹²⁶ Samoilova, “Konferentsiya rabotnits”, loc. cit.

¹²⁷ Stal', “Rabotnitsy — organizuites'!”, loc. cit.

¹²⁸ See above, p. 134.

¹²⁹ Samoilova, “Konferentsiya rabotnits”.

¹³⁰ See above, p. 155.

¹³¹ Farnsworth, B., Aleksandra Kollontai. Socialism, Feminism, and the Bolshevik Revolution (Stanford, 1980), p. 88. also discusses the reasons for the new approach. In common with Farnsworth I hold the opinion that Bobroff, “The Bolsheviks and Working Women”, loc. cit., p. 541, underestimates the political backwardness of the masses of working women, stressing only the “tremendous growth” in their militancy. On the other hand, Farnsworth's assessment that the Bolsheviks still had a “negative estimate of the ‘baba'”, and that what they “did come to realize in the course of 1917 was the potential of the Rabotnitsa group, particularly Kollontai, to organize working-class wemen”, does not fully explain the new developments. Kollontai had been trying for over a decade to persuade Russian Marxists of the need to devote special efforts to work amongst women. The vital new factor was that she and the Rabotnitsa group were no longer working in a vacuum. The war and the February Revolution had aroused the working women and, for the first time, they enjoyed full political rights. True, the Bolsheviks still feared the backwardness of the “baba”, but there was a significant minority of politically conscious women workers, who attended Rabotnitsa meetings in their hundreds, and who were the living proof that the “baba” was undergoing a significant transformation.Google Scholar

¹³² See above, p. 139.

¹³³ Kollontai, , “Tvorcheskoe v rabote t. Samoilovoi”, loc. cit., p. 10.Google Scholar