Women in the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolutions of 1917 saw the collapse of the Russian Empire, a short-lived provisional government, and the creation of the world's first socialist state under the Bolsheviks. They made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and all were affected by the events of that period and the new policies of the Soviet Union.

The provisional government that took power after the February 1917 overthrow of the tsar promoted liberalism and made Russia the first major country to give women the right to vote. As soon as the Bolsheviks took power in October 1917, they liberalized laws on divorce and abortion, decriminalized homosexuality, and proclaimed a new higher status for women. Inessa Armand (1874-1920), Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869-1939) and Aleksandra Artyukhina (1889–1969) were prominent Bolsheviks. Outside the Bolsheviks, Maria Spiridonova emerged as one of the main leaders of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and generally of the peasant movement: she chaired the Extraordinary All-Russia Congress Of Soviets Of Peasants' Deputies in late November 1917, and was later appointed head of the Peasant Section of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies (VTsIK) until July 1918.


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