One of the most popular myths about socialism is that the Soviet power allegedly supported feminism and diligently destroyed the institution of the family. The Soviet power, even in its early years, supported, not destroyed, the family.
In this post we will focus on debunking the myth about the Bolsheviks love for feminism. The attitude of the Bolsheviks to feminism was sharply negative and it was clearly expressed already in 1913. On February 17, 1913, a grandiose meeting of women workers was held in St. Petersburg, at which Praskovya Kudelli, a communist and associate of Vladimir Lenin (in the future a member of the editorial board of the magazines "Rabotnitsa", "Rabotnitsa and Peasant Woman", i.e. a major ideologist of the women's proletarian movement) made a speech in which, in particular, she called on women workers to distance themselves from feminist women's movements.
As a result of her speech, a resolution was adopted that "the worker disassociates herself from the feminists and recognizes the united revolutionary struggle of the working class, the victory of which will give her universal suffrage and full equality"
"Rabotnitsa" (Working woman) magazine for 1918 gave a curious definition of feminism "Feminists are women of the bourgeois class fighting for their equality with men within capitalist society". Note that feminists were defined precisely as women of the bourgeois, i.e. hostile, class.
The ideology of the then feminist "Women's Equality League" was called alien to the revolutionary movement by key figures of the women's proletarian movement: Alexandra Kollontai, Clara Zetkin, Vera Slutskaya, and many others.
So why did the Soviet authorities fight feminism so fiercely? The movement for equal rights for women in Soviet Russia was fundamentally different from feminism. Indeed, there was much talk at the time about the problems of women's equality and liberation "from kitchen slavery."
However, we will find nothing feminist in the Soviet calls for women's emancipation - neither ideas of the destruction of marriage nor agitation for promiscuity. Nor do we find any opposition between women and men.
Let us cite one more quotation, which will well show what exactly the Soviet fighters for equality wanted from the "bourgeois" feminists. The magazine Rabotnitsa criticized quite extensively and sharply the pre-revolutionary feminist movement "The League for Equal Rights of Women". The December 1918 issue tells of the First Women's Conference held in 1917.
The Bolsheviks led by Alexandra Kollontai responded to the calls of the feminists to "free ourselves from the slavery of men" in the following way: "We now have an equal right with our husbands, fathers, brothers and sons to work and to continue the struggle against our common enemy - capital. And it is in vain that nice young ladies come and urge to vote for a list with only women ... Women workers are not on the same path as you... The women workers will give their votes to their proletarian Bolshevik party, where men and women, both on the list and in the revolutionary struggle, are in close formation."
The opposition between women and men inherent in feminism destroys the institution of marriage and splits society. The Soviets simply didn't need this. They were going for a completely different goal. They needed to unite men and women, consolidating society in building socialism.
Women in Soviet times were largely freed from the oppression of everyday life. She was given voting rights, access to education and social realization on an equal footing with men. However, by choosing this very progressive path for its time, the Bolsheviks did not turn women into militant feminists.
So, don't go on about the leftist roots of feminism. There are none. Feminism was originally conceived by the bourgeoisie to distract the female part of the population from the class struggle and to redirect the protest towards the opposition of the sexes.