From the old family to the new: work, marriage and motherhood in urban Soviet Russia, 1917-31

Waters, Elizabeth (1985). From the old family to the new: work, marriage and motherhood in urban Soviet Russia, 1917-31. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The emancipation of women and the transformation of family life was a part, if a minor one. of the West European socialist tradition, and in the wake of the Russian Revolution visions of a new communist culture which would transform private as well as public life were current amongst sections of the Bolshevik party. However, efforts to radically change the status of women in society by improving their position in the work-force, relieving them of housework and childcare, opening up greater choice in personal relations through legalisation of abortion and provision of contraception and the espousal of a liberal morality brought little success. One reason for this was that the reformers were few in number and received little backing from the party and government. The poverty of the country, the lack of resources for providing alternatives to traditional family patterns was another constraint. Thirdly the plans tor total reconstruction of everyday life could have no great attraction for an urban population still deeply committed to tradition. Finally the visions themselves were shot through with the prejudices of the time: the persisting view that gender was in some part biologically determined, and a tendency to condone the regulation of everyday life by centralised agencies. Although the more radical plans for family reform were unrealised, patterns of living in the urban areas were slowly changing and the party was establishing its right to control the private sphere through its command of economic planning and the political process, and also of the legal system and the welfare services.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):