Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Research Paper

First Advisor

Mike McBride

Abstract

Pure communist doctrine emphasizes egalitarian practices and advocates for gender equality unlike any other political theory. In particular, the Soviet government, under the authority of Lenin and Marxist-Leninist ideology, legally granted women all-encompassing social rights, which persisted through Stalin’s time. But throughout this period, and especially during the Stalinist years, women’s experiences were not congruent with the policies and laws set forth. Women were treated unequally within the realms of education and work, as they faced wage differentials, separate training and a gendered division of labor. The onset of the Stalinist era also brought about changes in social policy-particularly the 1936 Draft Bill and 1944 Family Law- that not only contradicted other legal provisions, but radically redefined what women’s rights were in the Soviet Union. It had vast repercussions to how women were treated and perceived in society, which directly affected their experiences as ‘equal proletariats’ This social history, which looks at the perspectives of females living during the Stalinist era, looks at personal accounts and responses of women, statistics from the era, and the social climate of the time, and from these sources, concludes that, while all citizens suffered under Stalin’s rule, women underwent particular conditions that made their experiences more drastic and expose the incongruities and hardship of the Stalinist era.

Comments

WSP Major: International Policy and Russian Culture in a Global Context, with a minor in History

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