FEATURES OF THE FORMATION OF WOMEN’S DEPARTMENTS IN PROVINCIAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY (BOLSHEVIKS) IN 1918-1921 (BASED ON ARCHIVAL MATERIALS FROM THE VYATKA PROVINCE)

Abstract

The emancipation of women, their involvement in socio-political life, and their acquisition of political subjectivity is actual because the problem isn’t studied thoroughly, which is caused by both the limited study of the regional level and the position of female Bolsheviks in party organizations. The work is written on the basis of archival materials from the Central State Archives of the Kirov Region, which were introduced into scientific works for the first time by the author. The author uses the microhistory method to study the fates of the first female Bolsheviks, as well as the institutional method to examine the emergence and initial period of activity of women’s departments and women’s sections of party committees. The purpose of the work is to study the process of establishing women’s departments in local party organizations. The author sets the following objectives: to analyze the biographies of the first female Bolsheviks in local party organizations and to study the process of establishing women’s departments in 1919-1921 and its specific features. The analysis of the biographies of the first female Bolsheviks in local party organizations allows us to conclude that women were often perceived by men not as «comrades in the struggle», but as objects of «desire», competitors, and also persons engaged in something of little significance. 8. In the first years of Soviet power, «masculine» local party organizations of the peasant region of Russia, on the one hand, inspired women’s activity, and on the other hand, tried to limit it, putting women’s departments in the position of auxiliary institutions of the party. The analysis showed that the formation of women’s departments and volost women’s organizations was very difficult: minimal staffing, the presence of many combinations, overload of Soviet work, a shortage of qualified organizers, weak assistance from party organizations, and sometimes the absence of it. The activities of women’s departments faced the same problems as all party and soviet organizations in the countryside - cyclical nature of work due to the agrarian the region, personnel «hunger», low level of culture and political illiteracy. There were a few women in local party organizations, and very few among senior party members. The women who managed the activities of women’s departments, as a rule, were newcomers, of proletarian origin, which made it difficult to build communication with peasant women. Despite this, the number of young women and girls who actively tried to get involved in the activities of women’s organizations was growing. In the peasant patriarchal culture, men-managers could not imagine a woman in the role of influencial and effective leader. Women in the party were given «secondary roles».