WOMEN and MARRIAGE

NEHRU on SOVIET RUSSIA  -- a  book  published  in  1928  

JAWAHArlal nehru  visited  ussr  in  1927  along  with  his  wife  kamala  nehruh  and  sister  vijayalakshmi  pandit  and  his  fater  motilal nehru  .  He  was  a  participantg  on  the  TENTH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION  IN 1927  OF  THE  SOVIET  REVOLUTION.

REMEMBER  THAT  KLENIN  HAD  PASSED  AWAY  IN  1924   AND  WHATEVER  NEHRU  IS  RECORDING  HERE  IS  THE  STALIN  ERA-  WHO  WAS  THE  GENERAL  SECRETARY  OF  CPSU. ---THIS  IS  NOTE  BY  ME- RSR

CHAPTER XV

WOMEN AND MARRIAGE

““Have they really nationalised women

in Russia?’ That is, almost invariably,

the first question that is asked about Russia.

It is not easy to understand what

 nationalisation of women means, Probably the newspaper correspondents and editors who have taken such pains to spread this particular item of “news” do not themselves know what they write- about. At the back of their minds, perhaps, their is an idea of

promiscuous sexual intercourse going on all over the Soviet Union. And they must imagine or wish others to imagine that the status of woman has been terribly degraded and she has become a mere chattel for the fulfilment of man’s passions.

This is very far from the impression

that a visitor to Russia, or even one who

reads about her present condition, carries away with him. Whatever other failings the Russian woman of today may have, she is certainly not a chattel or plaything of man. She is independent, aggressively so,

and refuses to play second fiddle to man.

I was present for a while at a. women’s

conference in Moscow, Krupskaya, the

widow of Lenin, was there, and Madame

Sun Yat Sen and the aged Clara Zetkin

and a large number of women from foreign countries. And all the women from the other countries of Europe who spoke envied their Russian sisters for the social and economic freedom they had won.

The lot of the woman in Russia in old

times was certainly not one of equality

with man. The law favoured men. The

wife was obliged to do what her husband

told her. She could not enter any service

without her husband’s consent It was al-

most impossible for her to get a divorce.

The daughter could inherit only one-four-

teenth part of the inheritance, the remaining thirteen parts going to the son or sons.

After marriage the woman’s property and

money was under her husband’s control.

In the villages there was abysmal ignorance and, it is said, and supported by many homely Russian sayings, that one of the . principal pastimes of the peasant was to beat his wife.

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The great war and the civil war that

followed broke up many families in Russia.

The Soviet government had thus to deal

with continually changing conditions. In

their early days they legislated for women workers and marriage and in theory at least made woman the equal of man. But much of the legislation remained on paper although it had a powerful effect on changing the mentality of the masses. Lenin,

speaking two years after the revolution,

said:

‘“ A complete revolution in the legis-

lation affecting women was brought about by the government of the workers in the first months of its existence. The Soviet  government has not left a stone unturned of these laws which held women in complete subjection. ..... ..We may now say with pride and without any exaggeration that outside of Soviet Russia there is not  a country in the world where women have been given full equal rights, where women are not in a humiliating position which is

felt specially in every day family life. This

was one of our first and most important

tasks........ Certainly laws are not enough

and we will not for a minute be satisfied

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just with decrees. ...... . The legal position of women in Soviet Russia is ideal from the point of view of the foremost countries.

But we tell ourselves plainly that this is

only the beginning.”

The general labour legislation was

particularly beneficial to women workers

and in addition there were special laws

for the protection of women. Among the

general regulations may be mentioned the eight hour day, which it is now proposed to reduce to seven hours, yearly holidays, social insurance, pensions for long service, rest homes, sanatorium treatment, prohibition of child labour under fourteen,

only four hours work as training from

fourteen to sixteen, and six hours from

sixteen to eighteen. It must also be

remembered that workers’ committees in

factories and trade unions have 

considerable authority in regard to workers’ conditions. The special laws for the protection of women and motherhood are :

(a) Employment of women and young

persons under 18 in heavy and

dangerous industries is prohibited, such as chemical industry

and others where workers are

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exposed to lead dust.

(b) Four months maternity vacation

is given to industrial workers

and such non-industrial workers

whose work involves special

strain. Other non-industrial work-

ers get three months’ vacation.

(c) Night work and overtime for

 pregnant women is prohibited.

(d) A pregnant woman cannot be sent

away from the place of her  regular

work without her consent.

(e) Nursing mothers are allowed, in

addition to the usual intervals,

further intervals of not less than

half an hour at least every three

and a half hours. These intervals

are included in working hours

and paid for,

It was feared that owing to the

privileges given to pregnant women the

employer might infringe agreements 

without proper cause, There is therefore a provision in the law which forbids the

discharge of a pregnant woman without

the sanction of the labour inspector.

There are also what are called “night

sanatoria” for workers who are not ill

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enough to leave off work but require care and dieting. They go there after their work and spend the night and their leisure hours there. 

The number of women in industry has

been growing, though not so fast as the men and there was a tendency to employ them in almost all kinds of work. But latterly there has been a re-action against this and it has been pointed out that ‘‘equal rights for women” does not mean the employment of women in some kinds of labour for which

they are physically not fitted.

Women occupy the highest positions

in the Soviet Union. It was a Russian,

Kollontay, who became the world’s first

woman ambassador.

 A hundred thousand women were elected to the village soviets

in the R.S.F.S.R. and the Ukraine

in 1926; and 169 peasant women were

members of the All Union Congress of

Soviets. Even in backward Siberia there

are 8,000 women members of the village

soviets, forty five of them being presidents of their soviets, Women have an equal right to the land. There are a million of them working their own land as heads of their households.

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There is a special woman’s department

of the Communist Party known as the

“Genotdel,” which carries on vigorous

activity for women’s education and rights.

The Genotdel publishes several journals

and organises lectures on hygiene, baby

welfare, co-operation, politics and like subjects. March 8th is celebrated throughout Russia as International Woman's Day.

The marriage and divorce laws of the

Soviet are certainly a great break from old tradition. The problems they had to face were partly similar to those that other countries of Europe and America have to face and were partly the result of the general break up of family life after the wars, and of communist ideology. Other countries like Denmark and Turkey have not dissimilar marriage laws and in the United States of America there is a strong movement for what is called ‘‘companiate marriage.” Soviet Russia is therefore not different in this respect from many other countries.

But Russia is different in  one important

respect. Tradition and ancient practice

have no value there; indeed there is a

tendency to go against them because they

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are inseparably connected with a form of

society which is a symbol of slavery for

the Russians of today. What the ideal of

marriage in a communist state should be it is difficult to say for the high priests of the doctrine differ. Many of them are strong ‘believers in the family, but the family would be different from what it is now.

The first Soviet mariage law made

marriage a civil ceremony. Religous ceremonies were not prevented and most people continued to have them, specially in the villages. It is curious to notice, however, that even the civil marriage gradually developed a ritual of its own with red draperies and pledges and speeches. 

Polygamy was prohibited and it was made a criminal offence to conceal a previous marriage at the time of a second. Divorce was free and easy and subject to mutual consent. No community of property was

created by marriage, and husband and wife were mutually responsible for each other's support. Illegitimate children were given the same rights as legitimate ones. The husband and wife were permitted to take the name of either as a common name or to keep their own names. Children, after 

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the age of fourteen, were permitted to decide whether they would take their father’s or mother's name and also to decide about their citizenship and religion. The law required the parents to keep their children with them and support them. Adoption was not permitted.

Testamentary disposition of property

is only permitted in certain cases and even then only in favour of the legal heirs.

Ordinarily the wife and the dependent

relatives- receive equal portions. If the

amount is insufficient to support all having a legal claim, those in greatest need have the first charge on it. The law at first did not permit the wife to inherit more than 10,000 roubles (4 1000), the State getting the rest. Two years ago this was changed and now inheritance is supposed to be unlimited, but the tax on it increases on an ascending scale. For a sum exceeding 5,00,000 roubles the tax is 100 per cent.

Such were the main provisions of the

marriage law some years ago. In 1925,

however an attempt was made to change it,

but the attempt did not succeed then and

was postponed. For many months after-

wards the whole of Russia discussed the

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proposed changes. Innumerable meetings were held all over the country and news-papers were full of the controversy. Leading communists took opposite sides and the

discussions were not lacking in frankness or warmth. Generally the peasants were more conservative than the town people.

One of the principal reasons why the

changes were proposed was the existence of a large number of couples, estimated at one hundred thousand, who were living together but had not registered themselves. It

was proposed to legalise these marriages.

This was vigorously opposed, as were also certain clauses making the whole house-hold liable to pay maintenance to a wife in case the husband was too poor to pay it.

The women’s organizations were, however, in favour of protecting unregistered marriages.

 After long debate the new marriage law

was adopted in November, 1926. It'stated that “registration of marriage is established with the aim of facilitating the protection of personal and property rights and the interests of the wife and children.........

Registration is an indisputable proof of the existence of marriage.” Thus registration 

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was not marriage but the proof of it only,

and marriage could take place without it

though it might be more difficult to prove

it then. The same protection was afforded to registered and unregistered unions but in the latter case definite proof was required by the court that an actual state of marriage existed. If there was an unregistered union there could be no remarriage.

The wife’s maintenance was made a

charge on the husband’s household but

only to the extent of the husband’s share

in it. Divorce was made even simpler, one party being permitted to claim it without the consent of the other. It was pointed out that in spite of this easy divorce the average number of divorces every year were eleven for every ten thousand of the population. This is said to be less than the number in many other countries where divorce is not free. It was also stated that

the new law, although apparently removing restrictions on unions, in effect helped to establish monogamy firmly by attaching material responsibility to every relation.

Adoption was permitted by the new

law. The old law forbidding adoption had

not been a ‘success. There were large

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numbers of young orphans who had no one to look after them and were taken as extra hands by peasants and treated like their own children,

The legal marriage age was at first

sixteen for girls and eighteen for boys.

But, largely at the instance of women, the marriage age for women was also raised to eighteen,

This marriage law applies to the R. S.

F.S. R. In the other republics of the

Union there are some variations. Thus

in White Russia only registered marriages are recognised.

It is difficult to moralise about any

matter as ideas of conventional morality

differ from age to age and country to

country, And conventional morality has

suffered a severe set back in Russia. There are many who attach little importance to constancy in mairied life, But there are also many who are called puritans and who wage unceasing war against sexual laxity of any kind. An eminent professor is the

leader of this movement and he has laid

it down that continence should be the rule and the sexual act should only be indulged in for the purpose of having.children. He 

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is greatly against birth control. Birth

control indeed is not favoured by the State,not because they have any moral objections to it, but because they want the population of Russia to increase.

Many of the well-known leaders of

the communists—Lenin, Bukharin, 

Lunacharsky and others—have expressed great concern at the extremist tendencies on both sides—

sexual laxity on the one side and an

extreme form of puritanism which frowns

even at handshaking and laughter and

amusement of any kind, on the other.

-

Their emphasis has been on the side of

restraint and they have denounced indulgence of all kinds, sexual, in alcohol and in tobacco.

Lenin discussed these matters in an

interview with Clara Zetkin in 1920. He

said that his alarm had forced him to speak.

‘ Qur future generation disturbs me 

deeply. They are a part of the revolution.

And if the evil manifestations of bourgeois society begin to appear in the revolutionary world—as the widely flowering roots of certain weeds—then it is better to take measures against them  in time.” Further he said that:

 ‘The changed attitude of

the young to questions of sex life are of

course on grounds of ‘principle’ and based on theory. Many call their position 'revolutionary’ and ‘communistic'

 They sincerely think it is so. But that does not impress this fellow. Although I am less than any one a gloomy ascetic, this so-called ‘new sex-life’ of the young, and often the older ones too, often seems to be entirely bourgeois, just another form of the bourgeois house of prostitution.” 

Referring to the theory that the satisfaction of the sex impulse and the demands of love should be as simple and inconsequential as the

drinking of a glass of water, he says:

‘“ Certainly thirst must be satisfied. But

does a normal person, under normal conditions, lie in the street and drink from mud puddles? Or even {rom a glass that dozens of other people have been drinking from?

But still more important is the social

aspect of it. Drinking water is an indivi-

dual matter. But two participate in love,

and from it arises a third, new life. Here

the interests of society come in, the duty

to the collective must tz considered.

“I don't for a minute want to preach

asceticism. Communism must bring the

joy of life and vigour which comes from

the completeness of the love life. The

excess in sex-life so often observed at the present time does not, in my opinion, bring with it joy of life and vigour, but on the contrary, lessens them. In time of revolution this is bad, very bad.

““ Youth needs healthy sport, swimming,

excursions, physical training of all kinds,

a variety of mental interest—study, investigation, scientific research—a sound body makes a sound mind. We want neither monks nor Don Juans, nor yet the German philistine as the happy medium.

To combat these unhealthy tendencies

which troubled Lenin a special effort is

being made to carry on propaganda on the dangers of sexual indulgence and venereal disease. The sport and physical culture movement is also being encouraged and has spread very fast. Prostitution is also being combated vigorously. The Communist Party has a rule that any member

of the Party having relations with a pros-

titute shall be expelled from the party.

But more than these devices of lecture

and propaganda it is hoped that the new

conditions of life will teach restraint and

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divert attention to other interests of life.

Laxity and indulgence flourish in a wealthy leisure class which has little to do and takes to sex to escape from emis and boredom. And this leisure class being the model, to be admired and looked up to, sets the fashion to the other classes below.

In Russia this class has disappeared and few people have the time to think of much else than their work and their many other occupations.

In Moscow there stands the great

Palace of Motherhood on the river bank.

It has a fine exhibition of "everything that

relates to the health of the mother and the child. It carries on research for the fight against disease and mortality and trains and sends out doctors, midwives and nurses. Beautiful paintings and posters carry its message to the distant villages and teach the fathcr how to treat the mother,

and the mother how to treat the baby, and both how to have a pleasant and clean home and healthy children. They teach ‘the mother specially to feed the baby at her own breasts. A poster represents a little calf looking with reproach in its eyes at a baby drinking milk out of a bottle and

asking : “Why do you drink my mother’s

milk? ”’

The Department of Motherhood and

Infancy is in charge of all the work con-

cerning mothers and babies. It has started thousands of day nurseries in the villages.

The peasants themselves contributed

through their organisations 650000 roubles   for these nurseries in 1926, The number of nurseries increases rapidly as the peasants get to know them and appreciate their benefits.

But the Soviet Union is a vast area and

all this change and improvement great as it is, has, but touched the fringe of it.

Most of the men and women are, as every-where else, conservative and suspicious of new-fangled notions. Still, the new order has cut deep into the ancient soil and in Turkestan and VYakutsk and Azerbaijan,

where women till lately sat secluded behind  the veil, women today sit as the equals of men in the council chambers of the repubics.