Who and why issued fake decrees on the nationalization of Russian women at the dawn of the formation of the Soviet state

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The October Revolution of 1917 was a turning point in the history of Russia. The new workers 'and peasants' government began to resolutely rebuild many areas of the political, economic and social foundations of the state. Not all legislative acts of the Soviet regime were perceived with the same understanding. Some became the subject of controversy, criticism, bewilderment and even general outrage. Among the latter is the so-called "Decree on the Abolition of the Private Ownership of Women", which stirred up not only the Russian, but also the foreign public, and in fact turned out to be an ordinary fake.

The sensational fake decree "On the abolition of private ownership of women" and its clear procedure for socializing the fair sex

In March 1918, leaflets appeared on the houses and fences of Saratov, the text of which shocked the population of the city. The document called the “Decree on the Abolition of Private Ownership by Women” set forth new principles governing relations between men and women, in particular, the “nationalization” of the fair sex. The order indicated that in order to eliminate social inequality, it was necessary to socialize women, and set out a clear procedure for carrying out this procedure.

First, legal marriage was abolished, and all married women between the ages of 17 and 30 were removed from “private ownership” and declared the property of the people - the so-called “national property”. An exception was made for mothers of five or more children. The decree prescribed the procedure for registering women who are subject to involvement in intimate relationships, as well as the rules for using them. So, a woman could be involved in having sex for no more than 3 hours a maximum of 4 times a week. Husbands, who were called “former owners” in the document, received a kind of privilege in the form of the right to an extraordinary visit to their wife. At the same time, men were required to contribute a certain percentage of earnings to a special fund. Women who received the status of "national property" were guaranteed a monthly cash allowance. The children born by them, upon reaching one month of age, were promised supervision in the "people's nursery", and then in the "kindergarten-communes" and education up to 17 years. The system of rewards and punishments was not ignored either.

For example, the birth of twins promised a monetary reward for the mother. And a lady convicted of the spread of venereal diseases could fall under a revolutionary tribunal.

How did the distribution of the fake decree end for Saratov resident Mikhail Uvarov?

The document, so similar to the original decrees of the Soviet government, infuriated not only women, who were not at all attracted by the prospect of becoming public property, but also their companions in life. A real riot broke out in Saratov: an enraged crowd of townspeople burst into the local anarchist club and defeated it. Those present in the room with great difficulty managed to escape by escaping through the back door.

To rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the public, the anarchists conducted an investigation and found out that the leaflets pasted around the city were a fake, concocted by the owner of the tea house, Mikhail Uvarov. Fearing the aggravation of the situation, the anarchists - the then allies of the Bolsheviks - did not bother to find out the reasons that prompted Uvarov to create this forgery. They organized an armed raid on the teahouse and eliminated their abuser.

Are Russian women the property of the bourgeoisie?

The loud scandal with the pseudo-decree had an equally loud continuation. The fake was published by a large number of press organs. Some presented the document as a curiosity, others - as a real fact, discrediting both the anarchists and the Soviet regime.

In the summer of 1918, the owner of a manufacturing shop, Martyn Khvatov, was brought to trial. He was charged with distributing in Moscow the "Decree on the socialization of Russian girls and women", which he himself had prepared. In his document, the defendant was indignant at the social injustice expressed in the fact that the bourgeoisie took possession of the "best specimens of the fair sex", as a result of which "the correct continuation of the human race on Earth" is impossible. During the trial, it turned out that the enterprising shopkeeper managed to partially implement some of the provisions of his fake. In the house he acquired in Sokolniki, the "Palace of Love of the Communards" was created. An ordinary brothel was hidden under the loud name. The owner of the establishment without a twinge of conscience put the payment for the services of the "communal" in his own pocket.

The acquittal was facilitated by Aleksandra Kollontai, the defender of Khvatov, who, whenever possible, tried to defend the right of men and women to free love. Martyn had only to deposit the money earned from the sex business into the state treasury. However, Khvatov did not manage to do this: the next day after his release, he was killed by anarchists.

How the Bolsheviks were discredited by fake decrees

During the Civil War, the "Decree on the Abolition of the Private Ownership of Women" and the like became an effective ideological weapon for the White Guards against the Bolsheviks. The repeatedly reprinted fake was used to campaign against the Soviets, highlighting the immorality and cynicism of the new government. To discredit the current government, the results of the activities of special commissions to investigate the atrocities of the Bolsheviks were disseminated. Echoes of the myth of the nationalization of women sounded even later, during the period of collectivization. Then the opponents of the new system exaggerated rumors that the collective farms would have to "sleep under one common blanket," that is, not only property, but also the wives of peasants would be common.

Events in Russia did not go unnoticed abroad. Already in the summer of 1918, the theme of the destruction of the family and the socialization of women in the Soviets began to dominate the Western European and American press. The screaming headlines about the taboo on the creation of a family, legalized by socialism, prostitution, and polygamy in the Soviet way had their due effect, and at the end of February 1919 in the United States, a special Senate Commission on Bolshevism took into consideration the issue of the nationalization of women in Soviet Russia.

And then the Bolsheviks began to fight with the church, for this publicly inspecting the relics of the saints.