Women, the State and Revolution

Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936

• Author(s): Wendy Z. Goldman,
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pages: 351
• ISBN_10: 0521458161
  ISBN_13: 9780521458160
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / Europe / General , History / Russia / General , History / Russia / Soviet Era , History / Modern / 20th Century / General , Law / Family Law / General , Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare , Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory ,

Description:... When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, they believed that under socialism the family would "wither-away." They envisioned a society in which communal dining halls, daycare centers, and public laundries would replace the unpaid labor of women in the home. Yet by 1936 legislation designed to liberate women from their legal and economic dependence had given way to increasingly conservative solutions aimed at strengthening traditional family ties and women's reproductive role. This book explains the reversal, focusing on how women, peasants, and orphans responded to Bolshevik attempts to remake the family, and how their opinions and experiences in turn were used by the state to meet its own needs.