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Social Changes In Selected Institutions Of The Ussr With Special Reference To The Family

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Social Changes In Selected Institutions Of The Ussr With Special Reference To The Family

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Content Qopyrlght by
NATALIA. LEO TSCHEKALOFF
I960
SOCIAL CHANGES IN SELECTED INSTITUTIONS
OF THE U.S.S.R.
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE FAMILY
by
Natalia Leo Tschekaloff
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Sociology)
June 1960
UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N C A U FO R N IA
GRADUATE SCH O O L
UNIVERSITY PARK
LO S ANOELES 7 , CALIFO RNIA
This dissertation, written by
..... Natalia L. .Tsche^loff
under the direction of h&£...Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Graduate
School, in partial fulfillment of requirements
for the degree of
D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. THE PROBLEM AND THE NATURE OF THE STUDY .... 1
The Problem
Statement of the Problem
The Objectives of the Study
Importance of the Study
The Frame of Reference
The Soviet Ideology
Materials and Method of Study
Review of the Literature
The Limitations of the Study
Organization of the Study
II. BASIC ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHANGES AFFECTING
MARITAL AND FAMILY INSTITUTIONS IN THE
U.S.S.R..................................... 23
Socio-Economic Changes In the U.S.S.R.
Gos Plan
The First Five-Year Plan
The Second Five-Year Plan, 1933-1937
The Third Five-Year Plan, 1938-1942
The Fourth Five-Year Plan, 1946-1950
The Fifth Five-Year Plan, 1951-1955
Summary
III. SOCIAL CHANGES WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE AND
FAMILY IN THE SOVIET UNION: FIRST PERIOD. ... 53
The Family Status and Role in Russia Prior
to Communism
The Domostroi
The Communist Family
Early Soviet Legislation
The Laws of 1917-1918
The 1926 Soviet Legislation on Family
and Marriage
Summary
ii
Chapter Page
IV. SOCIAL CHANGES WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE AND
FAMILY IN THE SOVIET UNION: SECOND PERIOD ... 97
Soviet Legislation
The Family Law of June 27, 1936
The Family Law of July 8, 1944
Current Soviet Attitudes Toward the
Marriage Laws
Summary
V. THE CHILD AND THE STATE: FIRST PERIOD.......... 121
Early Soviet Legislation
Illegitimacy
Criminal Responsibility
Parental Rights and Obligations
Provisions for Public Child Care
Public Feeding of Children
Vagrant and Shelterless Children
Child**Care and Education
Children's Homes, the Introduction of
Children's Labor Communes, and the
Emphasis on Polytechnic Education
Reorganization of Children's Homes and
Labor Communes
Attachment of Schools to Industrial Plants
Legal Provisions Regarding Religious Training
Social Conditions at the End of the First
Period
Summary
VI. THE CHILD AND THE STATE: SECOND PERIOD.......... 152
Juvenile Delinquency
Soviet Legislation
The Family Law of June 27, 1936
The Family Law of July 8, 1944
Provisions for Child Care
Adoption
Guardianship and Trusteeship
Dependency
Patronat
Legal Measures with Regard to Juvenile
Delinquency
Summary
iii
Chapter Page
175 VII. WOMEN IN SOVIET INDUSTRY
Soviet Ideology
Pre-Revolutionary Industry In Russia and
Labor Legislation
Industrial Employment of Women In Old Russia
Comparison of Women's Industrial Employment
In Old Russia and the Soviet Union
Summary
VIII. CHANGES IN THE ROLE AND STATUS OF WOMEN IN
The Woman as an Individual Member In
Labor Organization
Soviet Legislation with Regard to Labor
Early Soviet Laws
Labor Disciplinary Measures
Labor Regulations Intended to Raise Work
Efficiency
The Woman In Relation to Her Physical
Constitution
Injurious Trades
Social Security In the U.S.S.R.
The Woman Worker as a Homemaker
Public Feeding
Child Care
Summary
IX. THE ROLE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY....................226
Soviet Attitude Toward Private Property
Early Soviet Legislation
The New Economic Policy
Protection of Private Property
Crimes Committed Against Private Property
Crimes Committed Against State or Public
Property
Subsequent Soviet Legislation
Housing
Inheritance
Summary
X. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS....................... 250
SOVIET INDUSTRY 196
iv
Chapter Page
Findings
Conflicting Ideologies
Social Changes in the Soviet Union
Conclusions
BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................263
APPENDIX A ...........................................269
APPENDIX B ...........................................287
v
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. State Allowances to Mothers with Large Families
in 1944 .................................
2. State Allowances to Mothers with Large Families
in 1947 ...................................
3. Vagrant and Shelterless Children Admitted to
Children's Homes from 1917 to 1922.......... . 132
4. Manner in Which Juvenile Delinquents Spent
Their Leisure.............. ...........
5. Living Conditions of 2,894 Children Placed in
Correctional Institutions ............. . .
6. Length of Time in Which Homeless Children
Had Lived on the Streets...................
7. Industrial Development in Russia During
the Nineteenth Century.....................
8. Russian Centers with Population over 50,000
in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century. . 184
9. Monthly Wages of a Group of Men and Women in
the Cotton Industry in Moscow, Prior to 1912. . 187
10. Proportion of Women Employed in Industry for
the Period 1901-1955.......................
11. Proportion of Women Workers Employed in Various
Branches of Industry 1917-1924.............
12. Proportion of Women Employed in Industry
1929-1955 .................................
vi
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AMD THE MATURE OF THE STUDY
The Problem
Statement of the Problem
There has been considerable controversy with
respect to the socialist ideology of the U.S.S.R. and the
modification of the old Russian institutions introduced by
the Soviet government in the first years of its existence, j
I
Consequently, the interpretation of these social changes,
more often than not, has been couched in highly emotional
j
terms by the representatives of those in favor of the I
Soviet way of life and those against it. As a result,
i
these interpretations often have had a subjective character.
This study endeavors to make an objective evalu
ation of a few selected areas of social conditions in the
U.S.S.R., and their corresponding social institutions,
based on factual material indicating various changes which
I have taken place in the life of the people during the forty
i
years of the Soviet Union. More specifically, an attempt
| has been made to analyze the importance and the extent of
i
|social change since the beginning of the Soviet era to
1
the present day, with respect to the role and status o£ the
Soviet family and its closely related field of child care
and education, the position of women in industry and as
individual participants in the economic production of the
country, and the concept of private ownership of property.
The Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study was to answer the follow
ing questions:
1. What were the ideological concepts underlying
the new family orientation of the Soviet Union as seen
f
against the background of those of the old Russia?
2. What changes took place in the social status
and role of the family immediately after the inauguration
of the Soviet government?
3. What were the basic social principles under
lying the child's new relationship to the state, and what
was the new pattern of child care and education introduced !
by the Soviet government?
4. What social changes occurred with respect to
woman's new role in industry and her participation in the
I economic system of the Soviet Union, as well as in relation
to her position as an individual worker in the organization
|of labor?
5. What were the early Soviet laws pertaining to
private ownership of property in its relation to the
3
principle of collectivism?
6. Have the new patterns of family life, child
care, industrial system of production, and the social atti
tudes toward private ownership of property survived? If
not, what were the socio-psychological and legal changes
which have gradually become apparent during the forty years
of the Soviet era?
7. Were there any existing social needs not met by
the earlier Soviet institutions, and what other forms had
to be created in order to satisfy them?
Importance of the Study
The impact of Communism on the rest of the world
has become one of the most vital issues which the West now
faces, and there are few problems which command greater
attention from every thoughtful person than the relation
ships between the Soviet Union and the West.
To those who believe in the democratic way of life
and in the intrinsic worth and dignity of the human being,
Communism, with its rigidly-enforced mass discipline,
constitutes a threat. The advocates of Communism, on the
other hand, maintain that the communistic system of govern
ment, based on inexorable historical laws, will succeed,
and that the Western democracies are doomed.
Because of these conflicting points of view and the
claims unde by the communists, it is necessary to understand
4 I
|
what the Soviet ideology seeks to accomplish, what it has
accomplished, and in what respects it has failed to meet
its goals.
Therefore, an objective study of the Soviet Union
and its institutions, and a reexamination of its basic
.premises, are urgently needed. This is a challenging sub
ject for research, not only as a scholastic inquiry but
I also because of its timely relevance to the questions of
national security and international relationships.
The Frame of Reference
{
All social institutions have been created around
a central core of human relationships in order to meet the j
basic needs of human beings through certain socially estab- \
lished or sanctioned patterns of behavior. Although social
institutions have been devised primarily to serve the
interests of the group for the purpose of its preservation
j
and perpetuation, they have come more and more to take into |
consideration the well-being of the individual, that is, |
his survival. Thus, society and the individual may be
viewed as two poles on the same continuum, inextricably
; I
bound together and representing a whole.
There is a generic similarity among various racial
and ethnic groups with respect to the fundamental human
jfunctions, because all men live by the same deep-seated,
dynamic urges and the primary basic human needs. The
i
5 i
i
manner o£ expressing their needs and the performance of
I
their basic activities may differ from people to people,
but the source of these needs is universally the same.
The social changes which the Soviet government
introduced in the early phase of its existence, through its
governmental policies and legislation, were intended to
bring about important shifts in social relationships in the
institution of marriage, the system of child care, the
place of women in industry, and other related areas.
According to the socialist theory, the family had ceased to
be a necessity for society, child care was to become the
responsibility of the State, and woman was to be freed from:
her household chores and obligations in order to be able to
participate in the economic and industrial development of
the country.
In the second period of the Soviet regime, however, ;
i
the government found it necessary to abandon its erstwhile j
position and to reintroduce some of the formerly abolished
legislation. The family again regained its social signi
ficance, and this brought about corresponding changes in
other spheres of social life.
The Soviet Ideology
! In presenting the Soviet ideology, the subject
matter deals with the Soviet definitions of terms and
j social concepts, as reported in their literature.
One of the important factors in the current social
thought of the U.S.S.R. is that social concepts, as they
are understood by Western sociologists, are by and large
absent in the Soviet Union, and the social scientist there
thinks of society in terms of its political structure and
function.
G. F. Alexandrov in his speech delivered at a ses
sion of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. on Decem
ber 4, 1946, said:
One of the great triumphs of Soviet Democracy, charac
terizing its genuinely progressive nature, is its
brilliant solution of the problem of building a morally
and politically united, monolithic, firmly knit social
ist society.
Thus, the moral-political unity of the Soviet society
is that very condition of society, and of political
life within the state, which is characteristic of
socialism as a definite stage in the historical prog
ress of human society; this moral-political unity j
represents that level of civilization and that high !
development of the people's civic awareness and culture
which mark the socialist state. . . .1 j
The Soviet social scientist thinks mostly in terms ;
of political life, political institutions, political his
tory, political science, while the Western sociologist
would instead use the concepts of social life, social
institutions, and so on.
Current social thought in the U.S.S.R. has still
^G. F. Alexandrov, The Patterns of Soviet Democracy
(Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948), pp. 11-15.
7
another characteristic. Such generally accepted concepts
as the family, society, science, morals, and others are set
apart from their traditional interpretation in the West,
designated as belonging strictly to the Soviet way of life,
land having their own purpose and mode of expression.
Therefore, it is necessary for the purposes of this
dissertation to indicate the additional attributes which
these terms denote in the Soviet Union, or their essential
i
|meaning in that country. The following definitions of
social concepts represent the Soviet ideological approach:
1. Government. The nature of every government is
determined by its functions and/or the goals it serves, the j
dictatorship of the class it represents, and against what {
class it directs its activities. In other words, a govern- |
ment is the expression in a concentrated form of the
economic needs of the ruling class.
The socialist government represents a new dictator
ship, that of the working class, and constitutes a new
|
democracy of the toiling masses. j
2. Socialist economic laws. The content of the
|law is neither determined by some non-existent "natural
traits of men" and "eternal conditions of mankind" nor by
abstract ideas about universal justice and ethical ideals
made up by the representatives of the exploiting classes in
order to hide the class-nature of their laws. Conversely,
8
the content of the law Is determined by the will of a con
crete dominant class, which Is derived from the letter's
economic circumstances.
Great emphasis Is placed by Soviet authorities on
;the objective character of the economic laws. In con
nection with this, N. G. Alexandrov writes:
i
The objective character of the economic laws of
socialism Is based on the fact that these laws are not
dependent on human volition and cannot be changed by
men. The government, In directing Its activities,
cannot disregard this basic principle, since any viola
tion of this principle would bring considerable harm to
the development of productive forces.2
The Soviet regime maintains that an economic law,
first of all, presupposes a well-planned and orderly-
conducted socialist industrial production. According to
i
their view, there is no place for fanciful dreamers and j
I
adventurers in the field of economics, nor for those with
a fatalistic attitude in terms of "evolutionary progress
[
and self-development." Such attitude, it is held, would j
lead only to Irresponsibility on the part of the Party and
the cadres of qualified workers toward the conditions of i
national economy.
3. Eoualitv. V. I. Lenin defined equality in the
I
j first phase of a communistic society as "the need for
i
|the protection of the socialist ownership of the means of
! N. G. Alexandrov, Law and Legal Relations in the
1 Soviet Society (Moscow, U. S.S. R.: Government Publications
|of Legal Literature, 1955), p. 11.
9
production, and the protection of equality In work and of
equality In the distribution.*'
This was further explained as being "an equal
obligation on the part of the citizens according to their
abilities, and their equal rights to receive according to
the work performed, I.e., to each according to his labor."
N. 6. Alexandrov says:
Under equality of citizens in socialism, Marxism*
Leninism understand, not a levelling off In the sphere
of their Individual needs and their way of life, but
the abolition of exploiting classes, I.e., an equal
liberation of all workers rrom exploitation, an equal
repeal of private ownership of the means of production,
which has become a socialist property, an equal duty of
all able citizens to work according to their abilities,
and an equal right to receive their remuneration In
accordance with the work performed.3
4. Socialist competition. This is another term j
used in the U.S.S.R. which has been given a different con- |
notation from its generally accepted sociological concept.
i
Socialist competition, as such, was first put
forward by Lenin, denoting (a) comradely assistance of
workers, (b) the labor solidarity in purposely organized j
i
"shock brigades," and (c) the "social towing along" of
|those who lag behind. According to the Soviet authorities,
j it is sharply distinguished from the capitalistic mode of
competition because the principle of the latter is "the
I
|defeat and death of some, and the victory and supremacy
^Ibid., p. 44.
10
1
of others.”
5. Soviet science. This term emphasizes Indus-
i trial scientific research and its close connection with
industrial production, in order to serve the technical and
economic plans and interests of the country. Abstract
I
;scientific inquiries have given place to research on
practical problems.
N. Bukharin in his article on Soviet science
writes: "The part played by science in the whole system of
:our industry, including its lowest link, the shops, is
rapidly increasing."^
6. Soviet family. In this study Soviet family is i
i
referred to in accordance with the U.S.S.R.* s own defini- !
i
i
tions.
Professor G. M. Sverdlov, in his address, "Changes ;
in Family Relations in the U.S.S.R.,” delivered at the 1956
World Congress of Sociology, refers to the "Soviet Family”
and its characteristics, as distinguished from the family
in a capitalistic society.** j
Professor Sverdlov describes the Soviet family as
N. Bukharin, "Soviet Science on the Eve of the
|Second Five-Year Plan," Soviet Culture Review. 1932,
I Nos. 2-3, p. 25.
!
**G. M. Sverdlov, "Changes in Family Relations in
the U.S.S.R.," Transactions of the Third World Congress of
Sociology (London: Skepper House, 1956), III, 50-59.
11
being "characterized by comradeship and socialist mutual
assistance, which permeates all social relations within the
socialist society."
He says that the question of the economic founda
tion of the Soviet state Is of decisive Importance In
family organization.
The economic foundation of the Soviet state Is the
socialist system of economy and public socialist owner
ship of Instruments and means of production. It fol
lows that the Interests of private property no longer
make people oppose one another, and do not oppose one
family to another or a single family to society as a
whole.
This, In Its turn, promotes the formation of a
concept of unity of Interests of family and society,
and frees the family from reticence, egoism, and
philistinism. It creates the principal prerequisites
for fulfillment by the Soviet family of the bringing up
of all Its members In the spirit of Communism, children
first and foremost.”
Professor Sverdlov further emphasizes the principle
i
of full equality of rights and obligations of men and women
In family life, which can be traced throughout all Soviet
laws on marriage and family.
Guided by the principle of mutual assistance within the
family, Soviet laws nave established Important alimony
• obligations not only for the husband and wife, for the
parents and their children, but for other members of
the family too (grandfather, grandmother, grand
children, brothers and sisters, stepfather and step-
| _ mother, stepsons and stepdaughters).
Denying all petty regimentation of family relations, It
[legislation] Is meant to guarantee every freedom of
self-determination regarding marriage and family life.
6Ibid.. p. 56
12
At the same time it safeguards the interests of society
as a whole— in due accord with the social significance
of the family in the socialist system.'
7. Morals and ethics. Morals and ethics are
defined in the Soviet literature as one of the forms of
i social consciousness. Moral standards and rules express
;the requirements with respect to the conduct of an indi
vidual toward society, which includes motherland, the
jstate, a certain class, and toward other members of society.
Soviet morals imply love for motherland, patriot
ism, devotion of the people to their socialist system of
government and political institutions. Translated into
everyday life, this means an honest and conscientious ful
fillment of their work obligations, a strict adherence to
labor and school discipline, an effort to raise produc
tivity, and an active participation in socialist competi
tion, which would constitute doing one's share in the
construction and strengthening of the Soviet government.
Soviet morals also include the importance of duty
on the part of an individual toward his friends, comrades, j
and his family. However, these relationships cannot run
counter to his public duty and must be determined by it.
Moral qualities embrace truthfulness, honesty,
simplicity, modesty, will, perseverance, endurance,
bravery, and self-sacrifice.
^Ibid.. pp. 58-59.
;..................... 13
Social class. Social classes, according to
Lenin, "are large groups of people differing by their posi-
tion in the historically determined system of social pro
duction, their role in the social organization of labour,
; their relation to the means of production and property
j relation, by the way of obtaining and the size of their
i
O
' share in social wealth."
It has been held that "in the studies of the social
i
|structure of society it is highly important to establish
the role and position of an individual member or social
q
group in the system of social labour."7 The role of sepa
rate groups in the social organization of labor depends on
the relations of the workers to the means of production.
The above definitions of social situations or
j
social concepts are those currently operative in the Soviet
|
Union. Since these definitions are based chiefly on |
economic premises and without due consideration to social j
implications, they are at variance with social definitions j
which are accepted in this country.
j V. S. Nemchinov, "Changes in the Class Structure,"
i Transactions of the Third World Congress of Sociology
| (London: Skepper House, 1936), III, 1^9.
9lbid.
14
Materials and Method of Study
Review of the Literature
Much has been written about social conditions in
I the U.S.S.R. A great deal of this material represents
ipersonal evaluations of the writers, colored to a consider
able extent by their own culture and socio-political back-
|ground. Furthermore, in many cases these accounts have
been based, not on first-hand knowledge of the Russian
language and understanding of the native psychology, but
have been derived through the assistance of an interpreter,
which would be likely to include his evaluation. The
limitations of such analyses are obvious.
In recent years, tinder the auspices of certain
scholastic institutions, studies of a more scientific
nature than those referred to above have been made, such as
the Russian Research Center of Harvard University, the
University of Glasgow's Soviet studies, the University of
Michigan's studies of the Soviet civil law, and others, as
well as by individual researchers in the fields of Soviet
|law and system of government.
j
! Although these studies have been subject to certain
unavoidable limitations in terms of unavailability of
documents, lack of opportunity for first-hand investiga
tion, and a limited knowledge of the old Russian social
institutions, nevertheless they represent an important
contribution to a better understanding of the U.S.S.R.
I
Russian Research Center. The Center was organized
with financial support from the Carnegie Corporation, and
began operation on February 1, 1948. Its research so far
has been directed to the following fielas of Soviet life:
1. Russian and Soviet history, and the history of
Corammism.
2. Soviet administration and politics.
3. Studies on the economy of Russia.
4. Studies on social relations.
There has been no set pattern for research pro-
i
i
jects, and the topics selected for study were largely
determined by the researcher's own interests and his par-
|ticular inclinations. However, although there are some
areas which have not been covered by the studies, the work
completed represents a wide range of inquiry and an import
ant advancement in the study of Soviet society.
The fourth field, i.e., studies on social rela
tions, was based on the "area approach," which comprises
the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and sociology,
and was focused on three main objectives:
1. The structure and function of social institu
tions.
2. The integration of these institutions with the
Soviet social system as a whole.
| 16
3, The process of development and change in these
institutions* and an evaluation of the probable
i
course of their future evolution.
I
j
; University of Glasgow Soviet studies. This is a
!
quarterly review published by the Department for the Study
jof the Social and Economic Institutions of the U.S.S.R.*
i
University of Glasgow* and designed to promote systematic
study of the society functioning and developing in the
Soviet Union.
University of Michigan legal studies. Vladimir
i in
Gsovsky made a comprehensive study of Soviet civil law*
private rights* and their background under the Soviet
; regime. |
I
This represents a comparative survey of the Code of
Domestic Relations* Judiciary Acts* the Code of Civil Pro**
!
cedure, Laws on Nationalities, Collective Farms* Labor*
and the like* and is based on an extensive study of legal
documents, the Criminal Code* civil law textbooks* judicial
decisions* resolutions of the U.S.S.R. Central Executive
Committee* plenary sessions of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Court* I
j I
and other Soviet publications.
Among individual researchers may be mentioned
| John N. Hazard* whose work on law and Soviet change in j
1____________^ i
^Vladimir Gsovsky* Soviet Civil Law (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Law School, 1948)* Vols. I and II. |
| 17
|the U.S.S.R. was published under the auspices of the London
Institute of World Affairs in 1953. In this book he has
analyzed the Soviet law and its operation, and has pointed
i
lout that all Soviet civil law is actually criminal law,
I
; because it contains a "public quality" which cannot be
j
; separated from politics. Lenin expressed this as "law is
i
politics." ;
12
James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera have trans
lated a series of Soviet laws enacted from 1917 to about
1952. This work represents a real contribution to Soviet
'studies since it enables the student of the Soviet govern- j
: ' S
ment to acquaint himself first-hand with Soviet leglsla- j
tion. I
Sources of data. Originally, it was intended that
this study be based exclusively on Russian source material,
i.e., books and journals published by the Soviet govern
ment, in the Russian language, and intended for the use of
the Russian people. It was believed that this would offer
an opportunity for a closer acquaintance with the current
social thought of the Russian people as it operates in
their own socio-cultural relations, and within their
**John N. Hazard, Law and Social Change in the
U.S.S.R. (London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 195j).
12James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera. Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company, 1953).
18
i indigenous environment.
A number o£ Russian publications on such topics as
"The Patterns of Soviet Democracy," "The Social and State
I
Structure of the U.S.S.R.," "Communist Morals and Religious
|
Morals," and others were reviewed. However, it soon became
i
|apparent that this source material was far from being ade
quate inasmuch as it dealt with its subject matter from a
I purely political point of view, in terms of exalting the
|Soviet system and denouncing all other political and social
systems.
For instance, N. K. Ivanov, in his book on Soviet
government, writes as follows:
. . . the first Soviet Constitution of 1918 gave the
workers such rights as have never been known by any
other people. . . . Centuries and thousands of years
human society was built on the exploitation of man by
man, and was divided into enemy camps. Masters and
slaves, peasants and landowners, workers and capital
ists, oppressed and oppressors--thus was the social
order from the beginning of time, and thus it remains
in most countries.13
L. F. Dobrodumova, in The Soviet Union at the End
I of the Reconstruction Period, says: "V. I. Lenin made the
greatest scientific discovery, and has formulated a deduc
tion worthy of a genius, regarding the possibility of the
14
victory of socialism."
13
N. K. Ivanov, Soviet Govepiment--Government of a
New Tvne (Moscow: The Young Guard, 1946), p. 12.
^(Moscow: The University Press, 1956), p. 15.
19
Since the treatment of the subject in terms of the
above-cited passages is emotionally charged and not amena
ble to a critical analysis, it became necessary to turn to
certain English and American publications to review perti
nent data contained therein, as well as statistical in-
!formation wherever it was available. The translations of
I
the Soviet laws were also very helpful. Furthermore, an
I evaluation was made of various accounts of Soviet life
i
I
written by professional people after visits to the Soviet
> Union.
However, there were several Soviet publications,
and especially those printed in the early years of the
Soviet regime, which proved to be invaluable. The Chil
dren^ Home. Crimes Against Minors, The Childrens Friend,
and Material Provisions for Children were compilations of
i
the Soviet decrees and directives issued by the government
in connection with child care and education, and covering j
the period from 1917 to 1933. There is no evidence that j
these books have been used in studies of the Soviet Union.
I Communism and the Family by Alexandra Kolontay, gave an
i
i
|authentic version of the early Soviet ideology with regard
j to the role and function of the new Soviet family ushered
|
|in with the Bolsheviks* Revolution.
j
The Limitations of the Study
One of the major limitations in this study is
20
the lack of objective data and available statistics.
Changes in social conditions and institutions can be
; deduced chiefly from changes in the laws and not from
observation of social phenomena as they are indicated by
i objective measurement.
The tables appearing in the text of this study have
been prepared mostly from fragmentary data found in pub-
j lications reviewed. Attempts were also made to work out
i
tables based on compilation of statistics given on the same
subject by several authors, but covering different periods.
Organization of the Study
j
The organization of this study centers around
certain aspects of social thought and corresponding social
institutions of the U.S.S.R.
Although, like all social phenomena, the areas of
social life which have been analyzed in this study repre
sent a network of mutually interdependent and closely
interrelated social interactions, nevertheless they have
I been separated (somewhat artificially) into several indi
vidual subject-areas.
Chapter I introduces the problem and purpose of the
study, its importance, the frame of reference and defini
tions of the ideological concepts of the U.S.S.R., and the
source of material.
Chapter II reviews briefly U.S.S.R. history during
21
Its forty years of existence, with main emphasis on eco-
i
nomic and Industrial development, since this Is considered
by the Soviet government to be the foundation of their
i progress.
Chapters III and IV present the ancient and the
i pre-revolutionary Russian attitudes toward marriage and
i
;family, the early Soviet ideology and legislation on this
j subject, and analyzes the ensuing changes in Soviet family
|life.
Chapters V and VI discuss the early Soviet programs
for child care and education, the unprecedented problem of
I shelterless children and measures taken by the government
to solve it, the more recent waves of juvenile delinquency,
and expedient changes in the laws to combat it.
Chapters VII and VIII review the former industrial
employment of women in the pre-revolutionary Russia,
jchanges in their employment after the revolution, changes
in the position of workers in industry during the Soviet
economic development, and more recent labor legislation.
Chapter IX discusses the ideological concept of
private ownership of property and its effect upon family
life. This is followed by an analysis of subsequent
changes in this area.
Chapter X presents the findings and conclusions of
the study in summarizing important shifts in U.S.S.R.
ideology and their effects on the lives of the people.
CHAPTER II
BASIC ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL C.IANGES AFFECTING
MARITAL AND FAMILY INSTITUTIONS
IN THE U.S.S.R.
This chapter presents an outline of major phases in
!
economic and industrial development of the Soviet Union,
together with some of its legislation affecting social
institutions and the social interaction of the Russian
people.
The organization of economic life is a part of the j
general framework of a society. It has an important bear-
i
ing on the socio-cultural orientation of the people, and is i
closely related to many other societal factors. Thus, an |
economic system determines to a great extent the pattern j
of social relationships of the people and their normative ;
attitudes toward family life, work, and property.
Another important factor in the economic life of a
I society is the relationship of the government to the means
!of production. In a totalitarian form of government, the
j state endeavors to absorb practically all social functions
of the country so that it not only controls economic life
but most of the other aspects of national and personal
23
24
existence: the family, education, communication, recre
ation, and other aspects.
In the Soviet Union the social structure is deter
mined primarily by economic institutions. The Marxists'
socialist program advocates the end of exploitation of
workers by those who own the means of production, ownership
instead to be vested in the State. Thus, the political
isystem becomes inextricably bound with the country's
i
national economy and hence with other social institutions,
and society and State converge.
Accordingly, Soviet workers were declared to have
become owners of the country's natural resources and the
products of its industries. The managerial authority over
!
the economic enterprises and industrial production, how-
i
ever, was to be exercised by the Soviet State and the
Communist Party, who claimed to represent the best inter- |
ests of the people and to express their sovereign will. j
At the beginning of the Soviet regime, as a result
of the abolition of the old class structure and property
owners' privileges, the recognition of the Soviet workers'
i
|equal status as citizens, and a comparatively small in-
|
dustrial development, the problems of the authority rela-
i
!tionships in economic enterprises did not come to the fore,
j and the socialist ideal of a classless society and col-
|lective ownership prevailed. With the rise of industrial
production and the corresponding increase in the complexity
of labor organization and its management, the principle of
collective ownership of tools of production and of all
workers being equal participants in the management of
industry became more of an abstract generalization. The
i need for developing work discipline and raising work effi-
ciency immediately introduced conflicting interests into
j the social structure, namely those of authority and sub
ordination.
Changes in the economic sphere introduced changes
in other areas of the social structure, which soon became
evident in the social class concept, family organization,
the definition of property rights, and other fundamental
aspects of society.
Following is a brief outline of basic economic
changes in the Soviet Union which had a decisive influence
on other areas of social life of the Russian people.
During the years of the civil war, Soviet industry
was not organized and lacked effective control. Further-
;more, after the nationalization of industrial enterprises
jwhich often resulted in a scarcity of qualified personnel
| to manage them, the country found itself at a low ebb
i
i economically.
| In order to survive politically and to gain recog
nition on the international level, it became imperative for
26
the Soviet government to strengthen its economy and to
achieve a high degree of industrialization and techno
logical development.
N. 6. Alexandrov writes:
V. 1. Lenin had pointed out that the economic policies
of the Soviet government were a major factor in its
struggle for liberation of the entire world. . . .
Therefore, the problems of economic reconstruction have
an exceptional importance for us.1
The development of heavy industry became the basis
of the Soviet socialist economy, the primary means for its
scientific-technical achievements, and for other social
change. Accordingly, a program of speedy reconstruction
was inaugurated to accelerate industrial production. Every
effort was geared toward increasing the country's indus
trial strength. j
The need for qualified personnel to speed up pro- .
duction led to revisions in labor organization. A premium ;
i
was placed on personal incentive, and recognition was given |
to individual performance. Thus, the individual worker
emerged from the mass concept of the early days, and this
in turn produced important changes in other spheres of
! social relations.
i
i
N. G. Alexandrov, Law and Legal Relations in the
Soviet Society (Moscow: Government Publications of Legal
Literature, 1955), p. 20.
Socio-Economic Changes In the P.S.S.R.
27
Soviet authorities themselves state that the Soviet
Union has gone through two major periods in its develop
ment. The first period began with the revolution of
October 1917 ending about 1927, and the second period
;started with the onset of the rapid development of the
country's industrial production, i.e., with the inaugura
tion of the first Five-Year Flan, in 1928-29 to about the
end of World War 11.^
With the after-effects of World War II and the
recent scientific advance in the U.S.S.R., the beginning of
a third period is indicated. In this study, only the first
two periods will be considered.
During the first period, the country went through !
civil war, famine, and a virtual collapse of national
economy. The major objectives of the Soviet government in ;
this phase of its development were: the abolition of the
capitalist class and the bourgeois elements of society, the j
organization of defense against military intervention, and
economic restoration.
With the liquidation of the capitalist elements in
town and country, the Soviet Union entered the second phase
I of its development. The main objectives of the Soviet
i 2
N. K. Ivanov, Soviet Government--Government of a
I New Tvne (Moscow: The Young Guard, 1946), p. 15.
28
o
government in this phase were defined as follows;
1. Organization of socialist economy in all
regions of the country.
2. Liquidation of the last remnants of capital
istic elements.
3. Organization of a cultural revolution.
4. Organization of an army with modern equipment
for the defense of the country from the out
side.
The Soviet leaders believed that organizing a
socialist economy with its socialist motivated education of
the toiling masses, and the general establishment of a
socialist society, would make possible the ultimate
4
achievement of Communism.
3Ibid., p. 20.
^The terms "socialism" and "Communism" are often
used in the U.S.A. interchangeably denoting both a col
lective organization of the community and common ownership
and control of the tools of production.
In the Soviet Union a differentiation between
socialism and Communism is strictly adhered to, and they
are thought of as being two separate phases of the same
development of a socialist society. S. Kovalyov, in an
article published in the March 1947 issue of Bolshevik,
thus explains the difference between socialism and Com-
munism:
"Socialism is the first phase of Communism; it is
Communism uncompleted. The radical distinction between
socialism and capitalism lies in the fact that under
socialism private ownership of armaments and of the means
of production is abolished, the exploiting classes are
liquidated, and the exploitation of man by man is elimi
nated. But under socialism there still remain a few
29
On the other hand, with the development of the
country's national economy and the government's effort to
Increase Its Industrial production through raising the
efficiency of labor, certain changes In social relations
:became necessary. Even though the basic principles of the
Soviet socialist system, In terms of socialist ownership of
the means of production, remained unchanged, the system of
I production and corresponding soclo**cultural relations were
altered.
These changes were explained by Soviet authorities
as being due to the fact that, with the strengthening of
the Soviet government and Its social organization and the j
survivals of capitalism In the economic system and In the j
way people think.
"In the process of developing Soviet society, socialist
attitudes toward production crop up on an ever more exten
sive scale. This process takes place In the struggle of
socialism against the private-property orientation of
Isolated Individuals In society; the socialist attitude
toward work Is asserted In the struggle against outmoded,
grasping tendencies; the principle of plan Is fortified
through the struggle against Indiscipline, petty deceit,
etc.; state and cooperative trading lead to fight against
i speculation, and so forth. Survivals of capitalism In the
I economic system, which have been vanquished during the
|development of Soviet society, do still, however, to a
certain degree show their negative Influence In the way the
jmost backward strata of the population think. The suppres-
jslon of these survivals In their thought is made easier by
i the subjugation of survivals of capitalism in the economic
|sphere, which is accomplished during the process of the
I successful consolidation of Communism." Quoted from
!S. Kovalyov, Ideological Conflicts in Soviet Russia
|(Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948), p. 4.
30
victory of socialism, the need for political struggle
I
within the country was no longer necessary. Other needs,
such as conservation and protection of socialist property,
improvement in the trade system, and the efforts to mini
mize the difference between town and country, became of
prime importance.
N. G. Alexandrov explains that during the first
I period of Soviet government legal regulations were dealing
with social relations of various types, originating from
the "multi-shaped" economy of that time. Socialist law was
primarily concerned with the preparation of conditions
expeditious for complete liquidation of the capitalist
system and birth and growth of a socialist society.
Alexandrov further says: "In the second period, the j
t
object of legal regulations deals most exclusively with
i
socialist relations, which are to be strengthened still
further and directed along the path of Communism."^
The Soviet law became more uniform and precise,
defining the rights and duties of individuals and their |
reciprocal relations more clearly.
Alexandrov states that the development of a social-
i
list society is based on strictly objective economic laws
land that the character of these laws is such that they are
%. G. Alexandrov, op. cit.. p. 47.
31
not dependent on human volition, and, therefore, cannot be
changed at will by human beings.** Nevertheless, the indi
vidual human factor and the creative ability of the human
mind, with its great culture-building potentialities, could
not be completely overlooked as irrelevant by the Soviet
leaders.
Lenin himself was aware of the importance of this
factor, when he approached the problem of the country's
industrial development realistically by stating that in the
period of transition from socialism to Communism "the
country's national economy must be built not on sheer en
thusiasm bom out of the great revolution but on the
material incentives of the workers and their interests in
— i
the benefits derived from their work."7 j
This indicates that even in the early phase of the
I
Soviet regime, the Soviet leaders recognized that, in order j
]
to raise the productivity of labor the material incentive
of the individual must come into play. Consequently, the
second period of Soviet development is characterized by
emphasis on this individual factor and the introduction of
"socialist competition," which was found to be necessary in
I a socialist society.
| — • • ------ ------ ---------- .i. . . . . . . . .
6lbid.. p. 11.
7Ibid., p. 40, quoting V. I. Lenin, Collected
1 Papers. XXXIII, 36.
32
Since a socialist method of production, inherent in
the Soviet system, was considered to be the main and de
cisive force in the rapid development of the national
economy and in creation of the industrial might of the
' U.S.S.R., indispensable for its survival, an account of the
i consecutive phases of this development which had a signi
ficant influence on social interaction of the Soviet
!people, should be discussed in more detail.
Gos Plan
At the Eighth Congress of Soviets during Decem
ber 22-29, 1920, Lenin had spoken regarding the need for
electrification of the whole country, and had pointed out |
i
that small-scale production in agriculture constituted a
i
possible source of danger to the socialist form of produc- '
tion as a survival of the capitalist system. He stated in |
i
his report to the Congress that industrialization of the
country would be the beginning of a happy era when politi
cians would grow ever fewer in number, when people would
speak less of politics, and the engineers and agronomists
|would do most of the talking.
Such a plan had been discussed at the All-Russian
:Soviet Executive Committee meeting on February 7, 1920, and
;a commission for its study was set up on February 27, 1920.
A year later, on February 22, 1921, the Gos Plan,
i
!or Government Planning Commission, was created under the
Council o£ Labor and Defense for the "elaboration of a
single, all-embracing state economic plan" based on
electrification of the country, as formally approved by the
Eighth Congress of the Soviets.
The functions of this commission were defined as
follows:
1. The preparation of a single general state
economic plan and the means and order for its
fulfillment.
2. The coordination of the general state plan with
the industrial programs of various departments
and economic organizations in all branches of
the national economy.
3. The development of knowledge and research
necessary for the operation of this plan and
i
training of the qualified personnel.
I
As can be seen, this was the first seed from which j
1
the future Five-Year Plans developed.
i
Seven years later, during October 15-20, 1927, at
the session of the Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R.
i celebrating the tenth anniversary of the October Socialist
! Revolution, V. V. Kubishev, Chairman of the All-Russian
i National Economy, reported on the development of the
j national economy and emphasized the need for increasing
i
i effort in the direction of the socialist industrialization
34
of the country.
He believed that, with the end o£ the restoration
period and the beginning of a new reconstruction era, a
one-year plan was inadequate for the projection of large
enterprises, and that plans covering several years' dura
tion were indicated. Such planning periods provided a
long-range perspective, and could clearly formulate in
concrete figures the tasks to be accomplished and the due
dates for their fulfillment. A plan of at least five
years' duration would help in avoiding errors which could
occur in a short-time plan.
Kubishev pointed out that without a Five-Year Flan
it would be almost like walking in the dark, oriented to
the needs and emergencies of the present day only, and
failing to see clearly ahead.
The First Five-Year Plan
The first Five-Year Plan, originally proposed to
take place from 1925-26 through 1929-30, was not success
ful, and in February 1929 the Central Executive Committee
i directed the Politburo to expedite its fulfillment. It was
!admitted that the delay in preparation and execution of the
first Five-Year Plan was due primarily to lack of experi
ence in such "gigantic" planning, and to disagreements
I within the Party and a struggle between the followers of
: Trotsky and the right wing of the Party. There was
35
opposition from "bourgeois elements" to accelerated tempo
in industrial production.
i
I
In December 1928, the directives for the first
Five-Year Plan were completed and its basic estimates were
published in the Soviet newspapers. The Plan had two
variations, the minimal and the optimal quotas of fulfill
ment. The former was 20 per cent less than the latter, and
the time for the fulfillment of the Plan was extended to
six years instead of five.
In March 1929, at a conference with the representa
tives of all Soviet Republics and of the largest districts
present, the optimal version of the Five-Year Plan was
approved. It was ratified on April 23, 1929, and the !
period for its execution was extended to 1932-33.
i
The basic goal of this plan was formulated as
j
(1) the transformation of the country from an agricultural i
state to a highly industrialized one and reequipment of the
entire national economy with technology, and (2) collec
tivization of agricultural production. j
With regard to the last objective, it was estimated
that by the end of the Five-Year Plan there would be twenty
million peasants brought into collective production, or
|from four to five million individual farms, comprising
about 17.5 per cent of the farm land. Furthermore, it was
jexpected that the majority of the peasants would be enlisted
36
in all types of cooperative activities, or 85 per cent of
them as against 37.5 per cent in 1927-28.
In the cultural sphere, it was proposed to insti
tute compulsory primary education, to eliminate illiteracy
among persons up to forty years of age, and to prepare
qualified workers for all branches of national industry.
This plan had actually begun operation in October
1928, prior to its official approval. Its first months of !
i
operation did not yield any appreciable results due to low j
work-efficiency and the high cost of production. Thus, a
method of production called "socialist competition" was
introduced in 1929, with a new system of piecework and
bonus payments following closely.
The Second Five-Year Plan. 1933-1937
The basic political task of the second Five-Year
Plan was formulated by V. Molotov at the Seventeenth Party
Conference as "the final liquidation of capitalist elements
and of classes in general" and "transformation of the whole
of the toiling population of the country into conscious and
Q
active builders of a classless socialist society."
Liquidation of classes in general was based on
"full elimination of the causes which beget class
®V. Molotov, "The Soviet Union in 1933-1937,"
Soviet Culture Review (Moscow: Soviet Union Society for
Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, VOKS, 1932),
Nos. 2-3, pp. 15-20.
37
differences and the exploitation of man by man," and this
I
meant the strengthening of public ownership of the means
of production, the land, factories, and workshops. Thus,
full liquidation of capitalist elements and total abolition
of the causes of class differences would result in the
disappearance of classes in general.
V. Molotov pointed out further that, since the
working class had taken into its hands control of all the
means of production, it had ceased to be the "proletariat" j
i
in the sense in which this term was used under the capital-j
1st system. Instead of being an exploited class, the
proletariat had become the dominant power in the state.
This socio-political symbol, through its emotional
appeal and politico-moral sentiment, still served as a
means of minimizing the importance and of allaying the
impact of the gradual appearance of social and economic
subordination of the workers in the Soviet society.
The second Five-Year Flan also included the problem
of mutual relationships between town and country.
V. Molotov stated:
It is a purest utopia to desire to reform existing
bourgeois society while wishing to retain the peasantry
as such. Only the most even distribution of the
population all over the country, only a close connec
tion of industry with agricultural work along with the
necessary extension of the means of communication--
while abolishing the capitalist mode of production,
which is the premise--can get the rural population out
of the state of isolation and stupidity in which it
38
has almost invariably stagnated in the course of
milleniums.9
Thus, the goal of the second Five-Year Plan in
cluded the creation of conditions "for full elimination of
the contrast between town and country." Owing to their
peculiar position as a class, the workers were in advance
of the peasantry in their progress toward socialism. The
peasantry, on the other hand, owing to their condition in
the past, were following the course toward a classless
socialist society through a number of additional transition
stages. Nevertheless, despite the varying ways of their
socialist evolution, the difference between the workers and
the peasants would ultimately disappear.
Another important task of the second Five-Year Plan
was an effort toward future "obliteration of the contrast
between mental and physical work." Compulsory universal
education and rapid growth of technical and scientific edu
cation, said Molotov, had already created the foundation
for "wiping out" this contrast. However, it required a
longer period for its realization and would not be achieved
in the second Five-Year Plan.
At the same time, the need for "foreign special
ists" was recognized as being of great importance. The
utilization of specialists of a bourgeois type was needed
^Ibid., citing F. Engels, The Housing Question.
39
for the technical reconstruction of national economy and
the training of qualified workers and engineers within the
country.
The specifications included in the second Five-Year
Flan followed closely the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx,
but the application of these socialist principles to social
reality already carried with it its own "seeds of destruc
tion. "
The inauguration of a new system of labor organiza
tion based on differential pay-rates was operating as a
feedback device, whereby the socialist society was bound to
maintain a class system. The need for technical experts
and specialists, who were to be imported from capitalist
countries, and the effort to train such qualified workers
within the Soviet Union could not bring about obliteration
of the contrast between mental and physical work but, on
the contrary, was to reinforce it.
The Third Five-Year Plan. 1938-1942
The third Five-Year Flan was considered to be a
step toward the completion of the building-up of socialism
and the beginning of a gradual transition to Communism.
At the Eighteenth Conference of the Communist
Party, which began on March 10, 1939, a report was made
regarding "The Third Five-Year Flan in the Development of
the National Economy of the U.S.S.R." I. V. Stalin in his
40
report made an evaluation of the country's progress during
the preceding five years, appraised the international situ
ation, and formulated the objectives and policies of the
Soviet government in the sphere of foreign relations.
The conference passed a resolution that the Soviet
Union should in the future pursue a policy of peace and
avoid as much as possible all international conflicts, that
business contacts with other countries should be strength- j
ened, and that a bond with the laboring masses of the worldj
should be maintained. j
i
It may be assumed that "peaceful coexistence" with j
countries belonging to the opposite political camp was j
|
deemed preferable to open war, and that the influence of a
socialist system of government could be just as effective
through latent conflict, or "cold war."
The industrial production goal was defined as
"catching up with and surpassing economically the largest
capitalist countries" during the next ten to fifteen
years.Emphasis was once more placed on the need for
technical equipment in all branches of industry, heavy
industry especially, as the leading branch of Soviet
national economy.
The main "targets" for state-owned factories were
new name for this activity was coined as "DIP,"
which was made up of the first letters of three words:
Dognat I Peregnat, meaning "Catch-up and Surpass."
41
|set up by corresponding departments, and the production
jplan for each branch of Industry formed a part of the
single economic plan. The fulfillment of these plans was
obligatory for each individual enterprise.
The single economic plan required centralization in
I over-all industrial planning and management, and in due
time it led to considerable bureaucratization of economic
i
enterprises, although "manifestations of bureaucracy on the j
part of individual employees of state entities and other
organizations" were considered to be "among the survivals
of capitalism in thought pat terns.
Further changes in the socialist method of produc
tion and labor relations took place. A series of measures j
strengthening labor discipline was introduced. On Decem-
i
ber 28, 1938, the Soviet of People's Commissars of the
U. S.S.R. and the Central Committee of the Communist Party
passed a resolution on "Measures for Strengthening Labor
•^Kovalyov, op. cit.. p. 11. This reference
quotes Stalin as saying in his book, Questions Related to
Leninism, p. 401: "The danger of bureaucracy . . . lies
first of all in the fact that it keeps hidden under a ;
bushel the colossal reserves which are inherent among the j
potentialities of our system, and blocks their utiliza
tion; it tries to bring to naught the creative initiative
of the masses, riveting it to red tape, and carries the j
matter so far as to transmute every new departure of the j
Party into a petty and futile avarice of the spirit. The
danger of bureaucracy consists secondly in the fact that
it shirks standing up to a check on the way in which orders
are being carried out, and triee to convert basic mandates
from directors of pertinent organizations into mere docu
mentation divorced from the actualities of life."
42
I
Discipline, Improvement in the Application of Government
Social Insurance, and Struggle Against Its Abuse.”
According to this resolution, coming late to work,
)
i leaving work early, and loitering during work hours were
i
i
defined as constituting ”the grossest violation of labor
j discipline, and the breaking of the law, which led to
j
weakening of national economy, the country's defense power,
and the welfare of the people.”
In January 1939, individual Labor Books were
issued, to be kept by all workers and employees working
full time, indicating the date of birth, the extent of
their education, and work progress, dismissals, commenda
tions, and rewards.
World War II, which began for the U.S.S.R. on
June 22, 1941, interrupted progress and completion of the
third Five-Year Plan. The need for military equipment and ;
supplies, devastation of a large portion of the country,
setting up of new industrial centers in the remote regions,
and absorption of man power into the armed forces— all
these factors caused a serious setback in the economic
development of the U.S.S.R.
On the other hand, this period was noted for a
great upsurge of national feeling and patriotism. Prior to;
the actual outbreak of war, a new law of universal military
service was enacted on September 1, 1939. Article 132 of
43
:the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. reads: "Military service
in the Armed Forces of the U.S.S.R. is a sacred duty of
|every citizen of the U.S.S.R."
|
i
I The Fourth Five-Year Plan. 1946-1950
i
After the end of the war, with the capitulation of
; Japan, the Soviet Union began once more its five-year plan
ning. The fourth Five-Year Flan was approved in March
1946. Its main objective was to restore national economy
and raise the industrial production of the country in its
ilast year to at least 48 per cent above the pre-war level.
The Soviet authorities estimate that the recon-
;struction of national economy after World War 11 was
• i
accomplished in half the time of the reconstruction period
after the Civil War. The new industrial centers estab
lished in the eastern part of the Union were partially
responsible for these results. It was claimed that the
|national income of 1930 rose 64 per cent above the 1940
national income. Evaluation of this statement requires
careful analysis of various factors such as variations in
monetary values, change in the purchasing power, and other j
factors, and cannot be discussed in this study. |
During this period of accelerated economic recon
struction, measures to raise industrial production, to
enforce labor efficiency, and to ensure the availability ofj
qualified personnel continued.
44
A decree issued on October 19, 1940, reads in part:
The problem of securing skilled forces for new
plants, factories, mines, construction jobs, and
transport services, as well as for enterprises under**
taking the production of new lines, demands the correct
distribution of engineers, technicians, foremen, em
ployees, and skilled workers among the different enter**
prises and the transfer of industrial personnel from
enterprises possessing skilled forces to enterprises
experiencing a shortage of them.
The existing situation, under which the People's
Conmissarlats do not have the right of obligatory
transfer of engineers, employees, and skilled workers
from one enterprise to another isoan obstacle to the
development of national economy.12
Accordingly, the People's Commissariats became
vested with the right of obligatory transfer of needed
workers "regardless of the territorial location of the
institutions or enterprises." Those who failed to obey
were regarded as having left their employment without per
mission, and became subject to court trial in accordance
with Article 5 of the Decree of the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. of June 26, 1940.
This obligatory transfer, however, was in no way to
cause any material loss to the persons so transferred, and
they were to be paid their travelling expenses, the cost of
transporting their effects, a daily allowance while en
route, and a lump-sum assistance for setting up of a new
home.
12James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera. Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company, 1953), pp. 361-62, quoting
Izvestia. October 20, 1940.
45
i
Another decree of January 18, 1941, established a
13
series of penalties for "dereliction of labor duty."
jEvery violation of this kind led to either disciplinary
i
action or prosecution in court.
i
I The Fifth Five-Year Plan. 1951-1955
The period of the fifth Five-Year Plan was charac-
terized by increasing tension between the Soviet government
and the capitalist countries of "the imperialist camp" and
a further strengthening of the nationalist liberating move
ment in Asia and Africa.^
At the Nineteenth Conference of the Communist
|Party, held in October 1952, the name of the Communist j
Party was changed to "Communist Party of the Soviet Union.";
The by-laws of the Party defined it as being a "battle-
front union of all Communist thinkers, organized of people
from the working class, peasantry, and the working Intel-
i 1 5
i ligentsia." The inclusion of the intelligentsia in the
"qualified cadres" of Communists indicates an important
shift in Soviet ideology and the beginning of a new era in
social orientation.
_ - — _ _ . |
• ^Ibid.. pp. 363-64, quoting U.S.S.R. Laws. 1941,
Text 63.
^History of the U.S.S.R.: The Epoch of Socialism
(1917-1957). aText Book (Moscow: Government Publications
of Political Literature, 1957), pp. 671-72.
15Ibid.. p. 678. i
46
[
The main objectives of the Party were defined as of
i old: A gradual transition from socialism to Communism, the
raising of the material and cultural levels of Soviet
| society, the bringing-up of the Soviet people In the spirit
| of Internationalism, and the establishment of brotherhood
! bonds among workers of all countries.
The goals of the fifth Five-Year Plan were similar
1 !
to those of former years, namely, a further development of
national economy, Industrial and agricultural production,
construction of railroads and other transport, construction
of electrical power plants and of the first atomic plant,
and other projects.
However, despite considerable technical Improve-
i
ment, the Increase In Industrial production lagged behind
the original estimates.^ The Increase In the general
over-all production was only 44 per cent over the preceding
years Instead of the 50 per cent originally planned.
Especially noticeable was the lag In the lumber Industry
and mining, which In turn affected other Industries and
transportation. Furthermore, It was felt that the con
struction of modem machinery for the mechanization of
agriculture was Inadequate, and the anticipated lowering of
the production cost had not been attained.
16Ibld.. pp. 680-81.
47
| An All-Union Conference of Industrial Leaders was
held In May 1955, and a Government Committee of the Soviet
j
|of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. (Gos Technlca of the U.S.S.R.)
i
i
:was set up In order to solve the problems of the Industrial
jproduction of the country.^
In July 1955, the Plenum of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union heard a report j
of N. A. Bulganin, Chairman of the Committee, on the "Tasks
for Further Raising of Industrial Production, Technical
Progress, and Improvement In Industrial Administration."
The Plenum pointed out that any neglect and failure
|to take Into consideration scientific and technical
i achievements In foreign countries was Inadmissible, because
It resulted In the Soviet Union's lagging behind in its
industrial development as compared with these other coun
tries. The Gos Technlca, the Academy of Sciences of the
U.S.S.R., and other similar agencies were directed to im
prove scientific communication with other countries, and to
broaden their contacts with foreign research centers.
It was also decided that a decrease in centraliza
tion of industrial planning and an increase in authority
and responsibility of the heads of the enterprises were
indicated.
I
•^The Soviet of People's Commissars was reorganized
into a Soviet of Ministers on March 15, 1946.
48
Thus, on August 9, 1955, the Soviet of the Minis
ters of the U.S.S.R. issued a directive on "The Broadening
i of Rights of the Directors of Enterprises," and on Septem-
I
I
ber 20, 1955, a directive on "Raising the Role of the
|Foreman in an Enterprise" was issued. On November 4, 1955,
a resolution was passed by the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union on "Elimination of
Excesses in Planning and Construction."
Summary
The following deductions can be made from this
i
brief survey of economic and industrial development of the |
i
: i
Soviet Union. j
1. Following the revolution of October 1917, the
Soviet Union was faced with a virtual collapse of its
national economy. This period was roughly estimated as
continuing from 1917 to about 1927. During these years,
i the government took recourse in various piecemeal legisla
tive measures, often contradictory in nature, and which
failed to attain the needed improvement.
2. The second period began about 1927-28, with
long-range planning. Following the inauguration of the
first Five-Year Plan, speedy development of Soviet national
economy took place. The entire forces of the country be
came geared toward the mastering of technology and increase
in industrial and agricultural production, with emphasis
ion heavy industry. The industrialization of the country
was believed to be of utmost importance in order to gain
| internal stability and provide means for defense from out”
|side intervention.
I 3. The objectives of the early Five-Year Plans in
i the main were:
a. Liquidation of capitalist and bourgeois
elements.
b. Organization of national economy based on
socialist principles and methods of pro
duction, i.e., the government's ownership
of the means of production.
c. Industrialization of the country in order
to speed up its economic development.
d. Elimination of causes which beget class
differences, and the achievement of a
classless society.
i
e. Efforts to minimize the difference between
town and country.
f. Obliteration of differences between mental
and manual work.
g. Raising the cultural level of the people
and introducing compulsory universal
primary education.
h. Organization of defense against any mili
tary intervention.
50
4. From the very beginning of the Soviet drive
toward the industrialization of the country and its tech
nical advance, it became apparent that:
a. Foreign specialists were needed in order to
provide the necessary knowledge and train
ing for native workers.
b. A material incentive played an important
part in labor efficiency and work output.
5. Consequently, a digression from the Soviet
erstwhile policies and procedures became inevitable.
a. Socialist competition, piece-rates, and |
bonus payments were introduced.
b. Emphasis was placed on mental work and pro
fessional training and qualifications.
c. A noticeable differentiation took place in
the rank and position of workers with cor
responding privileges, indicating the birth
of a new class system.
d. Strict disciplinary measures had to be
enacted in order to control individual work |
I
I
performance.
e. Decentralization of economic planning and
administration of industrial enterprises
|
i
was effected, the administrators being !
vested with greater responsibility and
i
authority. i
51
f. Need for a closer scientific contact with
capitalist countries was emphasized,
i g. Finally, "intelligentsia” were included in
the by-laws of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union as bona fide members of their
1
organization.
Thus, it would appear that the development of the
Soviet national economy and its scientific and techno
logical advance made it necessary for the Soviet government
to retreat from certain aspects of their former position,
and revise their policies and procedures, making them in
| some respects comparable to those of the Western countries.
The changes made in the economic and industrial
fields with regard to methods of raising the individual
output of workers, the increase of authority vested in the
administration, and a greater emphasis placed on scientific
training— all this resulted in a new social stratification
! in the country.
As Lenin himself had indicated, social classes are
related to and determined by their position in social
production. Even though Soviet sociologists claim that
"the material base of class differentiation lies in the
particular method of production and the corresponding type
of ownership of the means of production, and that the
income itself does not determine the class to which the
18
members of society belong," It may be questioned as to
whether or not the financial circumstances of an Individual
i would have a bearing on his social status In a society
where all former social prerogatives have been wiped out.
With this basic change In the social framework of
Soviet society, changes In the family relationships will
now be analyzed.
18
V. S. Nemchlnov, "Changes In the Class Struc
ture," Transactions of the Third World Congress of
Sociology (London: Skepoer House. 19361. III. 263-69.
CHAPTER III
SOCIAL CHANGES WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
IN THE SOVIET UNION: FIRST PERIOD
This chapter and the subsequent chapter discuss
changes in the field of family relations which have taken
place in the Soviet Union during the forty years of its
existence.
These changes deal with factors possessing the
elements of conflict which bring about the disruption of
family relationships and disintegration within this primary i
societal unit, as well as with those factors which promote
its cohesion and integration.
Social disorganization usually follows a crisis on
the national level, be it in economic, political, or other
fields. Social processes are then interrupted, with un
certainty and fear following. The ensuing period is often
characterized by spontaneous and uncoordinated efforts, and
various emergency measures intended to bring about unified-
tion of social and cultural configurations in order to
stabilize adaptive tendencies within the social structure.
In the case of the Soviet Union, social change in
family relationships was also related to a national crisis
53
54|
but this change was followed by purposive and concerted
action on the part of the government with the goal of
institutionalizing certain socialist principles in the
family.
Such a social change may be viewed as not arising
primarily out of conflict between the old mores and insti
tutions and the societal needs of a group, and a socio
cultural gap between them, but as having been introduced
from above by authoritative action.
The question then arises: How did this forced
social change affect the social situation in its threefold
aspect: the physical, the psychological, and the social?
Moreover, what was the nature of the subsequent adjustment
process in the common design for living?
In order to give a better perspective of the impact
of this purposefully effected social change on the lives of
the people, a presentation is made of the social values and
normative attitudes toward family life which existed in
Russia prior to the revolution of October 1917. This is
followed by an exposition of the ideological premises of
early Soviet policies and legislation; a subsequent revi
sion of these policies; and, finally, the enactment of more
recent legislation which expresses the new Soviet position
with regard to the role, status, and social function of the
family.
55
The Family Status and Role in Russia
Prior to Communism
The normative attitudes toward marriage and family
life in pre-revolutionary Russia were of two distinct
types.
The first, based on an ancient set of domestic
rules and regulations known as the Domostroi, was prevalent
in the country among the peasantry and within certain mer-
chant classes in towns. It had also been preserved by the !
Old Believers, a comparatively large group of religious
dissenters who, after their refusal to accept the offi
cially sanctioned revision in the dogma of the Greek Ortho-
dox church, were banished to Siberia. They settled there
and became prosperous farmers and merchants, faithfully
preserving their creed and their way of life. Those who
remained in the European part of Russia also strictly
adhered to their ancient beliefs and mode of living.
The second type of normative attitudes was that of
the educated classes, which in its essentials and practical
application closely resembled the ideas and sentiments of
other European countries in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. There was no evidence of the exist
ence of a generally prevailing autocratic and despotic
family rule, except on some individual bases, and the rela-j
i
tionships between husband and wife, and parents and their
children, were generally of a free and spontaneous nature
56
and not subject to any undue restraint.
As a matter of fact, the left wing of the Intel
ligentsia, which consisted of a considerable number of
university students who called themselves "free thinkers,"
social revolutionaries, and some of the well-known writers
professed a more liberal attitude toward marriage. They
denounced the egocentrism and shallow Interests of everyday
family life, and advocated "free love," which was not
circumscribed by petty considerations and offered greater
expression to an individual.
In its legal aspect, however, the marital relation
ship still preserved some of its old-time autocracy. The
law read in part:
... a wife must obey, love, and honor her husband
. . . the husband must love his wife as his own body,
live in harmony, honor, protect, forgive her short
comings, and lighten her illnesses; feed and keep her
in accordance with his means.1
Furthermore, since marriage was considered to be a
matter of religious significance, its dissolution had been
for a long time strictly under the jurisdiction of ecclesi
astical authorities. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century all divorce proceedings were transferred to the
Holy Synod and its consistories, which were administered
by civil authorities.
^Russian Encyclopedia (St. Petersburg: Broghaus and
Effron, 1S$6), IV, 571.
57
i
There were four grounds for divorce: (1) impotency,
which must have occurred after marriage, and a waiting
| period of three years was required; (2) desertion continu-
; ing for five years, provided the whereabouts of the spouse
I was unknown and could not be ascertained; (3) loss of civil
rights through a criminal action; and (4) adultery.
The following divorce statistics for the year 1885 |
2
were given: i
Impotency 23
I
Desertion 688
Loss of Civil Rights 292
Adultery 167 j
; j
On the other hand, there was a modem touch with
respect to property rights. Property which belonged to
either husband or wife prior to their marriage remained the
separate property of each of them, and after their marriage
j the husband did not acquire the right to administer his
wife's property. Furthermore, neither of them became
financially responsible for the debts of the other.
Because of this great variation in the normative
attitudes of the old Russia toward marriage and family, and
also because the bulk of the country's population at the
time of the October revolution was still practicing the
2Ibid.
58
I ancient familial norms, the main features of the Domostroi
jwill be reviewed. This will help to understand more fully
| the significance of the radical change in the family social
I
j relations and the corresponding shifts in the social roles
I
; of its members which were effected by the Soviet government
in 1917.
The Domostroi
The Domostroi is a book of ancient rules and
regulations governing the daily lives and expressing the
familial patterns of the Russian people, as they evolved
during the early periods of the nation's historic growth
and development.
Although the existence of the original manuscripts
of the Domostroi did not come to light in Russia until the
middle of the 1800's, the spirit of the mores and customs
contained in this work had survived many centuries, and the
iold-time family pattern and social relations were still
alive in certain strata of the Russian people, transmitted
from generation to generation like the very language which
they spoke.
3
There were two main variations of the Domostroi,
a more complete one and an abbreviated one.^ Although
^"Dom" means house or home; "stroi”— construction.
*M. E. Duchesne, Le Domostroi (Paris: Alphonse
Picard et Fils, 1910).
I 59
their content was almost the same, a controversy ensued
among historians as to which version was o£ more ancient
|origin.
It was in May 1848 that N. M. Konchine, Director of
!Public Education in Tver Gubernia, discovered and sent the
I
|first, and until then unknown, manuscript of the Domostroi
j
to the Imperial Historical Society. Four additional manu
scripts, which were supplements to the first one, were
later forwarded by him to the society, and the complete
|work was first published by the Moscow Society of History
• I
I in 1849, in their journal Vremennik. or The Time Recorder.
i
| In 1872, the existence of another manuscript of the
!same nature was revealed by I. S. Nekrasov in his article !
i
"Lectures of the Society of History and Antiquity." The
latter manuscript was longer and more complete, and it had
a preface entitled "Instructions of a Father to His Son."
, It was believed that these manuscripts dated back
'to the last quarter of the fifteenth century or the begin
ning of the sixteenth century, and that they were first
written in the city of Novgorod, because they portrayed the I
j
mores and social usages of that ancient Free City with its !
highly developed commercial activities.
It was further believed that this work was later
i
revised in Muscovite Russia, and adapted to the mores and j
customs of that period, and that it was Sylvester, a priest
60
and counsellor of Ivan the Terrible, who was the editor of
the revised version, If not the original writer of some
parts of the shorter manuscript. This opinion was based on
the fact that the name of the son mentioned In the Konchine
manuscript was the name of Sylvester's son, Anthlme.
There had been considerable controversy among his
torians as to whether the Domostroi portrayed the actual
life of the Russian people during those early periods, or
whether It dealt with an Ideal toward which men should
strive In their dally living. Many authorities on this
subject felt quite strongly that the Domostroi did not
speak of an Ideal divorced from reality but of an Ideal
closely bound with It, and that It was a genuine transla
tion of the spirit and social norms of Russian domestic
patterns, giving a complete picture of the moral, Intel
lectual, and economic life of that period.
Thus, the Domostroi may be considered as a fairly
accurate portrayal of an ancient Russian family organiza
tion as a primary social unit, and of the interaction of
its members in their respective roles of husband and wife,
parents and children. These social roles were defined by
the community and powerfully reinforced by traditional
sentiments and current utility of those days.
Although this type of family organization was
derived from, and more or less uniformly maintained
61
through, a common fund of the country's cultural context,
there undoubtedly existed some differentials in the be**
havior patterns of family members due to their individual
I
characteristics. Such possible variations eventually
resulted in revisions of the basic family structure In its
gradual adaptation to a changing community.
Main features of the Domostroi. The Domostroi con**
sists of three parts: Religious Prescriptions, Rules of j
Life, and Instructions to My Son. It begins with an j
i
epistle of a father to his son:
j
I, a sinner, bless myself and instruct and guide my
son, his wife, and their children, and their families,
so that they may live according to Christian laws, with
a clear conscience, justly fulfilling the will of God,
and practicing His commandments: so that on all occa
sions they may have fear of God and live in accordance i
with His law. So that they may instruct their wives,
teach their servants, but without violence: one should
not hurt them, nor overburden them with work; one
should treat them like one's own children and not dis
turb their rest; they should be fed, clothed, provided
with warm housing; and one should watch that they lack
in nothing.
I dedicate this treatise on Christian life to you;
preserve it in my memory, and follow these instruc
tions; I dedicate it to you and your children. If you
reject it, if you do not follow these lessons, and if
your life and your conduct do not conform to the rules
here stated, you will personally account for it on the j
day of the Great Judgment. . . .5
The sections on Religious Prescriptions deal with
such topics as:
5Ibid.. p. 27.
62
"How to Take Part in Divine Mysteries."
"Believe in the Resurrection of the Dead."
"Await the Last Judgmen ."
"How to Love God with One's Soul, Fear the Lord,
and Think of Death."
"Honor Bishops, Priests, and Monks."
"One Must Visit Monasteries, Hospitals, and
Prisons, and All Those Who Are Miserable and
Unhappy.”
I
The second portion of the book, the Rules of Life, j
is the longest and the most complete of the three. It j
deals in great detail with family relationships in their
|
social and economic context and house management.
i
The Children
The children are taught to obey and respect their
father and mother.
Children, obey the Lord's commandments; love your
father and mother, listen to them, and obey them in all
things in the name of God. Honor their old age; with
all your heart, help them to carry the burden of their
illnesses and their sorrow. Then, happiness will be
yours, and long will be your years on this earth.
If the intelligence of your mother and father
weakens in their old age, abstain from any offensive
words or reproofs; thus you will be later respected by j
your own children. Do not forget the trouble which you :
have caused to your father and mother, what great con
cern they have had over your mishaps, and how they have ;
shared your unhappiness with you. Assure them a rest
ful life in their old age,.and have pity on them as
they had pitied you. . . .« |
^Ibid., pp. 48-49.
63
The Wife
A good and virtuous wife is highly praised.
If God gives a man a good wife, she is worth more
than precious stones. Such a wife will make life sweet
to her husband. She will prepare linen and wool with
her own hands. Like a merchant's ship, she will bring
riches from afar to her home. She wakes up in the
dark, she distributes food to all the members of her
household, and the tasks to her servants. . * . She i
teaches her children and her servants, and her lamp
bums all night long. . . . She gives alms to the
poor. Her husband will not have to worry over the |
affairs of his household. She prepares his clothes, j
and adorns them in good taste. She also prepares
clothes for herself, her children, and her servants.
Her husband takes part in the assembly of the elders; j
he is honored by all who know him; he speaks wisely, he j
knows how to act. ... He is happy thanks to a virtu-!
ous wife.
A wife who honors her husband will be blessed by
God for having obeyed the divine law, and she will be j
praised by everybody. A good wife who likes to work,
who does not talk much is a glory to her husband.
Happy will be the husband of such a wife. They will
spend their life in peace and happiness.7
The Husband
The head of the house had his rules to follow, and
!was held responsible for the practice of social ethics by
the members of his household. He must instruct his wife,
his children, and his servants not to steal, to abstain
from debauchery, falsehood, calumny, and envy.
Thou must not offend others, attack anyone, be
aggressive, make bad judgments, drink to excess, mock,
bear grudges, or be irritable. Thou must obey those
Ibid., p. 52. (The above excerpts from the
Domostroi follow closely Chapter 31 of the Proverbs,
beginning with Verse 10.)
64
in higher position, be affectionate with people of the
middle rank, and be gracious to thy inferiors. . . .
Thou must render speedy justice, and especially not to
withhold wages or do any pecuniary harm. Thou must
accept an offense with the love of God, and suffer out
rage and reproof. If thou art faced with an earned
reproof, accept it with grace, make an effort to avoid
thy shortcomings in the future, and do not avenge thy
self. If thou art innocent, God will recompense thee.
Thou must teach thy household the fear of God, and all
the virtues, and thou must comport thyself in accord
ance with thy precepts. Then, thou snail receive grace
from God.8
The Daily Activities
All daily activities should always begin with a
prayer.
It behooves every man, the head of the house, or
its mistress, son or daughter, servants, every artisan,
young or old, in their home or elsewhere, before
beginning anything, his manual work, or his meal, or
the preparation of a meal, after having dressed and
washed himself, to bow three times to the ground before
the images of the saints, and to recite a prayer. If
one is unable to kneel, one must bow to one's waist.
It is also appropriate to say Grace before eating
or drinking. Thus all nourishment will be sweet: that
which is useful is sweet to the heart. Everything must
be done with prayer and either entertaining suitable
subjects or keeping silence. But if, while doing some
thing, one indulges in vain or derogatory conversation,
or if one begins to whisper, laugh, mock sacred
objects, or talk obscenely and licentiously, then
divine grace departs from such work and such effort:
angels go away in their grief, and impious demons re
joice, because their designs have been accomplished by
the Christians in the moment of their folly.9
8Ibid.. p. 53.
9Ibid.. pp. 50-51.
65
House Management
Minute directions are set forth for house manage
ment and household chores which are conducive to an orderly
functioning of a family social unit. Efficiency and
economy are emphasized.
The wife, once she gets up in the morning, dresses
herself, says her prayers, and then tells the servants
what work to do during the day, what tasks to accom
plish, what food to cook, and what kind of bread to !
bake, bread of flour sieved or bread of com flour.
She must know how to sieve the flour, how to prepare j
the yeast, to knead the dough, the sour dough or the
sieved flour dough, how to bake the bread as well as
rolls and pastry: she must know how much bread will
come out of eight measures, four measures of sieved j
flour: she will know the exact measures for every
thing. ... [
When one bakes bread, one must also do the washing j
as this will conserve firewood. The mistress of the j
house will take into account how to wash the best
clothes, how much soap and ashes will be required for
a certain number of shirts. Everything must be washed
well and boiled, carefully rinsed, dried and rolled,
tablecloths, napkins, handkerchiefs, linen, dusting
pieces; the mistress of the house must know the exact
number of the pieces washed, and will receive them
accordingly, clean and white. The old linen must be . '
carefully mended as it can be used for orphans. . . .10
A good housewife, endowed with good sense and wis
dom, counselled by her husband, desirous to do useful
work, in harmony with her servants, will weave fine
wool pieces, and also linen. ...
Man's shirts, woman's shirts, other garments must
be cut out in her presence. All remnants, all pieces i
left, of damask and taffeta, whether or not of any
value, material decorated with gold or silk, white or
red, down, ornamentations, fragments of ripped
clothing, old or new material, all must be gathered:
small pieces shall be kept in a bag, and the larger
pieces shall be neatly rolled and tied. Everything
^Ibid., p. 64.
66
shall be placed away according to Its size and locked:
thus, when one needs to mend some old stuff or even a
new cloth, one shall have the necessary material.
Everything has been preserved and one will not have,
thanks to the Lord, to go to the market and look for
something one needs: because of wise foresight, good
I sense, and Intelligence of the housewife'-everything
can be found In the home.*!
All utensils and domestic tools which are used In
i man's or woman's work, must be kept In order. . . .
Thus, whatever the task to be accomplished, one will
not have to disturb anyone. One will have no reason to
go to somebody else's house: one has his own tools and
does not have to ask for them.
... If, however, It becomes necessary to borrow
or lend some article, a necklace, a headdress, a
woman's garment, a vase of silver, brass, or tin,
yardage, or some food, It Is appropriate to carefully |
examine the article, whether new or old, to see If It
has been damaged In any way, torn or creased, If there
I has been any accident and the article Is not perfect:
all defects must be noted and recorded, the borrower
and the lender must know about them. Everything that
can be weighed must be weighed, and a price must be set;
for every article borrowed. If through your fault some j
accident occurs to the object borrowed, there should be I
no displeasure or fuss on either side: one will pay for I
the damage according to the previous evaluation. One
must take care of the borrowed article and return it
scrupulously, and one must look after it with greater
care than after one's own things, and It must be re
turned in due time, so that its owner would not have to
| send for it: later he will not refuse to lend other
things, and the friendship will be strengthened. . . .12
Although, as can be seen from these passages, the
Domostroi constituted a set of domestic rules and regula-
tions based on a careful and methodical observance of
i
morals, hard work, and equitable social relations, never
theless it became known more in terms of despotic rule
• ^Ibid.. pp. 67-68.
l2Ibid.. pp. 69-70.
67
! of a husband and father over his wife and children, and the
harshness of such prescriptions has been unduly emphasized,
|to the detriment of all the rest.
Strangely enough, it is in Chapter XXXVIII, en
titled "How to Arrange the Furniture in the Room and to
IKeep It in Good Order,0 that the advice on how to manage
a disobedient wife and recalcitrant children is found. It
|
reads:
If a wife, a son, or daughter do not pay attention
to the words and instructions of the father of the
family, if they do not listen to them with docility, do
not fear them, and do not do what the husband, the !
father or mother, orders them to do, a corporal punish'’
ment must be inflicted upon them in accordance with
their offense. This must not be performed in front of
others, but in seclusion. After having instructed them|
in this fashion, one must show kindness and forgive
them. Under no circumstances should either the husband
or the wife be angry with each other. i
No matter what was the offense, they should never
be hit on their face or their ears, nor with a stick or
with any other article of iron or wood. If one in his
anger and rage would do this, it might result in
serious injuries, death, deafness, broken legs, arms,
and fingers, headaches and toothaches: sometimes the
children might be injured in the womb of their mother.
In order to punish, one must hit with a whip and look
where one hits. This is reasonable and painful, ter
rible but not harmful to health. . . .*3
These excerpts from the Domostroi describe an his
torically evolved patriarchal family type with its powerful
sanctions of religion and prevailing customs and mores,
allocating strong authority to the social role of the head
of the house.
13Ibid., p. 62.
68
Against this background of an old Russian family,
with emphasis on its unity and strong emotional solidarity,
jits industry and self-sufficiency within the framework of
a simple economy, and the great prestige accorded to the
husband and father, a new family orientation, radically
opposed to the old patriarchal setup, was introduced by the
Soviet government immediately after its coming into power. |
The old moral traditions were replaced by the new j
j
standards and objectives of a socialist society designed to |
I
do away with the existing familial authority and hierar
chical roles within a family group. Social and economic
; |
equality of both sexes was established, thus changing con- j
siderably their social roles. The individual family home
was asserted as having outlived its utility, and a collec
tive principle or way of life was ushered in, as consti
tuting the base of a socialist society.
The children, instead of being reared within the
I
family societal unit, were to become the responsibility of
the state, whereby the center of gravity in the socializa
tion process during their early formative years was trans
ferred to governmental agencies functioning in an imper
sonal institutional setting.
The following section presents the highlights of
the Soviet socio-cultural approach to family life as it was
defined by the Soviet authorities at the beginning of their
The Communist Family
A blueprint for the new Soviet family, its struc-
i
ture, and function was presented by Alexandra Kolontay in |
14 !
her brochure, Communism and the Family. I
i
The sectional headings in this treatise were:
Woman No Longer Dependent on the Man j
From the Genetic Family to the Present Day
Capitalism Destroyed the Old Family Life
30,000,000 Women Bearing a Double Burden
Workers Learn to Exist Without Family Life
Household Work Ceasing To Be a Necessity
The Industrial Work of Woman in the Home
The Married Woman and the Factory
Individual Housekeeping Doomed
The Dawn of Collective Housekeeping
The Child's Upbringing under Capitalism
The Child and the Communist State
The Mother's Livelihood Assured
Marriage No Longer a Chain
The Family a Union of Affection and Comradeship
No More Prostitution
Social Equality of Men and Women
14
Alexandra Kolontay, Communism and the Family
(London: The Workers' Socialist Federation, 1918).
70
These captions have been listed because they
clearly convey the trend of social thought expressed in the
;book, and the direction given to family life, its functions
and interactions, during the earlier years of the Soviet |
I regime.
Alexandra Kolontay began her presentation of the
subject by asking the questions: "Will the family be main*- >
tained in the Communist state?" "Will it be just as it is
today?"She was aware that these questions were "tor
menting the women of the working class" because life was
changing, former habits and customs were gradually disap
pearing, the entire existence of the proletarian family was i
being organized in a manner that was so new, so unaccus
tomed, so bizarre, as to have been impossible to foresee,
1 fi
which made women perplexed.
Divorce had ceased to be a luxury permitted only to
rich people, and it could now be easily obtained within a
period of a week or two at most. Alexandra Kolontay
realized that women who were unhappy in their family life
would be relieved, but that women who had been accustomed
to look to their husbands as their sole support would be
discouraged because they did not "understand that hence
forth they must look for support no longer in the person
15Ibid.. p. 1
16Ibid.
71
17
of the man, but In the person of society, the state."
The normal family of former days, In which the man
| was everything and the woman nothing, since she had no will
j of her own, no money of her own, no time of her own--such
| a family would soon become a thing of the past. This,
however, should not constitute a threat because everything
In life was constantly changing and at one time polygamy
was considered to be a normal way of life. j
The new relations between the working man and I
!
woman, their respective rights and duties, compatible with |
:the new conditions in the Soviet Union, would be maintained
i while:
... all the rest, all the superannuated rubbish which
has been bequeathed by the cursed epoch of servitude
and domination so characteristic of the landed proprie
tors and capitalists, all this shall be swept aside
together with the exploited class itself, with these
enemies of the proletariat and of the poor.
A gradual disintegration of family life was traced
by Alexandra Kolontay back to the capitalist system, thus
changing the center of gravity in the current family
dilemma, and clothing it with an impersonal historic prin
ciple.
In the former days, the family had been necessary
to all its members, because it had nourished, clothed, and
17Ibid., p. 2.
^®Ibid., p. 4.
72
trained the children. The mother was the mistress of her
home, occupied with her household duties and her children,
; "whom she did not cease to watch with her attentive eyes,"
i and the husband worked and supported his family.
The capitalist system with its factories had drawn
i women into industry and had loosened family ties by placing
a double burden on the shoulders of the working women.
The wife, the mother, who is a worker, sweats blood to !
fill three tasks at the same time: to give the neces- J
sary working hours as her husband does, in some in- |
dustry or commercial establishment, then to devote !
herself to her household, and then also to take care
of her children.
As can be seen, Alexandra Kolontay had used a great;
'deal of emotional appeal in her effort to overcome any
possible disapproval and/or resistance to the new socialist
attitudes towards the family, and had taken advantage of
the same argument in trying to establish opposite premises.
It is claimed that the state of the working com"
rades will come to the rescue of the family by substituting
itself for the family, and thus it (the state) will take
charge of all that formerly was the duty of the parents.
The individual household will be replaced by collective
housekeeping, and the working woman would not have to take
care of her household chores any longer. In a communist
society there will be public restaurants, central kitchens, |
• ^Ibid.. p. 6
73
laundries, and mending shops.
The communist society will also come to the aid of
the parents in the upbringing of their children. There
will be day nurseries, kindergartens, children's colonies
and homes, with free distribution of textbooks, warm
clothing, free lunches, also health resorts, and so forth.
Thus, the child will pass out of the confines of the family
and will be placed from the shoulders of the parents on
those of collectivity. He will be "molded by socialist
organizations where intelligent educators will make of him
a Communist, a new man of a new society. . . ."20
It is also claimed that the family is ceasing to be
a necessity for its members as well as for the state. It
has become worse than useless, since it needlessly holds
back the female workers from a more productive and far more
serious work. The life of the working woman will be made
richer, happier, freer, and more complete. Marriage will
no longer be a chain, but "a free and happy union of two
souls in love with each other," a union of two equally free
and independent persons of the communist society.
This new relation will assure to humanity all the joys
of the so-called free love ennobled by a true social
equality of the mates, joys which were unknown to the
commercial society of the capitalist regime.21
20Ibid.. p. 16.
21Ibid.. p. 21.
74
This new attitude toward family organization and
its social roles, based on equal rights of men and women,
was also expressed by Lenin. Speaking on the "Emancipationj
I
of Working Women" at the First All-Russian Congress of
; Working Women, in 1918, he said:
"The Soviet government, as a government of toilers,
brought about, during the first few months of its
existence, a revolution in the laws concerning women.
Not a trace remains in the Soviet Republic now of the
laws that placed women in a subordinate position. I am
speaking now of those laws that took particular ad
vantage of the weaker position of woman, that deprived
her of equal rights with men, and that were often
degrading, as for instance the divorce laws, those
relating to children bom out of wedlock and to the
right of a woman to sue the father of her child for the i
child's support.
"It was just in this sphere that the bourgeois laws i
even in the most advanced countries took advantage of
woman's weaker position to deny her equal rights and
degrade her. It was just in this sphere that the
Soviet government did away with the old, unjust laws
that were unbearable for the toiling masses. And we
can now say with just pride and without the slightest
exaggeration that there is no country in the world
except the Soviet Union, where women enjoy full and
equal rights and are not placed in a subordinate posi
tion, ^Ich is particularly felt in everyday family
Besides this basic ideologic premise of woman's
liberation from a subordinate position and her attainment
of equal economic, political, and social rights with men,
there were two other major factors operative in the effort
i
i
of the Soviet government to break up the old family social
Denisova, "Woman in the Soviet Union,” Soviet !
Culture Review (Moscow: Soviet Union Society for Cultural
Relations with Foreign Countries, VOKS, 1932), p. 36.
75
pattern and to create a new Soviet family. These factors
I
were: (1) the need for a greater number of women in the
|labor force and their participation in the economic re-
|construction of the country, and (2) the need for bringing
up children and training them in the socialist ideology.
"The experience of all past liberating movements
teaches us," wrote Lenin, "that the success of a revolution)
j
depends on the extent of the women's participation in it." j
He emphasized that: j
s
"An active participation of millions and millions of
the women in the economic and political life of the
country constitutes one of the most decisive conditionsj
for the victory and strengthening of the proletariat
dictatorship."23
i
Early Soviet Legislation
There were four major phases in Soviet legislation
on family relations with respect to marriage, divorce, and
care and support of children. This legislation at first
i had caused a high degree of family disorganization. Later
there were efforts to counteract this trend and to remold
the family as a closely organized group once more, re
instating its social values.
The early laws of 1917-1918 and 1926 expressed
fully the Soviet ideology of those years, and offered
Bilshai, The Solution of Woman's Problem
(Moscow: Government Publications of Political Literature,
1956), p. 3, citing Lenin's Speech (date unknown).
76
a great deal of individual freedom in contracting marriage
as well as in dissolving it, thus emphasizing personal
individuation at the expense of family solidarity and
cohesion, and minimizing its social responsibility. At the
same time, provisions were made for the care and support of
children by their parents, and of other members of the
family group by their relatives. Apparently this was
necessitated by the society1s basic life-conditions, and
inability on the part of the state to assume entire
responsibility for the care of children and indigent per
sons in spite of Soviet ideological premises.
Subsequent laws in 1936 and 1944 represented a com
plete reversal of earlier legislation with regard to mar
riage and divorce, reestablishing social control over
family organization. Considerable restrictions were placed
once more on the dissolution of marriage, and the import
ance of preserving family life was reemphasized. In its
efforts to reconstruct the family social unit, the Soviet
government made it subject to rigid governmental regula
tions reinforced by an attempt to create a favorable public
opinion.
The Laws of 1917-1918
A decree of December 18, 1917, on marriage, chil
dren, and registration of civil status, and a closely
following decree of December 19, 1917, on divorce ushered
77
in a new era in family relationships. Both legal measures
represented a considerable departure from the old Russian
family laws, although the basic safeguards in contracting
marriage were preserved.
In the following year, on October 17, 1918, com
plete matrimonial legislation was enacted and incorporated
into the Code on the Civil Registration of Deaths, Births,
f
and Marriages.
i
|
Marriage. The decree of December 18, 1917, |
|
abolished church marriage and made a civil marriage oblige- |
The procedure of contracting marriage was as fol-
25
lows:
Persons wishing to contract marriage had to appear
at the civil registry office, declare their intention to be
married, and sign a statement concerning the absence of
obstacles to contracting such marriage. Upon their signing
this statement, the act of marriage was recorded, the mar
riage was declared to have become legally effective, and
a marriage certificate was issued.
^The 1918 code revised this article, and recog
nized religious marriages which had been contracted prior
to 1917.
^James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera. Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company, 1953), p. 613.
Rudolf Schlesinger, The Family in the U. S.S.R.
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1949), p. 408.
Declaration o£ intention to contract marriage was
not accepted from the following persons:
1. Males under eighteen years of age and females
tinder sixteen. ^
2. Relatives in the direct line, full and half
siblings. Consanguinity was recognized also
between a child bom out of wedlock through
his mother's and natural father's sides.
3. Persons already married.
4. Feeble-minded and insane.
Those guilty of deliberately making false state
ments about the absence of the obstacles mentioned above
were subject to criminal prosecution for false statement,
and such marriages declared invalid.
The 1918 Code emphasized that no marriage could be
contracted unless by mutual consent of the parties to be
married. Parental consent was still required for marriage
of those under age.
The Code further stated that the monastic state,
priesthood, or the diaconate were no impediments to mar
riage, and that marriage was not prohibited to persons who
26
In certain parts of the Soviet Union the age
requirements were lowered. For instance, in Transcaucasia,
the native inhabitants could enter into marriage upon
attaining the age of sixteen for the bridegroom and thir
teen for the bride.
had taken a vow of celibacy and were members of the white
or black clergy. This legal provision was a greater ;
rejection of the moral**religious traditions than the !
secularization of marriage, since it repudiated to a
greater degree the form and essential character of the
authority of the Church.
When contracting marriage, the parties could decide1 ;
whether they would be called by the surname of the husband
i
or of the wife, or by their combined surnames. This again
i
was directed toward the individuation aspect of marriage
!
I
and family as against its social counterpart of unity and
cohesion.
Of old, the family name carried with it identifica-
tion of individual members of the family with their kin
group. It was transmitted from parents to children, from
father to son, and the reputation and social status of an
individual member of the family often depended on his
family name.
The socio-psychological effect of the new law,
whereby a married couple could decide under what name they
were to be known, was to lead in the direction of further
weakening family bonds and destroying familistic values,
because the family name as a unifying factor had lost its
social value.
In cases where married persons were unable to
80
obtain a certificate of their marriage, either because the
book of marriage registration had been lost or destroyed or
!because of some other "sufficient” cause, they were given
the right to submit a declaration at the civil registry
> office of the place of residence of both parties or one of
ithem, to the effect that they had been in the state of
matrimony since a certain specified date, a statement that
there were no obstacles to their being married, and that
they were unable to obtain a certificate of the marriage.
This clause must have been necessitated by the
Civil War, the burning of towns, and the destruction of
records.
Family rights. The actual descent was deemed to be
the basis of the family, without any difference between
relationships established by legal or religious marriage,
or outside marriage.
This legal conception of descent was in complete
accord with the biological principle of reproduction but
it ran against the formerly accepted social norms with
regard to the family's social structure and its reciprocal
rights and obligations. The law, in establishing that
actual descent was "the basis of a family," by the same
token was removing the need for social restraints of olden
days, and its counterpart in public opinion of either
approving those who conformed to the familistic values of
the group or ostracizing those who violated them, since
these social norms no longer existed.
Children descended from parents related by non
registered marriages were considered to have equal rights
with those descended from parents whose marriages were
i registered.
]
The persons making a declaration, and signing a
statement that they were the father and mother of the
child, were registered as such. In case the father of a
child bom out of wedlock did not make such a declaration,
the mother of the child or its guardian had the right to
prove fatherhood by legal means.
An unmarried woman who became pregnant could give
notice, not later than three months before the birth of the
child, to the local civil registry office, stating the time
of conception and the name and residence of the father of
her child. On receipt of such notice, the registrar's
office had to inform the person named as the father of the
child, and he was allowed a period of two weeks in which to
contest. If no appeal was made within the specified time,
the person was considered the father of the child.
Suits relating to paternity were determined in
court, and if paternity was established the father of the
child was ordered to share in the confinement expenses of
the mother and in the maintenance of the child.
82
Rights and duties of huaband and wife. Marriage
did not establish community of property. Married parties
could enter Into any property relation permitted by law.
If agreements entered Into were of such nature as to
restrict the property rights of either party, they were
considered to be Invalid, and the party whose rights were
restricted could refuse to carry them out.
Change of residence on the part of one of the mar
ried parties did not oblige the other to follow.
A spouse In need and unable to work was entitled to
support from the other spouse, provided the latter was able
to afford such support.
Although the new Soviet family was based on eco- j
nomlc equality of marital partners and their financial
independence, nevertheless the social framework of modem
society made it impossible for the state to absolve them
completely from their financial obligations toward each
other, thus confirming mutual interdependence in their
functioning as a social unit.
Divorce. The decree of December 19, 1917, later
incorporated in the code of 1918, provided the following
rules with respect to the dissolution of marriage:
Marriage could be dissolved at the request of both
parties or one of them. The mutual consent of husband and
wife, as well as the desire of one of them to obtain a
divorce, constituted grounds for divorce.
83
Subject to the mutual consent of both parties,
petition for the dissolution of the marriage could be filed
|directly with the civil registry office at which the record
I of that marriage was kept. Upon verification that the
{petition for divorce came from both parties, the registrar
made an entry of the divorce and, at the request of the
parties, delivered to them a certificate of divorce.
A petition for divorce could also be filed with the
local court, according to the place of residence of both
parties. If the petition was made by one party only, it
had to be submitted at the place of residence of the hus**
band, whether he was the plaintiff or the defendant. If
j the whereabouts of one of the parties in the divorce pro
ceedings was unknown, the plaintiff could file his petition 1
either at his own place of residence or at the last-known
residence of the absent party, and a notice of summons was
published in a local newspaper. The hearing took place at
the expiration of two months from the day of the publica
tion of such notice.
When the marriage was dissolved by mutual consent,
the parties were to state in their petition what surnames
they and their children were to be known by in the future,
and with which of the parents the minor children issue of
this marriage would live.
When the marriage was dissolved by petition of one j
84
of the parties, or there was no agreement between the
parties regarding the custody and support of the children,
;the judge ruled on temporary maintenance and support of the
:children pending filing of a regular civil suit in court.
I He also determined what surname the child would henceforth
assume.
The right of a spouse in need and unable to work,
and having no other means of livelihood, to be maintained |
by the other spouse was preserved in case of divorce until !
a change in the circumstances had taken place.
As can be seen from the above-cited legal provi
sions, the early Soviet family law provided great latitude
I for the severance of marital bonds, inasmuch as the desire
of one marital partner only was sufficient in having the
marriage dissolved. However, in case of a disagreement,
the matter had to be referred to the court and the final
decision depended on the latter.
j
This points to the fact that freedom, even in such
personal relationships as those of husband and wife, can
never remain an unmitigated blessing, but that social con
trol becomes necessary in order to resolve the conflicting
interests ever present in any social interaction, and to
replace individual strife with compromise and cooperation.
The 1917 divorce decree also made provision with
regard to all previous divorce suits which had been tried
85
in the Holy Synod consistories o£ the Greek Orthodox Church
or other denominations of Christian and non-Christian
faiths, and in which no decision had been rendered. All
such suits were declared null and void, and had to be
jtransferred immediately to the local district court. The
parties were allowed to file a new petition for dissolution
of their marriage in accordance with the new law, but with
out having to wait for the dismissal of the first suit, and
I
no new publication of summons was required.
|
I
The 1926 Soviet Legislation on Family and Marriage
The marriage and divorce law enacted on November 19,!
E
1926, to become effective January 1, 1927, went consider- j
! I
ably further than the law of 1917 in recognizing de facto
marriages, i.e., those not having been officially regis
tered, and in liberalizing legal divorce provisions.
Marriage. Chapter 1, Part X, of the Soviet Law
on Marriage and Divorce, of November 19, 1926, entitled
"General Principles," reads:
1. The registration of marriages is introduced in
the interests of the state and society as well
as for the purpose of facilitating the pro
tection of the personal and property rights and
interests of husband and wife and of children.
A marriage is contracted by registration at a
civil registry office in the manner prescribed
by Part IV of the present code.
1
2. The registration of a marriage at a civil
registry office is conclusive evidence of the
existence of the state of matrimony. Documents
attesting the celebration of marriage according
to religious rites have no legal effect.
Note: Marriages celebrated according to reli**
gious rites prior to December 20, 1917; or
which were celebrated in localities occupied by
the enemy prior to the establishment of the
civil registry offices are of the same effect
as registered marriages.
3. Where de facto conjugal relations exist between
persons, which relations have not been regis
tered in the manner prescribed, such persons
are entitled at any time to regularize their
relations by means of registration, stating in
so doing the period of their actual cohabita
tion.*'
Chapter 3, Part I, of the same code, entitled
"Rights and Duties of Husband and Wife," reads in part:
10. Property which belonged to either husband or
wife prior to their marriage remains the
separate property of each of them. Property
acquired by husband and wife during continuance
of their marriage is regarded as their joint
property. The share belonging to either hus
band or wife shall, in case of dispute, be
determined by the court.
11. Section 10 of the present code extends also to
the property of persons married in fact though
not registered, provided these persons recog-
nize their mutual status of husband and wife,
or their marital relationship is established as
a fact by a court on the basis of the actual
conditions under which they live.2®
Subsequent legal interpretations and judicial deci
sions had amply substantiated the above-mentioned legal
provisions, indicating that, when deciding the question of
27
The Soviet Law on Marriage. Full Text of the Code
of Laws on Marriage and Divorce, the Family, and Guardian
ship (Moscow: Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the
U.S.S.R., 1932), p. 44.
28Ibid.
87
existing marriage according to the 1926-27 Soviet law, it
was necessary to bear in mind the fundamental principle ;
that de facto marriage was the decisive factor.
j
In 1927 the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. declared
jthat a factual wife was not required to prove that she was
a dependent of the deceased to be his heir. The marriage
relationship, even though unregistered, was sufficient to
qualify her as a wife, and hence an heir within the provi- j
j
OQ
sions of the inheritance rules of the civil code.
The de facto marriage was also reaffirmed in 1929,
i
when the Supreme Court had to determine the legal status of|
a woman who had lived with a married man for sixteen years
prior to his death. The Supreme Court reversed the local
court's decision, which had refused to recognize the second
marriage as valid on the grounds that it would have made
the deceased bigamous.
The Supreme Court stated:
In life, situations are often met when marriage rela
tions of spouses who are still registered as married
are in fact terminated, but there has been no registra
tion of divorce, while at the same time one of the
spouses has established factual marriage relations with
a third person. The refusal by the court to establish i
this fact because the law forbids bigamy would not only
be contrary to law but also contrary to0simple logic.
Case of Gromoglasov, No. 31,326 (1929).30
29
John N. Hazard, Law and Social Change in the
U.S.S.R. (London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1953), p. 247.
3®Ibid., p. 248.
88
In the same year, the Supreme Court went so far as
to permit two women, with whom the deceased had been main**
taining the relationship of factual marriage at the time of
31
his death, both to qualify as heirs to his estate.
Such a decision by the Supreme Court of the country
clearly testifies to a widespread acceptance of informal
marital relationships as new social norms characteristic
j
of the early period of Soviet society.
j
An interpretation of the People's Commissariat of j
Finance dated October 26, 1934, No. 118, states that, in !
all cases when the person who is married by registration
has in fact dissolved that marriage, and has subsequently i
j j
in fact entered into a second marriage, entry into this new;
marriage is valid and in full effect. The original mar
riage, when the above-mentioned circumstances have been
discovered, must be declared dissolved, and the civil
registry offices must make a corresponding entry in their
records. A person who at the time of the second marriage
had concealed his or her previous marriage is liable, under
Article 88 of the Criminal Code, not for bigamy but only
for communication of wrong information to the civil
32
registry office. A
A decision of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R.,
31Ibid., p. 247.
OO
"^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit., p. 173.
89
’ ’Court Practice,” 1929, No. 20, stated:
The establishment by the court of de facto marital
relations into which the person entered while he was
married to another person by registration does not
amount to bigamy. However, the court in such cases
must establish the date at which the actual relations
began and must declare.the registered marriage dis
solved from that date.JJ
On the other hand, a resolution passed by the
Plenum of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. on April 1,
1929, stated that the celebration of marriage by mullahs j
i
or religious rites by persons who are already married and
are contracting another marriage (bigamy) is punishable j
under Articles 17 and 199 of the Criminal Code, Article 1991
specifying that bigamy and polygamy entail correctional
labor for a period of up to one year or a fine of up to
a i
one thousand rubles.
The payment of purchase price for the bride (Kalym)
effected by the bridegroom, his parents, or his relatives,
by blood or through marriage, in cash, cattle, or any other
form of property, or in personal labor, is also punishable
under Article 196 of the Criminal Code, and entails cor
rectional labor for a period of up to one year. The
acceptance of the purchase price entails the same punish
ment, together with a fine equal to the amount of the pur
chase price.
33Ibid., p. 175
34Ibid.
90
The Supreme Court decision further stated that this
law did not extend to marriages contracted prior to the
passage of the law, and was applicable in localities where
action referred to constituted survival of a tribal manner
jof life.
This differential treatment of bigamy indicates
that the Soviet socialist system did not consider bigamy,
as such, as being a breach of social ethics, but dealt withj
it more in terms of a socio-cultural offense, representing
a threat to the socialist form of government.
Divorce. The 1926 law relegates the registration
of divorces directly to the civil registry offices, with
the exception that, when there is no agreement between the
parties as to the amount of support to be awarded to the
children, or to the incapacitated spouse, the case must be
settled by civil suit.
Chapter 4, Part I, of the Marriage and Divorce Law,
entitled "Dissolution of Marriage," reads:
17. A marriage is dissolved by the death of one of
the parties to it or by a declaration of the
presumptive death of either the husband or the
wife through a notary public or court (May 27, i
1929, Compiled Statutes of the R.S.F.S.R.,
1929, No. 49, Section 422).
18. During the lifetime of both parties to a mar
riage, the marriage may be dissolved either by
the mutual consent of both parties to it or
upon the ex parte application of either of I
them. j
19. During the lifetime of both parties, the dis
solution of a marriage (divorce) may be
91
registered at the civil registry office,
whether the marriage was registered or un
registered, provided that in the latter case
it has been established as a fact by the court
in accordance with Section 12 of the present
code.
20. The fact that a marriage has been dissolved
may also be established by a court if the
divorce was not registered.
21. When registering the dissolution of their
marriage the husband and wife indicate what
surname each of them wishes to use. In the
absence of an agreement between the parties on
this point, each resumes his or her ante
nuptial surname.
22. When registering the dissolution of a marriage
it is the duty of the civil registry office to
consider the question of which child or chil
dren, if any, shall be entrusted to the cus
tody of each parent, to what extent each
parent is to bear the expense of raising the
children, and the amount of alimony to be paid
to an incapacitated husband or wife. In case j
the husband and wife arrive at an understand- i
ing on these points, such agreement is re
corded in the registration book of divorces
and a corresponding extract from the book is
handed to both husband and wife; this agree
ment does not deprive either the husband or
wife, nor the children, of the right subse
quently to present, by way of an ordinary law
suit, a claim for alimony in a sum exceeding
that stipulated in the agreement.
23. If the obligations set forth in the agreement
have not been carried out, the persons inter- I
ested may apply at the office of a notary
public for a writ of execution in accordance j
with Clause B, Section 47, of the regulations |
governing the state notaries public (Janu
ary 23, 1928, Compiled Statutes of the
R.S.F.S.R., 1929, No. 15, Section 116).
24. In the absence of an agreement the question of
the amount of alimony to be awarded to chil
dren is settled by an ordinary law suit; the
court at the time statement of claim is filed j
92
renders a decision, after careful considera
tion of the circumstances of the case and the
interests of the children, specifying which of
the parents, and to what extent, he or she
must, pending the decision of the law suit,
provisionally bear the expense of the mainten
ance of the children, and who is to have pro
visional custody of the children.
The amount of alimony awarded to a needv
incapacitated husband or wife must in the
absence of an agreement likewise be decided by
the court upon the institution of an ordinary
law suit. (See Clause B, Section 1, for a
list of documents which serve as a basis for
the issuance of writs of execution and the
making of levies through the office of a
notary public* Decree of the Council of j
People's Commissars, May 21, 1930, Compiled j
Statutes of the R.S.F.S.R., 1930, No. 38,
Section 477.)35
Chapter 2, Part IV, of the same code further pro
vides : I
138. A declaration of dissolution of marriage is
filed with the civil registry office either ini
writing or orally at the place of residence of
either the husband or the wife.
139. In case the declarant possesses no documents
attesting the registration of the marriage
that is being dissolved, he signs a statement
indicating the time and place where the mar
riage was registered and assumes responsi
bility for the correctness of the information
given.
140. In case the declaration of the dissolution of
marriage is made by one of the conjugal part
ners, the other partner receives a copy of
the record of the dissolution of marriage,
addressed as indicated by the declarant.
^The Soviet Law on Marriage . . .. p. 44.
93
W. H. Chamberlin, in his book Soviet Russia, re-
I ports that, according to the figures of the Commissariat of
I the Interior, there were 526,692 marriages and 126,280
i
i
'divorces in European Russia during the first half of 1927,
i
j or a ratio of about one divorce to every four marriages.
In the larger cities this ratio was considerably higher.
In Moscow alone there were 12,825 marriages and 9,973 '
36 I
divorces during the same period. j
!
These figures bear witness to the results of a
nation-wide social experiment conducted by the Soviet (
i
government in an effort to do away with an individual !
;family pattern of life considered by them to be the basis j
of capitalistic society, and to introduce instead a collec
tive way of life.
Soviet legislation, in liberalizing both marriage
and divorce to the point of making them virtually unneces
sary, created great instability in marital relationships
and consequent disorganization in the family social struc
ture.
This survey of early Soviet legislation on the
family can be concluded with the presentation of an offi
cial point of view with regard to the basis and purpose of
the law.
3^William Henry Chamberlin, Soviet Russia (Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 1933), p. 381.
94
F. Nurina, in her introduction to The Soviet Law
on Marriage, published in 1932, still quotes Marx. She
begins by saying, "Marx defined the family based on private
property as the original form of slavery which makes pos-
37
sible the exploitation of another person's labor."
According to her, in the Soviet Union the marriage
and family code was drawn up on the "fundamental principle" !
of "absolute equality" in marriage and the family of the |
j
working man and woman, which provides safeguards in the
|
interests of women and children. I
!
Such terms as "bom out of wedlock" or "illegiti
mate child" were abolished, and all children of the toiling
masses "in the Land of the Soviets" became entitled to the j
same care from the government.
F. Nurina says further:
The Soviet law safeguards the rights of the people
who live or have lived together in registered as well
as in unregistered marriage. Marriages are registered
only to make easier or to simplify, in case of neces
sity, the safeguarding of the interests of either of
the parents or the children.
Divorce in Tsarist Russia, as it is now in all
bourgeois countries, was made unusually difficult and
practically unobtainable except for the rich. The
sanctity of the family hearth, the indissolubility of
marriage, are high-sounding phrases with which the
bourgeoisie hypocritically cover the rottenness and
falsehood of the bourgeois system.3°
37
The Soviet Law on Marriage . . .. pp. 1-3
38Ibid.
Sumnarv
m S^SSm SSSm m Jtm
The transition from the Old-Russian family in an
: agricultural setting as well as in an urban community has
i been swift and abrupt. The concept of marriage as being
i
one of great religious significance was changed overnight
to that of a purely civil contractual relationship, based
on complete equality of sexes, both socially and economi-
|
cally.
The age-old, highly honored domestic values, such
I
as industry, thrift, and solidarity of the various members j
of the household, were declared as having outlived their
role and having become obsolete. The ideal of family life |
in a collective housekeeping setup was advocated.
The woman was to be released from her household
drudgery and the care of children. Her time and energy
were to be invested in work outside of her home and her
active participation in the political life of the country,
and in the building-up of a socialist form of government.
There were four sets of legislation on marriage and
family in the Soviet Union during the period from 1917 to
1944. Two of these, which were discussed in this chapter,
were designed to make the contracting of marriage and its
dissolution as flexible and simple as possible.
The registration of a marriage was not made oblige-
tory, and the de facto marriage was considered to be just
96
as valid as one which was registered in accordance with
legal provisions. Likewise, the desire of one party to
have the marriage dissolved was deemed to be sufficient
grounds for divorce.
This early Soviet legislation greatly contributed
to the weakening of the family bonds, and resulted in con**
siderable instability of the family life.
CHAPTER IV
SOCIAL CHANGES WITH RESPECT TO MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
IN THE SOVIET UNION: SECOND PERIOD
Soviet Legislation
With the consolidation of Soviet political power,
the inauguration of the country's industrial and economic
development, and the completion of the first Five-Year
Plan, the Soviet Union entered upon the second phase of its
social planning and legislation.
Strong industrial organization and a planned
national economy required a more orderly regulation and
functioning of the country's social institutions, especi
ally those pertaining to general societal controls over the
family and marriage.
In spite of the proclaimed Soviet ideological prin
ciples that the family has outlived its usefulness and,
therefore, required no longer any effective social control,
the earlier Soviet legislation on marriage and family
proved to be more of a liability than an asset to a social
ist society. The country was confronted with a dispropor
tionately high divorce rate, a low birth rate, and an
irresponsible attitude on the part of parents toward
98
I
itheir offspring*
After two decades, the Soviet government found it
necessary to abandon its position with regard to the family
i
i
as having outlived its usefulness, and to inaugurate a new
1
jsystem of social norms promoting familistic values. Thus,
the family again gained recognition as an important
societal unit.
i
The Family Law of June 27. 1936 |
On June 27, 1936, the Soviet government made a con
siderable change in official policies relating to the |
family and its functions, and in the statutory control over
imarriage. This new legislation contained provisions
relating to:
Divorce law
Prohibition of abortion
Material assistance to mothers
! State assistance to large families
Divorce. The decree of June 27, 1936, of the
Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's
Commissars of the U.S.S.R. read:
Aiming at combating an irresponsible attitude
toward family and family obligations and in amendment
of the existing laws regarding marriage, family, and
protection of children, it is established that both
parties seeking divorce should be personally present
at the Office of Acts of Civil Status, and that
99
a corresponding entry should be made in passports of
both parties*1
The fee for the registration of divorce was speci
fied as follows: the filing fee for the first divorce was
i
set at 50 rubles, for the second divorce at 150 rubles, and
|
for a third or subsequent divorce at 300 rubles. Appar
ently, the payment of a large fee was considered to be a
deterrent to divorce proceedings.
The 1936 law still left the registration of divorce
with the civil registry office, and only when the parties
were unable to reach an agreement were their cases to be
heard in court.
j
I
Child support. Closely related to the increase in
divorce rates, another offshoot of family disorganization
and the breakdown of familistic values became evident,
i.e., a lack of parental responsibility toward the rearing
and support of children.
The weakening of the family organization was
proving that, by and large, the natural feeling on the part
of parents toward the nurture and welfare of their off
spring was not as strong and did not represent as common a
pattern of behavior as was generally supposed, but that it
was the result of social consciousness derived from, and
^James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera, Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company, 1953;, p. 230.
100
| Intimately tied up with social values.
The new law established a penalty of imprisonment
for up to two years for nonpayment of support and main ten-
|
jance of children. The cost of tracing the person who tried
i
to escape from the payment of said support was to be borne
i
l
by that person.
Hazard states It was reported in 1937, in the
!
Preliminary Reports on the Application of the Law of
June 27, 1936, that there were some 1,000,000 persons in
the U.S.S.R. who were under court order to pay for the j
support of their children, and that out of this number some j
100,000 had evaded these payments.2 j
I
i
Prohibition of abortion. Still another corollary
of the breakdown in the family group was the low birth
rate. One of the primary functions of marriage and family
has been defined as the need for the biological reproduc
tion of the human race. Marriage became institutionalized
as a social measure to provide a suitable environment for
the rearing of children and insuring to them the proper
care necessary for their survival and normal growth.
During the earlier period, Soviet legislation had
legalized abortions and had made provisions for them under
medical auspices in public clinics and hospitals. Resort
2 John N. Hazard, Law and Social Change in the
U.S.S.R. (London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1953), p. 255.
to contraception as a preferable means of controlling the
size of families was stressed in educational campaigns, and
the abortion clinics were provided as an alternative for
3
persons unable to practice contraception effectively*
Only doctors were permitted to perform abortions.
Nurses and midwives found guilty of making such operations
i
were to be deprived of the right to practice and tried by
a People's Court. ;
3 I
Decree of November 18, 1920. Rudolf Schlesinger, j
The Family in the U.S.S.R. (London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, Ltd., 194$),p. 44.
"During the past decades the number of women
resorting to artificial discontinuation of pregnancy has
grown both in the West and in this country. The legisla
tion of all countries combats this evil by punishing the
woman who chooses to have an abortion and the doctor who
performs it. Without leading to favorable results, this
method of combating abortions had driven the operation
underground and made the woman a victim of mercenary and
often ignorant quacks who make a profession of secret oper
ations. As a result, up to 30 per cent of such women are
infected in the course of operation, and up to 4 per cent
of them die.
"The Workers' and Peasants' Government is conscious
of this serious evil to the community. It combats this
evil by propaganda against abortions among working women.
By working for socialism, and by introducing the protection
of maternity and infancy on an extensive scale, it feels
assured of achieving the gradual disappearance of this
evil. But as the moral survivals of the past and the dif
ficult economic conditions of the present still compel many
women to resort to this operation, the People's Commis
sariats of Health and Justice, anxious to protect the
health of the women and considering that the method of re
pression in this field fails entirely to achieve this aim,
have decided:
"(1) To permit such operations to be performed
freely ana without any charge in Soviet hospitals, where
conditions are assured of minimizing the harm of opera
tion."
102
In the beginning the response to these provisions
permitting abortions was only moderate, but as time went
ion the number of births In the U.S.S.R. fell sharply. From
over 6,500,000 In 1926 and 1927, their number decreased to
5,000,000 in 1935.
In 1924-25, statistics for twenty provinces in the
European part of the U.S.S.R. showed an average of thirteen
I
abortions per one hundred live births, and in 1935 the j
number of abortions was as large as the number of births
in many sections of the country.
The decrease in the birth rate was especially
noticeable in large cities. In Moscow the ratio of abor
tions to live births rose from about 20 per cent in 1924 to
an average of 30 per cent in 1925, and increased rapidly
thereafter, showing a ratio of 270 abortions per one
A
hundred live births in 1934.
The law of 1936 introduced prohibition of abortions
and a severe penalty was established for those who per
formed them, except in cases justified by health condi
tions .
The decree read:
Having in view that abortions are harmful ot health,
it is prohibited to perform such operations in hos
pitals, special clinics, doctors' homes, and in the
homes of pregnant women. The performing of abortions
^Frank Lorimer, The Population of the Soviet Union
(Geneva: League of Nations, 1946), pp. i£6-30.
103
Is justified exclusively In such cases where the con-
tlnuatlon of pregnancy threatens the life or may
seriously undermine the health of the pregnant woman, j
and also where there Is danger of serious disease of
parents being transmitted to the children; the opera
tion may be performed only In hospitals and maternity
homes7->
A comprehensive list of conditions under which
abortion could be performed was provided.
A doctor who performed an abortion against regula-
tions was liable to Imprisonment of from one to two years,
and If an abortion was performed under unsanitary condi
tions, or by persons not possessing the necessary medical
training, punishment of Imprisonment for not less than
three years was Indicated.
Those guilty of compelling a woman to have an abor
tion were also liable to Imprisonment for up to two years.
The pregnant woman herself was subject to a severe repri
mand, and, In case of recurrence, to a fine of up to
300 rubles.**
Although the decree states that this measure was
based on considerations of health and the danger ensuing
from abortions, It would be quite safe to assume that the
decline In the birth rate was an important concern for the
Soviet government. Furthermore, the new policy of
^Meisel and Kozera, on. cit.. p. 229.
6lbid.
104
i prohibiting abortions must have been Influenced by the
Instability of family life and the lack of Interest on the
part of married people In rearing children. This point of
!
view Is substantiated by the legislation enacted for the
I protection of mothers and children.
Protection of motherhood. The law of 1936 provided
for an Increase In social Insurance payments to employed
mothers and nursing mothers, as follows: !
In order to Improve the material conditions of
mothers, manual workers as well as office workers, who
are Insured through the organs of Social Insurance, the j
amount of grant Is to be Increased which Is paid from
the funds of the State Social Insurance for purchasing j
the necessary articles for a newly-born child from j
32 rubles to 45 rubles.
The amount of grant to the mother is to be In
creased for feeding the child from 3 to 10 rubles a
month. 7
A penalty was established for those refusing to
engage a pregnant woman or for lowering her wages, and she
was to be assigned to lighter work.
Mothers of "large families," i.e., those having six
children, were to be given 2,000 rubles a year for five
years at the birth of each further child, and mothers with
ten children were given 5,000 rubles at the birth of the
next child, and 3,000 rubles a year from the second year
after the birth of a child during four consecutive years.
7Ibid.. p. 230.
105
t ' •
I Th« Family Law of Julv 8. 1944
This law caused virtually a revolution in the mar-
|riage and divorce procedures of the Soviet Union. The law
!formalized marriage,, imposed great restrictions on divorce,
:considerably increased state allowances to mothers and
expectant mothers, and introduced an official approbation
of motherhood through the establishment of special medals
and Orders. j
i
The law also changed the earlier provisions per-
I
taining to unmarried mothers and children born out of wed- j
lock.
Even prior to the passage of this law, the trend in
the direction of strengthening family life had become a
firm public policy of an almost obligatory nature, and
efforts to correct the abuses which grew out of the work
ings of the earlier Soviet marriage laws were made.
A Soviet author, in his book The Family Law, pub
lished in 1938, wrote: ”In this society real human rela
tionships between man and woman are being strengthened, and
the family is being strengthened as a socialist form of
home.”®
Comparing this statement with the description of
Q
Hazard, op. cit., p. 265, citing Volison, The
Family Law. 1938, p. 5.
106
; a Soviet family by Alexandra Kolontay, and bearing in mind
the laws of 1917 and 1926, one cannot but be impressed by
the complete turnabout in the Soviet government's policies
j and social concepts relating to the status and role of the
;family.
John N. Hazard reports that:
Dramatic posters began to appear on billboards, behind i
railway platforms and along the wharves of the Volga,
depicting a father and mother in a family group sur- j
rounded by children, and bearing the inscription: i
"Long Live the Soviet Family."?* j
On November 21, 1941, a decree was enacted intro
ducing a tax on childless persons.
The law of 1944 introduced the following legal |
provisions with regard to marriage and divorce:
Marriage. Only registered marriages were declared
to be valid. The de facto marriages of the past years were
no longer recognized. Persons who were maintaining marital
relations without having them registered were permitted to
legalize them, stating the actual period of their conjugal
life.
The registration of marriages on passports, indi
cating surnames, given names, and patronymics, the year of
birth of the other party to the marriage, and the place and
the date of marriage, became obligatory.
9Ibid.. p. 266.
107
Article 30 of the law called for "the Introduction
of a solemn procedure in registering marriages, for which
|suitable premises, properly furnished, were to be set
iaside. . .
j
Divorce* A new procedure was also established for
I divorces, whereby divorce cases were to be heard in courts
only.
This new procedure consisted of the following
steps:
a. A petition for the dissolution of a marriage
was to be submitted to the People's Court,
giving reasons for the divorce as well as the
full name, date of birth, and address of the
other party to the marriage; when filing the
petition for divorce the sum of 100 rubles was
to be paid.
b. The court summoned the party against whom the
petition had been filed, to acquaint him or
her with the contents of the petition, to
ascertain the motives for the divorce, as well
as to establish witnesses to be summoned
during the court hearing.
c. Announcement of the filing of a petition for
divorce was to be published in a local news**
paper at the expense of the party filing the
petition.H
Article 25 of the law placed the responsibility on
the judge of effecting a reconciliation between the parties
seeking divorce. It read:
^Meisel and Kozera, on. cit.. pp. 378-80: also
Schlesinger, op. cit.. pp. 367-771
11Ibid.. pp. 378-79.
108
The People'8 Court is obliged to establish the
motives for the filing of a petition for the dissolu
tion of a marriage, and to take steps to reconcile the
parties, for which purpose both parties must be sum
moned, and in case of necessity witnesses as well.
In the event of failure by the People's Court to
reconcile the parties, the petitioner has the right to
file a petition for the dissolution of the marriage
with a higher court.
A decision regarding the dissolution of a marriage
may be passed by the regional and city courts, or the
Supreme Court of the Union or autonomous republic.12
The regional, territorial, and city courts, or the j
i
Supreme Court of the Union or of an autonomous republic, :
which decides that the marriage should be dissolved, must: |
1. Settle the question of the custody and support ■
of the children.
I
2. Establish a procedure for the division of
property, whether in kind or in respective
proportions between the parties.
3. Restore to each of the divorced parties their
original surnames, if they so desire.
On the basis of the court decision, the civil
registry office drew up the certificate of divorce, made a
corresponding entry in the passports of both parties, and
charged one or both parties, at the decision of the court,
a sum ranging from 500 to 2,000 rubles.
From a review of this new legislation, it would
appear that the primary concern of the law was to effect
12Ibid.. p. 379
109
!a reconciliation between the parties and to reSstablish the
i
family home. The matter of divorce was also brought to
| the attention of the community through the publication of
j
|a notice in the local newspaper, apparently in an effort to
tenlist public disapproval as an additional measure against
the disruption of family life.
These new legislative procedures and requirements
were soon reflected in the reported judicial decisions. j
In the case of Vardush Gizyan v. Agit Gizyan,
No. 48, 1948, the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. passed the
: j
;following resolution: j
: i
A peasant women was unable to obtain a share in the |
division of property of a peasant household, because !
her alleged marriage with one of its members had not
been registered. She was informed that she could
demand payment only for the work she had contributed to !
the household during the period in which she had lived
under its roof, but that she was not entitled to any
share as a legal wife.13
Reluctance in granting divorce has been evidenced
in many instances. One of such cases may serve as an
illustration of the new position taken by the Soviet
government.
Case: V. v. V., 1949, 4, Socialist Laws, 61:
In 1949, the Supreme Court refused to approve a
divorce granted by an intermediate court because the
strained relationships which had caused the husband and
^Hazard, op. cit.. pp. 266-67.
110
father of three minor children to seek a divorce were his
own fault. He had become Involved with another woman.
The Supreme Court stated:
The relationships which were created In the family,
for which the plaintiff was himself responsible, can
not serve as the basis for divorce. The decision of
the court in this case sanctions in substance the
clear amoral relationship of V. to his,family duties,
and it cannot be accepted as correct.14
i
A review of the courts* decisions during 1949, by j
a Mr. Aksenok, in his book The Role of the Court in
Strengthening tfr* family in the Soviet State, shows that
in Chernigov Province of the Ukraine reconciliations took
place in 54 per cent of the cases heard, and in Riazan
i
Province of the R. S.R. reconciliation was effected in j
56 per cent of the cases.^
On September 16, 1949, an order was issued by the
Supreme Court to all courts hearing divorce cases. It
stated that many courts did not fully understand the
political implications of the 1944 law, which prescribed
new rules and regulations with respect to the granting of
divorces, inasmuch as divorces were being granted for
reasons contrary to the principles of communist morals.
Some of the courts had indicated a willingness on their
part to accept the desire of the parties for divorce
14Ibid.. p. 269.
15Ibid., p. 270.
Ill
!
1
'without even trying to effect a reconciliation* The courts
were advised not to grant a divorce unless they were con*
vlnced that there were important and weighty reasons which
precluded the continuation of family life and the rearing
16
of children in a suitable environment.
The lower courts, on the other hand, found them*
selves facing many problems. They reported that the omis* j
sion of grounds for divorce in the law created considerable
difficulty for the judges in arriving at an equitable
decision, and expressed a need for a more definite policy.
i
The President of the Astrakhan Provincial Court
j stated that the judge handling divorce cases was required
!to be a psychologist also in order to be able to understand|
marital problems, as well as to be trained in the political
programs of the government.^
Another judge, a member of the Supreme Court of the
Tartar Republic, explained that he, as a judge in divorce
proceedings, had to study the concepts of the family,
social organization, and other aspects affecting marriage,
18
as they are treated in Marxist socialist philosophy.
16Ibid.
^Ibid.. p. 271, citing Shumilov, in "The Role of j
the Court in Strengthening the Family in the Soviet State," |
1950.
18
Ibid.. citing Krylov, in "From the Experience of
Trying Cases on Divorce," 1950. j
112
Increase of State Aid to mothers of large families.
Another Important feature of the 1944 law was a substantial
increase in State Aid to mothers with large families. This
19
law provided the following state allowances:
TABLE 1
STATE ALLOWANCES TO MOTHERS WITH LARGE FAMILIES
IN 1944
To Mothers with
Lump-Sum
Payment
(Rubles)
Monthly
Payments
2 children, on birth of 3rd 400
mm mm
3 4th 1,300 80
4 5th 1,700 120
5 6th 2,000 140
6 7th 2,500 200
7 8th 2,500 200
8 9th 3,500 250
9 10th 3,500 250
10 children, on birth of 5,000 300
each subsequent child
In determining the amount of state allowances for
large families, children killed or reported as missing on
the fronts of World War II were to be included in the total
number of children.
Three years later, on November 25, 1947, these
20
allowances were reduced to about one-half.
^Schlesinger, op. cit.. p. 368.
^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit.. pp. 409-10.
113
TABLE 2
STATE ALLOWANCES TO MOTHERS WITH LARGE FAMILIES
IN 1947
Lump-Sum
Payment Monthly
To Mothers with (Rubles) Payments
2 children, on birth of 3rd 200
—
3 4th 650 40
4 5th 850 60
5 6th 1,000 70
6 7th 1,250 100
7 8th 1,250 100
8 9th 1,750 125
9 10th 1,750 125
10 children, on birth of 2,500 150
each subsequent child
i
|
The new decree o£ the Federal Presidium explained
this change as follows:
In pre-war times, i.e., in 1940, the sum total of
state allowances to mothers of large families comprised
one billion, two hundred million rubies a year.
During the war the Soviet government, in view of
the fall in the buying power of the ruble, deemed it
necessary to increase the amounts of state allowances
to mothers considerably. In 1947 the sum total of
state allowances to mothers, after the increase in
their amounts, aggregated over five billion rubles.
At present, with the national economy of the coun
try on the upswing, the rate of exchange of the ruble
consolidated and its buying power raised substantially, j
it would be unfair to preserve these increased wartime ;
allowances without change. These allowances to mothers i
should be decreased by at least half. In that case the
annual sum total of state allowances to mothers would
come to three billion rubles, which is two and a half
times greater than what it was in the pre-war year of
1940, when the sum of allowances to mothers totalled
one billion, two hundred thousand rubles.21
21Ibid., p. 409
114
The new amounts of state allowances became effec
tive as of January 1, 1948.
I
The Institution of Motherhood Medal, the Order of
Glorv of Motherhood, and the Honorary Title of Mother
Heroine. The status of mothers with large families was
still further enhanced by the creation of a medal, order,
and honorary title.
!
Mothers who had given birth to and had reared six
or five children were entitled to the Motherhood Medal of j
j
the First and Second Class respectively.
Mothers who had given birth to and had reared nine, I
eight, or seven children were awarded the Order of Glory of|
Motherhood, First, Second, and Third Class.
Mothers who had given birth to and had reared ten
children were awarded the honorary title of Mother Heroine,
and were presented with a scroll from the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. These awards became effec
tive when the youngest child reached the age of one year,
and the remaining children were all living. Children
killed or reported missing during World War II were in
cluded in the total number of children.
Legislation on children born out of wedlock. The
'1944 law also introduced a significant change with respect
to unmarried mothers and their children.
115
The law provided for the abolition of the then-
| existing right of a mother to appeal to the eourt for the
purpose of establishing paternity of her child and claiming
monetary support for a child from a man to whom she was not
Ilegally married.
Article 20 of the 1944 law provides that:
The existing right of a mother to appeal to the court
with a demand for the establishment of paternity, and
obtaining alimony for the support of a child bom of |
a person with whom she Is not living In registered
marriage, Is abolished.22 !
When registering the birth of her child, the un- j
married mother registered his name as her surname and his
; patronymic was given according to the wishes of the mother.
The unmarried mother was to receive state allowance
for the maintenance and upbringing of children bom to her
after the publication of this law, such allowance to be
paid until the child reached the age of twelve, In the
following amounts: 100 rubles for one child, 150 rubles
!for two children, and 200 rubles for three or more chil
dren. 23
Unmarried mothers were also eligible to receive
state aid granted to mothers with large families, In addi
tion to their regular monthly allowances.
The unmarried mother who received support from the
putative father for children bom prior to the enactment |
22Schlesinger, op. cit.. pp. 373-74.
23Ibid.. p. 368.
116
| of the law was to continue to receive said support without
| any state allowance, but the mother who did not have any
I
| support was entitled to a state allowance.
If an unmarried mother wished to place her child in
j an institution for children, she could do so and the child
I would then be maintained at the expense of the state. The
mother could reclaim her child any time she so desired.
i
Supplemental legislation in connection with un
married mothers and their children was passed the following
year, on March 15, 1945.^
The new legal provisions modified the earlier j
: i
j stipulation that unmarried mothers who received support |
! I
from the putative father of their children, bom prior to i
the issuance of the decree of July 8, 1944, were to con
tinue receiving such support. The new provision called for
a reexamination of all such cases by judicial organs.
; On the other hand, all children bom out of wed
lock prior to the 1944 decree were declared to have the
right to inherit, and to receive a pension and state sub
sidies established for families of servicemen in equal
measure with children bom of registered marriages.
Finally, the new amendment provided that, if an
unmarried mother later entered into a registered marriage
^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit.. pp. 381-82.
117
|with the father of her child, the child acquired the same
rights as children born of registered marriages, and could
l be given, by mutual consent, the surname of his father.
Tax on single men and women, and on citizens with
i
small families. Still another legal provision introduced
by the law of 1944 was an increase in the tax levied on
childless persons and the addition of a new category of
persons subject to this taxation, namely, parents with
I
small families.
The decree read:
I
In modification of the decree of the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. of November 21,
1941, on the tax on single men and women and childless
citizens of the U.S.S.R., tax will henceforth be levied
upon citizens who have no children, and on citizens who
have one or two children: for men over 20 and up to
50 years of age and for women over 20 and up to 45
years of age.
The tax is to be levied in the following amounts:
a. Citizens paying income tax will be taxed to the
extent of six per cent of their income in the
absence of children, one per cent if they have
one child, and one-half per cent if they have
two children.
b. Collective farmers, individual farmers, and
other citizens of households subject to the
agricultural tax will be taxed to the extent
of 150 rubles annually in the absence of
children, 50 rubles annually if they have one
child, and 25 rubles if they have two children.
c. Other citizens having no children will be
taxed 90 rubles annually, those with one child i
30 rubles annually,„and those with two children j
15 rubles annually. 5
25Ibid.. p. 378
118
The following persons were exempt from these taxa
tions :
Servicemen of the rank and file, sergeants and
petty officers.
Army and Navy officers on active duty.
Wives of servicemen and Army and Navy officers, as
specified above.
Women receiving State allowances.
Citizens whose children were killed In the war.
Students of secondary and higher education up to
twenty-five years of age.
Invalids belonging to the first and second cate
gories of Invalidism.
Current Soviet Attitudes Toward
the Marriage Laws
V. Bllshal, In her book, The Solution of Womans
Problems. published In 1956, raises some questions regard-
26
ing the now existing Soviet family laws.
She states that Lenin had considered the abolition
of the difference between children bora in and out of wed
lock to be one of the greatest achievements of the October
revolution. Therefore, the decree of July 8, 1944, intro
ducing this difference once more and incorporating such
Bllshal, The Solution of Woman* s Problems
(Moscow: Government Publications o£ Political Literature,
1956), p. 216.
119
27
a term as "the lonely mother," Is subject to criticism.
How can a woman be lonely when she has a child? This term,
according to Bilshai, does not sound right in its relation
to the concept of collectivism.
V. Bilshai feels that it has become imperative to
introduce a uniform birth registration, indicating both
parents' names on the child's birth certificate.
Bilshai also raises the question of simplifying
divorce proceedings. Soviet society is interested in the
preservation and strengthening of a healthy family life,
based on common interests. The existing divorce laws
create undue hardships for married partners. The local
courts, easily accessible to them and to their witnesses,
have no right to grant divorce, and the district courts are
too far removed to conduct an investigation and make a just
decision. Bilshai believes that a simplification of the
divorce laws would assist in dissolving "dead marriages."
Summary
The change in the government's attitudes toward the
family, and the introduction of new legislation, coincided
with a second period of Soviet Union development, the
period of its industrial and economic growth. At the time
27
"The lonely mother" is apparently used as an
equivalent of "unmarried mother."
120
when the national economy became stabilized, the need for
reshaping of social relationships became necessary.
j
Thus, a corresponding reorganization in the primary
I
I societal unit, the family, and the introduction of social
|control over marriage, took place.
The two later Soviet laws of 1936 and 1944 reversed
the early trend of Soviet policies, indicating an effort on
the part of the government to strengthen the family life
; l
once more. Measures encouraging large families and dis
couraging divorce were introduced.
In conclusion it may be said that the Soviet laws
j on marriage and the family have not been the result of |
: i
j gradual social change in the mores and customs of the
people. They were in some respects superimposed from
above: in the first place, on the basis of theoretical
premises, and in the second place due to a dramatic family
disorganization which began to tax heavily the nation's
social development and became a threat to its future.
Thus, there was a swing of the pendulum from one
extreme to the other. The early legislation, in terms of
social control, was too lax to be effective, while the
later legislation became too strict to be rational.
CHAPTER V
i
|
j THE CHILD AMD THE STATE: FIRST PERIOD
|
The socialization process through which the indi
vidual becomes adjusted to his human environment usually
begins in the family. It is in this primary group that the
! child derives his first experiences in customary inter
action patterns, and acquires certain feelings and emo
tional tones and attitudes and values, some of which he
| carries into his adult life.
I
Although the socializing role of the family has
j
undergone considerable change due to urbanization and tech-
i
nological development, and many of its earlier functions
have been transferred to the community, it still plays an
important part during the early formative years of a
ichild'8 life. To a large extent, the child develops his
self-awareness and awareness of others through his inter
action with other members of the family group, and these
I often become major determinants in the formation of his
basic character traits, his physical and mental health, hisj
future goals and aspirations.
i The mother and father roles undoubtedly furnish the!
' |
i child with his basic conceptions of woman and man, and the j
121
122
i
| Interaction patterns which are followed by the members of
I the family in their everyday activities, those of cooper**
i ation and competition, affection and conflicting interests,
i
i become coordinated and integrated within the child's per-
j
| sonality structure and condition his own social responses.
In the new Soviet society, the traditional family
intragroup pattern of social interaction, based on experi-
i I
| ences within this primary social unit, had been funda
mentally altered. In accordance with the socialist
theories of Marx and Lenin, the care and education of
: children in the Soviet Union was to become a public matter,
!to be entrusted to the State.^
The Soviet ideological frame of reference in the
field of child welfare and education was based primarily
on the following premises:
! 1. The family had lost its function since it had
( ceased to be a necessity for its members as well as for the
state. Therefore, the old forms of family life were being
2
discarded.
2. The child was to pass out of the confines of
! |
the family, and the state was to substitute for the latter. ;
j
The child would be molded by socialist organizations, which j
^-Frederick Engels, The Origin of the Family j
(Chicago: C. H. Kerr and Companyj1908), p. 92.
2
Alexandra Kolontay, Communism and thft wam-ny
(London: The Workers' Socialist Federation, 1918), p. 15. |
I 123
|would make a communist out of him."*
i
3. Society would care equally well for all chil-
!
dren, whether born In or out of wedlock* The danger of
i
i
"consequences," which had been an Important social and
economic factor in preventing freedom of Individual
expression and free union between the sexes, would thus be
removed.^
4. The worker"mother, conscious of her new social
function, would no longer differentiate between "your child
I 5
; and mine."
; i
Earlv Soviet Legislation
! I
j Guided by these basic socialist premises, as ex-
i \
pressed by Soviet leaders, the Soviet government began its
reforms in the field of child welfare and education. The
more important legislation in this field provided for the
following socio-cultural relationships:
!Illegitimacy
The first law in connection with the family in
general, i.e., on marriage, children, and registration of
civil status, was passed on December 18, 1917. According
3Ibid.. p. 16.
^Engels, op. cit.. p. 91. j
3Kolontay, op. cit.. p. 21.
124
to this decree, children born out of wedlock were accorded
the same privileges as those born in wedlock with regard to
the rights and duties of parents toward their children, and
likewise of children toward their parents. The concept of
illegitimacy was thus practically done away with.
Criminal Responsibility
Another important legislative measure was a decree
abolishing jurisdiction of criminal courts over children
under seventeen years of age who had committed socially
dangerous acts. j
This decree, published in the Newspaper of the |
Government of Workers and Peasants. No. 8, dated Janu-
ary 14, 1918, read as follows:**
Art. 1. The jurisdiction of criminal courts over
minors and the provisions for their incarcera
tion are hereby vacated.
Art. 2. All matters pertaining to minors of both
sexes, under seventeen years of age, who have
been involved in acts socially dangerous,
shall be under the jurisdiction of a Commis
sion for Minors.
Art. 3. After having investigated a matter pertaining
to minors, the Commission shall either set
them free or refer them to a home administered
by the People's Commissariat of Social
Security, in accordance with the nature of
their deed.
**B. S. Utevsky, The Children's Home (Moscow and
Leningrad: Government Publications of Educational-Pedagogic
Material, 1932), p. 9.
125
Art. 4. The People's Commissariat of Social Security
is directed to establish such types of homes
and to set up instructions to be followed by
the commission.
Chairman of the Soviet of the People's
Commissars— V. Ulianov (Lenin)
The People's Commissar of Justice-*
I. Z. Steinberg
Chief Administrator— V. Bonch-Bruevich
Secretary of the Soviet— N. Gorbunov
Parental Rights and Obligations
In spite of the Soviet ideological premises that
the rearing of children was to become the responsibility of
the state, the 1918 Code of Laws on the Family defined in
jgreat detail the rights and obligations of parents and
i
children, establishing mutual responsibility for financial
assistance in case of need and inability to work, either of
i i
the child or the parent.
The law established the following parent-child
relationship:
Art. 153. Parental rights are exercised exclusively
for the benefit of the children. In case of
abuse, the court is entitled to deprive the
parents of their rights.
When the parents were deprived of their parental
rights by the court, the latter was to allow them to visit
. !
their children, unless it was determined that such visita
tions had "an evil and prejudicial influence" upon the
! children. j
The parents were obligated to keep their children j
with them, and had the right to demand their return from
any person who retained them without permission of the law
or the court.
If the parents lived apart, they could decide by
mutual agreement with mfaich of them their minor children
i should reside. In the event of a dispute on this question,
i
the residence of the children was to be determined by the
local court.
The law further provided with respect to the
financial support of the children, as follows:
Art. 160. Children have no rights to the property of
their parents, or parents to the property of
j their children.
! Art. 161. Parents are obliged to provide board and
maintenance for their minor children, if
they are in need and unable to work.
Note. The parental obligations here stated are sus
pended in the event of the children being maintained by
public or governmental care.
Art. 162. The duty of maintaining the children de-
! volves equally upon both parents, while the
amount of maintenance paid by them is
defined in accordance with their means; but
the sum expended by either parent must not
be less than half of the subsistence minimum
established for a child in a given locality.
A parent who is unable to pay the7whole of
his share pays only a part of it.'
Children had a reciprocal duty to support their
needy and incapacitated parents, unless the latter received
^Rudolf Schlesinger, The Family in the U.S.S.R.
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1949), pp. 37-41.
127
maintenance from the government.
The law also provided that relatives of the direct
ascending or descending lines, and consanguineous siblings
who were unable to work were entitled to maintenance from
relatives who possessed sufficient means. No difference
was to be made between relationships established by a
registered marriage and those derived from an unregistered
marriage.
In view of the advocated principles of collec
tivism, which were to change the individual character of
the family unit, and of the state's assumption of responsi
bility for the rearing of children, it is rather surprising
to see how much emphasis had been placed on the family
group and its reciprocal obligations in the original Soviet
family law.
Another inconsistency between the Soviet ideologi
cal theory and its written law was indicated in the legal
provisions pertaining to the education of children.
Parents were charged with taking care of the development of
minor children and of their education and training for use
ful activity. They were entitled to decide the manner of
upbringing and instruction of their children. However,
they had no right to enter into any contract concerning
their employment from sixteen to eighteen years of age
without the children's consent.
1 Provisions for Public Child Care
On January 31, 1918, all children*s Institutions
{were placed under the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of
!Social Security. Two years later, on November 20, 1919,
i
jthey were transferred to the Commissariat of Public Educa-
t
i tion in order to promote and emphasize their educational
goals and objectives.
A Council for the Protection of Children was
organized on November 4, 1919, and a Special Committee for
the Improvement of Child Welfare was set up under the All-
Russian Central Executive Committee (VT1K) on December 10,
t
|1921. Following closely, on December 23, 1921, a decree
established social inspection of Children's Homes.
The Pioneer Movement, which began in 1922, had
exerted a great influence on the general trend in child
training and education, and on the administration of
;Children's Homes and Children's Labor Communes. An associ-
i
ation, "The Friend of Children," was created for the pur
pose of serving as a center for the mobilization of all
resources of a proletarian society in its work with com
munistic education and protection of childhood.
Public Feeding of Children
A series of decrees was issued concerning the feed
ing of children. A decree of September 14, 1918, provided
for an increase in food rations for children and nursing
129
I
|mothers. It read In part:
Taking Into consideration the low level of nutrition In
the famine-stricken areas, and having as Its objective
! the protection of children and youths from Illnesses
! closely connected with malnutrition, the Soviet of the
Peoplea *8 Commissars recognizes the feeding of children
to be of primary importance.**
i
!
Accordingly, all food organizations were directed
to issue special ration cards to nursing mothers and chil
dren up to five years of age. The People's Commissariat of
Public Education was to set up dining rooms for children j
attending school and the People's Commissariat of Public
Health to set up feeding centers for children of pre-school
|age. i
f i
A decree of May 17, 1919 introduced free rations '
for all children up to fourteen years of age who resided in;
the large industrial centers. The cost of feeding the
children in those areas was to be borne by the government.
The decree read in part:
In order to improve the nutrition of children and to
alleviate the financial circumstances of the laboring
masses, among whom the industrial workers of non-
agricultural areas have priority, the Soviet of the
People's Commissars hereby decrees:
1. All food supplies issued by local food organi
zations to children up to fourteen years of
age, inclusive, must be issued in the future
free of charge, the government bearing the
cost.
8N. K. Zamkov and B. S. Utevsky, Supplies for
Children (Moscow and Leningrad: Government Publications of i
Educational-Pedagogic Material, 1932), p. 11. j
130
Note: This regulation refers to food supplies Issued
to children by all food organizations: food stores and
communal kitchens as well.
3. It Is obligatory for all food organizations to
Issue food supplies to children as first
priority.
4. The right to receive food supplies free of
charge belongs to all children regardless of
the class-ratlon of their parents.9
A decree of June 12, 1919, Increased the age of
children to be fed at government expense to all those under
seventeen years of age.
A decree of July 22, 1921, considerably reduced
the categories of children eligible for free food rations*
According to It only the following children were to re- j
celve their food free:
a. Children up to fifteen years of age In Insti
tutions under the jurisdiction of either the
Commissariat of Education or the Commissariat
of Health, throughout the entire territory of
the R.S.F.S.R. (orphanages, nurseries, chil
dren's homes, kindergartens, colonies, re
ceiving centers, distributing centers, etc.)
b. Children of workers and employees in govern
mental agencies and enterprises; first, those
residing in large cities and industrial
centers, and, secondly, in other districts
according to the availability of food supplies.|
c. Children of workers and employees of the rail
way transport and water transport of the i
R.S.F.S.R.
d. Children residing In areas which had suffered
a national disaster.
9Ibid.. p. 12
131
e. Children attending schools of the first and
second levels In cities and Industrial centers
were to receive school lunches.
£. Workers under fifteen years of age who had been
| laid offJLO
Further changes In the Soviet policies relating to
free feeding of children gradually took place. A circular
issued by the Commissariat of Health and the Commissariat
of Education on January 5, 1927,11 refers only to hot
Hunches for adolescents in schools attached to factories
and industrial plants. A series of decrees issued in 1930
i deals also only with hot lunches in schools, in connection j
i i
{with the introduction of universal compulsory education.
{Separate decrees were issued for different types of
! schools, such as schools of collective farms, village
schools, and schools in autonomous republics. Thus it
would appear that the wide-*scale social experiment of free
public feeding of children came to an end.
t
Vagrant and Shelterless Children
From the very beginning of its existence, the
Soviet government was confronted with a country-wide social
i i
problem of shelterless or vagrant children, also known as
"the wild children of Russia." These were children of all |
ages who had either been orphaned or had lost their parents ,
I f
1 - - - - - - - - - — - ................................ I
; f
1QIbld.. p. 13.
U Ibid.. p. 14. I
132
t
1 and relatives during the upheaval of the Civil War, during
j
: wholesale inter-country migration of famine years, and the
1
| general chaotic conditions which prevailed In Russia at
j
j that time.
i
i
| These "wild children” roamed all over the country,
!traveling on foot or as stowaways on trains, sleeping In
j
1 the open or in various hideouts, begging and stealing, and
! i
becoming hardened morally and criminally far beyond their |
years.
Official estimates of the number of vagrant chil
dren who had been admitted into children's homes were given
12
!as indicated In the table below.
TABLE 3
VAGRANT AND SHELTERLESS CHILDREN ADMITTED
TO CHILDREN'S HOMES FROM 1917 TO 1922
Year Number of Children
1917 30,000
1918 75,000
1919 125,000
1920 400,000
1921-22 540,000
As can be seen from these figures, the Soviet
government was faced with a grave social problem of un
precedented magnitude, and had to set up child-care centers
12
Utevsky, The Children's Home, p. 4, Preface by
N. K. Krupsky, Deputy Commissar of Public Education in the
R.S.F.S. R.
j 133
j and other facilities to meet this emergency.
On the one hand, shelterless and vagrant children
f
I might have served as raw material for the Soviet government
t
with which to build up their new and socialistically
j
|oriented child care and educational programs, and to trans-
ilate their theories into immediate practice. On the other
|
hand, the large numbers of these children required an
efficient organization, which the Soviet government did not
have at that time.
|
There was practically no available trained person- j
j
nel to administer child-care facilities. Also providing i
j I
j them with necessary food commodities and other supplies i
|presented great difficulties due to the collapse of the \
national economy.
A Soviet leader in the educational field describes
the social conditions which existed in Russia in the early
l years of the Soviet regime in the following manner:
i :
The Soviet power had received, as a legacy from
Tsarist Russia, half-demolished and chaotically ad
ministered orphanages of a charitable type, in which
half-starved children, illiterate, and taught only
religion and the so-called handicraft, were dragging
out a miserable existence. i
It was necessary to take care of these children, to
create satisfactory living conditions for them, and to
provide them with the necessities of life. Further
more, with the abolition of criminal courts and im
prisonment for children and minors who had committed
socially dangerous acts, it also became necessary to
create institutions of a new type for their mainten
ance. The organization of such institutions, as well
as the administration of the care-centers for children j
and minors, was delegated to the People's Commissariat j
134
of Social Security. Only after all these children's
institutions had been given "first aid," did it become
possible to begin the building up of a Communistic
upbringing and education in accordance with the prin
ciples established by the Soviet power.
The basic, and most essential, effort in this
direction was the establishment of a pedagogical
character in these institutions and recognition that
this was a governmental task. . . . Effective Janu
ary 20, 1920, all children's institutions were trans
ferred to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat
of Education, which assumed the great and responsible
task of creating a network of Children's Homes, of
insuring them of proper methods of education, and of
making out of them the very hearths of Communistic
upbringing. This task, hard though it was, had been
made still more difficult by the tremendous Increase
of shelterless children, which was the result of
general national collapse brought about by the im
perialistic war, the Civil War, the intervention of._
the white guards, and, finally, by the 1921 famine.
The numbers of shelterless and vagrant children, as
indicated in Table 3, had steadily increased after the
October revolution, reaching the half-million mark five
years later. Therefore, It may be assumed that this social
phenomenon was not a direct result of the First World War
but of the Civil War and its derivatives.
Child-Care and Education
During the period of reconstruction of the national
economy in the Soviet Union, and until "the most sharp out-|
breaks of children's vagrancy" were liquidated, the Chil
dren's Homes were the principal institutions for the care
of shelterless children.*4
13Ibid., p. 8.
14Ibid., p. 10
135
i
! However, because of the magnitude of the problem,
:the difficulties encountered in the organization and
i
administration of children's institutions continued. The
Soviet government was beset with a great many problems
|mentioned earlier: lack of qualified personnel and in-
jability to set up educational and care programs, as well as
shortage of food and other supplies.
This is well illustrated in the resolution passed
at the Party's Conference on Public Education held in
December of 1920 and through January of 1921.
It read, in part:
| The Party Conference came to the conviction that only j
a basic change in the entire child-care field can save ;
the children from physical and moral degeneration, and i
even from their dying out. The Party believes it to be ;
essential that all government departments should become |
convinced that all-around protection of children is the
first and most important governmental task, and that an
unsatisfactory fulfillment of this task would affect
the socialist construction of the country just as
adversely as unsatisfactory work in connection with
the army or transportation.^
It was resolved that all children's institutions
under the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of Education
should be designated as "shock groups," and that the dis-
, !
tribution of food supplies, shoes, and clothing should be
once more transferred to the People's Commissariat of
Education in order to improve the current situation.
15
Zamkov and Utevsky, Supplies for Children, p. 9.
i
; It was further resolved that all children In organ-
!ized institutions should be placed in the first category of
|consumers, and all other children should be placed not
i
|farther than In the second category.
i
All buildings which had been taken over by other
i
| organizations were to be returned immediately to the local
departments of education, and the latter were issued
"armorized" money notes in order to provide workers in the
field of education and child care with their living ex-
;penses.
Three years later, despite the serious concern
iindicated by governmental agencies and various conferences |
i !
; !
held on this subject, the highly unsatisfactory conditions :
in the field of child-care and education remained essen
tially the same.
Two cases cited in the journal, Labor Questions.
published in the Soviet Union in 1924, may serve as an
illustration of the hardships which the teachers had to
endure in the Soviet Union during this early period.^
In one instance, several teachers were sent to
j
I Siberia at the request of the Siberian Department of Edu
cation. After three months of traveling and various delays'
due to red tape, they finally arrived at their destination.
! I
16
S. Zagorsky, Work Problems in Soviet Russia
(Prague: Verlag Free Russia, 1925), pp. 52-55.
137
And what did they find there? A dilapidated house called
"The School." They did not receive either their salary or
i
i any supplies for three months, and they finally asked
themselves: "Why have we thus been deported?"
| Another teacher, who was sent to Viatka Gubernia,
I wrote:
I have been teaching four months but have never as yet
received my full salary . . . and whatever payments we
have received were long overdue. . . • After we
presented a written statement that we would have a
one-day strike, we were finally paid our September
salary in November. We have not received anything for
October, and in January we were paid 4 rubles. The pay
is so small that it is not enough to buy firewood,
kerosene, and potatoes, the latter being cheaper than
bread. ... We work tinder nightmare conditions. The
pressure of work, constant administrative difficulties,
and the lack of food during these four months have
I undermined my health to.such an extent that I am forced
to ask for sick leave.1'
j
These excerpts reveal some aspects of the life of
the Russian teachers in the first period of the Soviet
Union, and the practical aspects of the educational system
jat that time.
Human social environment does not consist solely of j
external events and situations, but also includes their
: symbolic organization and the frame of mind of the indi
vidual which determine culturally his thought and behavior.
Therefore, it may be assumed that the social definitions
of the prevailing conditions in the community by these
17Ibid.
138
|teachers, and their strenuous efforts to adapt themselves
to the every-day hardships and exigencies of life, could
I not fail to produce an emotionally negative pattern in
i
j
j their attitudes and social interaction, and thus have an
!adverse effect on their role as educators.
The school as a social institution means more than
just imparting certain academic knowledge and skills, in-
i
asmuch as it must also transmit to the student social
ideals and values, and mold their normative attitudes.
I
The "values in conflict" which were evident among |
the teachers, torn as they were between the values of their i
|own professional group and the values of the new socio- |
I i
political system under which they had to live, must have
prevented them from functioning adequately as bearers of
the new socialist ideology. As a result, the educational
system1 s failure to promote social indentification of the
students with the socialist ideology and to establish their
strong interpersonal ties and their group loyalty appears
to have been imminent.
Children*s Homes, the Introduction of Children* s Labor
Comrnmes. and the Emphasis on Polytechnic Education
Notwithstanding the difficulties encountered in the
administration of children's institutions, Soviet authori
ties continued their ideological planning of the socialist
method in the rearing of children.
Emphasis was placed on a collective mode of life
and on the polytechnization of the school, i.e., on acqui
sition of practical skills.
The latter trend represented a complex socio-
i psychological approach of the Soviet government to their
| educational system. In the first place, a polytechnic
education was advocated by Marx and Engels as the basis of
socialist society. In the second place, it constituted
rejection of the humanistic orientation of the old Russian
education, which was considered to be a survival of the
former regime and of capitalistic society and, therefore,
useless. In the third place, since the new government was
proclaimed to be that of the working class, the new educa-
| tional system had to be patterned in accordance with the
existing intellectual standards and applicable to the
situation at hand.
A resolution of the Educational-Pedagogic Section
of the 6.U.S., which was approved in September 1924,
j
pointed out the objectives and functions of the Children's
Homes as well as the major weaknesses existing in their
administration.
This resolution stated:
Children's Homes were called upon to deal with the
important task of the socialist upbringing of children.
At the present time, they are far from the realization
of this task. This is due to the general chaos, the
large-scale approach, lack of an adequate organiza
tional approach, lack of supplies ana a resulting feel
ing of insecurity, lack of firm ideological guidance,
and lack of well-trained workers. There also exists
a condition of isolation of the Children's Homes from
the community, and a need for a closer bond between
them and the tolling masses. All this has led to a
crisis which the Children's Homes are now experi
encing. 18
Consequently, it was felt that the Children's Homes
should be reorganized into Children's Labor Communes, which
would be closely connected with the surrounding adult work
ing population, and in which the children would participate
in socially useful activities. Through these, they would
acquire working habits through an active participation with
the adult members of the community.
The Children's Labor Communes were to become a
dynamic factor in promoting socio-political consciousness
of the children through their participation in community
affairs, such as work with unorganized children and other
activities directed toward social, cultural, and political
goals of the Party and the Soviet government.
The objectives of this new socio-cultural orienta
tion were formulated as follows:
The development of the child's independence, of his
labor ideology and work habits, of his socio-political
activities and consciousness, a complete riddance from
bourgeois, religious, and other prejudices, and the
establishment or an organic unity with the adult labor
collectivity--that is the road which leads from the
Children's Homes to a Pioneer Community.19
1 0
Utevsky, The Children's Homes, p. 11
19Ibid.
M k n a N a
141
i
| Accordingly, the Children's Homes, leter to be
i
called Children's Labor Communes, were to be organized in
the proximity of industrial plants, labor settlements,
Soviet farms and collective farms, cooperatives, and so
forth, and they were to become a constituent part of the
i
cultural and educational facilities of a given enterprise.
Furthermore, the children's training and education were to
he closely related to the type and character of the in*
dustrial production in the district, so as to supply its
i
adult laboring population with practically-trained, j
adequately-educated, and politically-conscious workers. i
i
I The emphasis on unification of education with pro
ductive work appears to have become firmly established as
I
an ideological goal of the school as early as 1924-25, and j
; I
the application of the principle of polytechnization of
education dates much further back than is commonly be
lieved.
A series of governmental resolutions and directives
which followed closely upon one another throughout subse
quent year8 deals with measures directed toward the
strengthening of polytechnical methods of education, organ- j
ization of workshops, and attachment of the Children's
Homes and schools to industrial enterprises, Soviet and
j
collective farms.
In 1925, the Soviet of People's Commissars of the
R.S.F.S.R., after hearing a report made by the Commissar of
| Public Education, resolved that, although the problem of
| shelterless and vagrant children still remained acute, the
i
center of gravity in the struggle against this problem must
| be shifted to measures of a preventive character in terms
|of a rational approach to the industrial training of chil-
:dren.
In the same year, the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee and the Soviet of the People's Commissars of the
R.S.F.S.R. passed a resolution that the children in Chil- j
dren's Homes who had reached the age of fourteen years were
1
|to be placed in factories and industrial schools, or on
|Soviet and collective farms. Those who had reached the age
j of sixteen were to engage in industrial work, either on an j
I
i . . ;
|individual basis or on a brigade training basis. Lowering
i of the age limit was permissible in accordance with the
20
specifications of the general labor laws.
Designating the age of fourteen as the age level at
which children were to be engaged in industrial or agri
cultural work, becoming responsible for their production,
could be viewed as placing too great a pressure on their
psycho-emotional growth and development. Such an exertion j
on the part of a child may in the long run be detrimental
143
j
i
|to him, since his normal biological and social maturation
| must be based on gradual identification with role behavior
i and corresponding ascribed statuses, enabling him to assume
i
|increasing social responsibilities and to become a well-
! integrated adult member of his community.
t
j
i
I Reorganization of Children* s Homes and Labor Communes
On June 16, 1926, a new set of rules and regula
tions concerning the administration of Children's Homes was
|approved by the People's Commissariat of Public Education i
;in conjunction with the Commissariats of Finance, Public i
I Health, and Justice.21
Three types of children's institutions were estab-
f
lished in conformity with the basic principles of the
public education system of the R.S.F.S.R.
1. Children'8 Homes for pre-school children
between the ages of three to seven.
2. Children's Homes for school children between
the ages of eight to fifteen, inclusive.
3. Children's Labor Communes in towns and vil
lages, for the adolescents from thirteen to
sixteen years of age who have had no normal
schooling and for whom it was necessary to
acquire an elementary education and work j
f i
experience.
21Ibid.
144
|
These children's Institutions were to be supported
by funds allocated from the central and local governmental
agencies. They were also permitted, with the approval of
the Commissar of Education, to be supported by social
|organizations, trade unions, cooperatives, and others.
j
| Furthermore, parents or relatives who were able and willing
!
to pay for their children's upkeep were temporarily per
mitted to enter them, In a number up to 10 per cent of the
total children. The rate of pay was to be determined In
accordance with the resolution of the All-Russian Central
Executive Committee and of the Soviet of the People's
| Comnlssars of November 2, 1925, and the Instructions sub-
i sequently Issued. !
i
This was a rather important shift from the Soviet
socialist policies of the early days, conceding to private
I groups the privilege of administering children's institu
tions, and replacing free child care by a partial fee
system.
Children's Institutions of all types were to be co
educational, and a system of self-government by children
i
; I
was introduced. Responsibility for the educational program!
. j
and administration of the Institution, however, was vested j
in its superintendent.
i
Every children's institution was to have its own
council with the superintendent as its chairman. The j
I
council was to be composed of the pedagogical, technical, j
1451
and medical personnel; representatives of children of
twelve years of age or older; representatives from the
local Public Education Departments; representatives from
the Executive Committee and the Soviet of workers,
peasants, and soldiers; deputies from the Communist Party;
village commissars; and representatives from the industrial
enterprises to which the children's institution was
attached.
Special temporary or standing committees, composed
of both adults and children, were to be appointed for plan
ning of the educational and industrial work and management.
These committees were to submit their reports to the coun
cil for its approval.
A similar set of rules and regulations for the
administration of Labor Communes for adolescents was
approved earlier by the Presidium of the Collegium of the
Commissariat of Public Education on December 24, 1925.^
Attachment of Schools to Industrial Plants
The attachment of the workshops in the Children's
Homes to industrial enterprises did not prove to be as
successful as had been anticipated. A circular of the
Moscow Soviet of National Economy and the Moscow Department
of Education, issued on November 13, 1928, to all educa
tional workshops, reflects a number of weaknesses in this
^Ibid., pp. 14-16.
146
j program, pointing out that the adolescents were graduated
without having had adequate training and not being ready to
|work in factories. Among these weaknesses were listed:
| lack of information in the Bureau of workshops as to what
i
;trades would be needed in the coining years, insufficient
equipment, lack of raw materials, lack of orders placed
with the workshops, and inadequate work experience of
23
trainees in actual industrial production.
On December 24, 1929, The Commissariat of Public
Education announced in Circular No. 55 a new measure with
regard to the industrial training of children in Children's!
24 i
;Homes. The children were to be organized into "school j
|brigades" to work in factories and industrial plants. It
was felt that this measure, if fully taken advantage of,
would bring about important results. The children would be
working in an industrial atmosphere, and their work would
be correlated with the actual needs in labor force, instead
of being engaged in an artcraft production which was still
prevalent in the workshops of the Children's Homes. Fur
thermore, such an arrangement was to facilitate transfer of;
adolescents to the factory upon their graduation. The need
for practical training of industrial workers was of primary;
importance to the Soviet government in the emergence of
23Ibid.. pp. 38-39.
24Ibid.. pp. 42-43.
147
their economic and industrial progress.
The attachment of schools to industrial plants also
I
I emphasized the socialist educational goal to provide chil-
i
dren with industrial training and manual skills instead of
?
| with an education geared toward the growth and perfection
of human personality, and a search for the understanding of
the meaning of knowledge in its relation to life and
i
society.
! i
i
Legal Provisions Regarding Religious Training |
The first decree pertaining to this subject was |
; j
passed by the Soviet of People's Commissars of the
:R. S.F.S.R. on January 23, 1918.
It read, in part, as follows:
The school is separated from the church.
Teaching of religious subjects in all governmental
and public as well as private educational institutions
in which general subjects are taught is forbidden.
Citizens may teach and be taught religion pri-
: vately.25
Article 148, of the 1919 Family Law, provided cer
tain freedom in this respect. It stated:
It is left to the parents to decide the religion of j
their children under fourteen years of age. In default i
of agreement between the parents, the children will be
considered to adhere to no religion until they attain
fourteen years of age.26
25
N. K. Zamkov and B. S. Utevsky, Crimea Committed j
Against Minors (Moscow: Government Publications of Peda- !
i gogical Literature, 1932), p. 35.
26
* Schlesinger, pp. cit.. p. 38. j
148
|
This provision was amended In the Family Law of
1926. Article 37 stated that agreement between the parents
i that their children adhere to any particular religion is of
i
no legal effect.
The Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R., on the other
|hand, defined the teaching of religious subjects to chil
dren and minors to be a crime. Article 122 provided that:
Teaching of religious subjects to children or minors
in governmental or private educational institutions or
schools, or the violation of any regulations in this
matter* is punishable by forced labor of up to one |
year.27
I
A circular issued by the People's Commissariat of
Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
I
in 1923, No. 335, indicates that there had been consider
able interest regarding this issue. The circular read as
follows:
As a result of petitions submitted by citizens to
the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, for permission to
teach Christian religion, the Bible, or Talmud col
lectively to children in their homes who have not
reached the age of eighteen, the People's Commissariat
of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist
Republic hereby clarifies: Teaching of religious sub
jects in all public and private educational institu
tions, in which general academic subjects are taught,
is forbidden in accordance with Article 10 of the
decree relating to the separation of the church from
the state. Teaching of religious subjects to children i
and minors who are under eighteen years of age is
forbidden by Article 30 of the Instructions of the
People's Commissariat of Justice of November 10, 1920. <
^Ibid., p. 34.
149
Therefore, either in churches, private homes, or in
any private educational institution, no citizen has a
right to teach any religious subject to those under
eighteen years of age. With respect to the second part
of Article 10 of the decree on the separation of the
church from the state: Citizens may teach and be
taught religious subjects, but this relates only to
persons who have reached maturity, i.e., eighteen years
of age.28
Social Conditions at the End of the First Period
Notwithstanding all the work done in connection
; i
with the Children'8 Hemes and the care and education of !
children, the problem of vagrant children still existed as I
late as 1928, ten years after the October revolution. |
! !
A circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party j
• I
|of April 5, 1928, stated: I
The problem of shelterless children still remains a
t
reat evil in our country. Although their numbers have !
ecreased considerably, nevertheless, thousands of
socially-neglected children and adolescents on our
streets present a sharp contrast to the rising economic
well-being and the cultural level of the country. In
the meantime, there are sufficient ways and means at
the disposal of the Party and the Government to
! liquidate this condition in a year or two if due dili
gence and necessary pressure are applied.2“
It was recommended that the interests of all social
organizations, such as the Communist Youth organization
(Komsomol), trade unions, delegates from the women workers
and the women peasants, and others, be enlisted. The
utilization of the medium of the press, in an effort to
28Ibid.. p. 37
29Ibid., p. 7.
; iso
i
! reach a wider community participation in the struggle
against children's vagrancy, was advocated.
gqmmry
From the very £lrst days of the Soviet regime there
iappears to have been a cleavage between the proclaimed
i
basic principles of the socialist philosophy relating to
child care, the enacted legislation, and everyday social
realities. I
1. While it was advocated that the child pass out
of the confines of the family and become the responsibility
of the state, the laws stressed financial responsibility
; !
not only of his parents but also of his siblings and other !
relatives. Likewise, children were held responsible for
the support of their needy parents.
2. At the same time, the establishment of communal
facilities for the care of children and of collective
i housekeeping was contributing to a weakening of family in-
s
fluence on the child.
3. Two important legislative measures relating to
children were passed in the beginning of the Soviet regime.
The law of December 18, 1917 accorded to children bom out
of wedlock the same privileges as those of children bom in
wedlock. A decree of January 14, 1918 abolished juris-
diction of criminal courts over minors.
151
4. Vagrant and shelterless children had consti
tuted a grave problem £or the Soviet government. A network
of Children's Homes and Children's Labor Communes was
established, with an emphasis on polytechnic education In
order to prepare them for productive work.
CHAPTER VI
THE CHILD AND THE STATE: SECOND PERIOD
Juvenile Delinquency
Although great concern £or the welfare of children
had been indicated on the part of the Soviet government
and the problem of vagrant and shelterless children had
been reported as practically eliminated in the early
1930's, a new wave of juvenile delinquency and crime broke
out in 1934-35.
This new problem soon reached such proportions that
the Soviet government found it necessary, on April 7, 1935,
to issue a decree which was a complete reversal of an
earlier decree on the same subject.
This new decree read as follows:^
Aiming at the speediest extermination of crime
among minors, the Central Executive Committee and the
Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. decrees:
1. Minors from twelve years of age who are found
guilty of committing thefts, assaults, in
juries, mutilations, murder, or attempt at
murder are to be brought before the criminal
courts and are to be liable to all grades of
criminal penalty.
James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera, Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company, 1953), pp. 219-20.
153
2. Persons found guilty of Instigating minors or
of employing them to participate in various
crimes, and also of forcing minors to such
occupations as illicit trading, prostitution,
begging, etc., are liable to not less than five
years of imprisonment.
3. Article 8 of HThe Basic Principles of Criminal
Legislation of the U.S.S.R. and of the Allied
Republics” is cancelled.
4. Governments of the Allied Republics are
instructed to amend the Criminal Codes of the |
Republics in correspondence with the present
decree.
i
President of the Central Executive Committee
of the U.S.S.R. j
M. Kalinin
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
of the U.S.S.R.
V. Molotov
Secretary of the Central Executive Committee
of the U.S.S.R.
I. Akulov
Minsky Peasant, in What I Saw in Soviet Russia.
reports the following incidents which were published in
Russian newspapers:
Izvestia. March 3, 1935. Nearby the Fourteenth School
of Baymanovsk District in Moscow, there is a saloon
where children gather together and institute fights.
Theft has increased. Overcoats, briefcases, books are
stolen. . . . This school has 1,800 students, seven
overseers, and nineteen pioneer battalions.
Komsomol Pravda. March 11, 1935. Fights, knifing have !
become common occurrences in a Riazan school. Pioneer
Shtep was killed with a knife in his hand. His mur- !
derer was Eugene Lukich, aged thirteen, son of a Com
munist and manager of a district Soviet bank.
Pravda. February 24, 1935. Nicholas Vinogradoff,
student of School No. 9 in Ivanov, committed suicide. !
His father has been a Party member since 1920, and
his mother is a housewife.
154
Pravda. April 10, 1935. In Omsk one cannot walk In the
streets at night. Crowds of boys spit In the face of
passersby. A worker, Druglnln, was knifed by them and
died In a hospital. They also ransack apartments,
stores, and warehouses. They descend en masse on
schools. Thev fractured the skull of Buantzeff, a
teacher, and kept a school, named after Vachrov, under
siege for a long time.2
The Soviet government made a study of juvenile
delinquency. One thousand juvenile delinquents were
studied In Leningrad In 1934**35, and 2,111 studied during
the same period In Moscow. These studies showed the fol
lowing circumstances with respect to the manner in which
the delinquents spent their leisure time.
TABLE 4
MANNER IN WHICH JUVENILE DELINQUENTS
SPENT THEIR LEISURE
Family Parks and Playgrounds Unorganized
City Circle Organized Activity Activity
Leningrad 7.0 3.0 90.0
Moscow 7.7 4.3 88.0
This study also indicated that 46 per cent of the
delinquents came from homes in which both parents were
^Minsky Peasant, What I Saw in Soviet Russia
(Chicago: Rassvieth, 1935), pp. 250-51.
3
John N. Hazard, Law and Social Change in the
U.S.S.R. (London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1953), p. 253.
employed, and grandmothers, older children, or housemaids
were left In charge of them.
Statistic8 on children In correctional labor insti
tutions gave the following distribution of the 2,894
4
children with regard to their living conditions.
TABLE 5
LIVING CONDITIONS OF 2,894 CHILDREN PLACED
IN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS
With Their In Children's Without Parents:
Families Homes Self-Supporting Homeless
54.8 3.8 6.4 35.0
The length of time in which the last group in the
preceding table, i.e., homeless children, comprising 1,013
delinquents, had lived on the streets is shown in the table
below. ^
TABLE 6
LENGTH OF TIME IN WHICH HOMELESS CHILDREN
HAD LIVED ON THE STREETS
Up to Six
Months
Up to One
Year
Up to Two
Years
Over Two
Years Unknown
13.0 11.0 15.0 56.0 5.0
4Ibid.
5Ibid.
156
Since these delinquents must have been bom after
1
the October revolution, and since the time during which
they had lived on the streets was recent, they could not be
considered with the shelterless and vagrant children of the
early years of the Soviet Union. Therefore, their delin
quency must have been a by-product of the social conditions
of a later period.
This was confirmed by even more recent reports.
John Arden, in an article "The Teddy Boys of Dnieprope-
i
trovsk," writes that crime is seldom reported in the Soviet j
newspapers, and that only when a problem assumes quasi-
r
political importance is it made publicly known. He says
i
further that Soviet newspapers have been publishing numer-
ou8 accounts of "youthful hooliganism under the influence
£
of drink in most major towns of Russia."
Arden cites the following instances:
Izvestia. early in 1954, reported on a school which
had been considered as one of the best in Khabarovsk, where
violence and theft had become a common occurrence. One
boy had been beaten to death, and another boy, aged eleven,
was arrested for knifing a teacher, while under the influ
ence of drink.
John Arden, "The Teddy Boys of Dnepropetrovsk,"
The Spectator (London), October 15, 1954, No. 6590,
pp. 459-60.
157
Literatumala Gazeta of June 26 (year not given)
reported the case of four young boys, aged fifteen to
| seventeen, who were holding up passersby with revolvers.
i
One of these boys was the son of a police captain, and he
I
used his father's revolver for his holdups. Not only were
these boys not found to be delinquent, but the police
officer who had detained the boys was sentenced for unlaw- j
I
i i
ful arrest.
j
A journal, Family and School, attributed the rise
S
in juvenile delinquency to the fact that In many Instances j
i
both parents were working and too busy to give their
children proper attention. Literatumala Gazeta criticized |
the boredom and monotony of Komsomol activities. It was
also thought that the dullness of life, the negation of the
family through economic pressures, inadequate housing, with
married and single people often living together in dirty
and uncomfortable dormitories, and other similar factors
were responsible for the current juvenile delinquency in
the Soviet Union.
The collective method of rearing children proved
not only to be too great a task for the state, but it also
brought in its wake another social phenomenon of social
disorganization in terms of widespread juvenile delin
quency, which became a problem of considerable scope and
complexity for both the individual and the community.
158
The problem of delinquency Is a combination of
jsocial and psychological factors. The meaning of behavior,
broadly speaking, can be defined as the principle of
ipleasure-pain equation. In other words, human behavior, in
I a broader sense, is directed toward gaining satisfaction
; and avoiding frustration. It is a continuous process of
struggle between the basic human drives, individually
oriented, and the adaptive defense mechanisms established
by society, in order to achieve a working social equili
brium.
During his early years of physical and mental
i
; i
; growth and development, the child seeks to establish him
self as an individual through the emergence of self in his
interaction with others, and the internalization of their
socio-cultural norms. It constitutes his fight for sur
vival, not just physical, but also emotional and intel-
;lectual.
If and when this socialization process is disturbed
because of early emotional deprivations and inadequate ego
satisfaction, an over-compensatory reaction is then intro
duced in an attempt to find gratification in overt mis
deeds, i.e., socially unacceptable behavior.
The social phenomenon of widespread juvenile delin-
; i
quency in the Soviet Union can perhaps be explained by the
fact that the Children* s Homes with their institutionalized j
159
atmosphere could not substitute for the family in providing
the child with the close and emotionally satisfying rela
tionship of a family group. Through this lack of emotional
i
identification the child failed to internalize the social
land cultural Ideology of the community.
Soviet Legislation
A series of decrees aimed at strengthening parental j
responsibility, combating juvenile delinquency, and intro- j
j
ducing various legal provisions for the care of the chil- I
dren, such as adoption, Guardianship and Trusteeship, i
i
Dependency, and Patronat was issued during the subsequent
years of the Soviet regime.
The Family Law of 1926 contained essentially the
same provisions with regard to mutual relations between
parent and child and between other relatives as those in
the 1918 law.7
Chapter 1, "General Principles," states that: "The
mutual rights of children and parents are based on con
sanguinity. Children whose parents are not married possess
the same rights as children bom in wedlock."
The rights of an unwed mother were extended some
what by this legislation. She was granted the privilege
7The Code of Laws on Marriage. and
Guardianship of the R.S.F. S.R.. l92o (London: Sweet and
Maxwell, 1936).
160!
| I
of filing a declaration of paternity with the local civil I
registry office any time during pregnancy or after the
birth of the child, instead of during the three months
prior to the child's birth as provided in the law of 1918.
The person alleged to be the child's father could contest
!the mother's statement within a month of receiving such
notification from the civil registry notice. i
I
The mother also had the right to institute a pater- j
nity suit in court after the birth of the child and, if the |
I
court was satisfied with the evidence presented by her, it I
entered a finding to that effect and the putative father
; |
was ordered to pay the mother's confinement expenses, her
maintenance during pregnancy and for six months after
childbirth, and for the support of the child.
Curiously enough, Article 32, Chapter I, Part 2, of
this law reads:
In case the court during the trial of the paternity
case finds as a fact that the mother of the child at or
about the time of conception had sexual intercourse not
only with the person referred to in Section 28 of the
present Code but also with other persons, the court
enters a decree which recognizes one of these persons
as the father of the child and imposes on him the
duties set forth in Section 31 of the Code.8
This would appear to indicate a concern on the part :
of the legislation to provide a means for the registration
of a father's name on the child's birth certificate, and
8 Ibid
161
for the child's financial support. This legal position
underwent considerable change In subsequent years, as will
be seen.
Parental duties and responsibilities are defined
again as In the prior code.
Parental rights are to be exercised exclusively In the
Interests o£ the children and In case they are Im
properly exercised the court Is authorized and em
powered to deprive the parents of their rights.
The law further provides that:
On the parents rests the duty of taking care of
their minor children, In particular of bringing them up
and preparing them for socially useful activity.
Parents are obliged to provide maintenance for
their minor children, as well as for needy and In
capacitated children.9
On November 29, 1928, this provision was extended
to the step-parents, In case the natural parents of the
children were dead or financially unable to support them,
provided the child was dependent upon or was raised by his
step-parent(s) prior to the death of his natural parent(s),
or prior to his financial Inability.
The same obligations applied to persons who had
taken children Into their homes to be permanently brought
up by them. In case of their refusal to continue to take
care of these children, they were obliged to pay for their
support. This obligation, however, did not extend to
guardians or trustees, nor to persons who had taken a child
9Jbid.
162
into their home In accordance with an agreement with the
Department o£ Public Education or the Department of Public j
I Health.10
i
Children had a reciprocal duty to support their
! needy and incapacitated parents, and the stepchildren had
the same obligation to support their step-parent(s), pro
vided they had been dependent upon the latter for not less ;
than ten years. ^ Furthermore, needy minor children were
I
entitled to obtain support from siblings who possessed
j
sufficient means, if their parents were impecunious. Needy|
minor or incapacitated grandchildren were entitled to sup- |
i
port from their grandparents if they were able to give it, |
i
and grandchildren were to support the grandparents if they,!
in turn, were in need or incapacitated later on.
The law provided additional stipulations with
respect to children bom of members of a peasant household.
Regardless of whether the parents were married with or
without registration, their children were recognized as
members of the household to which their father or mother
belonged. When parents belonged to different peasant
households, the child was to be registered as a member of
one of these households, as per his parents' agreement.
^Ibid.. citing Compiled Statutes of the
R.S.F.S.R.TI929. No. 22, Section 233.
U Ibid.
163
In case there was no agreement, this decision was to be
12
made by the court "guided by the interests of the child."
When paternity was established, the court fixed the
amount of food products which the peasant household of the
father had to contribute to the child's support. In add!**
tion, children had the right of support from the personal
means of the father or the mother "over and above the
rights which they possessed as members of the peasant
household."^ |
j
In case of non-fulfillment of their duties on the
i
part of parents, the court could issue an order to take the
children away from them, and to deprive them of their
i
parental rights. However, the parents were not relieved of
the duty to support their children.
Parents had the privilege of "entrusting their
children to other persons to raise and educate" or, with
the consent of the children, "to make contracts of appren
ticeship and work for wages" in a manner permitted by the
labor code.
The Family Law of June 27. 1936
Considerable emphasis was placed by this law on the
collection of support from an absent parent. The amount of
12
Ibid.. citing Compiled Statutes of the
R.S.F.S.R.. January 25, 1930, No. 5, Section 53.
164
support to be paid for one* s children was determined to be
as follows: one**fourth of his wages for one child; one-
third for two children; and one-half for three or more
children. Failure to comply with the court order entailed
one to two years* Imprisonment. The court was directed to
assist the plaintiff In collecting evidence In non-support
cases, and the cost of tracing a person who tried to escape
payment of support was to be borne by that person.
Money for the children's support could be collected'
I
through deductions from the parent's pay at his place of
employment.
The preliminary reports on the application of the
i
law of June 27, 1936, showed that there were about one
million persons In the country who were under court order
to pay for the support of their children, and that out of
these there were some one hundred thousand who had evaded
the payments.
The Family T.aw of July 8. 1944
This law, which had greatly changed the earlier
legal provisions with regard to marriage and divorce, also
Introduced changes In the status of children born to unwed
mothers.
Legal provisions with respect to unmarried mothers
and their children have already been discussed In the
previous chapter.
165
Provisions for Child Care
i
The new measures pertaining to child care repre- j
i
; i
I sented to a great extent a reversal of the earlier method
of collective upbringing of children. They were now based
i
on the need for individual approach to a child's well-being
and his personality formation. This change in Soviet poli
cies was apparently due to the widespread juvenile delin
quency and inability to control it, and a realization that ,
personality growth is best promoted, and socially approved j
habit patterns are best established through satisfying
individual experiences in a primary social unit.
These new measures included Adoption, Guardianship |
and Trusteeship, Dependency, and Patronat.
Adoption
The adoption law, which had been annulled at the
very outset of the Soviet regime, was introduced once more
I on March 1, 1926.
The law states that "adoption is allowed only of
young children and persons under age," and that it "exists
exclusively in the interests of children." No children
above the age of ten might be adopted without their con
sent.
Adoptions were granted by order of the Office of
Guardians and Trustees, and were registered in the Civil
Registry Office. An adoption could not be granted without
166
the consent of the child's parents, if living, and If they
had not been deprived of their parental rights. Adopted
children and their offspring had the same personal and
property rights and duties with regard to their adoptive
parents, and the latter with regard to their adopted chil
dren and their offspring, as had corresponding relatives by
consanguinity.
An adoption could be annulled If such annullment
was deemed to be In the best Interests of the child, and
any person or Institution could bring a suit In court for
the annulment of an adoption.
Guardianship and Trusteeship j
j
According to special regulations Issued Septem
ber 26, 1927, and Septenfoer 24, 1928, which were confirmed
by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the
Council of People's Commissars on June 28, 1928, the
j functions of Guardianship and Trusteeship were vested In
the Presidium of the District Executive Committees, and the
Office of Guardians and Trustees exercised Its authority by
virtue of these regulations.
According to this law guardianships and trustee
ships were "established to protect persons legally In
capable of Independent action, to protect their lawful
rights and Interests, and conserve them In cases provided
by law."
167
Guardians were to be appointed over minors up to
I
fourteen years of age and trusteeship might be set over
minors from fourteen to eighteen years of age.
The Office of Guardians and Trustees appointed a
guardian or trustee from (1) among those close to the per- j
son in question or (2) from among persons selected for the
purpose by a public body, such as trade unions, committees j
of a peasant's mutual aid society; if there were no such
14 ■
persons, "then from among other persons."
j
In the selection of a guardian or trustee, his
personal qualities and ability to discharge his obliga-
;tions, as well as the relations existing between the |
j t
parties in question and the wishes of the ward, were taken
into consideration. Certain classes of people were barred
from being appointed as guardians or trustees, namely,
persons deprived of electoral or parental rights, persons
whose interests were opposed to those under guardianship
or trusteeship, and minors.
No one could refuse to accept appointment as guar**
dian or trustee except those who had reached the age of
sixty, and who were unable to discharge their duties
because of ill-health, insufficiency of means, or the
nature of their occupation, already had two or more
^Ibid., citing Compiled Statutes of the
R.S.F.S.R., 1928, No. 75, Section 524.
168
children, nursing mothers, and were already acting as
guardian or trustee.
The guardian of a minor person was obliged to
| attend to his bringing-up, education, and training for
!socially useful activity. The duties entailed by guardian
ship or trusteeship were performed gratuitously. If the
ward had property returning an income, the guardian or
trustee might be allowed compensation not to exceed
10 per cent of the income derived from such property. If
the ward had no property, the Office of Guardians and
Trustees might petition the Board of Social Security to
grant funds to the guardian for support of the ward.
The activities of a guardian or trustee with
respect to any property owned by his ward were closely
supervised, and a periodic accounting of the property of
persons under guardianship or trusteeship was required.
Guardians and trustees were presumed to act in defense of
the rights and interests of their wards and they were given
a rather restricted authority, on the basis of which they
might perform any property transactions without the
approval of the Office of Guardians and Trustees. Thus, a
guardian might not mortgage the property of his ward, sign
promissory notes on his behalf, waive any inheritances,
lease his property for a period exceeding one year, close
down an enterprise belonging to the ward, or make a
partnership agreement.
169 I
A guardian or a trustee neglecting his duties or j
abusing his powers might be removed by the Office of Guar** j
dians and Trustees on petition of the ward himself or any |
other Interested person.
j
Dependency
Another legal provision for the protection of chil-
15
dren, called dependency, was Introduced In 1928. If a
child's parents were deceased, or unable to support him, a
person could take the child Into his home as a dependent, j
i
and he became henceforth obligated to provide care and edu
cation for the child. He could not sever this relationship
In the future In the event he wished to do so, and had to
continue to support the child as long as the latter
remained a minor or was unable to work.
In accordance with the Civil Code of 1922, the
child also had rights against the estate of the person who
took him as a dependent, provided he had been wholly main
tained by the deceased for a period of not less than one
year prior to the letter's death and there was no will
left. This law was amended In 1936, providing that, If a
will omitted any child dependent, those receiving legacies
were required to share In proportion to the size of their
legacies In the maintenance of the child.
^Hazard, op. clt.. p. 260.
170
The law of 1945 preserved this provision only in
16
cases where there was no will.
Patronat
On April 1, 1936, still another legal provision for
the care of children, called Patronat, became effective.
According to this provision, children might be
placed in private homes under contract, and the persons who!
i
assumed care of the child were paid for such care. Chil-
dren under the age of five were placed by the Commissariat j
i
of Health, and those over five years by the Commissariat of
i
Education. These contracts had to begin before the child
was fourteen years old and were terminated when the child
reached his sixteenth birthday.
Under this provision, the child could not qualify
as a dependent, and he therefore had no right to any
estate. The person who undertook care of the child, how
ever, was held criminally responsible if the child was
found to be without proper supervision or adequate care
while in his home.*7
Legal Measures with Regard to
Juvenile Delinquency
A governmental order of May 31, 1935 assigned work
with juvenile delinquents to four agencies.
^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit., pp. 382-83.
17Ibid.. p. 261.
171
Homeless children, and children living apart from
their parents although receiving support from them, were to
be placed In children's homes under the supervision of the !
Commissariat of Education. Children in need of medical
care were supervised by the Commissariat of Public Health.
Handicapped children were to be placed In special homes j
| i
through the Commissariat of Social Security, and the more
serious offenders were to be sent to labor colonies and
isolation centers administered by the Commissariat of
Internal Affairs.^
A decree of November 25, 1935 provided that the
parents whose children were involved in any acts of vandal-;
ism were to pay fines of up to 200 rubles, as well as for
damage done to property and injuries inflicted on other
persons. The local police were ordered to be on the alert
and to prevent street fights, and the Office of Guardians
and Trustees was directed to appoint guardians for orphans
without delay, and prosecute those guardians who failed to
supervise their wards properly.
Furthermore, the Cultural-Educational Section of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Coun
cils of Commissars of various republics were instructed to
supervise with more care the publication of children's
books and production of children's movies, and to forbid
^Hazard, on. cit.. p. 253.
172
any such publication and/or production which might have a
i
bad influence on children. |
The last measure can be viewed as being of a some
what surprising nature, since all printing shops and pub
lishing agencies had been under governmental management and
censorship since the beginning of the Soviet era. A Soviet
law of December 31, 1917 required that all matter prepared
for reproduction in the state-operated printing shops must j
be submitted for censorship prior to its publication.
The decree of May 31, 1935, making parents re-
i
sponsible for their children's delinquent behavior, was a
significant step in the direction of recognition of
parental authority and the family as the place for a
child's up-bringing. In other words, the responsibility
for the rearing of children was shifted from "collectivity"
to the individual family unit.
The Commissariat of Education and the local police
were directed to advise the place of employment of the
parent, or the trade union to which the parent belonged, if
he failed to supervise his child properly. This un
doubtedly was aimed at bringing social pressure to bear
and enlist public opinion in an effort to strengthen family
life.
Still further, the program of the Komsomol organ
ization was revised in 1936, and a provision was included
173
in it which indicated the need for combating juvenile
delinquency.
Part III of the program reads in part:
The Communist League of Youth
1. Assists the state institutions and teachers in
strengthening school discipline and in organ**
ization of work in the schools;
2. Conducts a struggle against penetration of
anti-social tendencies into schools and fights
hooliganism and bad behavior.- * - 9
Summary
The following changes became apparent during the
second period of the Soviet era.
1. The 1926 laws went still further than the
earlier laws by placing the financial responsibility for
the maintenance and upbringing of the child on his step
parents and any other person who had taken the child into
his home with the intention of rearing him. Thus, instead
of the earlier promise to have responsibility for the rear
ing of children transferred to the "shoulders of collec
tivity," parents, relatives, and even unrelated persons
became accountable for their care.
2. A new wave of juvenile delinquency which arose
in the early thirties became such a serious problem that a
new set of legal and administrative measures had to be
IQ
Meisel and Kozera, op. cit.. pp. 225-26
introduced in order to counteract it. The court*s juris
diction over ’ *socially dangerous" acts of children and j
minors was reinstated, and parents, guardians, and other
persons in whose homes children resided were made responsi
ble before the court for any offenses committed by these
children.
3. Such contradictions in the approach to child
care point to the existence of some irreconcilable factors j
in the theoretical premises of a socialist Communist
philosophy and the actual everyday realities of social
life.
It may be assumed that large-scale child care lacks
the very fundamentals of the personal relationship needed
in the child's early formative years, and that his emo
tional needs and the psycho-dynamic drives operative during
his growth and development cannot be met in the person of
the state and its mass approach.
CHAPTER VII
WOMEN IN SOVIET INDUSTRY
The woman's role as a mother and homemaker has been
considerably affected by her newly acquired place in the
Soviet industry. Her participation in the economic and
political life of the country was considered to be essen
tial, and new opportunities in employment and in jobs
requiring higher skills have been opened to her.
Since the woman in the Soviet Union has a two-fold
responsibility toward society, bearing and raising children
as well as being actively engaged in the industrial pro
duction and national economy of the country, the position
of women workers in the Soviet industry is reviewed.
Industry as a social institution covers a whole
field of social relations. The social nature of industrial
production first consists of its formal and informal organ
ization, and the different positions which individual mem
bers of the labor force occupy in the chain of command.
Other important societal factors inherent in the industrial
organization of a country are: the ownership and control of
the means of production and the reciprocal relations of
175
labor and management, the extent of industry’s bureau**
cratization, the types of goods manufactured, the changing
ideologies of management and the workers, and the conflicts
between theory and practice. This becomes especially
evident in the method of distributing rewards to the
several basic factors in production— rent, wages, interest,
and profits.
Thus, industry cannot be viewed as constituting a
separate subculture of its own, self-sufficient and
divorced from contacts with other subcultures, but must be
considered as one of the foundations of the social struc-
i
ture of society and closely interrelated with its other
I
societal aspects. This is to say that the social nature ofi
industry must be analyzed in its relation to other social
forces and institutions of a community: the family, the
school and educational policies, the changing class struc
ture, the profit incentive of the worker and the concept of
his rights in the products of his labor, his property
rights, and other factors.
In recent years another important factor has come
into play. Scientific and technological development has
begun to exert a great influence on the structural as well
as functional aspects of industrial production. The labor-
saving machine and automation now require a greater pro
portion of skilled labor, and there is need for highly
177
qualified experts In order to promote further progress
along these lines. This in turn calls for a gradual but
continuous shift in and a redefinition of social relations
in the field of industry.
The above-stated outline of the social nature of
industry will serve as a frame of reference for the
analysis of industrial organization in the U.S.S.R., and
particularly with regard to the status and role of women in|
Soviet industry. No attempt will be made to discuss Soviet
i
I
industry in its broader aspects since this would constitute;
a subject of major proportion of its own, and only those
aspects will be dealt with which relate to woman's par
ticipation in the industrial and economic life of the
com try.
Soviet Ideology
The emphasis placed on woman's role in the indus
trial and economic development of a socialist society has
been one of the cornerstones of the Soviet social and
political programs.
The importance of woman's participation in the
national economy of the country was emphasized by Lenin in
a speech made in 1920. He said:
The Soviet Government strives to have all toilers, not
only Party members but also non-Party members, not only
men but also women, take part in this economic recon
struction. This cause, begun by the Soviet power, may
178
be moved forward only when not hundreds but milli
and millions of women In Russia take part In It.1
The government's concern In enlisting the Interests
i
of women In work outside their homes was Interpreted by a
Soviet author as follows: "The attracting of women Into
socialist production Is the attracting of women to the
2
creative activity of socialism." According to the eco-
I
{
nomlc plan of 1931, the number of women to be drawn Into
i
all branches of national economy, Including Industry and j
3
construction, was estimated at 1,600,000. j
Although a woman* s labor force was urgently needed ;
i
and of primary Importance to the Soviet government, it may j
|
be claimed that the ideological content of the movement forj
emancipation of women, i.e., the extension to women of
equal rights with men in all spheres of life, was no less
important.
In the past, in most countries there has been con
siderable discrimination against women workers with regard
to their status and earnings in various branches of in
dustry as well as in other professional fields.
The Soviet point of view on the pre-revolutionary
Hi. Denisova, "Woman in the Soviet Union," Soviet
Culture Review (Moscow: Soviet Union Society for Cultural
Relations with Foreign Countries, VOKS, 1932), p. 36.
^Ibid.. p. 40.
3Ibid.
179
position of working women in Russia was expressed as fol- !
i
lows:
Hundreds and thousands of women used to work in the
factories and mills of pre-revolutionary Russia, but
they were looked on simply as cheap labor. Keep the
woman at the hardest, least-skilled work, pay her a
miserable wage— such was the attitude of the old regime
to the woman toiler. Woman was regarded as a lower
sort of being, not capable of any responsible creative
work whatever.4
Because of this rather emphatic assertion, and in
order to gain a better perspective of woman's status in
|
Soviet industry as compared with her former industrial
employment, in evaluating the changes which occurred during;
the current era, a brief review of industrial conditions in;
i
pre-revolutionary Russia and woman's industrial employment !
will be presented here.
Pre-Revolutionarv Industry in Russia
and Labor Legislation
The development of Russian industry can be traced
back to the reign of Peter the Great and his efforts to
"westernize" the country (1672-1725). He had brought in
foreign merchants and technicians and had facilitated
establishment of factories in order to equip the country
with domestic products and lessen its dependence on
European industry.
4Ibid.
180
One of the first instances of labor legislation was
|
issued by him in 1772, which reduced the working day to ten
hours during winter months, and to thirteen hours during
summer months.
Other early legislation, cited by Joseph Freeman,
included the following measures:^
In 1744, during the reign of Empress Elizabeth,
certain labor regulations were established and a commission j
for the supervision of factories was proposed.
i
In 1845, Nicholas I approved a law prohibiting
night work by children under twelve years of age. In 1882,
labor of children under twelve and night work for children
under fifteen was prohibited.
In 1884, during the reign of Alexander III, an
Institute of Factory Inspection was established, and in
1885 night work for children under seventeen and of women
in the cotton industry was prohibited. In 1886, this law
was extended to include other textile factories, and for
bade the employment of minors in certain hazardous occupa
tions .
In the same year, the government issued a regula
tion pertaining to the signing of labor contracts,
^Joseph Freeman, The Soviet Worker (New York:
Liveright, Inc., 1932), pp. 14-25.
181
prohibiting payment In kind and fixing pay days. According
to this regulation, account books were to be kept in which
the labor contract, wages to be paid, work time, and fines,
if any, were to be recorded.
In 1890, the previous law was amended to permit the
employment of children in glass factories as well as their
working on Sundays and holidays.
In 1897, the working day became limited to eleven
and a half hours.
i
An industrial compensation law was introduced in
1901-02. However, it did not cover all industrial enter
prises. Relief payments to ill and disabled workers j
amounted to as much as 50 per cent of their wages, and were
paid for a maximum period of six weeks, out of so-called
"sick funds." Two-thirds of such funds were furnished by
the workers and one-third by the employer.
In 1906, the industrial compensation program became
more effective. An agreement was made between the workers
and employers in the lumber industry whereby in case of
illness of a worker the employer was to pay 50 per cent of
his wages for a period of up to four weeks. In the oil
industry partial compensation was paid for from two weeks
to six months. In order to be eligible to this compensa
tion, the worker must have been employed for not less than
six months.
182
A provision was made also for expectant mothers.
They were to receive a lump-sum payment of from three to
ten rubles, and in certain industrial enterprises were paid
for a period of four weeks during their confinement, or
received two weeks' vacation before and three weeks after
childbirth, with half-pay and sometimes even with full pay.
On June 23, 1912, a new law was passed introducing j
social insurance for workers. This law covered all factor-!
i
i
ies, mills, mines, rail and water transportation which had
a staff of not less than twenty employees and which used
mechanical power, and all enterprises which did not use
I
mechanical power but had at least thirty employees. This j
law provided free medical care, hospitalization, drugs, and
funeral expenses. In case of injury or disability, the
worker with dependents was paid from one-half to two-thirds
of his wages, and the worker with no dependents from one-
half to one-fourth of his wages. Such payments began from
the fourth day of illness and were to continue for up to
twenty-six weeks, and in case of repeated illnesses the
maximum period was limited to thirty weeks in a year.
Expectant mothers were to receive 50 per cent of
their wages for two weeks before and four weeks after con
finement .
This brief review of old-Russia labor legislation
indicates that the government was aware of the need for
183
protection of labor, and that certain efforts were made In
that direction. Furthermore, there already were provisionsj
for expectant mothers, and Soviet legislation of 1919 only j
increased the length of their leave of absence and their
pay during such time.
On the other hand, there was also labor legislation
of a restrictive nature, such as prohibition of strikes and
the organization of trade unions.
Although Joseph Freeman states that "labor legisla
tion under the old regime failed to reach full effective-
i
6
ness for lack of the necessary administrative machinery," !
nevertheless, the enactment of such laws indicates progres-j
sive trends and a gradual development of Russian industry
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The following tables show the increase in in
dustrial enterprises and urban centers of old Russia.
TABLE 7
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA DURING
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Year
Number of
Enterprises
Number of
Workers
1815 4,189 173,000
1861 14,148 522,500
1897 19,396 1, 880,000
6Ibid., p. 25.
184
These figures indicate that, although the largest
increase in the number of enterprises occurred in the first
part of the nineteenth century, increase in the number of
workers was greater in the second part of the century.?
TABLE 8
RUSSIAN CENTERS WITH POPULATION OVER 50,000 IN THE
SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
B H B B a a a a B B S B a a B H M a B M a a H M B H B a B n n B H n H M M H V B n i I
Number of Total Urban j
Year Cities Population
1863 13 1,741,000
1897 44 4,266,300
This table further confirms the industrial develop
ment in old Russia, since most of the city population
tended to be employed either in commerce or in industrial
production.®
Industrial Employment of Women in Old Russia
Mildred Fairchild discusses the industrial employ
ment of women in old Russia in the same light.9 She calls
7Ibid.. p. 9.
^Ibid.. p. 7, citing Lenin, Development of Capital
ism in Russia, in 1926 Edition of Lenin*s Collected Works.
Vol. III.
9Susan M. Kingsbury and Mildred Fairchild, Factory.
Family, and Woman in the Soviet Union (New York: G. P.
Putnam1 s Sons, 1935), pp. 3-5.
185
attention to the fact that, although pre-revolutionary
Russia was usually thought of as an agricultural state, the
census of 1913 showed that manufacture furnished over one-
fifth of the national Income In European provinces of the
country, and agriculture less than one-half. According to
this census, the output of Iron and other metals from the
Donetz Basin had more than doubled since the beginning of
the twentieth century, I.e., a period of about a decade,
and the output of coal from the nation as a whole had In
creased still more.
Joseph Freeman gives a similar account of the
industrial development in old Russia. He says:
The rapid expansion of Russian industry was reflected
in all key industries. During the decade ending in
1898 cast iron production nearly trebled. Russia began
to manufacture machinery, including steam-boilers,
steam-engines, weaving looms, apparatus for flour
mills, etc. Railway construction increased rapidly;
mileage doubled between 1890 and 1897, with correspond
ing increase in locomotives and passenger and freight
cars. Water transportation expanded, as did the
construction of ships for civil and naval use. The
production of coal, iron ore, oil, lumber, bricks,
cement, and glass increased rapidly. Street car sys
tems were laid out; telephones and electric lights
installed; water and sewage systems constructed. The
value of the total production of Russian industry and
mining in 1887 was 1,300,000,000 rubles; by 1897 this
had risen to 2,800,000,000 rubles.10
One of the characteristics of Russian pre
revolutionary industry was its large-scale organization,
10Freeman, op. cit., p. 7.
186
as roost factories were of a large size. The metal plant at
Sormovo and the Putilov factory in St. Petersburg, building
steam engines, railway and electric cars, heavy machinery
and ships, each employed between fifteen to twenty thousand
workers before World War 1. The textile mills of the
Moscow district employed from one to five thousand workers
each.
The oldest of the large-scale industries in pre- j
revolutionary Russia was the textile industry. Approxi** i
mately one-third of all workers employed in large enter
prises which were subject to factory inspection prior to
World War 1 were in textile manufacture. Therefore, "with |
the textile industry making so large a proportion of the
Tsarist industry, the employment of women was a noticeable
12
factor long before the time of the Soviet government."
Accordingly, in 1869, 42 per cent of cotton spinners in
St. Petersburg plants were women, and in 1900 their numbers
had increased to over 58 per cent.
Furthermore, women's earnings, at least in the
textile industry, do not appear to have been very much
^These figures are given by Mildred Fairchild
(Kingsbury and Fairchild, op. cit., p. 3). Freeman gives
similar estimates (Freeman, on. cit.. p. 7). He writes
that "there were huge steel plants . . . in the Donetz
Basin, employing 10,000 workers each. By 1894 there were
eight textile mills employing 5,000 workers each."
12
Kingsbury and Fairchild, op. cit.. p. 5.
187
13
below those o£ men, as indicated in the following table.
TABLE 9
MONTHLY WAGES OF A GROUP OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE
COTTON INDUSTRY IN MOSCOW, PRIOR TO 1912
Type
of
Work
Number of Workers Per cent on Looms
Average Wages
in Rubles
Men Women Men Women Men Women
Total 4,584 11,812 100 100 19.49 17.49
1 loom 392 559 8.6 4.7 17.68 12.20
2 looms 3,316 9,602 72.3 81.5 18.10 16.61
3 looms 630 1, 280 13.7 10.8 25.18 24.46
4 looms 191 265 4.2 2.2 28.06 28.00
Reserve 55 108 1.2 1.0 21.03 15.02
According to these figures, wages received in the
three- and four-loom categories were about the same, while
the most appreciable difference existed in the one-loom and
reserve groups.
Comparison of Women*s Industrial Employment
in Old Russia and the Soviet Union
Table 10 is a tentative comparison of the percent
age of women workers to total workers in industry in pre
revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union, derived from
1-3 Ibid.
TABLE 10 j
i
PROPORTION OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN INDUSTRY
FOR THE PERIOD 1901-1955*
i
Per cent of Total Workers Employed
Year S o u r c e s ________________
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
1901 26.0
1902 26.8
1903 27.3
1904 27.4
1905 27.6
1906 27.3
1907 29.6
1908 29.2
1909 30.2
1910 38.8
1911 31.0
1913 22.9 23.4
1914 23.4
1915 28.2
1917 38.8 45.0
1922
1923
1924
34.8
29.5
27.5
TABLE 10 (continued)
PROPORTION OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN INDUSTRY
FOR THE PERIOD 1901-1955*
189
Year
Per cent of Total Workers Employed
S o u r c e s
(1) (2> (3) <$) d )
(*)
1926 30.0
1928 30.1
1929 28.2
1930 38.9
1931 39.6
1936 43.6
1940 40.5
1950 50.2
1955 50.2
*The following source material was used in preparing
this table:
1. Data for the period from 1901 to 1911 were given
by Mildred Fairchild, obtained from a book by A. Riazanova,
Women* s Labor. published in Russian in 1926, p. 35.
Tl TKe World War I period was covered by S. 0.
Zagorsky in his book, State Control of Industry in Russia
During the War, published in England and the U.S.A. in
1928.
3. Statistical data for the years 1917-1924 were
cited in Soviet Russia, an investigation of women's in
dustrial employment made by the British Women Trade Union
ists in 1925.
4. The figure for 1926 was shown in Lorimer's
The Population of the Soviet Union, published in 1946.
5 ~ . Figures for the years V} 13 and 1928 through 1936
were given by Bilshai in her book, Solution of the Woman's
Question injthe U. S.S.R., published in 1956.
H T . The period of 1929 to 1955 was presented in the
U.S.S.R. National Economy Statistics, published in 1956.
190
a compilation of statistical data obtained from several
sources.
A certain amount of inaccuracy may be expected in
1
this presentation because the data reported by various
authors may not be based on the same method of inquiry,
i.e., the nomenclature of categories used in the compila
tion of statistical data may be somewhat different, or the |
i
total number of workers may not refer to exactly the same
geographical areas. For instance, the figures listed by
1
S. 0. Zagorsky refer only to workers in industrial estab
lishments subject to factory inspection. Thus, it can be
assumed that there were additional workers engaged in
smaller enterprises and shops which were not included in
his estimates. On the other hand, the figures cited by
V. Bilshai include apprentices. Furthermore, in the report
made by the British Women Trade Unionists, the geographical
area covered may not have been the same as that of old
Russia.
Nevertheless, in spite of these possible inaccura
cies, it was believed worthwhile to make an attempt to
correlate this fragmentary information in order to arrive
at an over-all picture of woman's industrial employment for
an extensive period of time. As a result of this inquiry,
the general trend and the rate of the increase in indus
trial employment of women appears to have been constant.
191
The employment of women in specific branches of
industry is given in Table 11. Possible inaccuracy due to
difference in nomenclature is applicable here also. This
table is based on information obtained from S. 0. Zagorsky
for the period 1913 through 1917, and from the report of
the British Women Trade Unionists covering the years 1922,
1923, and 1924. [For more details, see Appendix B.]
The percentage of women employed in the national
economy of the U.S.S.R., as reported in the latest publica
tion of national economy statistics in 1956 was based on
different employment classifications. Therefore, it was
not possible to include this information in the preceding
table, and it is being presented in Table 12.^
This table indicates a considerable increase in the
industrial employment of women between 1929 and 1950, with
no appreciable increase in the following years. The 1955
data show a decrease in such trades as construction, trans
portation and communication, and tractor stations, and
continuing increase in public feeding, education, health,
and administration.
The following conclusions may be made from the
tables shown above:
1. Industrial employment of women during the last
fifty years has doubled.
^National Economy of the U.S.S.R. (Moscow: Govern
ment Publication of Statistics, 1956), p. 191.
TABLE 11
PROPORTION OF WOMEN WORKERS EMPLOYED IN VARIOUS BRANCHES
OF INDUSTRY 1917-1924
i ' " T i ■ - .aaaBeaaaaaaeaaasaBKaaMaafcasgiaaagcraaeasaaaw— = — c
Per cent o£ Total Workers Employed
Industry 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1922 1923 1924 1924
Cotton 50.5 52.4 56.6 61.1 70.4
—
60.0 59.0 58.3
Wool 35.3 37.4 40.6 41.8 51.0 59.8 49.3 47.6 47.0
Silk 55.2 36.3 65.7 46.0 69.4
—
66.5 68.5 72.6
Flax 45.9 47.0 49.9 52.5
— —
60.8 59.3 59.2
Mixed textiles 52.5 57.9 64.7 67.8
—
56.2 57.7 55.1
Metal 6.8 7.3 12.4 14.3 18.0 17.0 12.1 8.5 9.5
Wood 4.6 5.7 9.2 16.2 19.0 21.0 17.0 14.9 14.1
Food
mb MB a* «■
- - - -
36.6 26.7
- - - - - -
Animal products 14.3 16.2 22.8 26.2
— — —
mm ^m
- -
Chemicals 2.8 3.2 9.0 32.5 40.0 31.4 17.0 10.1 9.2
Pottery}
Glass )
13.6 13.8 18.9
—
—
—
38.9
24.7
31.6
25.0
29.1
25.0
Cement
- - - - —
—
m* mm
17.6 11.2 9.8
Coal 13.7 10.2 11.3
Rubber
49.9 46.2 44.9
Matches
49.1 50.8 48.2
Brewing 18.4 23.1 27.9
Tobacco 65.2 63.9 66.1
Leather & fur
15.4 11.2 11.3
Footwear
mm w
- - - - — - -
26.7 26.6 24.0
Paper 26.6 27.5 30.2 29.5
— —
31.0 27.7 27.3
Printing 8.1 8.4 10.8
--
mm mm mm mt
24.8 23.4 22.7
Milling 5.6 3.2 4.8)
29.3
5.6 4.3 4.5
Sugar refining 14.8 13.8 19.8) 13.8 11.3 10.0
Engineering 1.1 1.5 6.2 14.3
w mm mm m
11.3 10.0
- -
Gunpowder & explosives 30.1 22.5 30.1 32.5
- - — — — —
192
193
TABLE 12
PROPORTION OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN INDUSTRY 1929-1955
Per cent of Total Workers Employed
Industry 1929 1940
Jan. 1
1950
Oct. 1
1955
Oct. ;
Indus t ry— General 28.0 41.0 45.0 45.0
Construction 7.0 23.0 33.0 31.0
Tractor Stations 11.0 16.0 9.0
Soviet Farms &
Aux. Enterprises 28.0 34.0 49.0 46.0
Transportation &
Communication 11.0 24.0 34.0 33.0
Commerce, Technical &
Material Provisions 16.0 38.0 52.0 58.0
Public Feeding 46.0 67.0 80.0 83.0
Education 54.0 58.0 67.0 68.0
Health 65.0 76.0 84.0 85.0
Administration 19.0 35.0 45.0 49.0
Total 30.4 40.7 50.5 50.7
“ 194
2. There was a steady Increase In industrial
employment of women from 1901 to 1911, with a considerable
drop just prior to World War X, but with an immediate in**
I
crease after its beginning.
There was another decrease during the first era of
the Soviet government, going back to the indices of the
early 1900's, and another steady increase after the
!
inauguration of the first Five-Year Plan.
3. The employment of women in textile industries,
i.e., cotton, wool, flax, and silk, had the largest per
centage of women workers in the early years of the U.S.S.R.,
while the metal, wood, and chemical industries employed a
small number of women. Such trades as cement, coal, and
rubber had no women workers during those years. These
latter trades show considerable employment of women in
1923, with a decrease in the following year.
4. At the present time, the leading percentages of
women workers in the Soviet Union are reported to be en
gaged in public feeding, education, and health. Industrial
employment appears to keep on the same level since the
1940's, while in transportation, communication, and con
struction women constitute only one-third of the workers,
and in tractor stations 9 per cent.
5. This would warrant the conclusion that women's
employment is still largely centered around "family"
195
;function: food, care and education of children, and care
of the hick.
i
SiffiiBarv
With the change In the social status of women In
the Soviet Union and an endeavor to place them on an equal
footing with men, their opportunities In employment and In
jobs requiring skills and higher qualifications have
greatly Increased.
In order to evaluate the extent of these changes In
the status and role of the woman In Soviet society, the
following factors must be taken Into consideration.
There had already been considerable Industrial
employment of women, predominantly In the textile Industry,
In pre-revolutionary Russia. There were practically no
women in construction and heavy industry.
A steady increase in women* s industrial work was
indicated since the beginning of the century. The propor
tion of women workers in the total labor force was doubled
in the 1950*s.
In recent years there has been a decrease in the
number of women workers engaged in construction and other
heavy branches of industry, and an increase in their
:employment in public feeding, education, and health.
CHAPTER VIII
CHANGES IN THE ROLE AND STATUS OF WOMEN
IN SOVIET INDUSTRY
The new social status of women in the Soviet Union
brought- about by their accelerated participation in the
industrial production of the country can be reviewed from
three aspects:
1. In relation to woman's economic position and
compensation.
2. In relation to her physical and biological
characteristics.
3. In relation to her role as a homemaker.
More specifically, this inquiry is directed to the
following questions:
What is the status of woman as an individual worker
in the organization of labor, with respect to
her performance qualifications and her earning
capacity?
How does woman's physical constitution affect her
industrial work?
How does woman's employment outside of the home
affect her family life?
196
197
The Woman as an Individual Member
in Labor Organization
Although women workers were granted certain privi
leges with reference to their employment, their health,
and physical constitution, they became subject to rules and
regulations pertaining to men In other respects, for
example, the economic division of labor, direct and In
direct subordination on a hierarchical continuum, and
strict obedience to the Communist Party, the apex of the
Soviet Industrial administration. Therefore, in order to
evaluate their industrial and economic position, a brief
review of labor legislation in the U.S.S.R. will be
presented.
Soviet Legislation with Regard to Labor
The first period of the Soviet regime was charac
terized by legislation intended to liberalize and improve
working conditions. Soviet citizens were recognized as
property owners of the industrial and economic system of
the country, and accordingly they were entitled to a fair
and equitable labor organization.
However, such an ideological premise was not based
on a legacy from the past, grown out of age-long experi
ence, and the result of a historically acquired response
pattern of the social group. Although some utopian writers
have described labor as dignified and its services to
198
society regulated by social consciousness as sacred, by and
large It has also been referred to as irksome and as tend- |
ing to make a slave out of man. In order to keep men at j
i
their work, some incentive, economic gain, or strict
discipline was held to be needed.
Thus, a need for self-discipline and an ethic of
work performance soon became apparent in Soviet industrial
production, which gradually led away from the erstwhile
socialist approach to labor management and eventually
culminated in iron-clad discipline. This change was
greatly facilitated by the fact that the Communist Party,
because of its unlimited authority, could reverse its
former position and change its laws at a moment's notice.
With the growth of economic enterprise, a bureau
cratization of administration took place in which the
utopian ideal of ownership equality became lost and men
began to be used merely as tools or means to an end and
were subject to an impersonal employment system, with its
strict control of penalties and incentives.
The following is a brief summary of important
legislative measures covering the first and second periods
of Soviet industrial development.
Earlv Soviet Laws
In accordance with Marxian socialist precepts,
199
a decree on universal labor duty was Issued on October 31,
1918. Almost all citizens of the R.S.F.S.R. became subject
to compulsory labor. Those exempted were: persons under
sixteen and over fifty years of age, and persons who were
incapacitated as a result of injury or illness. A tempo
rary exemption from compulsory labor was extended to
expectant mothers and to those incapacitated for the period;
necessary for their recovery after childbirth. Students inj
all institutions of higher learning had to perform com
pulsory labor at school.^
In December 1918, the Soviet government introduced
by legislative enactment a maximum eight-hour working day
for all workers and a six-hour day for persons tinder
eighteen years of age and those working in unhealthful
branches of production. A total of forty-two hours of rest
every week was established for all toilers, each period to
be uninterrupted.
Continuous overtime work was prohibited. However,
because of "extreme destruction caused by the war and the
o
pressure of world imperialism," exceptions were permitted.
Accordingly, overtime not exceeding fifty days a year was
allowed; minors between fourteen and sixteen years of age
1James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera, Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company^ 1953;, p. 96.
2lbid.. pp. 119-21.
200
were allowed to work but their working day was not to
exceed four hours; and the hours of night work were in
creased to seven.
The Program of the All-Russian Communist Party
adopted at the Eighth Congress in March 1919, recommended
labor inspection, abolition of all child labor, and a
decrease in the working hours for young persons. The
introduction of the premium-bonus system was also recom
mended, in order to increase labor productivity.
On October 5, 1919, labor books for non-workers
were introduced. These labor books were to take the place
of identification cards and passports, and had to be pre
sented at stated intervals to the local Soviet officials
for notation that the holders of such books had performed
their share of assigned public work. Non-workers were
allowed to travel and to receive food ration cards only
when in possession of these labor books.
After a brief period of the new economic policy
introduced in 1921, at which time limited small-scale
private enterprises were legalized, labor legislation
became more restrictive.
Labor Disciplinary Measures
In October 1930, a decree was issued by the
People's Commissariat of Labor ending unemployment bene
fits. It read in part:
201
In view of the great shortage of labor in all branches
of Soviet industry, insurance bureaus are requested to
discontinue payment of unemployment benefits. No
provision for the payment of unemployment benefits has
been made in the Budget of Social Insurance for the
supplementary quarter October-December 1930.3
Labor exchanges were instructed to take all neces
sary measures to put the unemployed immediately to work,
and the first to be sent to work were those receiving
unemployment benefits. Unemployed persons were to be
drafted not only to work in their own trades but in other
occupations, and the labor exchange offices had to under
take training of workers according to local needs. Only
illness, supported by a medical certificate issued by a
medical control board, could be considered. Refusal to
work was penalized by removal of the worker from the
register of the labor exchange.
In an effort to strengthen labor discipline, the
Labor Code of 1927 was amended on November 15, 1932.
Whereas Article 47 of the Labor Code of 1927 permitted dis
missal of a worker absent from work without sufficient
reason for a total period of three days during one month,
the new regulation specified that a worker was to be dis
missed even in case of one day's absence from work without
sufficient reason. He also was to be deprived of the food-
and-goods card issued to him as a member of the staff of
3Ibid., pp. 190-91.
202
the factory or establishment, and of lodging in the houses
belonging to the factory or establishment.
! i
On December 20, 1938, labor books were introduced
I for all workers. The decree read in part:
With the object of regulating the registration of
workers and employees in concerns ana institutions, the
Council of People's Commissars of the U.S.S.R. decrees
that:
1. Labor booklets, issued by the administrative
board of the concern (institution) be intro
duced as of January 15, 1939, for workers and
employees in all state and cooperative concerns
and institutions. j
2. Labor booklets contain the following data con
cerning the owner of the labor booklet: sur
name, name and patronymic, age, education,
profession, and information concerning his work j
and movements from one concern (institution) to j
another, the causes of such transfers, and also
of commendations and rewards received.4
These labor booklets were to be kept for all em
ployees working in a concern for more than five days,
including seasonal and temporary workers. They were to be
kept by the management of the concern and were to be re
turned to the worker or employee on his dismissal. On
dismissal, all data concerning work, commendations, and
rewards during the period of the worker's employment in the ;
concern had to be entered and certified by signature of the
manager and the seal of the concern. Illegal use of labor
booklets, their transfer to other persons, forging and
4Ibid.. pp. 300-301
203
tampering with them, were punishable under the Criminal
Code.
On October 19, 1940, a decree of the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. was issued legalizing
obligatory transfer of specialists.
Because of the problem of securing skilled forces
for new plants, factories, mines, construction jobs, and
transportation services, the People's Commissars of the
U.S.S.R. were vested with the right of obligatory transfer ;
i
of engineers, designers, technicians, foremen, draftsmen,
bookkeepers, economists, accountants, and other planning
personnel, as well as skilled workers from one enterprise j
to another, regardless of territorial location.
Those so transferred were allowed travelling ex
penses for themselves and their families, wages while en
route, and lump-sum assistance for setting up a home in the
new place in an amount of up to three or four months'
wages.
On January 18, 1941, penalties for dereliction of
labor duty were established. Every violation of labor
discipline entailed either a disciplinary penalty or prose
cution in court.
Disciplinary penalties for violation of labor dis
cipline included: admonition, reprimand, severe reprimand,
transfer to lower paid work. For absenteeism without
justifiable reason, salaried and wage-earning employees
were to be prosecuted under the Edict of the Presidium of I
!
June 26, 1940, which imposed a penalty of imprisonment for
a period of from two to four months if employment was in
;a war industry and from five to eight months in related
industries.5
There is a general feeling among students of the
Soviet Union that the Soviet law contains numerous penal
provisions, and that to a large extent it is criminal law.
V. Gsovski says: MThere is an element of conscript !
labor in the present Soviet law, even apart from convict
labor.
It is quite true that Soviet labor rules and
regulations are mostly of a punitive character. However,
this feature of Soviet law can be looked at from a somewhat
different point of view. It stems from the very nature of
the socialist philosophy, according to which all tools of
production belong to the state, and the state is the sole
manager of industrial enterprises and national economy.
Therefore, the relationship between an individual worker
and the state (sovereignty) becomes highly controlled and
politically colored. Perhaps it may be compared to that of
- *Ibid.. pp. 361-62.
^Vladimir Gsovsky, Soviet Civil Law (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Law School, 1946), p. 810.
205
the armed forces, wherein even a minute violation of dis
cipline would constitute a criminal offense and be subject
to prosecution.
Labor Regulations Intended to Raise Work Efficiency
Along with measures of a strictly punitive nature,
the Soviet government found it necessary also to introduce
i
a series of labor regulations of a more positive character,|
aimed at raising labor efficiency. These were the estab
lishment of the rank of Hero of Socialist Labor, socialist i
competition, a system of piece-rate and bonus payments, and;
a differential wage-scale based on variations in skill,
i
training, and responsibility of the position held.
These changes in labor legislation of the U.S.S.R.
relating to material incentive and the profit motive of an
individual will be discussed in more detail because they
represent an important shift in social relations. Like
wise, they have an important bearing on a gradual redefini
tion of the concept of social status in a socialist
society.
Hero of Socialist Labor. On December 27, 1938, the
Presidium of the U.S.S.R. established the rank of Hero of
Socialist Labor. It was to be awarded to:
. . . persons who by their specially distinguished
pioneer work in the sphere of industry, agriculture,
transport, trade, scientific discovery, and technical
invention have rendered exceptional service to the
206
State, promoted the progress of the national economy,
culture, science, and the growth of the power and glory
of the U.S.S.R.'
i
Socialist competition. Although Lenin had realized
much earlier the importance of material incentives for
individual workers in order to raise production, this prin
ciple in labor organization and management did not come
into effect until 1929. His article on "How to Organize
Socialist Competition," published in Pravda in 1918, was
reprinted on January 20, 1929, ushering in a new method in j
Soviet industrial planning and introducing a new social
norm.
I
In this article, Lenin explained that the capital
istic system had long ago abolished small and independent
production under which competition could develop enter
prise, energy, and bold initiative to any considerable
extent, and had substituted for it large-scale monopolies
in which individual initiative was superseded by fraud,
despotism, and so forth. Lenin held that the bourgeois
accusations that socialists ignored "human nature," and
refused to understand the importance of competition, were
erroneous. He further claimed that socialism would not
extinguish competition but would, for the first time,
create an opportunity for its expression on a wide mass
scale.
^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit.. pp. 301-302.
207
It would draw the majority of the population Into
an arena of labor In which they could display their abili
ties, develop their capacities, and reveal their talents.
This represents an untapped spring of people's creative
ness, which was crushed, suppressed, and strangled In
thousands and millions under capitalism.^
i
This change In Soviet labor policies, made In an
effort to Increase output In factories and Industrial j
plants, was thus described In a Soviet publication of the ;
History of the U.S.S.R.
The rise of mass socialist competition among workers
has been made ready through the Party's educational
work and the growth of creative participation of the
laboring class. The more advanced workers understood
that the beginning of a large-scale development in the
national industrial construction called for a new
sweep of creative mass initiative.9
An account of the inauguration of "socialist com
petition" is given in the same source, as follows: Lenin's
article, reprinted in Pravda on January 20, 1928, was fol
lowed by an appeal of the Young Communist League (Komsomol)
on January 26, 1929 to organize an All-Union Socialist
Competition among its members in order to improve the
quality and to lower the cost of production. This appeal
p
V. I. Lenin, Selected Works (London: Lawrence and
Wishart, 1947), I, 256.
^History of the U.S.S.R.: The Epoch of Socialism
(1917-1957). a Text Book (Moscow: Government Publications
of Political Literature, 1957), p. 373.
208
found warm response throughout the country. The coal mines
in the Don Basin were the first to begin competition with
one another in their production. By February 1929 they
were joined by the coal mines in the Moscow region, the
Ruz Basin, and finally by the Ural miners.
On March 5, 1929, the Red Viborgetz, a metal plant
in Leningrad, through Pravda. challenged all factories and |
plants in the U.S.S.R., and the first competitive agreement!
!
was signed by a Red Viborgetz brigade on March 15th. By
the end of April 1929 almost all large industrial plants
and enterprises were participating in socialist competi
tion, the majority of them belonging to the metal industry I
and mining.
Socialist competition also took the form of com
petition between individual workers and between groups of
workers within the same factory who were connected with one
another in the process of production. They soon became
known as "shock brigades," and they made agreements in
connection with the strengthening of labor discipline,
raising of the quantity and quality of output, and lowering
of the cost of production. The workers in these brigades
took upon themselves an obligation not to "shirk work," and
to observe the rules of the factory.
The Sixteenth Party Conference on April 29, 1929
issued a statement to the effect that the organization of
competition in accordance with socialist principles repre
sents the best traditions of Communism, that it constitutes
a struggle for the industrialization of the U.S.S.R. and
will lead to the victory of socialism.^
Socialist competition has been recently referred to
in terms of socialist emulation. N. N. Nekrasov, a profes
sor at the Moscow Institute of Engineering and Economics, i
in his speech delivered at the Third World Congress of
Sociology in 1956, spoke of socialist emulation as being an
expression of "the keen interest of the workers in the
rational organization and perfection of production."^
i
System of wages in the U.S.S.R. The introduction !
of a differential wage-scale, piece-rate, and bonus payment
was another measure brought into operation by the Soviet
government in an effort toward industrialization of the
country in its struggle to raise the productivity of labor.
Joseph Stalin, in a speech delivered at the First
All-Union Conference of Stakhanovites in Moscow on Novem
ber 17, 1935, stated that "in a socialist society each
works according to his ability and receives articles of
consumption, not according to his needs but according to
10Ibid.. p. 375.
^N. N. Nekrasov, "The Economics and Organization
of Industry in the U.S.S.R.," Transactions of the Third
World Congress of Sociology (London: Skepper House, 1956),
I, 23-29.
210
12
the work he performs for society."
Although, a few years earlier, a trend toward the
|
obliteration of the difference between mental and manual
work had been indicated, this attitude was completely
rejected by Stalin. He stated:
"Some think that the elimination of the distinction
between mental labor and manual labor can be achieved
by a certain cultural and technical equalization of
mental and manual workers, by lowering the cultural and !
technical level of engineers and technicians, of mentalj
workers to the level of average-skilled workers. That :
is absolutely untrue. Only petty-bourgeois chatter
boxes can conceive of Communism in this way. In \
reality, the elimination of the distinction between
mental labor and manual labor can be achieved only by
raising the cultural and technical level of the working |
class to the level of engineers and technical work-
f t 1j
N. G. Alexandrov in his book published in 1955 up
holds the same point of view. He explains that:
Under equality of citizens in socialism Marxism-
Leninism understands not a levelling in the sphere of
their individual requirements and their way of life,
but the destruction of exploiting classes, i.e., an
equal liberation of all workers from exploitation, and
an equal repeal of private property for means of
production which have become common property. Further
more, there is an equal obligation of all workers to
work according to their ability, and an equal right to
be rewarded according to their work.
^2Meisel and Kozera, o p. cit.. pp. 220-21.
13Ibid.
^N. G. Alexandrov, Law and Legal Relations in the
Soviet Society (Moscow: Government Publications of Legal
Literature, 1955), p. 18.
211
The new system of pay-rates was based on the fol
lowing principles:^
1. Wages at the second stage of socialist con
struction represented one of the most important factors in
determining the material welfare of the working class.
2. In the Soviet system, wages were important in
the organization of labor, in so far as they stimulated the!
raising of labor efficiency and quality of production as
j
well as improvement of skill among the workers.
The new schedule of wages was aimed at a differ
entiation between skilled and non-skilled labor, and
between heavy and light work, excluding all possibility of
equality of pay. The difference between skilled and un
skilled labor had to be such as to provide an incentive for
the workers to raise their standard of work and to become
skilled.
The trade unions, in conjunction with industrial
enterprise, represented by workers, engineers, and tech
nical staff, determined the standards of skills and the
corresponding rates.
Piece-work. The basis for the introduction of
piece-work was explained by Soviet authorities as follows:
^A. Kuznetsov, "System of Wages in the U.S.S.R.,"
Soviet Culture Review. 1932, pp. 19-21.
212
Under Soviet conditions, piece-work gives on scientific
and technical grounds results that could never be
obtained under the capitalist system. While the work
ing day is reduced to seven and even six hours, experi
ence has shown that piece-work leads to the regular
improvement of the welfare of the working class. This
system increases efficiency, increases the rate at
wnich socialist construction goes on, and in this way
ensures further improvement of the living conditions
of all toilers of the U.S.S.R.1°
Piece-work was considered to be an expression of
the relation existing between the working class as a whole,
constituting the government, and individual workers or
groups of workers, and also expressing the real socialist
principle of pay according to work. With the exception of
the amount of labor that went into the social pool, every
worker received from society as much as he gave to it.
Thus equality of wages disappeared.
Differential wage-scale. Differences in skill,
training, and responsibility in the position held became
the basic principle in the Soviet economic organization.
In a speech made at the Conference of Industrial
Managers in Moscow on June 23, 1931, in connection with the
problem of rapid labor turnover, Stalin stated:
"Wherein lies the cause of this turnover? In the
wrong wage-scale system, in the 'leftist* equaliza
tion of wages. . . .
• ^Ibid., p. 19.
213
. .In every Industry and enterprise there are
leading groups of more or less skilled workers who
must be attached to the enterprise if we really want
to ensure a permanent personnel. They constitute the
basic personnel of industry. To attach them to the
enterprise means to stabilize the entire staff of
workers; it means to undermine basically labor turn
over. They can be attached to the enterprise only by
promotion, by wage increases, by establishing wage-
scales which would be an incentive to acquiring
greater skill.
". . .We must not tolerate a situation where a steel
worker receives the same wage as a sweeper, or a
locomotive engineer the same as an office clerk."1'
According to a report by a British economist who
attended a conference on economics in Moscow in 1952, the
18
wage-scale in a motor factory was graded as follows:
Unskilled labor up to 700 rubles a month
Skilled workers up to 2,500
Managerial group up to 8,000
The report further indicates that wages on the
upper level in the educational field were much higher
still, and that a professor of science could earn up to
30,000 rubles, if he were employed at several institu-
1Q
tions.
■^Joseph Freeman, The Soviet Worker (New York:
Liveright, Inc., 1932), p. 169.
^Ibid.. citing Economic Review of the Soviet
Union, August 1, 1931, pp. 339-43.
*■9John n. Hazard, Law and Social Change in the
U.S.S.R. (London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1953), p. 20,
citing A. Caimcross, "The Mowcow Economic Conference,"
1952.
214
The differentiation in the wage-scale led to a
new Soviet concept of a hierarchical labor organization.
V. S. Nemchinov, in his address at the Third World Congress
of Sociology in 1956, stated:
In the studies of the social structure of society it
is highly important to establish the role and position
of an individual member or social group in the system
of social labor. . . . The role of separate groups
in the social organization of labor has depended and
depends on the relations of man to the means of pro
duction ... on the prevailing forms of ownership of
the means of production. . . .20
V. S. Nemchinov further says that the material base
of class differentiation is in the type of ownership of
the tools or production and not in the form of articles of
consumption; in other words, that the chief feature of
class differentiation is not in the amount of income but in
its source. Nevertheless, it would appear that the differ
ence in the earnings of an individual, regardless of the
source from which they may be derived, would lead to a
corresponding difference in his mode of living and his
social status, and the emergence of a new class based on
economic or pecuniary advantages. This has been known as
"pecuniary emulation," "the pecuniary standard of living,"
and "pecuniary canons of taste."
V. S. Nemchinov, "Changes in the Class Struc
ture," Transactions of the Third World Congress of
Sociology (London: Skepper House, 1956), VIII, 179.
215
The Woman-Worker in Relation to Her |
Physical Constitution I
I
i
Although the Soviet government made every effort to
place women on an equal footing with men and to give them
equal work opportunity, women's physical constitution and
endurance had to be taken into consideration. Conse- j
i
quently, certain limitations were placed on women's employ-;
ment, which precluded them from working on equal terms with
men.
Injurious Trades
As a general rule, women were prohibited from
employment on night shifts, in heavy branches of industry,
and in injurious trades. However, since this led to their
employment in less well-paid jobs, exceptions were made in
certain instances with the permission of the Commissariat
21
of Labor and the medical adviser.
Thus, women were permitted to work temporarily on
night shifts in the postal and telegraph service, and in
transportation which required continuous work. They were
occasionally permitted to do work involving carrying of
heavy loads, provided no hand load exceeded thirty-six
pounds and the rail load was not over half a ton.
The injurious trades included certain phases of
^Soviet Russia, an Investigation by British Women
Trade Unionists (Adelphi: W. P. Coates, 1926), p. 26.
216 !
i
the tobacco Industry, the printing trade, where the worker j
i
came into contact with lead, certain chemical work with
gases, and work carried out at a high temperature. When
working with poisonous substances, women were allowed
extra amounts of milk, butter, and fats to counteract the
effects of the injurious materials.
Social Security in the U.S.S.R.
Old age pension. The Old Age Pensions law also
differentiates between the eligibility requirements for men
and women. While the general pension age for men is sixty,
and the length of their service must be not less than
twenty-five years, the age for women is specified as fifty-
five, and the length of their service not less than twenty
years.
In case of employment in underground work, or in
harmful conditions of labor, the age limit and the length
of service are lowered for both men and women, the men
becoming eligible to the Old Age Pension on reaching the
age of fifty after twenty years of service, and the women
at the age of forty-five after fifteen years of service.
The pension age and the period of employment
required are, as a rule, five years lower for women. Fur
thermore, N. A. Muravyova reports as follows in her pam
phlet on Social Security: "It should be pointed out,
217!
i
I
though, that very few women are employed on arduous jobs, j
j
I
and that with each passing year fewer women are so em
ployed."^2 |
i
!
Expectant mothers. From the first year of Its
existence, the Soviet government took special care to pro
vide material assistance to expectant mothers and to Insure
adequate conditions for the welfare of the mother and
child.
An, early decree of October 31, 1918, with regard to
universal labor duty, exempted pregnant women from com
pulsory labor for a period of eight weeks prior to and
eight weeks after confinement.
The Program of the All-Russian Communist Party on
Protection of Labor and Social Security, which was adopted
by the Eighth Congress in March 1919, made the following
provisions for expectant mothers: They were exempted from
work for the same period, with maintenance at full wages,
together with free medical care and medicine. After birth
of the child, working mothers were permitted not less than
half an hour every three hours for nursing their babies,
and supplementary subsidies were given to all nursing
mothers.
22N. A. Muravyova, Social Security in the U.S.S.R.
(Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956), p. 5.
218 j
!
Apparently, this prolonged absence of working women|
1
from their employment had caused disruption in the produc- j
tion plans of individual factories, and the managers were
reluctant to hire pregnant women. The 1936 Family Law
established a penalty for refusing to engage women on
account of pregnancy, or lowering their wages for the same j
reason. The law further provided that a pregnant woman
must be given lighter duty, and that her wages must be
calculated on the average received by her during the pre
ceding six months.
The decree of June 26, 1940, which increased the
working day to eight hours, stipulated that "vacations for
women workers and clerks during pregnancy and after giving
23
birth shall be preserved. . .
The Family Law of 1944 increased maternity leaves
for women factory workers and office employees to seventy-
seven days (thirty-five before and forty-two days after
childbirth). In the event of an abnormal birth or the
birth of twins, post-natal leave was to be extended to
fifty-six calendar days. The pay during maternity leave
was to come out of state allowances.
The managers of enterprises and institutions were
directed to issue double food rations to expectant mothers
23
Meisel and Kozera, op. cit., pp. 357-58.
219 I
I
beginning with the sixth month of pregnancy and to nursing j
j
mothers during the first four months of nursing. Further
more, after the fourth month of pregnancy expectant mothers
were not to be assigned to overtime work, and women with
infants were to be exempted from night work throughout the
period of nursing.
In 1956, leave of absence due to pregnancy and con-
finement was further increased from seventy-seven days to
112 calendar days, fifty-six prior and fifty-six after
confinement, and, in case of abnormal delivery or the birth
of twins, to seventy days after confinement.^
The 1956 Criminal Code, Article 133 (a), also pro
vided that refusal to engage a woman because of pregnancy
was punishable by corrective labor work for a period not to
exceed six months or a fine not exceeding 1,000 rubles.
In conclusion, it may be said that, in spite of the
accepted general principle of equality of men and women in
their employment, in reality women workers have occupied a
different position from that of men because, in addition to
representing a labor force, they also have had to fulfill
their functions as mothers.
Alexandra Kolontay in criticizing the early
^V. Bilshai, The Solution of Woman’s Problem
(Moscow: Government Publications of Political Literature,
1956), p. 185.
220
Feminist Movement, herself acknowledged this factor. She
wrote:
In their zeal to establish equal rights and prove woman
in every respect equal to man, the feminists were bound
to disregard the natural characteristics of women which
mark them out for a special place in the collective.25
She further stated that:
Woman bears a two**fold responsibility toward society
. . . and the "natural right" which they are so fond
of quoting not only demands that women should effec
tively contribute to society but also that they should
provide society with healthy offspring.2®
The Woman-Worker as a Homemaker
In order to make the woman the social equal of man,
to enable her to enter various branches of industry and to
participate in social and political activities, the Soviet
government introduced new socialized forms of life. Pro
visions were made for relieving her of "domestic drudgery"
and the care of her children, such as public kitchens,
collectivized laundries, factory nurseries, and pre-school
age facilities.
Public Feeding
Public feeding was given a prominent place in the
government's planning toward a change from individual
^Rudolf Schlesinger, The Family in the U.S.S.R.
(London: Routledge and Regan Paul, Ltd., 1949), pp. 46-47,
citing Alexandra Kolontay, Critique of the Feminist Move
ment.
26Ibid.
household economy to a collective economy. j
j
S. Ginevsky, in his article on "Public Feeding in j
j
the Soviet Union/' states:
Public feeding has no pre-revolutionary history. It
was newly created after the October revolution and has
now become a powerful factor in raising the produc
tivity of labor, in carrying out the economic plan of
the Union, in refashioning everyday life on new social-j
ist principles.27 I
He further says that "the social idea underlying
this system, which takes care of the material and living
28
conditions of the toilers, is exceptionally profound."
A resolution of the Plenum of the General Committee
of the C.P.S.U. of December 1931 reads:
The decisive successes in the field of the economic
construction of the U.S.S.R., the cultural growth of
the masses and the attraction of members of workers'
families to industries, in connection with a complete
elimination of unemployment, sets before the consumers'
cooperatives the task of a gradual shifting of the food
supply from the forms of individual consumption to
public feeding.29
The system of public feeding was organized in
accordance with certain specific interests and conditions
of separate groups of workers. Preference was given to
those working in leading enterprises and in dangerous
27S. Ginevsky, "Public Feeding in the Soviet
Union," Soviet Culture Review. 1932, Nos. 7-9, p. 32.
28Ibid.
29Ibid.
222 I
trades. Priority in public feeding was assigned to machine’
builders, followed by workers in building trades, coal
miners, workers in ferrous metallurgy, chemical trades, and i
I
others.
i
In order to obtain the maximum efficiency in j
transportation and the fulfillment of traffic schedules, j
i
leading railwaymen, engine-drivers, and repair workers were
served first. Special forms of public feeding in the open
fields were organized for agricultural areas and of "float
ing dining rooms" for fishermen.
According to Soviet authorities, industrialized
public feeding plays an important role in construction work
as well as in private life, and serves as a powerful lever
for collectivization in everyday life.
Child Care
A series of provisions to assist mothers with the
care of their children were incorporated into the law. The
Family Law of 1944 provided for a reduction of 50 per cent
of fees in kindergartens and nurseries for the accommoda
tion of children of parents with three children who earned
up to 600 rubles a month, and for parents with five or more
children regardless of their earnings. w
This law further provided a plan for the extension
^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit.. pp. 373-78.
223
of the network of children's institutions under the
People's Commissariat and other departments to provide |
!
accommodations for all children in need of such services.
It was made obligatory for institutions and enterprises
where women were employed in large numbers to organize
nurseries, kindergartens, and special rest rooms for
nursing mothers. It was also made obligatory for the
People's Commissariats in their plans for industrial con
struction, to provide for the building of children's insti
tutions (nurseries, kindergartens, mother and child rooms)
with accommodations sufficient for all mothers employed at
the enterprise and in need of such services.
Joseph Freeman in his report on social conditions
in the Soviet Union says:
One of the effects of socialized housekeeping has been
to change woman's attitude toward work. Freed from
domestic burdens, the Soviet woman does not look upon
work as a temporary makeshift, but as a serious occupa
tion for life, as men do. Already in 1929 there were
in three leading industries--textiles, metals, and
mining--large contingents of women workers whose work
was their career.31
This statement cannot be fully accepted or rejected
for lack of firsthand information, and needs further study
and closer scrutiny. Although women have presumably been
freed from domestic drudgery, they still bear a twofold
responsibility toward society, as mentioned by Kolontay.
o-l
JXFreeman, op. cit., p. 288.
224
Summary
The Soviet government opened up new opportunities
in women's industrial employment and extended to them equal
rights with men, but complete equality in work has not been
achieved.
The woman in the Soviet Union has a two-fold
responsibility toward society— participating in the coun- !
try's national economy and political life, and bearing and
raising children.
Legislative provisions were made to assist her with
child-bearing, and socialized housekeeping and facilities
for the care of children were provided in order to release
her from her family obligations.
Furthermore, woman's endurance and biological
constitution made it necessary to effect certain changes in
her working conditions. Women were prohibited from employ
ment on night shifts, in heavy branches of industry, and in
inj urious trades.
As an individual member of the labor force, the
woman became subject to strict labor discipline.
Industrial employment in the Soviet Union is
regulated by strict labor laws, which is a direct result of
the very nature of socialist labor organization. Since all
industrial production is owned and operated by the state,
the relationship of an individual worker to the means of
production or to the state has in it a compulsory quality,
and any violation o£ this relationship is considered to be
a criminal offense.
The differential wage-scale and piece-rate which
became necessary in order to raise work efficiency, intro
duced considerable inequality in the economic and social
status of Soviet workers.
The liberation of the woman brought to her many
advantages with respect to her competition with man on the
labor market. The social and economic differentials among
the social classes of the "toilers'1 in the Soviet Union
have remained.
CHAPTER IX
THE ROLE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY
Family life and the family relationships are also
closely related to the existing economic system of a
country and its laws pertaining to the ownership of private
property. Changes in Soviet ideology which occurred with
respect to the ownership of non-productive resources are
reviewed in this chapter. However, this discussion is
limited to the relationship of private property ownership
to and its effect on the family group.
Frederick Engels traced the beginnings of economic
conditions in the monogamous family to the victory of
private property over primitive and natural collectivism.
He believed that monogamy was established for the protec
tion of private property and its inheritance and that, with
the introduction of collective property, the monogamous
family would cease to be the economic unit of society, and
different personal and social relationships would result.
In this chapter an attempt is made to answer the
following questions:
What legal provisions relating to the private
ownership of property were enacted by the
226
227
Soviet government after the October revolution?;
i
Have social attitudes toward private ownership of
property survived?
What are the current laws pertaining to the right
to own private property?
Soviet Attitude Toward Private Property
As an approach to the conception of private prop
erty in the Soviet Union, the following excerpt from an
article by S. Kovalyov, published in the March 1947 issue
of Bolshevik, is presented:
Private property, on which antagonistic class
formations are based, sets people apart from one
another and nurtures in man a highly-developed indi
vidualism and selfishness. In society based on private
property, a tendency has operated and still operates
which sustains and fans the bestial instincts which
exist in man. This tendency is especially strong in
capitalist society, which is based on competition.
"Dog eat dog"--such is the law of capitalist society.
Fascism, with its ideology of racial hatred and racial
extirpation, is the most extreme and revolting expres
sion of this philosophy.
Only in a socialist society based upon community
property can an opportunity be created for the first
time in history for the spiritual renovation of man,
for complete vanquishment of what is bestial in man,
and for the annihilation of the savage ethics culti
vated by predatory class society.!
Though the statement above is of comparatively
recent origin, it is still based on the earlier Soviet
S. Kovalyov, Ideological Conflicts in Soviet
Russia (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948),
p. 6.
228
pronouncement that ownership of private property is at the
root of all social inequity and evil. This theoretical
premise did not keep pace with the ongoing change in the
Soviet position regarding the concept of private property,
which gradually but steadily had been undergoing consider
able revision.
In the first period of the Soviet era, due to
scarcity of goods and the low standard of living, the
motive for acquisition of any available merchandise was
chiefly an economic one, i.e., a struggle for subsistence,
and with little thought given to "pecuniary emulation."
With an increase in the individual earning capacity as a
result of the necessity for an economic division of labor
and a corresponding differential pay rate, the acquisition
of goods in order to gain comfort became possible and the
standard of living began to rise.
The new social order was unable to ". . . divert
property from labor,and the old adage that individual
ownership of property in a later stage of societal develop
ment acquires an honorific meaning proved its applicability
in a socialist society as well. One of the attributes of
the incentive to acquire goods and accumulate personal
o
Emory S. Bogardus, The Development of Social
Thought (New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1955),
p. 264, citing N. K. Michailovsky.
229
property became once more a means of comparison and valu- !
ation of the relative degree of one’s achievement, success,
and social status in the community. Thus, the second
period of the Soviet regime is characterized by govern
mental recognition and social acceptance of the concept of
individual ownership, and a reinstatement of old normative
attitudes toward it.
;
With this brief introduction, the Soviet position
with respect to private property will now be analyzed in
more detail.
*
Early Soviet Legislation
Contrary to general belief, ownership of private
property has never actually been abolished in the Soviet
Union; it has existed, within certain limitations, from the
beginning of the Soviet era. Apparently, complete elimina
tion of private property was not feasible in a modem
society.
In December of 1917, Lenin submitted a draft of a
decree on the socialization of the national economy to the
Supreme Economic Council. This decree began as follows:
The critical food situation and the danger of
famine created by the speculation and sabotage of the
capitalists and government officials, as well as the
general state of disorganization, make it essential to
adopt extraordinary measures for combating this evil.
In order that all citizens of the state, and par
ticularly the toiling classes, shall take up the fight
against this evil immediately and comprehensively, and
230
i
address themselves to the proper organization o£ the
economic life of the country, stopping at nothing and
acting in the most revolutionary manner, under the
leadership of their soviets of workers1, soldiers',
and peasants' deputies, the following regulations are
decreed. . . .3
This draft included nationalization of banks, uni
versal labor service for both sexes, control and distribu
tion of food supplies through consumers' societies, food
boards, and others, organization of transportation by rail-j
way employees' unions, and the setting-up again of closed
and demobilized enterprises by workers' organizations.
Supervision of this plan and inspection of the
quantity and quality of the work were entrusted to trade
unions and other organizations of the toilers, acting in
conjunction with local soviets and with the participation
of reliable persons recommended by the Party. Anyone found
guilty of either violating or evading the law was to be
brought to trial before the revolutionary courts.
A decree abolishing landed proprietorship had been
issued a few weeks earlier, on November 8, 1917. This
decree contained the following main provisions:
The right of private ownership of land was abolished in
perpetuity, and all land became the property of the
people as a whole.
o
James H. Meisel and Edward S. Kozera, Materials
for the Study of the Soviet System (Ann Arbor: The George
Wahr Publishing Company, 1933), p. 53.
231
Landed estates and all appanages, monasterial and
church lands with all their livestock, implements, and
£arm buildings, were confiscated and placed under the
control of local land committees and soviets.
Any damage to such confiscated property, which hence
forth belonged to the people as a whole, was declared
to be a felony, punishable by the revolutionary courts.
The land of ordinary peasants and cossacks and their
farm implements were not to be confiscated.
Hired labor was prohibited.
Lands with highly-developed forms of cultivation were
not to be divided but become model farms cultivated
either by the state or by communes. Stud farms also,
were to be run exclusively by the state or communes.4 I
The decree also provided for certain redress:
Persons who had suffered through the "property revolu
tion" were entitled to public support but only for the
period necessary for their adaptation to the new
conditions.
In the event of physical disability for a period of two
years of a member of a village community, the community
was obligated to help him with the cultivation of his
land.
Peasants who, due to age or ill-health, were unable
personally to cultivate their land lost their right to
the use of it, but were to receive a pension from the
state.*
Nationalization of banks took place on December 27,
1917. The banking business was declared to be the monopoly
of the state, and all private banks were to be merged into
a state bank.
4Ibid.. pp. 19-20
5Ibid.
232
i
The interests of small depositors were to be safe
guarded. A subsequent decree of February 8, 1918 voided j
j
all bank shares, and payment of dividends was discontinued. |
Nationalization of large-scale industry went into
effect on June 28, 1918, and a decree on Abolition of
Private Real Estate was issued on August 20, 1918.
This decree abolished "the right to own buildings
located in cities with a population of ten thousand or over.
and having ... a value ... in excess of the amount
fixed by local authorities." If a building remained the
private property of an individual, all land attached to it
which exceeded the norm determined by local authorities was
transferred to the general land fund, and local authorities
were given the right to fix rentals on such tracts.
All mortgages of ten thousand rubles or over on
confiscated lands and buildings were voided. Mortgages of
less than ten thousand rubles became state loans, subject
to regulations of the decree annulling state loans.^
Former owners had to pay rentals on the same terms
as other tenants.
In case of inability to work and absence of other
means of subsistence, former owners of real estate were
entitled to receive a sum of not more than ten thousand
rubles from the local authorities.
^Ibid.. pp. 93-94.
233
It may thus be seen that private ownership of real i
estate was permitted if the value of the property did not
exceed ten thousand rubles or an amount determined by local
authorities. Consequently, the basic socio-economic prin
ciple of private ownership of property had been preserved
from the outset in a socialist society.
The New Economic Policy
In 1921, due tc the economic destitution of the
country, a setting back of the earlier directives relating
to national economy was effected. A decree of December 10,
1921 permitted all industrial establishments which had not
actually been nationalized to be considered as belonging to
their former owners, and to be operated by them in accord
ance with the law.^
On May 22, 1922, a decree on private property
rights was issued. It began:
With the object of establishing exact relations
between state organs and associations or private per
sons participating in the development of the productive
forces of the country, the relations of private persons
and combinations between each other, and with the
purpose of fixing the consequent legal guarantees
necessary for the maintenance of property rights of
citizens of the R.S.F.S.R. and foreigners, the All-
Russian Central Executive Committee resolves:
1. To permit all citizens, whose rights are not
limited by established law . . . the right of
organizing industrial and commercial under
takings and pursuing trades and professions
^Ibid.. p. 130.
234 |
!
i
permitted by the laws of the R.S.F.S.R.,
provided all regulations regarding industry and i
trade and the protection of labor are observed.|
2. To permit all citizens, whose rights are not
limited by established law, the following
property rights, which shall be defended by
courts of law.®
Accordingly, right to the possession of buildings
in town or country which had not been nationalized, and the
right to build upon urban and country sites for a period
not exceeding a forty-nine year lease, were established.
Real property could be mortgaged, and its requisi
tion by the government had to be paid for within a month at
the average market price. Confiscation without compensa
tion was permissible only in special circumstances estab
lished by law.
The decree also provided, within the limits estab
lished by special legislation, the right to own:
Movable property, including means of production
Financial capital
Articles of domestic utility and personal use
Copyrights
Trade-marks
Patents to inventions
Furthermore, inheritance rights, by testament or
law, of husbands, wives, and direct offspring, to the limit
8lbid., pp. 139-40.
235
of ten thousand rubles, were reestablished.
j
This latter provision appears to be in direct con- j
flict with Marxian socialist philosophy which advocates the
abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Protection of Private Property
The following year, the Soviet government found
i
it necessary to enact legislation for the protection of
private property, thereby formally recognizing and sanc
tioning property rights as a social institution performing i
a vital function in societal living.
The 1923 Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R. estab
lished penalties for crimes committed against property.
The law made a distinction between theft from a private
party and theft from the state and public stores and insti
tutions. The offenses themselves were defined as "simple
theft" and "aggravated theft."^
Crimes Committed Against Private Property
1. Theft without the use of technical means
(simple theft) was punishable by compulsory labor or im
prisonment for a period of up to six months.
2. Theft when committed with the use of tools or
technical means; or when committed as a method of liveli
hood by professional thieves; or when the stolen goods
^Ibid.. pp. 144-45.
236
were, to the knowledge of the thief, manifestly indis
pensable to the existence of the victim; or when committed |
by preliminary agreement with other persons (aggravated
theft) was punishable by imprisonment, with strict isola
tion, for a period of up to two years.
3. Theft committed during fire, flood, train
accident, or any other public misfortune; likewise, horse
stealing or theft of cattle from the agricultural laboring i
population was punishable by imprisonment for a period of
not less than two years, with confiscation of property, in
part.
C r im e s Committed Against State or Public Property
1. Simple theft was punishable by compulsory labor
or imprisonment for a period of up to one year.
2. Simple theft from state or public institutions,
stores, railway cars, or vessels, committed by a person
entrusted with the management or protection of such insti
tutions, stores, and so forth, was punishable by imprison
ment, with strict isolation, for a period of not less than
two years.
3. Aggravated theft from state and public institu
tions, stores, and other repositories was punishable by
imprisonment, with strict isolation, for a period of not
less than three years.
237
4. Misappropriation from state or public stores,
committed systematically, either by theft or by means of
forgery, preparation of false documents, or other criminal
acts of a similar character, or misappropriation committed
by a responsible official, or on a particularly large
scale, was punishable by imprisonment for a period of not
less than three years, and even, in aggravated circum
stances, by the supreme penalty.
This early Soviet criminal law enacted for the pro
tection of property has two characteristics:
1. Emphasis is placed on the subjective nature of
the crimes, i.e., theft as a means of livelihood by pro
fessional thieves, stolen goods indispensable to the
existence of the victim, theft committed during fire or
flood. The property itself, except in the case of horse
and cattle stealing, does not appear to have too much
importance.
2. A difference is made between punishment for
theft from private persons and theft from the state.
Whereas, in the first instance, the maximum punishment is
imprisonment for a period of two years, the same penalty is
applied as the minimum punishment in the second instance,
with the supreme penalty or death being the maximum.
Subsequent Soviet Legislation
Although the new economic policy was short-lived
238
because, with the inauguration of the Five-Year Plans the
Soviet government did not consider it necessary any longer,
nevertheless, the attitude toward private ownership of
non-productive resources remained. The appearance of the
differential wage-scale contributed toward an increase in
the earning capacity of workers, and thereby made it pos
sible for them to improve their standard of living.
Article 10, of the U.S.S.R. Constitution of 1936,
guarantees personal property rights. It reads:
The personal right of citizens is protected by law
with regard to their income and savings from work,
their dwelling houses and subsidiary husbandries,
articles of domestic economy and use, and articles of
personal use and convenience, as well as their right
to inherit personal property.
Article 7 also provides the same protection for
peasants:
Every household in a collective farm, in addition to
its basic income from the common collective-farm enter
prise, shall have for its personal use a small plot of
household land and, as its personal property, subsidi
ary husbandry on the plot, a dwelling house, livestock,
poultry, and minor agricultural implements— in accord
ance with the rules of the agricultural artel.11
A decree of June 4, 1947 gives further evidence of
an effort on the part of the Soviet government to provide
better protection of private property. It states:
• ^Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House,
195?), p. 17.
^• *Tbid.. p. 16.
239
With the object o£ strengthening the protection of
the private property of citizens, the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. decrees that:
1. Theft, that is covert or open appropriation of
private property of citizens, is punishable by
confinement in a reformatory labor camp for a
E
eriod of five to six years. Theft committed
y a gang of thieves or for a second time is
punishable by confinement in a reformatory
labor camp for a period of six to ten years.
2. Robbery, that is assault with the object of
appropriating other people's property combined
with violence or a threat of violence, is
punishable by confinement in a reformatory
labor camp for ten to fifteen years with con
fiscation of property.
3. Robbery with violence endangering the life or
health of the victim or a threat to kill or
cause grievous bodily harm, as well as robbery
committed by a gang or for a second time, is
punishable by confinement in a reformatory
labor camp for fifteen to twenty years, with
confiscation of property.
4. Failure to report to the authorities concerning
a robbery authentically known to be under
preparation or known to have been committed is
punishable by loss of freedom for one or two
years or banishment for four to five years. * ■ * "
The severe punishment meted out to those found
guilty of crime against private property, with confiscation
of their own property, speaks eloquently of the importance
accorded to the ownership of private property of non
productive resources in the U.S.S.R.
In comparing the two laws enacted for the protec
tion of private property, the law of 1923 and the law
^^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit., p. 404.
240
of 1947, one is impressed with the severity of the punish"
j
ment and the increase in the years of imprisonment in the j
latter law. Furthermore, in the law of 1947 there was |
I
greater emphasis placed on the safety of the victim him
self, a threat to his life or bodily harm entailing
imprisonment of from fifteen to twenty years.
!
It would appear, therefore, that in this later
period the concept of ownership of private property had
gained considerable importance in the Soviet Union, and any
violation of it had come to be viewed as a greater offense
than it was in some "capitalistic countries." Another
factor responsible for strengthening of the law might have
been an increase in the crime rate.
Both of these factors point out to the fact that,
in spite of the proclaimed socialist principle of collec
tivism, private property has become established in the
Soviet social organization as a social value and its
acquisition as an accepted norm of behavior.
Housing
The need for better housing began to be felt as
early as 1937. A housing law was passed on October 17,
1937, authorizing governmental agencies and local soviets
to assist workers with building materials and bank loans in
construction of their own homes.
The third and fourth Five-Year Plans had made
241
financial provisions for the building of private homes in
cities and villages through easy term credit.
The Soviet government also began to assist persons
who wished to build homes with technical advice and blue**
prints.
Finally, a decree was passed on August 28, 1938,
with the object of "establishing uniformity in legislation
regulating the right of citizens to buy and erect indi-
vidual residences, in accordance with Article 10 of the
U.S.S.R. Constitution."
This law provided that:
. . . every male or female citizen of the U.S.S.R.
shall have the right to buy and erect for himself or
herself, in personal ownership, a residence of one or
two stories with from one to five rooms, in or out
side the city.
Lots shall be assigned inside and outside cities
to citizens for erection of individual residences for
use without time limit.13
Size of the lots was to be determined by regional
executive committees of the soviets in accordance with the
blueprints for planning and rebuilding of cities and the
general standards established by the Council of Ministers
of the U.S.S.R.
I. L. Braude, in his book, Legal Provisions
Relating to the Construction of Individual Homes, explains
• ^Ibid.. p. 418.
242
the current attitude of the Soviet government toward indi**
vidual housekeeping:
As a result of a considerable rise in the material
and cultural level of living conditions, the working
people in the U.S.S.R. often express a desire to own
a home for their use or that of their family, with a
garden, orchard, and flower beds.
The existence of the new organization providing
citizens with household facilities (public feeding,
nurseries, kindergartens, communal facilities, ana
others) does not change the need of a family for
separate, comfortable living quarters. The satisfac-
tion of this need is realized chiefly through the
governments building program of large houses, with
apartments consisting of one, two, three, or four
rooms, and also through the construction of individual
one- or two-story homes with from one to five rooms.
It may be of interest to note that, while in many
modem communities there has been a trend toward the con
struction of apartment houses because of land values and
also because living in an apartment provides for more
services and consequently results in more leisure time, in
the Soviet Union an opposite tendency has been indicated.
Perhaps the new Soviet attitudes toward private housing may
be explained by the emergence and growth of personal
individuation in the Soviet socio-cultural orientation.
Inheritance
A decree of April 27, 1918 abolished the right to
inherit. Article 1 of the decree read:
^1. L. Braude, Legal Provisions Relating to the
Construction of Individual Homes (Moscow: Government
Publications of Legal Literature, 1957), p. 6.
243
Inheritance, either by law or by will, is abolished.
After death of the owner, the property which belonged
to him, whether moveable or not, becomes the property
of the Government of the Russian Socialist Soviet
Federative Republic.
At the same time, this proclamation, uncompromising
as it sounds, did not actually preclude all benefits which
the heirs of the deceased could derive from the letter's
property.
Article II of the same decree provided that rela
tives in the directly ascending or descending line, full or
half siblings, or the spouse of the deceased, if incapable
of work or not possessing a minimum maintenance, could
receive support from property left by the deceased. No
distinction was made between relationships within or out
side of wedlock. Adopted relatives or adopted children and
their descendants were to share with blood relatives.
The allowance to be given from the property of the
deceased was to be determined by the government institu
tions conducting social security affairs, and in Moscow and
Petrograd by the municipal soviets of the workers' and
peasants' deputies.
When there was not enough of the property left to
support a spouse and all surviving relatives, the most
needy of them were to be provided for.
•^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit., pp. 73-75.
244
If the property of the deceased did not exceed ten
thousand rubles, or if it consisted of a farmhouse, domes
tic furniture, and means for economic production, the
remaining spouse and eligible relatives immediately assumed
management of the property. In the event of dispute
between them, the matter was to be referred to the local
court.
If the property was in excess of this value, it
came under the jurisdiction of the local soviet. The local
soviet published notification of the death of the property
owner, summoning the persons who had a right to said prop
erty to appear within a year from the date of publication.
Those who did not declare their claim before expiration of
a year following publication lost their right to receive
support.
The expenses of its administration were paid first
from the proceeds of the property of the deceased; next
came the relatives, and the creditors were paid last, pro
vided their claims were recognized as proper. If funds
were insufficient to pay all creditors, the matter was to
be settled at a general meeting of the creditors.
The decree was declared to be retroactive, and all
inheritance suits which were pending were ordered discon
tinued.
The two main features of this early decree were:
245
1. A condition of need had to exist for a rela
tive to be eligible to the inheritance, in terms of use of !
the property. j
!
2. There was a limitation on the value of the j
property. i
j
The 1922 Civil Code of the R.S.F.S.R. reinstated j
the right to inherit by legal succession or testament, with
the provision that the total value of the estate not exceed
ten thousand rubles in gold after deduction of the debts of
16
the deceased. °
The persons entitled to inherit were limited to
direct descendants (children, grandchildren, and great
grandchildren) and to the surviving spouse. Needy or in
capacitated persons who had been wholly maintained by the
deceased, for a period of not less than one year prior to
his death, also became entitled to inherit.
In cases of legal succession, the estate was to be
shared equally among all the heirs, and those who had lived
with the deceased were to receive the household equipment
with the exception of "luxury goods," which were not in
cluded in the maximum sum of ten thousand rubles.
Property could also be inherited through a will, in
^Rudolf Schlesinger, The Family in the U.S.S.R.
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1949), p. 43.
246
I
which case a person could leave his property to any one or j
i
all of his legal heirs, as specified above. j
A decree of January 29, 1926 abolished the ten-
thousand-ruble limit but instead introduced a graduated |
inheritance tax of up to 90 per cent of the estate,
apparently aimed at reducing large estates.^
The law of January 9, 1943 abolished inheritance !
tax but introduced a filing fee graduated to 10 per cent of
the estate. Estates left by persons killed in the war were
exempt.^®
On March 14, 1945, the inheritance law was revised
once more.^ The circle of those who were entitled by law
was redefined. It now included children or adopted chil
dren, the spouse, incapacitated parents of the deceased,
and any other incapacitated persons who had been dependent
upon the deceased for not less than a year prior to his
death. If any child of the deceased died before probate of
the estate, his share went to his children, and, in the
event of the death of the latter, to their children.
In case of non-existence of the above-specified
heirs, the estate went to able-bodied parents of the
^John N. Hazard, Law and Social Change in the
U.S.S.R. (London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1953), p. 30.
18Ibid.
^Meisel and Kozera, op. cit., pp. 382-83.
247!
i
i
deceased, and, if they were dead, brothers and sisters of j
the deceased became heirs by law.
A person could bequeath his entire property or a
part thereof to any of his legal heirs, but he could not
deprive his minor children and other incapacitated heirs of
the share to which they were entitled tinder legal succes
sion. If there were no legal heirs, the property could be
bequeathed to anyone.
Adoption of the inheritance law provided another
property incentive, closely connected with the government's
efforts to increase production and raise the living stand
ards of the people. Like most Soviet laws, it is restric
tive and retains control over the absolute disposal of
property by the deceased. Although a will might be left,
the estate could not be distributed beyond the circle of
heirs who would be entitled to it if the person died
intestate, nor could minor children be disinherited.
On the other hand, it would appear that the in
heritance law reestablished "the old economic foundation of
monogamy" which, according to Engels, was to disappear in
a socialist society. The right to accumulate property and
transmit it by legacy might become a factor in matrimonial
choices, the creation of a family, and in the relationships
of parents and children; and private property might once
more begin to play a role in the family life.
248
Therefore, the Soviet claim that mutual relations
within a Soviet family are free from financial considera
tions, and are not influenced by private property inter-
20
ests, may be questioned.
A review of some of the Soviet legislation relatingi
to private property indicates the following:
In spite of the early and strong emphasis on the
principle of collectivism and the efforts to liquidate
personal holdings, private property in some form has always
existed in the Soviet Union.
The property law itself was not only ambiguous but
contradictory. While on the one hand it abolished all
privately-owned real property and inheritance, on the other
hand it made concessions and provided for the use of such
property and the ownership of homes if their value did not
exceed a certain monetary amount.
In 1923 legislation was enacted for the protection
of private property. These laws were greatly strengthened
in subsequent years.
The re-establishment of the inheritance law in 1922
once more introduced economic bonds within the family.
20
G. M. Sverdlov, "Changes in Family Relations in
the U.S.S.R.," Transactions of the Third World Congress of
Sociology (London: Skepper House, 1956), III, 50.
249
The housing laws permitting the construction o£
individual homes ushered in individual housekeeping.
In view of the statement made by S. Kovalyov as
late as 1947, it would appear that there was (and still is)
a great gap between the proclaimed Soviet socialist
philosophy and every-day realities.
CHAPTER X
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
I
!
i
The purpose of this study was to make an objective ;
evaluation of a few selected areas of social conditions in
the U.S.S.R. and their related social institutions, and to
analyze the importance and the extent of social change
which has taken place in the Soviet Union since the begin
ning of the Soviet era to the present day.
Changes in social relationships surrounding mar
riage and the family have been reviewed. Family organiza
tion was studied in the light of new social norms created
in the Soviet Union. These norms were: social and economic
equality of sexes; secularization of marriage; woman's
identification with work; state responsibility for the care,
|
and welfare of children; the collective mode of life versus!
individual family functions; the reduced role of private
property; and political control versus other forms of
social control.
This study was based on the analysis of various
phases of Soviet legislation and related material written
by Soviet authors. Studies of social conditions in the
Soviet Union made by English and American sociologists,
250.......... J
2511
and reports by persons who had visited the country, were
also used as source material.
Findings
I
Conflicting Ideologies
Considerable conflict exists in the attitudes
toward the family and its functions characteristic of the
Western world and the Soviet Union. This is evident in
relation to the inherent human need for mutual affection
i
and the social control of sex relations and child-rearing.
The basic principles of the socialist philosophy
maintain that "classic monogamy" has grown out of economic
considerations, that it breeds antagonism between sexes,
resulting in the supremacy of man and subjugation of woman,
relegating her to household drudgery and the meanest of
tasks.
The Soviet claim is that absolute economic freedom ;
is essential for the liberation of woman from her state of
oppression. To this end, the woman must have social and
economic equality with the man, and must be given an inde- j
pendent place in the political, cultural, and economic
spheres of life. j
The woman's family obligations as homemaker and
mother have largely been taken over by the state, which
assumes responsibility for the rearing of children and
252 |
provides collective household facilities. Thus, the family !
becomes no longer necessary either for its members or for
the state.
\
i
With the introduction of a collective way of life, j
j
the role of private property will also be reduced to a
i
minimum, and a classless society will become a reality. i
i
Such were the new forms of social life advocated by
the Soviet leaders at the beginning of the Soviet era.
Social Changes in the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union has gone through two major phases
or periods in its development. The first period, known as
the Restoration Period, began with the revolution of
October 1917, ending about 1928. The second period, the
Reconstruction Period, began with the onset of the rapid
growth of the country's industrial production, i.e., with
the inauguration of the first Five-Year Plan in 1928-30,
and continuing to the present time.
Tremendous efforts were made to transform the
country into a highly-developed industrial state. By this
time, the country's internal affairs had become relatively
stabilized, and the national economy better organized. The
Soviet economic development, based on modem technology and
requiring qualified workers and efficient management,
called for a revision of basic social relationships.
Although the main tenet of the socialist philosophy
253
has remained in force, the state ownership of the means of
production, important shifts took place in other areas of
life.
The social changes in the institution of marriage
and the family and its related fields of child care and
education, the position of woman in industry, and the con
cepts of private ownership of property, which have taken
place in the Soviet Union throughout the years, have been
analyzed in terms of their close connection with the
changes in the economic and industrial conditions of the
country.
Marriage and the family. The Russian family of the
past was virtually uprooted. The old-time, traditional
familial mores of the Russian people were done away with,
and a new system of highly flexible family relationships
was inaugurated.
The marriage and divorce laws introduced in 1917,
at the very beginning of the communist regime, were a
complete reversal of the old social norms and traditions of
the people. Marriage was secularized and the contract of
marriage was reduced to the mere procedure of registration.
The old safeguards prohibiting marriage of certain classes
of people, such as the mentally defective, were preserved,
however.
2541
The dissolution of marriage became a matter of per-j
l
sonal choice, all social control having been removed.
In the subsequent legislation of 1926, legal provi-
sions relating to marriage and divorce became even more ■
flexible. De facto marriage was given the same legal
status and recognition as registered marriage.
The new freedom in the marital relationship was
startling. The former social controls and age-long tradi
tions suddenly disappeared. The family lost its meaning
and became a short-lived affair with scarcely any mutual
obligations, although some of these were stipulated in the |
law.
The divorce rate rose disproportionally high, and
the birth rate fell sharply. It was reported that in the
first half of 1927, in Moscow there were 9,973 divorces to
12,825 marriages. Legislation permitting abortions also
resulted in a reduction in the birth rate.
During the second period there was a strengthening
of the family laws of 1936 and 1944. Stability in family
life became essential in Soviet society, and honors and j
privileges were accorded to large families. The law of
1936 virtually prohibited abortions, and a severe penalty
i
was established for those who performed them, except in
cases justified by health conditions.
Social control with regard to marital relationships
255
was reinstated, and any changes in marital status of a
person had to be recorded in his personal identification
papers. Divorce became increasingly difficult.
The child and the state. In accordance with
socialist philosophy, the state was to assume responsi~
bility for the rearing of children. With this end in view,
an extensive network of children's institutions was ere*-
ated.
The law, however, never relieved parents of
responsibility toward their children, and made definite
provisions for the obligation on the part of parents to
rear their children and provide for their support.
Two important laws were passed in the first years
of the Soviet regime. The law of December 18, 1917
abolished the difference between children bom in and out
of wedlock. A decree of January 14, 1918 vacated the
jurisdiction of criminal courts over minors and the provi
sions for their incarceration.
The problem of vagrant and shelterless children,
who were an offshoot of the civil war and the famine era,
had been of great concern to the Soviet government. For
over a ten-year period, from 1917 to about 1930, the
efforts of the leaders in the educational field were
directed toward a solution of this problem.
256
An emphasis on polytechnic education and unifica
tion of the school with productive work dates back to the
early years of the Soviet Union. Beginning with 1924-25,
a series of governmental resolutions and directives were
concerned with the organization of children's workshops and
the attachment of schools and children's institutions to
!
industrial enterprises and collective farms.
| A program of free public feeding of children was
j
introduced on May 17, 1919. The categories of children who
were to be fed at government's expense were gradually
reduced during the following years, and this wide-scale
social experiment came to an end in the late twenties.
A new wave of juvenile delinquency which broke out
in the early thirties and which has continued until the
present, can be considered as being a product of the exist
ing social conditions in the Soviet Union.
In 1935 the Soviet government in an effort to
combat crime among minors, found it necessary to issue a
decree reinstating jurisdiction of criminal courts over
minors under seventeen years of age who had committed
|socially dangerous acts.
The 1944 law made a significant change with respect
;to children bom out of wedlock, recognizing once more the
problem of illegitimacy. When registering the birth of her
child, the unmarried mother was to register his last name
as her name.
New provisions for child care based on the need for
an individual approach to a child's well-being were made.
These included: adoption, guardianship and trusteeship,
dependency, and "Patronat."
Women in Soviet industry. In the economic sphere,
woman was accorded equal rights with man. Her employment
opportunities widened, and the number of women workers
greatly increased.
Woman's participation in the national economy of
the country and its industrial development was considered
to be of great importance to a socialist society.
A review of the pre-revolutionary industry in
Russia indicates that there had been considerable indus
trial employment of women prior to the inauguration of the
Soviet regime. The greater percentage of women workers
were engaged in textile industry.
The beginning of labor legislation in Russia goes
back to the eighteenth century. Some of these labor
regulations prohibited night work for children and women
and their employment in certain branches of industry, and
reduced their working day. In 1901-1902 a limited indus
trial compensation program was introduced, and in 1906 a
provision was made for the payment of a certain portion of
their wages to the expectant mothers prior to and after
258
their confinement. These provisions have been considerably
strengthened by the Soviet government.
1
Industrial employment of women doubled between the
beginning of the century and the 1950fs. At the present
- time the leading percentages of women workers in the Soviet
Union are reported to be engaged in public feeding, educa
tion, and health.
After the inauguration of the Five-Year Plans, a
hierarchical system of labor organization came into being.
This ruled out any possible equality in wages.
In the course of the country's industrial develop
ment, the woman, as an individual member of the labor
force, became subject to strict discipline and to a differ
ential eaming-scale which precluded economic equality.
The role of private property. Although it was
advocated by the Soviet leaders that the process of
developing a Soviet society was based on the struggle of
socialism against private property orientation, i.e., in
terms of the ownership of non-productive resources, never-
Itheless private property rights have never been completely
i
i abolished in the Soviet Union, though they were greatly
reduced. Ownership of private property, in one form or
i
another, has always existed in the U.S.S.R.
i
Banks were nationalized in accordance with a decree
of December 27, 1917, with provisions to safeguard the
259
interests of small depositors.
The law of April 27, 1918 abolished the right to
inherit. Relatives in the directly ascending or descending
line, full or half siblings, or the spouse of the deceased,
if unable to work and not possessing a minimum maintenance,
were entitled to receive support from property left by the
deceased.
The decrees of November 8, 1917 and August 20, 1918
abolished ownership of all land, also of buildings located
in cities with a population of ten thousand or over and
having a value in excess of the amount fixed by local
authorities. The former owners of real property confis
cated by the state were to receive a sun of not more than
ten thousand rubles if they were unable to work and had no
other means of subsistence.
The New Economic Policy (NEP) came into effect in
1921. Accordingly, various provisions with respect to
private property rights were enacted in May 22, 1922.
These related to ownership of movable property, including
means of production, financial capital, copyrights, patents
|to inventions, and others.
I The 1923 Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R. estab-
s
jlished penalties for crimes committed against private and
i
state property. Although the New Economic Policy did not
last long and the ownership of the means of production
260
became once more a monopoly of the state, the protection of
private ownership of non-productive resources continued.
i
The Introduction of material incentives for the
workers brought back with it the role and meaning of
private property, i.e., private ownership of articles of
|consumption.
Inheritance laws and laws protecting private prop
erty were strengthened, and private ownership of individual
|
homes gained considerable recognition in the Soviet Union.
Conclusions
No Soviet social institution discussed in this
study has survived in its original form, except the state
ownership of the means of production. A gradual shift in
Soviet policies and procedures throughout the years has
— — - I
The new socialist form of family life, advocated at j
the outset of the Soviet regime, came to an end in the
1930's. The weakening of the family societal unit became
a threat to the country's population growth and its
|national stability.
i Furthermore, it is possible that loose family
I bonds, which were prevalent during the first decade of the
!Soviet regime, failed to answer the emotional needs of the
individual in terms of the satisfaction derived from mutual
affection and solidarity.
261
The care of children In institutions with im
personal atmosphere also proved to be inadequate, in view
of the spectacular increase in juvenile delinquency.
Parents and other persons in whose care children were
|placed, became responsible for their conduct.
The mass problem of juvenile delinquency which
i
i
appeared in the Soviet Union long after the country became
> stabilized, may indicate a serious disturbance of the
psycho-emotional and social life of Soviet children.
Changes in labor organization and the introduction
of new methods of management and production point to the
fact that a classless socialist society could not function
effectively in a modem setting of technological and scien
tific development, and that an economic division of labor
became necessary.
The new emphasis placed on material incentives for
workers has greatly changed the meaning of private owner
ship of non-productive resources, and its importance in
every-day life.
The collective way of life advocated by the early
Soviet leaders gave little consideration to the individual
and to his personal rights. The individual, as such, was
i somewhat lost in a wholesale liberating process. The con-
jcept of the individual's dignity and integrity was to a
jlarge extent superseded by the principle of collectivism.
i
Gradually, the role o£ the worker in Industry, the
Important function of the family societal unit, and the
needs of the child began to reappear in the Soviet life,
and social institutions in general began to reflect this
|change.
The changes which occurred in the Soviet ideologi-
j
cal premises and legislative enactments indicate that the
old social values have been found essential and a trend
i
toward restoring some of the old Russian social institu-
tions has been in progress in recent years.
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Bilshai, V. The Solution of Woman’s Problem. Moscow:
Government Publications of Political Literature, 1956.
246 pp.
Braude, I. L. Legal Provisions Relating to the Construc
tion of Individual Homes! Moscow: Government Publica
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Bulatov, N. P. Socially Useful Work of School Students in
Industrial Enterprises.Moscow: Publication Knowledge,
1951, 23 pp.
Dobrodumova, L. F. The Soviet Union at the End of the
Reconstruction Period. Moscow: The University Press,
1956. 40 pp.
Ivanov, N. K. Soviet Government--Government of a New Type.
Moscow: Publications of the Young Guard, 1946. 60 pp.
Karpinsky, V. The Social and State Structure of the
U.S.S.R. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House,
TSSff. 239 pp.
Kim, M. E., et al. History of the U.S.S.R.--The Enoch of
Socialism. Moscow: Government Publications or Politi
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j 772 pp.
jRolotnitskaia, E. N. Law of Private Property in the
Collective-Farm Family. Moscow: Government Publica-
! tions of Legal Literature, 1957. 34 pp.
!
iKolotnitsky, 0. Communist Morals and Religious Morals.
Moscow: Central Committee of the Young Guard, 1952.
| 37 pp.
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265
Kovalyov, S. Ideological Conflicts In Soviet Russia.
Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1946.
Orlov, A. The Domostroi. Moscow: Synod Publications,
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Russian Encyclopedia. St. Petersburg: Broghaus and Efront,
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! Stepanov, I. M. The Development of the Soviet Constitu
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| Utevsky, B. S. The Association "The Friend of Children.”
Moscow: Government Publications of Pedagogical Litera-
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_______. The Children*s Home. Moscow and Leningrad:
Government Publications of Educational Material, 1932.
64 pp.
Vishinsky, A. The Soviet Government--A Government of a
New Tvoe. Moscow: Government Publications of Political
Literature, 1943. 45 pp.
Zagorsky, S. Work Problems in Soviet Russia. Prague:
Verlag Free Russia,1925.116 pp.
Zamkov, N. K., and Utevsky, B. S. Crimes Committed Against
Minors. Moscow: Government Publications of Pedagogical
Literature, 1932. 47 pp.
_______. Supplies for Children. Moscow: Government
Publications of Pedagogical Literature, 1932. 64 pp.
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Affairs Press, 1948. 32 pp.
Kliuchevsky, V. 0. A History of Russia. London: J. M.
Bentand Sons, 1911. 5 vols.
Kolontay, Alexandra. Communism and the Family. London:
The Workers* Socialist Federation, 1918. 22 pp.
266'
Kovalvov. S. Ideological Conflicts in Soviet Russia.
Washington, b.C.Y tubllc A££H?s Press','"TTO. 20
(Russian translation Program of the American Counc
of Learned Societies.)
■ Lenin, V. I. Selected Works. London: Lawrence and
Wishart, 1$41.Vol. 1, 742 pp. Vol. II, 855 pp.
Young Communist. Translated by Virginia Rhine. Washing-
ton, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1950. 92 pp.
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• British Women Trade Unionists. Soviet Russia. Adelphi:
W. P. Coates, 1926. 88 pp.
Brooks, Robert C. Russia, the Soviet Wav. Chicago:
American Library Association, 1933.
Chamberlin, William Henry. Soviet Russia. Boston: Little,
Brown, and Company, 1933. 484 pp.
Duchesne, E. Le Domostroi. Paris: Alphonse Picard et
Fils, 1910: 166 pp.
Engels, Frederick. The Origin of the Fam-tty, Private
Property, and the State.Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and
Company, 1906. 217 pp.
Freeman, Joseph. The Soviet Worker. New York: Liveright,
Inc., 1932. 408 pp.
Gsovsky, Vladimir. Soviet Civil Law. Ann Arbor: univer
sity of Michigan Law School, 1948. Vol. I, 909 pp.
| Hazard, John N. Law and Social Change in the U.S.S.R.
I London: Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1953. 310 pp.
. The Soviet System of Government. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1955. 256 pp.
Kingsbury, Susan M., and Fairchild, Mildred. Factory.
Family, and Woman in the Soviet Union. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1935. 334 pp.
Lorimer, Frank. The Population of the Soviet Union.
Geneva: League of Nations, 1446. 289 pp.
is-
267
Meisel, James H., and Kozera, Edward S. Materials for the j
Study of the Soviet System. Ann Arbor: The George i
Wahr Publishing Company, 1953. 613 pp.
Peasant, Minsky. What I Saw in Soviet Russia. Chicago:
Rassvieth, 19337
I Schlesinger, Rudolph. The Family in the U.S.S.R. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1949. 408 pp.
1
|Zagorsky, S. 0. State Control of Industry in Russia
During the WarT New Haven: Yale University Press,
1928.351 pp.
Laws. Professional Journals. Periodicals
Constitution of the U.S.S.R. Moscow: Foreign Languages
raiIiHrrigltous“ r9- 3 7. ^
The Federal Criminal Law of the Soviet Union. Translated
by F. J. feldbrugge. Leyden: A. W. Sythoff, 1959.
Soviet Culture Review. Moscow: Soviet Union Society for
Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, VQKS, 1932. !
i
The Soviet Law on Marriage. Full Text of the Code of Laws |
on Marriage and Divorce, the Family, and Guardian**
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in the U.S.S.R., 1932.
The Soviet Laws on Marriage. Family, and Guardianship.
Moscow: Government Publications of Legal Literature,
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| The Spectator (London), October 15, 1954. ’ ’ The Teddy Boys
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i
1 Transactions of the Third World Congress of Sociology,
j London: Skepper House, 1956.
j
Fedoseyev, P. N. "Laws of Social Change in the 20th
| Century," VIII, 263-69.
Kairov, L. A. "The Development of Public Education in
the U.S.S.R.,’ ’ V, 15-21.
268
Nekrasov, N. N. "The Economics and Organization of
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Nemchinov, V. S. "Changes in the Class Structure,"
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U. S.S.R. in the Twentieth Century,” II, 213-19.
Shishkin, A. F. "The Basic Principles of Morals in
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U.S.S.R.," III, 50-59.
The U. S.S.R. Civil Code. Moscow: Government Publications
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tions of Legal Literature, 1956.
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX A
A speech by A. S. Bubnov, People's Commissar of Public
Education, at a Conference of the Association, "The Friend
of Children," held on Hay 24, 1931.1
Comrades, your conference lays the foundation for
a unified all-Russian organization of separate agencies and
cells of the "Friend of Children."
The by-laws of your association, which will un
doubtedly be approved, state that the association "The
Friend of Children," as a mass-proletarian organization,
must serve as a center for the mobilization of all the
resources of a proletarian society in its work of Commun
istic upbringing, the Pioneer Movement, and the protection
of child welfare and health.
Having incorporated this directive in your by-laws,
you are taking upon yourself a great responsibility. This
important task becomes even more important when we realize
it must be undertaken in the period of socialist offensive
in which we now live, and in which we are solving the
important problems of cultural reconstruction. These prob
lems are aggravated still further because we everywhere
meet with the resistance of our enemy, with a sharpened
class struggle within the country. I could cite for you
hundreds and hundreds of instances of factual proof of how
the NEP-man, the evil-doer and wicked bureaucrat, and the
kulak resort to every trick and use all possible means at
their disposal to hurt and completely undermine this or
;that cultural work. We meet this class struggle and
resistance of the class enemy in all sectors of our huge
front of cultural construction. Stinking calumny, base
i falsehood, and the most unheard of inventions about our
| cultural work come from abroad. The loud speaker of this
|calumny, falsehood and invention, is the so-called capital
istic press, which is controlled by the leaders of American
B. S. Utevsky, The Association "The Friend of
Children" (Moscow: Government; Publications of Educational-
Pedagogical Literature, 1932), pp. 3-16.
271
and European capitalistic politics; the white emigrants and
their press also act as loud speakers.
I have already cited once before an example of
calumnious attack directed against our cultural construc
tion by the Menshevik-interventionist Abramovich. In 1928,
this hero of the imperialistic counter-revolution published
an article in an American Jewish newspaper regarding public
education in the Soviet Union. In it he stated that
illiteracy in Russia is being liquidated because "all the
illiterate peasants are dying out." He added further to
this calumny that education and culture in the Soviet
Russia are not advancing any faster than they did during
the time of the Tsarist, serf-holding Russia.
i
This is a sample of the calumny spread abroad,
i which we consider to be one of the methods of preparation
for a military attack against the only proletarian govern
ment in the whole world.
I wish to give you another example of the same kind
of calumny, which, even in greater measure, serves the
purpose of preparing for armed intervention against the
Soviet Union. This calumny refers to the problem of
vagrant children. I believe that your conference ought to
know what ways and means the class-enemy is using in its
struggle against us on this important sector of the cul
tural construction front. I refer to the book The Vagrant
Children published in 1929 by Zenzinov, which was trans-
lated into several languages and has been read extensively.
The publishers in bourgeois countries raised this
book on their shields. Zenzinov, a member of the Central
Committee of Socialist Revolutionaries, a participant
during the Civil War in such counter-revolutionary organ
izations as the Committee of the Constituent Assembly, and
the so-called dictator of the Ufim district, states in his
book that he does not wish to use vagrant children as a
;tool in his political struggle.
!
It is difficult to think of a more cynical, im-
?
udent, and hypocritical statement, since the entire book
s nothing more than a tool for a political fight. This is
exactly how it was appraised by the entire pack of honor-
less, capitalistic scribes*
Zenzinov states that he is guided in this book by
j"humanitarian considerations." This man was a lackey and
ihelper to Kolchak and the Kolchak tribe, and all of us in
{Russia must be thankful to them for three years of military
273
totality, will serve the Communistic education of children
| and adolescents. This task can be divided into a long
series of larger and smaller practical tasks.
During the last year, the Party, the Government,
and the People's Commissariat of Public Education of the
i R.S.F.S.R. have graphically underlined the priority of
; polytechnization of schools. Polytechnization represents
S the basic part of Communistic upbringing of children and
adolescents. We now place a specially strong emphasis on
the inculcation of polytechnization into our mass “education
system.
Our schools, in which there still remains a great
| deal of bookish verbalism, in which there still is a very
weak bond between theory and practice, between study and
f
roductive labor, must become true socialist proletarian
abor schools, preparing people for socialist work. Such
schools must exist in a proletarian government. We place
before ourselves the task of uniting studies with produc
tive labor. In order to achieve this goal, we follow the
path of attaching schools to industrial enterprises, to
Soviet farms, to MTS,3 and to large, mechanized collective
farms.
It is quite natural that your association cannot
fail to give consideration to assistance in these problems.
The unification of the studies of children and adolescents
with productive labor places before the family, the mother,
and before the cells of your organization a series of
important tasks. To realize them, it is necessary to
attract the attention of hundreds of thousands ana millions
of workers and collective farmers. Such mass organizations
;as the association "The Friend of Children" will have to
play an important part in the work of reorganizing schools
in accordance with polytechnical principles. At the same
time, we must remember that this path--the unification of
study with productive labor, the path of a struggle for
polytechnical schools--is not an easy one. Here we
unavoidably meet with many perversions which at times fall
heavily on the shoulders of children and adolescents. The
Friend of Children— all organizations and cells of your
association— must watch unceasingly for the slightest warp
ing in reorganization of schools according to polytechnical
principles, and fight ruthlessly any attempts to return to
o
Mechanical Tractor Stations.
272
intervention. One of his troubadours was the Party of
the Socialist Revolutionaries, and Zenzinov was a member
of that party. And this socialist revolutionary, a
servant of Kolchak and an agent of imperialistic counter
revolutionaries, declares that, in speaking about the
problem of vagrant children, he is moved solely by "humani
tarian considerations."
We know the price of these "humanitarian considera
tions," and especially during a time when our enemies never
cease to forge scores of various ways and means for new
military intervention against the Soviet Union. Especially
now, we must remember those "humanitarian considerations"
which guided Zenzinov and his party in the period of the
Entente intervention of 1918-1921.
In his book, Zenzinov also stated that he wished to
unfold the picture of vagrant children in Soviet Russia
before public opinion in Europe and America.
I
"Vagrant children," writes Zenzinov in his book,
"have become one of the usual features of a large, modem
Soviet city."
Having cited this excerpt from Zenzinov1 s book, it
would only be necessary to take a walk through Moscow or
any other large Soviet city in order to realize fully the
lies of the Zenzinov book and its aim. This book about !
vagrant children is nothing more than a means for prepara
tion of intervention against the Union of the Soviet
Socialist Republics.
i
I have spoken about this book also because the
problem concerning vagrant children not so long ago
occupied an important place in the work of organizations
and cells of the childrens homes. At the present time,
and 1 hope that all those present will agree, the vagrancy
problem does not constitute and cannot constitute the
center of attention in the children^ home. The remnants
I of it we must and we will liquidate— we now have, .in our
present condition, all "objective possibilities.
The center of your attention must be directed
toward other problems. It must be concentrated on the task
|of assisting those practical endeavors which, in their
^Quotation marks by the translator because of the
|unique quality of the expression.
a verbalistic school or attempts to distort polytechnism,
to make It either a narrow or a multisided craft-trac
Your association, as an organ of mass proletarian
control, will have to face the problem of the child's
protection, of adequate child labor organization. If we
are going to teach hundreds of thousands and millions of
children not only in school buildings but in factories, in
Industrial plants, on Soviet farms and collective farms,
and mechanized tractor stations, it is only natural that
problems of protection of child labor and proper organiza-
!tion of the very process of education will come to the
fore as they have never done before.
I I have said that the problem of vagrant children is
| no longer a pressing one, but a new problem of children
without "proper supervision" in its broadest meaning is
i becoming acute. I have recently visited the newly-built
areas in the Ural region, and have been in Magnitostroi,
with a population of about 70,000-75,000, and where there
are approximately 25,000 people employed in industrial
production. I must tell you that nownere is there such a
tremendous need for a fight against lack of proper super
vision of children as in the newly-built areas. We wish to
enlist about 800,000 women into our industry this year. In
order to achieve this, it is necessary to free the woman
from her household chores, it is necessary that individual
family housekeeping be transformed into a socialized one,
that private housekeeping be gradually liquidated, and that
a socialized governmental organization of public feeding
take its place.
The same may be said about children. If we are not
able to free the woman from her breast-fed infant and from
other small children, if we are unable to organize our
schools properly, we will not be able to enlist the neces
sary quantum of women into our industry. When one watches
our newly-built industrial enterprises, one realizes that
I the most urgent problem is to have our schools reach the
maximum number of children and adolescents. And the more
children are placed under the educational influence of our
! schools, the more we will be assured of the Communistic
! up-bringing of millions of children of our workers and
I collective farmers.
!
This is our goal. We are striving to surround
children and adolescents with the complete and all-
embracing influence of the school. We are proceeding here
in a variety of ways. But we must not think of this task
275
a8 being only a school problem. We must expand the numbers
; of preschool institutions to the maximum, and we must
organize our schools in such a manner as to approach the
so-called uninterrupted school year.
This year, the People*s Commissariat of Public
Education of the R.S.F.S.R. and its local organs are ex-
i per linen ting on a project of summer schools. This is one
method of organizing a continuous school year. We cannot
j solve this problem all at once, because it requires
I enormous funds, a huge quantity of school equipment, and a
considerable number of new teachers, i.e., teachers trained
quite differently from those whom we now have.
The organization of an uninterrupted school year
represents a tremendous problem, and we are going to solve
it, not in one stroke but during a period of several years.
This year we are only tackling the first steps in that
direction.
The idea of a summer school is not a new one.
1 can cite the example of the Uhited States, where in 1927
summer school had reached about half a million children.
The content of summer school there, however, is quite dif
ferent from the one we will have in a summer school in the
Soviet Union. In America the summer school does not have
any connection with the normal school system. It functions
as an independent child institution, with its own budget,
its own administration and teaching personnel, etc.
We wish to build our summer school as a first step
in the organization of an interrupted school year. We wish
to organize it in such a manner that it becomes a continu
ation of the winter school and remains part of the normal
school system.
As an experiment, we are switching a number of
schools for adolescents to summer schools; for instance--
schools of collective farm youths, a small number of the
factory and plant seven-year schools, and especially those
in industrial districts. We are also switching our shock-
schools to summer schools, because they are the center of
|our foremost technical guidance and therefore they should
|be experimented on first.
We can switch only a few of the primary schools to
a summer school schedule, and only on a strictly voluntary
basis.
: 276
X must say that this measure is one of the most
powerful means of fighting against lack of proper super
vision of children.
I repeat, we are only beginning to put these
measures into operation; this is only a start. We are
making only the first step in this direction but we can
< already say that this is a powerful tool in our hands with
] which to promote and ensure the far-reaching Communistic
influence of our schools over a maximum number of children
; and adolescents in our country.
Of course, Comrades, while taking care of nurseries
and preschool facilities, and while organizing our schools
I and introducing the summer school as the first step toward
i a whole year of uninterrupted schooling, we must also think
of a series of measures concerning the children's leisure
|time. We must already begin to work for the organization
of children's clubs, children's theaters, movies, and so on
and so forth.
1 must warn you that this program will require from
the People'8 Commissariat of Public Education a great deal
of energy and considerable ingenuity because, although we
have a large budget— in the R.S.F.S.R. we have this year
over two billion rubles for public education— we must
strive to operate our mass cultural activities at the
smallest cost possible (in terms of the production cost).
We have adequate methods for this. For instance, recently
on the Lower Volga it cost 12 rubles and 50 kopeks to edu
cate a vagrant child, but now this has been reduced to
2 rubles and 50 kopeks, as a result of application of a
mass-method, the methods of cultural approach, the cul
tural estafette, etc.
Speaking about the question of preschool facili
ties, 1 must tell you that what we need here is an
extensive, so-called, cultural and socially normative4
cooperative activity. I have witnessed a practical
application of such cooperation. True, I nave had no
opportunity to see its operation in villages and collective
and Soviet farms. Quite recently a comrade told me that
jthe Lower Volga was able to extend a large-scale city
|experiment in this cooperation to the collectivized
"Socially normative" is expressed in the Russian
language by one word "bit," which means everyday life
based on mores, customs, norms.
277
village. It seems to me that this form of cooperation
| provides us with a mass-method to reach many thousands,
scores of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even mil
lions of kids with primitive preschool institutions.
If someone had told me in Hagnitostroi that, in
order to provide for the huge numbers of children there, we
imust organize regular kindergartens, I would have called
this man either a ”from the top of his head thinker” or a
fool, because to think that we could provide this enormous
mass of kids with such expensive organizations as kinder
gartens was impossible.
We must use such means as we have at our disposal.
It is quite natural, Comrades, that the cultural and
socially normative cooperative activities could reach not
only thousands of kids of preschool age, but would also
provide an excellent method for organizing scores of
thousands of housewives and women workers.
Permit me again to refer to my impressions, which
are still vivid in my memory. I have in mind the Ural
; experience. When I was walking through the barracks at
| Magnitostroi I could see very clearly how necessary it was
to organize this mass of women living in those barracks in
such a manner that they could, with their own hands, set up
scores of primitive preschool facilities for their own
children.
This would be profitable for children; it also
would be useful for the proletarian government, and no less
useful for the women themselves, because it would teach
them through concrete, simple, everyday work which every
! mother would understand, and it would actually change their
jmode of life. These women would see what results could be
i obtained through a mass method with regard to their chil
dren, their barrack neighbors' children, etc. We must
| follow this method. Of course, without you, a mass prole
tarian organization— which perhaps is still in the making
but which must become such a one--we will not be able to
achieve this goal.
Speaking about the cultural and socially normative
activities, I believe it is necessary to warn you that it
must be built on self-activity, with the assistance of the
! proletarian government. It would be a mistake for this
task of cultural and socially normative activities to be
understood as: "Turn over to us all the preschool institu
tions, and we will manage them.” This cannot be done.
: 278
jit Is necessary for the cooperatives (I repeat--with the
support of the organs of the Soviet power) to develop their
work, basing it on the initiative of the working people, of
the laboring masses primarily, and to show factually by
deeds the strength, efficiency, and positive and practical
j results of their work. This is very important. We must
begin with it.
j If we look at it in this way, then it will be quite
j evident that there lies before you an untouched field of
j endeavor, an enormous amount of work, which in its totality
I constitutes what we call, with great words, a cultural
j revolution.
It is necessary, Comrades, to take into consider
ation that class struggle goes on not only on all sectors
of our socialist construction front, but that it also is
I invading the school. I do not want to dwell too long on
this point, but I know that you, men of wide experience,
could give numerous examples of how this class struggle
invades our schools.
i If this is so, and this is unequivocally so, then
you must set before yourselves corresponding goals in your
work. If the class struggle is invading the school, if we
have the underhanded plots of our class enemy in our
school, which sometimes involve small groups of teachers
and even gets hold of the kids, then very naturally the
Friend of Children has here an important field of work
also, if this association is to become a genuine mass-
proletarian organization.
It is necessary that the Friend of Children become
closely connected with the pioneer organization in the
i school, and that it not lose sight of the fact that Soviet
; support represents an important lever in the entire edu
cational field.
The work of the teachers also must not be too far
from the center of your attention. The school must be in
all its component parts under the mass-control of the
Friends of Children. Here I must warn you that, in build
ing a new, truly polytechnical labor school, we are con
fronted first of all with the attempts of certain reaction
ary groups of teachers to pull the school back. Very often
this reactionary group of teachers does not meet with
enough opposition, and to a certain extent they belong to
the right wing opportunism with respect to school policies.
This is the chief obstacle which stands in the path of
! 279
I
polytechnization of our school, and It is necessary to
I break the backbone of this opposition. Otherwise, we shall
have no polytechnical school.
We have still another enemy on our school front.
jThis is the tendency to minimize tne importance of the
school and the teacher. There are people who believe that,
since we have already reached a level on which the city has
become an important sector of our national economy and the
village has become 50 per cent collectivized, then life
itself will teach and guide the child along those lines.
They say this is where real education lies.
| Such people think that if socialism in our country
becomes strengthened the school, by the same token, will
become less important. This is a great mistake. The role
of the school does not lessen; on the contrary it increases
enormously. The school is nothing less than a tool of
proletarian government in the organization of its educa
tional influence over millions of children and adolescents.
The stronger socialism becomes in our country, the higher
will the cultural level be raised and the more important
will be the organizational role of the school in the great
work of Communistic education of children and adolescents.
We also meet with another theory, that the school
is "dying out," that it has indeed almost died. This also
constitutes a great obstacle in the path of school poly
technization. We must give ruthless resistance to these
"heroes," all of them anti-Leninists, and to their
theories, which are not ours and not Bolshevik.
It is important to mention that, in accordance with
this point of view, we sometimes hear such opinions as that
i the teacher is probably no longer needed, and that the
school will become a sort of children's organization with
out any guidance. This also is a harmful direction to
;take.
j
| A teacher plays an entirely different role in our
Ischools from that of bourgeois schools. This is quite
ievident. However, at the present time we must not concern
ourselves as to whether the role of the teacher becomes
more or less important (in certain instances we have a
picture of school actually functioning without any super
vision and left to its own devices). On the contrary, we
must require of our teachers that, equipped with our
methods, the Communistic methods of education, and hand in
hand with the pioneer organization and basing their activi
ties on it, they approach the children in the right way and
280
i organize the schools in such a manner that their role
!becomes stronger and not weaker.
The role of a pioneer organization in the field of
Communistic education of children and adolescents is
! increasing enormously. It increases also in connection
with the question of school discipline. And this is quite
understandable. Our schools are now undergoing a process
of reconstruction after a fundamental tearing-down. They
have already departed from the bookish, verbal "shore," but
are still far from reaching the level of true polytechnical
|schools.
The technical leadership in these processes is very
iweak, and this is why such motley conditions exist in our
!school network and bad school discipline here and there.
Of course, we do not need bourgeois discipline, a
discipline of ruler-beating and face-slapping. We need a
conscious pioneer discipline. And the closer we approach
the polytechnical school, the more conscious this school
discipline must be. It would not be possible to bring a
school without discipline into a factory because the
factory is a big organization. At the same time, it must
be said that the "advent" of the school into the factory,
the unification of study with productive work, with
socially-useful labor in accordance with the new principles
of polytechnization of the school--all this creates a com
pletely new basis for the building up of a new and
conscious school discipline.
Although we do have a weakening of discipline in
: a number of our schools, I am sure that we are already
standing firmly on the path which will in a short time
Ilead us to strengthening of conscious pioneer discipline
in a great majority of them. The very unification of study
iwith productive work will serve as its basis.
The importance of the pioneer organization and of
the teacher in this connection is enormous.
The role of the Friend of Children, as a mass
organization, is also most important with respect to the
assistance it can give to the teacher and to the pioneer
j organization, not only on the material level but also
!along the lines of technical and organizational educational
influence.
What are the methods the Friend of Children, its
organization and cells, are to use in order to fulfill all
r................. 28i
i
the tasks, portions of which I have described because they
|appear to be the most important?
At the present time we have a mass cultural move
ment. This expresses itself in the cult-approach, cult-
estafette, etc. Simultaneously, we also have voluntary
cultural associations of the type of QDN and ODD.5
I would not say that everything is all right with
| the organizational side of the mass-cultural movement or
with the work of organization of mass-forms of cultural
activities. 1 also would not say that we can be proud yet
of what is going on in the ODN and ODD.
| I must say that there is a great deal to be desired
! as far as participation of these associations in the cul-
| tural movement and their bonds with mass cultural tastes
: are concerned.
Lenin said once that we must learn to unite "the
tempestuously rushing high waters of the spring, over
flowing their shores, which represent the democratic dis
cussion meetings of the laboring masses," with "iron
discipline." This also applies to cultural construction,
especially in the present historical period of the rise of
a cultural revolution.
Lenin has also said that "we need an orderly step
of the iron battalions of the proletariat."
And so, Comrades, looking at it in this light, this
question of how to organize a truly mass-cultural move
ment, how to strengthen the organization of such voluntary
!associations as the ODN and ODD, and how to link both of
these forms of voluntary work together, appears before us
more sharply than ever before. In solving these problems,
! we must remember that cultural revolution is part of
socialist construction.
i
ODD and ODN--both these associations represent
volunteer work. On the other hand, the cult-approach and
the cult-estafette represent another aspect of volunteer
work. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a bond among
all these forms of voluntary associations, to effect a
close relationship between them, and to strengthen and
improve their organization.
■*ODD represents the first letters of The Friend of
Children in Russian. ODN the translator is unable to
identify.
Q
282'
What is wrong at the present time with the mass
cultural movement which is developing in the form of the
cult-approach? It suffers from inadequate organization.
When Comrade Shishkin and myself, while in the Urals, asked
in the same factory how many cult-soldiers6 they had, we
were told that there were one hundred. However, when we
asked if we might see them, no one could show them to us
because no records of them were kept. Today such a cult-
soldier may be participating actively in the work and
tomorrow he may leave but no records of this is made.
Furthermore, no training of cult-soldiers was conducted;
his qualifications, either of a general political character
or of a more specifically pedagogical nature, were not
raised.
At the same time what I would call a superfluous
variety of forms of this movement exist. An endless number
of them have been bred, such as staff-headquarters, marsh-
ruts, estafettes, finishes, starts, and so on, and so
forth. Comrade Shishkin has stated in his report that we
have cult-bombs, cult-avrals, cult-gardens, cult-ambushes,
etc. This is quite correct. £ know, for instance, of a
technician which devised a strategem and declared itself to
be besieged (laughter). This represents a defect in the
mass cultural movement, and a very big one.
On the other hand, volunteer associations of the
type of ODN and ODD suffer from their isolation, from lack
of a concrete and well-defined structure and-organizational
diffusion. There are a great many cells in your organiza
tion but, if they were to be brought together it would take
almost a year, and even then without positive results.
There are a great many members, but very little in the way
of funds. The association is large, but there is no real
organization, no records are kept, no real connection with
the mass movement exists, etc., etc. There are many
defects, and all of them concern a lack of proletarian
organization in volunteer associations.
We must understand very clearly that the mass cul
tural movement and the volunteer associations working on
the cultural front, in the field of a mass cultural move
ment, must be required to effect a maximum organization.
Of course, I must say, most emphatically, that if in making
Cult-soldiers" does not imply army men. It means
"active duty."
284
!
toward the construction o£ a specific proletarian culture.
Here you have to strike at any perversions “-with respect to
the bureaucratization of these plans and their undervalu-
-ion. We must fight here for what Lenin called the
* assured step of "iron battalions of the proletariat." We
must unite the cult approach and the volunteer associ
ations. And 1 believe that this unification must be such
as to make the work of the cult march much more extensive
than that of the volunteer associations.
In this connection 1 made inquiry as to how many
members there were in the Friend of Children. I was told
about three million (voice: two million). I hear someone
say two million, but no one knows for sure. And if,
Comrades, no one knows how many members there are, I am
beginning to doubt as to whether this association is well
organized and whether it really exists and works.
You can organize ten million people, but if you do
not know exactly who and where these people are or wnat
responsibilities they have, and when there is no control
over their work, such an association will be worth very
little. We, the Bolsheviks, value an association which
represents a really unified organization, in which the work
of every member can be verified, made accountable for it,
placed under strict control and be directed, where neces
sary. X have the following figures: In 1930 there were
7,990 cells in your organization and 3,000 members, and in
1931 there were 10,750 cells and 1,430,912 members. I am
asking you, how many members do you actually have? Let's
be honest and say we do not know. Thus, Comrades, I must
tell you frankly--we must inaugurate a period in the life
of your association when we will know exactly how man/
members we have. We must make the Friend of Children a
real association of mass-cultural active participators and
organizers of a cultural movement.
We will then know, if a new cult-marshrut is organ
ized, directed, for instance, toward mastering a technique
or the liquidation of mass-agricultural illiteracy, that
there are two million marching in the cult-marshrut and
that there are 250,000 active participating members in the
ODD and ODN. And we will direct the latter according to a
specific division of work, keep records of them, control
their work, and supervise them, gradually increasing the
membership of the ODD and ODN with new cadres from the
cult-marching masses.
It seems to me that we must give serious consider
ation to the need for reorganization of the voluntary
283
|
this criticism of . the mass cultural movement we brushed it
aside without giving proper recognition to the importance
of its role, it would mean throwing the child out of the
bathtub together with the water. This should not be done.
And even more, any attempts to undervalue the importance of
mass cultural work in its efforts to introduce basic mass**
cultural measures must be met with ruthless resistance*
These attempts must be hit as evil, right-wing opportunism.
The same ruthless opposition must be made against
any undervaluation of the importance of a unified plan in
cultural construction. We are talking a great deal about
it, but this plan sometimes resembles the cult-soldier I
spoke about— when one wishes to see him, no one knows
where he is. This happens often in connection with the
unified plan of cult work. Everything looks all right on
paper, but in real life it cannot be found even in the day
light. However, we need this plan badly, and here I must
warn you regarding a bureaucratic interpretation of such
a unified plan of cultural construction. We have people
who imagine that a unified plan represents everything
thrown together: the People's Commissariat of Public Educa
tion, the Prof-Unions, and all other organizations with
their cult work. This is bureaucratization of the unified
plan. We must understand the unified plan as a unification
of basic mass-cultural measures in terms of agreements
between the largest and most important organizations and a
definite division in the realization of their tasks: what
each organization undertakes to accomplish, what it will
contribute, what financial and material obligations it will
assume, etc. This is the plan we need. All the work must
be carried out under the guidance of the Party. The
soviets of cultural construction must play an important
role here.
If we are able to enlist into the unified plan
participation of all education, liquidation of illiteracy,
and preschool education, then 1 assure you with these mass-
measures on our unified plan we will have the network of
cultural agencies follow us in their totality.
But, Comrades, if it is necessary to fight against
bureaucratization of the unified plan, then it is also
necessary to fight against any attempts to throw it over
board. It must be said without equivocation that the
organization of a mass-cultural movement presupposes a
unified plan of cultural construction, and a unified plan
of cultural construction is impossible without the founda
tion of a tremendous, organized mass movement directed
2861
these soviets begin to work efficiently, that they become
united with the Prof-Unions and the Komsomol, that they be
under the guidance of the Party, leaning on the might of
Soviet power. On the other hand, it is necessary that the
Prof-Unions and the Komsomol begin to roll up their sleeves
and get busy with the voluntary associations add other
organizations of the mass-cultural movement.
The Party has an important role in this work. We
know, for instance, from the experience of the Lower Volga,
that the cultural movement there was raised to a high level
because this movement was headed by the local Party organ
ization (applause).
One must say frankly that, only with the partici
pation of Prof-Unions, including the Union of Educational
Workers, and only with the energetic participation and
guidance of the Party, will we be able to realize the tasks
which stand before us in connection with the development of
maximum organization in the mass-cultural movement.
1 can compare the present stage in the development
of the cultural revolution with the ascent of a high
mountain. We are climbing enormous heights of socialist
construction. We are how finishing the construction of the
economic base of socialism. Cultural construction must
correspond to it. Only by enlisting millions of working
people into this work, ana under the guidance of the Party,
shall we be able to solve victoriously the great socialist
tasks of our great, wonderful socialist epoch (applause).
associations, in this case the Friend of Children, for its
strengthening and the strengthening of its bonds with the
mass movement (applause).
The Friend of Children must be given a portion of
the work with respect to the preparation of new cadres
(applause).
This association must be given certain rights and
also made responsible for its work (applause). In the very
near future, we will have to solve the problems regarding
reorganization of voluntary associations (for instance, ODD
and ODN), and it is necessary that your conference discuss
this subject.
What I told you about reorganization of the associ
ation is my personal opinion.
The People*8 Commissariat of Public Education is
very much interested in the work of associations directed
toward the liquidation of illiteracy. Likewise, it is
interested in your work, the Friend of Children. This is
why I have begun to outline certain requirements to the
ODN. At the same time I asked them: Tell me, Comrades,
how do you wish to improve your work? They offered this
plan: Let's unite all organizations existing on the cul
tural front, and let's create an association of socialist
culture. 1 did not agree with this plan, and at the Ural
Conference 1 said: If we now have several organizations
which are being slowly reorganized at a turtle pace, then
how is it possible to think that if we unite these turtles
thev will begin to move like an engine? (applause). I
doubt very much that a good engine will result from uni
fication of these turtles (laughter). Nothing will come of
it. This is why I opposed the creation of such an associ
ation of socialist culture.
Thus, I came to the conclusion that we should take
the following steps: Strengthen and reorganize ODD and
ODN, set up records of their members, give these associ
ations a series of rights, charge them with a number of
responsibilities, send new people there to strengthen their
connections with the working masses, compel them to organ
ize properly, and assign them the work of preparing new
cadres. The preparation of cadres for the cultural move
ment must be vested in these voluntary associations.
We have here another important factor. It is
necessary that the entire cultural movement be closely con
nected with the soviets of cultural construction, that
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX B
CHANGES IN COMPOSITION OF THE WORKING CUSS, ACCORDING TO AGE AND SEX, 1913*1917, IN PRIVATE INDUSTRIES
OF RUSSIA (TOTAL PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN FOR EACH GROUP)
M 1914 M January 1, 1917
Chil* Adoles* Chil- Adolea* Chil* Adoles* Chll* Adolea*
Industry
Cotton
dren cents Men Women dren cents Men Women dren cents Men Women dren cents Men, Women
1,3 9,0 39,2 50,5 1,3 9,4 36,9 52,4 1.8 10,7 30.9 56,6 2,4 11,1 25,4 61,1
Wool 2,2 9.5 53,0 35,3 . 2,1 10.2 50,3 37,4 3,1 11,6 44,7 40.6 4,5 12,7 41,0 41,8
Silk 3,0 11,3 30.5 55.2 2.6 11.4 29.7 56.3 4,1 13,6 16,6 65,7 5,0 15,5 23,5 56,0
Linen 4,0 12,1 38,0 45,9 4,7 13,0 35,3 47,0 5,1 14,8 30,2 49.9 5,8 15.3 26,4 52,5
Mixed textiles 0,4 8.1 39.0 52,5 0.6 7,2 34,3
57*9,
1,4 7,5 26,4 64,7 2,1 9,0 21,1 67,8
Paper 1,5 9,0 62,9 26.6 1,6 8,6 62,3 27,5 1.4 11.6 56,8 30.2 5.8 16,5 48,2 29,5
Printing 4,7 17.3 69,9 8,1 5,1 17.9 68.6 8,4 6,4 ' 20.1 62,7 10.8
Sawmills 6
plywood 0,5 7.3 87,6 4.6 0,5 8,1 85.7 5.7 0.9
11.0 78,9 9.2 1,6 11,3 70,9 16,2
Iron & steel
Engineering
0.5
0,1
8.3
9.3
84.4
89.5
6,8
1.1
0,6
0.2
8,8
8.9
83.3
89.4
7,3
1.5
0.9
0.5
10,8
9.5
75.9
83.8
12.4j
6,2)
1,1 10,6 72,0 14,3
Glass, china &
ceramics 5.7 9,7 71,0 13.6 5,2 11,1 69.9 13.8 8,5 13,1 59.5 18,9
Animal products 0,8 7,9 77.0 14.3 0,5 8.6 74.7 16.2 0.9
9,7 66,6 22,8 1,8 10,5 61,5 26.2
Flour mills
Sugar
0.1
0.1
6.0
7.1
88,3
78.0
5.6
14.8
0,08
0.2
7.1
8,8
89.6
77.7
3.2
13,8
0,4
0,8
9.7
10,9
85.1
68,5
4.8)
19.8 j
0.9 11,9 57.9 29.3
Chemicals 0,6 2.0 94,6 2.8 0.2 2,1 94,5 3,2 0.3
4.3 86.4 9.0 2,4 12,0 53,1 32,5
Gunpowder &
explosives 0,5 2.8 66,6 30.1 0.8 2.9 73.8 22.5 0.5 2.2 66,2 30,1
■ M ■ ■ ■ ■
Total Percentage
of Women for
Each Group
22.9 23.4 28.2 38,8

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Asset Metadata

Creator Tschekaloff, Natalia Leo (author)

Core Title Social Changes In Selected Institutions Of The Ussr With Special Reference To The Family

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, social structure and development

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Vincent, Melvin J. (committee chair), Nordskog, John E. (committee member), Stinson, Malcolm B. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-69889

Unique identifier UC11358103

Identifier 6002787.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-69889 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 6002787.pdf

Dmrecord 69889

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Tschekaloff, Natalia Leo

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

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