Peasant woman and Soviet power in the Yenisei Province during the New economic policy

Dolidovich Olesya Mikhailovna ORCID: 0000-0003-3364-1528 Doctor of History Associate Professor; Department of Russian History, World and Regional Civilizations; Siberian Federal University  660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodny Avenue, 79 dolidovich@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Marinenko Lyudmila Evgen'evna ORCID: 0000-0003-2385-2567 PhD in History Associate Professor; Department of History of Russia, World and Regional Civilizations; Siberian Federal University 660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodny Avenue, 79 velichinskaya.lyudmila@mail.ru

Revyakina Dar'ya Olegovna Graduate student; Department of History of Russia, World and Regional Civilizations; Siberian Federal University 660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodny Avenue, 79 yexxijxx13@gmail.com

The primary objectives of the new economic policy (NEP) were to restore agricultural production after seven years of the First World War and the Civil War, and to fill the deficit of the most necessary foodstuffs. Circulars of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b) sent to the regions emphasized the importance of working with peasant women: "The peasantry has extremely important tasks on which the economic and political situation of the Soviet Republic depends. Departments should pay serious attention to work among peasant women. All the work, both organizational and campaigning, in them should be concentrated around the tasks of raising agriculture, and in particular now around the sowing campaign" ^{[1, l. 20]}. At the same time, the government accelerated the policy of involving women in the socio-political life of the country in order to strengthen political influence on the backward masses of peasant women.

This issue was of particular importance in Eastern Siberia, where the peasant population prevailed. So, in 1926, 1,578,122 people lived in the Krasnoyarsk, Minusinsk, Kansk, Achinsk and Khakass districts of the Yenisei province, of which 167,044 people (10.5%) lived in the townspeople, 1,411,078 people (89.5%) peasants. In urban areas, women accounted for 83,600 people (11.3%), in rural areas – 713,515 people (50.5%), in the whole region – 797 115 (50,5 %) ^{[2, pp. 21-22, 50-55]}.  

Well-known activists of the Soviet women's movement in their works reflected the tasks of the state in relation to peasant women and the work of women's departments. Thus, A.M. Kollontai, who headed the Women's Department at the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b) (in 1920-1921), wrote that the Soviet government secured full political and civil equality for women. However, in the early years, both workers and peasant women were hostile to the government, not being able to realize that it brought liberation to women. The task of the women's departments was to involve women in the active construction of a new future ^{[3, p. 314]}.

In a later period, historiography emphasized the extreme complexity of this task. Thus, P. M. Chirkov noted that in the early 1920s peasants made up 85% of the population, and even in 1939, when large-scale industrialization was in full swing, 68% of the population lived in the village. The educational and cultural level of the peasant women remained low, they were scattered in small settlements located far from each other, firmly attached to the economy and the family of the patriarchal type. There was a shortage of personnel in rural areas who could work among women. Moreover, in order to establish contact with peasant women and gain authority, employees of women's departments needed to have special knowledge in the field of agricultural production ^{[4, p. 45.]}.

Modern research analyzes the role of women's departments in solving the social problems of the young Soviet state – the elimination of illiteracy among the population, the protection of childhood, the protection of motherhood and infancy, etc. ^{[5, 6]}. An analysis of the work of women's departments with peasant women shows that the involvement of peasant women in village councils, executive committees, and cooperation was slow. A significant role in this was played by the traditional mores in the village and the resistance of men to the advancement of women into power and social structures ^{[7, pp. 85-87]}. Nevertheless, the 1920s became an important milestone when the status of women in the socio-political sphere was increasing, and the experience of interaction with representative authorities was accumulated. It was on the basis of this experience that a further strategy of power regarding women was developed ^{[8, pp. 59-65]}.

Based on the materials of Western Siberia, M. V. Vasekha stated that during the studied period of the Soviet government, it was not possible to achieve noticeable results in the elimination of illiteracy either among adult peasant women or among rural school-age girls. And without this, it was impossible to talk about other forms of work – involving them in socio-political life, appointing them to senior positions, and generally changing the role and place of women in society ^{[9, p. 155]}.

L. A. Shevchenko highly appreciates the role of the women's departments of Eastern Siberia, as they have done a lot to increase the political activity of women, increase literacy, and professionalism. The issue of work among peasant women was extremely relevant, since it was necessary to deal with a huge mass of illiterate and illiterate, apolitical, religious women ^[10].

In an article on the work of the Soviet government among women of the indigenous northern peoples of Siberia in the early Soviet period (from 1918 to the early 1930s), I. Sablin and M. Savelyeva showed that the changes were quite modest, and, nevertheless, women began to master types of employment that were previously considered only male (for example, hunting) earn money on their own, get an education, participate in public life. Women's social mobility increased, and gender relations became less asymmetric ^[11].

In general, the experience of implementing state policy towards the peasant woman (including the introduction of new models of behavior in the family and socio-political sphere, the creation and work of women's departments, improving the educational level of women, protection of motherhood and infancy, etc.) on the materials of Eastern Siberia is among the little-studied issues in historiography.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the work of the women's departments of the Yenisei province with peasant women during the NEP years, which was carried out as part of the implementation of a large-scale Soviet project to change the status of women in the public and industrial spheres.

The research is based on the materials of the State Archive of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (GAKK). The funds P–1 "Yenisei Provincial Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b)" and P–4 "Krasnoyarsk District Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b)" contain office documentation of the provincial and district women's departments: reports on work with peasant women, minutes of conferences and meetings, information summaries, circular instructions and letters from the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b) (Sibburo) on women's work.

By January 1920, detachments of the Red Army managed to liberate the territory of the Yenisei province from Kolchak troops. However, the internal situation continued to remain difficult and tense for a long period of time. Peasants lost horses and livestock, acreage was significantly reduced, grain yields fell, many villages were burned, and a typhus epidemic raged. Anti-Soviet peasant uprisings broke out in the counties, armed gangs operated ("Committee of the Krasnoyarsk United Organization", "Krasnoyarsk Combat Group", I. N. Solovyov, Rodionov detachments, etc.) ^{[12, pp. 42-67]}.

Under these circumstances, the formation of local structures of the Soviet state and party apparatus began. The highest authorities at the regional level were provincial, county and volost councils. They elected executive committees, which had a presidium in their structure, which carried out general management, as well as branch departments for current work (national economy, health, social security, etc.). In addition, various permanent and temporary commissions were created. The chairmen, deputy chairmen, secretaries and executive committee staff were elected at the congresses of the soviets. Local committees of the Bolshevik Party became increasingly important over time. By the mid-1920s, the most important issues of socio-economic development, including personnel decisions, were taken at provincial party conferences. When appointing to senior positions in all government structures, the Bolsheviks had priority.

At the same time, women's work departments (women's departments) were organized in the structure of local party committees. During November 1920 – January 1921, the provincial women's department (gubzhenotdel) was established, then one women's department in each of the 5 counties (uzhenotdels). As part of the gubzhenotdel, the rate of the head, the secretary and two instructors was provided, in the county departments – the head and one instructor each, a total of 14 employees per province. Since the beginning of the NEP, a large-scale reduction of the administrative and managerial apparatus has been carried out in the country in order to find funds for economic recovery. As a result, there was only one head left in the county women's departments, in the gubzhenotdel – the head and the instructor ^{[13, L. 27]}.

The activities of women's departments were planned in a wide range of areas: the promotion of women to Soviet and party authorities (village and city councils, executive committees, etc.), trade unions, cooperatives, peasant mutual aid committees, the fight against female unemployment and prostitution, the elimination of illiteracy and the development of women's vocational education, propaganda and agitation (demonstrative political courts, rallies, meetings of communists, etc.). Non-partisan women's conferences have become one of the main organizational forms of work.

In rural areas, representatives of the women's departments were volost organizers (volunteer organizers). The volunteer organizer's rate was not included in the staff of the party committees, the salary was paid from "local funds", so he was either put on the staff of the volost executive committee, or maintained at the expense of self-taxation (as a teacher). The volunteer organizer attracted peasant women to actively participate in all activities of village committees (sowing and shock campaigns, providing public assistance to the Red Army, eliminating illiteracy, etc.) and carried out assignments from county women's departments (to create mother and child funds under mutual aid committees, convene delegate meetings, etc.). In total, in Siberia in 1923, there were 196 volunteer organizers on 806 volosts, 46 of them in the Yenisei province to 164 volosts ^{[14, l. 43 vol.]}.  

When embarking on the practical implementation of the above tasks, the women's departments faced a general negative attitude among the peasants towards the Soviet government. The main reason for this was the tax policy of the state. Even during the period of war communism, the surplus and other taxes (labor tax, household income tax, etc.) were perceived by peasants with hostility. With the transition to the NEP, the party and Soviet authorities directed efforts to levy a food tax, and this process was often accompanied by repression, arrests, the use of weapons, and abuse of responsible persons. Red Army detachments, special forces units, and the police were sent to help employees of village councils and executive committees. In many areas, the peasants responded by reducing the acreage, livestock and terror against representatives of the Soviet government. In order to normalize the internal political situation, the Bolsheviks were forced to reduce and streamline taxation, in addition, an important task of the NEP was to strengthen agitation and propaganda work ^{[15, L. 62]}.

According to the strategy of the socialist state, the small-scale peasant economy was to disappear in the near future, it sought to fully nationalize the land and create large collective farms. The peasants were hostile to the idea of creating communes, socializing inventory and livestock, and new forms of labor organization. The specifics of Siberia had a certain significance: most of the peasants here belonged to the category of middle peasants, without a sharp division into the poor and kulaks. They received practically nothing from the October Revolution, whereas in the European part of the country they gained land as a result of the liquidation of the landlord economy ^[16].

In the First World War and the Civil War, many men died, and women began to head the farms. The situation of such farms became ambivalent – the hard nature of labor brought them closer to the workers and the poor, the availability of their own means of production – to the kulaks. They treated the Soviet government with fear and distrust. Many peasant women went bankrupt and moved into the category of farmhands. Farmhands, being the most oppressed category of the population in the village, were illiterate and unable to comprehend the meaning of the new Soviet policy towards women.   

In the initial period of the NEP, women's conferences in the villages were held in an extremely tense atmosphere. Thus, 35 women attended the non-partisan women's conference in the Daursky district on January 1, 1923. The meeting was led by the head of the Achinsk district women's department, Selivanova. The following issues were discussed: the international and domestic situation of the country, the tasks of the women's department, agricultural cooperation. When referring to domestic policy, Selivanova explained the meaning and objectives of introducing a food tax, a one-time general civil tax and other fees. Her speech caused a flurry of indignant remarks from the peasants: "They took butter, bread, eggs from us, they said they would give plows, sickles and so on, but then they demanded more money – 16 million each from a horse. Then they said, give me the cow, and we'll be even. And now we're being squeezed again. They paid insurance, they ask for a monetary tax from the head of the house, but not everyone has a master"; "Give us butter, eggs and so on, they took away weapons, shotguns, put a woman on an equal footing with a man and extort everything. They took the chickens, they took the pen. And the children ate all the milk. To give birth to children, and where do we get everything?"; "Where will a woman take millions? What kind of Soviet power is this, if you sow bread, you will never pay off again and you will be in prison. There are no seeds, there is nothing to sow, a tax is required – the soul is out, but it must pay. The horse is missing – but it's still on the list"; "My husband is a cripple, my son recently came from work, what will I pay? Five people of children, where will I get millions?" Even those peasant women who themselves helped the Red Army men, whose husbands served in the ranks of the Red Army, were deeply disappointed by the Bolshevik policy: "We gave everything to the Soviet government, and now it is squeezing us." Selivanova explained that the First World War and the Civil War were to blame for the country's economic problems. If any of the peasants found themselves in a difficult financial situation, they should contact the mutual assistance committees, but many poor people were lazy who did not want to work. In response, there were outraged shouts: "What are you lying about?" Next, Selivanova called for cooperation. Peasant women spoke out against it, because they had to pay monetary contributions to the cooperative: "We don't need cooperation, it's better to buy from speculators." When discussing the tasks of the women's department, Selivanova explained that the Soviet government equalized men and women in rights, but the peasant women were not happy: "You can't compare a man with a woman, because we carry children." Further, the participants of the conference drew attention to the fact that Selivanova arrived in a good fur coat, and she had to justify herself, saying that the fur coat was from someone else's shoulder, she borrowed it. According to the protocol, the conference closed with the singing of the "Internationale" ^{[17, l. 10]}.

At the same time, in extremely difficult political and socio-economic conditions (the struggle against the remnants of the white movement, hunger, rising unemployment, population migration), the Soviet state began to build a new model of social policy. In the absence of funds in the budget, provision for the poor and needy in rural areas was based on the principle of self-help. Thus, in addition to the need to pay taxes, peasant farms had to bear the costs of providing assistance to various categories of those in need. In accordance with the decree of May 14, 1921, peasant mutual aid committees were established. They provided shelter, care and food to the elderly, the sick, the disabled, the homeless, disabled Red Army soldiers, orphans, etc. The funds of the committees were formed at the expense of self-taxation of peasants. First of all, it was necessary to create natural funds, since there was no cash in the village. By 1923, 67 volost peasant committees and 1,372 rural ones were functioning in the province. They included the poor (about 80%) and the middle peasants, there were a small number of kulaks (up to 2%) ^{[18, l. 9; 19, l. 24]}.

The women's departments were instructed to involve peasant women, especially the wives of Red Army soldiers, in the composition of mutual assistance committees. However, for a long time, women made up no more than 4% of their assets. The head of the women's department of the Krasnoyarsk district, A. Ivanova, in a report for the period from October 1924 to May 1925, noted that peasant women were simply nominally listed in them, did not come to meetings, and they were not invited. Ivanova gave two reasons. Firstly, there are a large number of children in families from whom it was difficult to leave. Secondly, the woman's actual lack of the right to dispose of the family's financial resources: "Despite the fact that 7 years have passed since the October Revolution, the peasant woman is still mostly economically dependent on her husband, who considers himself the sole owner of his farm" ^{[20, l. 129-130 vol.]}.

Women's department employees and volunteer organizers conducted extensive explanatory work, explaining that the tax level was high, including because hospitals and orphanages needed food. Peasant women usually replied that they did not want and were not obliged to help, such institutions should be opened and maintained by the state. They were even more reluctant to respond to calls to participate in fundraising to provide "fraternal assistance to the international working class." So, in 1923, the Soviet government decided to support the German proletariat, whose situation had deteriorated due to the political and economic crisis. Instructions were sent to the places on the organization of local committees ("cells") of the League for the Help of Children of German Workers, who accepted donations in cash and in kind, conducted propaganda work at enterprises and institutions. The peasant women were wary and unenthusiastic about the idea of helping the children of German workers. They voiced their concerns at conferences and meetings: "Wouldn't it be worse if we help Germany? How long have they been beating our husbands?" ^{[21, l. 60 vol.]}. Nevertheless, the population of Eastern Siberia took part in solving many acute social problems of the state. So, in August – October 1921, more than 16,000 people from the starving Volga region arrived in the Yenisei province. During these three months, 136,640,393 rubles and 12,195 pounds of bread were collected and sent to help the hungry ^{[22, pp. 208-209]}.

As a result of the lack of funds, it was not possible to establish work on the protection of motherhood and infancy. The Yenisei gubzhenotdel planned the creation of women's medical consultations, abortion commissions, "Mother and Child" shelves, summer nurseries, but only some initiatives were partially implemented and only in cities. Practically nothing has been done in the village according to okhmatmladu. In 1922, the Krasnoyarsk district Women's Committee on the prospects of organizing a nursery in the village noted that the peasants did not agree to organize a nursery at the expense of self-taxation: "Where a peasant woman needs, then it would be necessary to organize, but the population does not have the means. Where there is a well-to-do peasantry, they say, "we do not need your nursery, we will hire a nanny, she will keep company and do everything around the house" ^{[26, l. 8]}. In several villages, nurseries were organized for the summer period at the expense of the cooperative, but the results of their work were assessed as "bad".

In general, during the period of the NEP, the women's departments of the Yenisei province failed to organize systematic work among peasant women for a number of reasons. These include, first of all, the extremely low literacy rate of women. The educational system of the agrarian province that had developed by that time included educational institutions only at the primary and secondary levels. In 1920, 18.6% of school-age children attended classes. Despite the lack of resources, the authorities took serious measures to develop the school network. By the end of the 1920s, primary, seven-year, nine-year schools, a school for Komsomol youth, a school for working youth and a commune school were operating in towns and villages.  The material and technical condition of the schools was in critical condition: the buildings were destroyed or required major repairs, there was an acute shortage of books, teaching aids, paper, pencils. There was a shortage of teaching staff, and there was a large dropout of students who dropped out after grades 1-3. The peasants were rebuilding the farm, they needed the help of teenagers, who were involved in a variety of jobs (caring for livestock, cultivating vegetable gardens, caring for younger children, etc.). Only in 1930 began the transition to universal primary education in rural areas and universal seven-year education in cities and working towns.

Simultaneously with the development of the school network, an active struggle against adult illiteracy unfolded, the Yenisei Provincial Department of Public Education began this work in the spring of 1920. On the basis of existing educational institutions and with the involvement of available teachers, only six literacy schools in Krasnoyarsk were opened. By 1923, 39 adult education centers in the province were opened under the supervision of the Yenisei Provincial Emergency Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy. Since 1924, there has been a local branch of the society "Down with Illiteracy!", whose members organized evening schools for adults. By the end of the 1920s, the number of illiterates in the region had decreased by almost 4 times ^{[23, p. 152]}. According to the All-Union Population Census of 1926, on average 43.4% of men and 18.8% of women in Siberia were literate. At the same time, 67% of men were literate in cities, 40% in rural areas, 51% and 14% women, respectively ^{[24, pp. 26-27]}.  

The low level of education (mainly basic literacy or primary education) made women unable to work in the women's departments themselves. In addition, all reports of the Gubernatorial Department also noted the "weak" political training of female employees. To solve this problem, in March 1921, short-term training courses for women workers at the Gubernatorial Department were opened. However, in the same year, the provincial and district party schools, the school of training political educators, where employees of the Gubpartkom and Gubpolitprovet taught, began work in Krasnoyarsk. The courses of the Gubernatorial Department were closed, women's department employees began to be sent to the county party school, where 15 places were reserved for them ^{[22, pp. 251-252]}.

In addition, there were no specialists in women's departments to work with representatives of national minorities, and this also became a serious problem, because Tatar, Latvian and Estonian settlements existed in the counties of the Yenisei province. The Gubernatorial Department planned to organize sections of national minorities at delegate meetings, work to eliminate illiteracy among women, and involve them in volost and county conferences. However, as a rule, women in such villages did not speak Russian, were religious, shared traditional values and implicitly obeyed their husbands, who forbade them to attend meetings ^{[25, L. 2]}.

The second reason that the women's departments were unable to establish regular work among peasant women was the participation of women in agricultural production. During the period of field agricultural work, it was not possible to attract them to any meetings or events. In fact, women had some free time only in winter. The Yenisei Provincial Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b) emphasized: "Peasant women cannot be lured to meetings by force" ^{[14, l. 44]}.

Another reason for the irregular mass work of women's departments in the village is the weak material base and financing. There was a shortage of female employees in the women's departments (one employee per county in conditions of huge distances), who also did not have the means to purchase literature and work manuals, for business trips around the counties. For example, the head of the Minusinsk district women's department Vostrotina wrote in a report that during 1923 she was never able to leave for the county, which had 45 volosts scattered 145 versts from each other ^{[13, L. 25-27]}.

During the first reporting period (November 1920 – January 1921), the employees of the Yenisei Gubernatorial Department managed to hold only two non-partisan conferences of workers and peasants in Krasnoyarsk, send their representatives to the departments of Public Education and Health of the Gubernatorial Executive Committee, as well as to the Znamensky Glassmaking Plant. It was not possible to prepare volunteer organizers in the counties ^{[26, L. 8]}.

According to the reports of the Yenisei Gubernatorial Department for the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (b) (Sibburo), in 1921-1922. work with delegates in the province was not conducted. As a result of the re-election of delegates that took place from September to November 1923, 936 workers (69%) and 423 peasant women (31%) became delegates in the Yenisei province (for comparison: in Siberia as a whole there were about 13,326 delegates, of which 4,127 (31%) workers and 9,199 (69%) peasant women). Often, the delegates in the village were not chosen, but simply appointed by the decision of the village council or the volunteer organizer. Among the delegates, basic literacy was not eliminated, and political literacy classes were not held. Many delegates did not begin to perform their duties, being dissuaded by a large number of children and household chores ^{[14, l. 42 vol.In general, the rural population did not understand the meaning of the delegate movement: "In the village, the peasants laugh at our delegates, and the husbands beat" [21, l. 60 vol.]}.

Since the autumn of 1923, at the insistence of the Sibburo, the women's departments of the Yenisei province tried to strengthen work among peasant women. Thus, in the period from September to November 1923, 186 volost, 13 county and one provincial conferences were held with the participation of about 59,000 peasant women. In the future, the involvement of peasant women in industrial and socio-political life was one of the priorities of all local women's departments ^{[14, l. 42]}.

Thus, women's departments failed to establish systematic work among peasant women in the 1920s in the Yenisei province, an agrarian region with such characteristics as insignificant development of industrial production, the traditional type of population reproduction (high birth rate and mortality, large families, low life expectancy), low level of education and social mobility, collectivist attitudes and religiosity patriarchal views on the role of women in the family and society.

Attempts to carry out the political mobilization of women in the difficult conditions of post-war devastation, shortage of personnel and lack of funding for women's departments did not give quick results. It was during this period that it became obvious that it was impossible to increase women's participation in public and political life only through policy-making, educational and propaganda methods. Such a task could be successfully solved only within the framework of large-scale economic, socio-demographic and cultural modernization.