Gender and Family in the Russian Revolutionary Movement

Abstract

Women who became revolutionaries in twentieth-century Russia defied gendered expectations about suitable roles for females. They sought education rather than husbands, trained for careers rather than prepared for motherhood, and they asserted their equality with their male comrades. Yet family responsibilities remained a fact of life for many women and traditional notions of gender roles persisted within the movement, despite socialists’ theoretical commitment to equality of the sexes. Thus, while women were welcomed into revolutionary parties, they often found themselves taking on the more mundane tasks of the underground as well as shouldering domestic duties. Despite this, women proved highly resourceful in juggling their private and political lives in order to make a valuable contribution to the revolutionary movement.