A Book To Read Man’s Equal

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 147, 18 March 1937, Page 6

A Book To Read Man’s Equal

The Women 01 Russia And Their Place In New Nation

“The Position of Women in the L.5.5.R.,” by G. N. Serebrennikov (London: Victor Gollanez Ltd.).

TJECAUSE Russia is engaged upon a more vast experiment than the world has ever before seen, it is difficult to obtain an unbiased account of what actually is being done there. And supporters of the Soviet system particularly have erred on the side of extravagance when they .stated their case. Propaganda is one of the most valued weapons in the hands of _ the Union, and it has been skilfully wielded. Sovietism is out to justify itself.

Consequently, one could not expect a staunch supporter like M. Serebrennikov to review in any critical spirit the progress of the Soviet toward one of the most important of its aims—the emancipation and development of women to full usefulness in public life. His book is definitely and admittedly partisan, but it also has the merit of being scientific and statistical in treatment.

In each chapter, M. Serebrennikov has dealt with a certain section of Soviet legislation affecting women. He outlines the aims of the laws and then

proceeds to show by statistical record and the achievements of individuals how near is the Soviet to attainment of its ideals. However much of his evidence must be discounted as onesided in outlook, there still remains a mass of informative and provocative material from which the careful reader can draw her own conclusions, apart from the propaganda aspect. QINCE Lenin in his pre-llevolutiou-C ary writings in 1917 inveighed against the “stupefying domestic and kitchen atmosphere’’ by which women were surrounded, it has been a basic principle of the Soviet regime to grant women equality with men not only in political and civil rights, but. in opportunity for making full use of them. .This idea was expressed by M. Stalin in his report to the Seventeenth Party Congress. "Women represent half the population of the country,” he said. "They represent an enormous army of labour, and their mission is to bring up our children, our future generation —that is to say, our future. That is why we must not permit this huge army of toilers to remain in darkness and ignorance. That is why we must welcome the growing social activity of our toiling women ami their | promotion to leading posts as an tin-, doubted indication of the growth of our culture."

In Russia now, women are entering freely into every field of activity except those few which would be injurious to them physically. There are women engineers, technicians, inventors, mathematicians, professors, aviators, para-chute-jumpers, leaders on collective farms, shock-work tractor-drivers and thousands of others. According to M. Serebrennikov, their work is on the average as good as the men's. They are showing as much enterprise and organising ability, and are taking the initiative in educating and training themselves for industrial and social life. Side by side with this new attitude in women, is widespread State provision for communal kitchens and laundries, for lying-in homes and the legal protection of mothers, for

creches for the children, kindergartens and schools. The Soviet claims that tlie knowledge that children will be properly cared for by the State has resulted in .an increased birth rate in Russia and in the greater willingness of her women to undertake motherhood.

The book is a straightforward and lucid exposition of the Soviet attitude On an important subject, ami it compresses an astonishing amount into its two hundred-odd pages. Whether or not one disagrees with its tenets, it is a book well worth a serious woman’s reading.