SOVIET RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 110, 11 May 1935, Page 11

SOVIET RUSSIA

WOMEN FARMERS

EFFORTS RECOGNISED

LEAD TO THE MEN

Soviet Russia recently celebrated International Women's Day with unusual enthusiasm because the women of Russia are given major credit for the notable progress made during the past year in collectiyising and mechanising Sbviet agriculture, one of the principal aims of Russia's Communist rulers. . This occasion therefore was observed with mass meetings- and festivals in every city and oh every collective farm in Russia, at which speakers were pointing out the prominent part played by Russian, women—not only in agriculture but.in every phase of Soviet life. : Every newspaper in Russia contained tributes to women, who are acknowledged as perhaps the maior prop of the. Soviet .State. Figures were cited; showing/' that Russian peasant women, who labour in the fields with the men at the heaviest tasks j. have: proved more adaptable than men to the new type of agriculture introduced by the Communists. Their initiative has been recognised by. appointment to thousands of executive positions on collective farms and in the machiae-tractor stations which provide collective farms with machinery for ploughing, sowing, and harvesting. . WOMEN AS LEADERS. The newspaper "Pravda" cited remarkable statistics to show that women during the past year have assumed definite leadership in the Russian village. 1n'1934 the number of women chairmen of collective farms increased by three times over 1933. The number of women deputy chairmen has risen even more rapidly; in one district these, increased from 1049 in 1933 to 9737 in 193(4. During the 'year the number, of women managers of * dairy farms has increased from 1120 to 5531. Peasant women are learning more quickly than men to operate' agricultural machinery, states a correspondent in the "Christian Science Monitor." The number of women tractor drivers has doubled during 1934. In one district where there were no women combine drivers in 1933 there are now 1446. The field workers on collective farms are divided into brigades, each with its leader. •In one/ district the number of women in such positions increased from 35,000 in 1933 to 154,082 in 1934. One might, expect women .to be especially^ interested in "cultural work," which includes construction of schools, kindergartens, kitchens, nurseries, and bathhouses. However, the statistics show that peasant women have taken over this work largely, from men only during- the past year; In one district where , only 35,000 women led such work in 193& there were 151,071. in 1934. : . -.;■' In Soviet Russia, where the entire life of thfe community is regulated by a few Communist rulers, it is"7 apparent that such a ,rapid increase in the influence of peasant womien'is the result of deliberate;policy. Previous experience convinced the rulers that peasant women had an. unusual aptitude for handling machinery and directing farm work. In 1933 instructions were issued to promote women to such posts wherever possible, arid ; the 1934: figures show how rapidly '-; these instructions were carried put. ' ' , ■ ■■■■ CENTURIES AGO. .-■ ;-vi; Travellers '■; in Russia r centuries ' sfgo observed that peasant women had more initiative than men, and' that while men "slept on their stoves" during the long Russian winters the women kept busy at all times, Russia's present rulers thus are taking full advantage of qualities. developed in; their peasant women through the centuries, and"are using the- women to lead'male peasants into habits of work which they- hope . will revolutionise the Russian countryside. Anyone who has • watched sturdy women setting the pace for men in Russian fields will agree that .this policy is'lntelligent., ' . Women also have influenced a change in Communist agrarian policy. It is the women who have resisted most energetically the original effort, to herd collective farmers into "barracks" and to ''socialise" all property, the women have staunchly defended their right to a house of their own, with its private- strip of land, its personally •owned cows, sheep/ chickens,and rabbits. * Only when this concession was made did-they, enter cheerfully into Communist schemes for collectivisation of the; large crop lands. : -