RUSSIA’S MRS NOBODIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 19

RUSSIA’S MRS NOBODIES.

NO FEMININE LEADERS. LADIES OF THE REVOLUTION. DISAPPEAR FROM STAGE. Where gre the Red Women of Moscow? Where, are the notorious Ladies of the Revolution, “ Cruel , Katya,” “ Merciless Maria,” and “Straight-shooting Sonia?" Where are all the. women who helped to establish the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” by their audacity and .thirst for blood? asks Dr Edourd Luboff, the loading authority on Soviet Russia. These women in-tbo early days of the revolution “ executed boorjooys ” with their own hands; they shot down.helpless men and women, sometimes at “the bidding of the Soviets,” and sometimes for the satisfaction of the crown brutal appetites. ■ '

But when the supply of victims gave out,‘these Red women vanished' as suddenly as . they- had come, and to-day there are few who know what has become of them;

Some fell by the way; they dived by the sword and died by it. Others became the chiefs of the 'numerous- bands of highway woman that infested Moscow and environs. They captained such gangs as the “Grey Crows,” the “Red Roses” and the “ Skirtless Shrews,”-. .

Many are . languishing ■ behind prison bars for daring to start little revolutions of their own. "

LENIN’S. “ COOKS.”-’

And so Lenin’s “cooks,”'all of whom were to-.become Soviet “Governors and Rulers,” are no .more. Whether they have returned to their kitchens, I do not know.

But the revolution that brought forth so; many notorious' "Red Woman has failed to produce one outstanding woman in the political sphere. After ten years of. .Bolshevist rule there is not one female Chief Commissar (Minister of State), or even one Under-Secre-tary. In spite, of a system of “full tllerie is not a "Oman in the irohtbureau " (Moscow’s Inner Cabinet) and no , women at all on any of the real Soviet; executives." ■ Women have not only failed; to become rulers in the national sense, but they are not even to be found in responsible positions in Moscow’s local-government. The official Pravda bewails the fact, and pleads for less mistrust of women by men. while urging the women on their part to cure themselves.of their “indecision. lack of confidence, .and, entire absence of initiative;”

Meamvhiic, of the 25,000 Red Women tL ol° W ’ fle^d- members of the Communist Party; not one is considered fit to be entrusted with a “governing” post. There are. it is tnl a but tb nUlnber °- f Soviet "’omen M.P’s, but _the group is composed . entirely of medmere personalities and semi-literate cfvertil T men i, Thcy are “ elected ” to cquality.” 4SSemb J ’ a “ atmos P l ierc of ,"sex

As regards personalities, only a few -Ma7aSV f Dti ° n: -icW lier ma Hnn VrUPSka3 - a ~ she ' has stained hei maiden name, -is an official in the Commissariat of Education. I have dolI'lLtbe*! her v spaeahes on education and I l Gports ? f I,er activities, and yet v t ,° see ln -my of. them either ouginahty or constructive thought. ■ She V a >- a competent minor official and nothing more. JOBS BY INFLUENCE.

Madame Kolontay, the Soviets’ first and only woman ambassador, owes her appoint"'e'3t. mw *' more-to patronage than to ability. I have .no desire .to repeat rumours concernmg. this Bolshevist lady, but I do know that when the Bolshevists’ wanted to conclude a treaty with Norway they .took, the; precaution ;'o£, sending Madajpc Kolontay away from that coun-: try to Mexico. And when she created unnecessary difficulties there -they kept her in Mexico until, the treaty was an accomplished fact.

Then there is Madame KaHpin, the wife of the president of the'Russian Federated Soviet Republic, She is a simple peasant woman, and owing to her husband s position has been entrusted with. the 'management of the department dealing with Russia’s vagrant, children—the orphans of the revolution.

It would be both ungenerous and unfair to suggest that her management is responsible for the terrible plight of these youngsters, since the evil is undoubtedly inherent in the Soviet system itself. Nevertheless !Madame Kalinin has achieved little success in her department, and it would seem that she finds the problem impossible of solution. ;

Madame Kamenefl, the wife of the Bolshevist who brought a'pocketful of diamonds to London in the. hope of buying up a certain newspaper-for Soviet propaganda, is another incompetent in charge, of maternity homes, those overworked Soviet institutions that cater for the unwanted child and the deserted mother. Mme, Trotsky, now banished with her husband to the, wilderness of Turkestan, was formerly the chief of the National Museums.. Mme. Ziuovicff .is not known to have- done any -work fop. the State, though she is in the fullest sense a Red woman. She has always worked with her husband in a secretarial capacity, .often preparing and cpi’recting the. famous orations that sometimes took two and even three days to deliver. This exhausts the number of Soviet ladies who owe their prominence to their, husband's position, since Stalin and Bukharin are officially bachelors. And so we come to Hie second line of Rod women, the managers of State factories, State creches. State shops, and State restaurants.

There is Mine. Kolayeflf, the ablest of them, all, entrusted -with the management of the State Textile Tmist, in which position she control,? a number of textile mills. The other factory director is lime. Kudriavtseva, a "typical Communist—the genuine product of the revolution. With her close-cropp'ed hair and masculine features,, she looks what she is, a, woman who joined the mob in the early days of the 'revolution and rose from the ranks by political patronage. Once she was an illiterate and unskilled worker. To-, day she is a figure of some importance, attracting attention not only through her managerial position, but because of her fame as the best woman shot, in Moscow. ' ■■ DIVORCED FOR' POLITICS. Moscow can also boast of four women .magistrates, two women public prosecutors, and about half, a dozen lady barristers. ' None of''them is brilliant •or outstanding. Nest comes a fairly largo number of women employed by the trade unions as "instructors," '.bo Soviet designation for organisers. It is interesting to note that, nearly all these women are divorcees with no family ties whatever. They divorced their husbands because, in their own words, they were "'anti-Soviet inclined." Apparently to such women marriage is entirely subordinated to politics, and a husband soon becomes an unnecessary encumbrance. Little is heard of Soviet women doctors, though some are said to be doing pood work in the research laboratories. There are no women engineers, or architects, or chemists. XO WOMAN GENERAL. Finally, much emphasis is laid, on the women's battalions, both in the-regular ■ and th e territorial armies. These young women apparently make fine and enthusiastic soldiers, they are good shots, clever telegraphists, adepts with poison gas, and they show up well on parade. But even here, strange to say, the women have to be led and. commanded by men,, for up to the present the military schools have not produced one outstanding woman capable of taking command in the field. There is .obviously a dearth of real "Red Women" in Moscow, but whether

tliis dearth is due to the aftermath of the revolution, or whether the male revolutionaries prefer the -theory of sex equality to the practice of it," it is difficult 'to'' say. On. the other hand, it is possible that, in spite of so many opportunities for throwing off "the yoke of the kitchen." the Russian woman, being at heart entirely feminine and conservative, is not at all- anxious to become '" a governor or a ruler.'"' "' -