The cwm’s program for women’s emancipation was quite ambitious for the time and included total equality for women in law and practice, universal suffrage, and women’s right to participate in national and municipal governments. It also contained the struggle for equal pay for men and women, women’s access to equal and free education; social measures intended to ease the burden of childcare and housework for women, and many other goals. Communist women were particularly active within labour movements and labour politics as they prioritized the fight for the rights and interests of women workers. Since 1921, they promoted the struggle for these rights within the Red International of Labour Unions (commonly known as the Profintern), another Comintern auxiliary organization established in 1921 to coordinate communist activities in the arena of trade unions worldwide.
Scholarly studies on communist women and the Comintern’s gender policy in a transnational perspective are still rare. Historians of the Soviet Union have made important contributions to our understanding of the work of the women’s department of the Russian Communist Party, the Zhenotdel (Женотдел)
Studies of the Profintern, scarce as they are, have not focused on women’s issues or women’s participation in the international communist labour movement.6 I use the work of Albert Resis and Reiner Tosstorff as key references for the history of the Profintern. Resis, who analyzed the origins of the Red International and its early activities, has pointed out that the Comintern conceived of this organization as a major rival to the International Federation of Trade Unions (iftu) in Amsterdam. He has also emphasized the importance of debate in the early Profintern, noting the modification and sometimes rejection of policies proposed by Moscow by a number of its member states. Following Resis’s argument, this chapter also highlights the conflicts and divisions that characterized the Profintern in the 1920s, specifically those related to women’s participation in the organization. Tosstorff’s work, anchored in archival data unavailable to Resis at the time, is an invaluable source of information on the Profitern between 1921 and 1937. But because Tosstorff’s work is a general study and is not informed by a gender-historical approach, the author has limited himself to summarizing the contents of the resolutions related to women workers passed during Profintern congresses. However, despite its limitations, Tosstorff’s study provides a strong foundation for the analysis included in this chapter.
Historians who have analyzed women’s participation in international labour movements and trade unions such as the iftu have not yet addressed the role of women within the Profintern. That said, Susan Zimmermann has made a ground-breaking contribution to the discussion of competing policies and competition over proletarian women between the Profintern and the iftu Women’s Committee.7 Zimmermann’s argument serves as the primary
This study also makes use of the methodological insights of recent scholarship on Cold War era communist women’s activities in communist and socialist countries.8 These studies have nuanced liberal historians’ criticism of socialist and communist feminism,9 demonstrating that such scholars have “underestimated the extent to which the program of women’s emancipation was a fundamental component of the overall communist program for rapid modernization,” which communist/ socialist women believed was the best path to women’s autonomy.10 Kristen Ghodsee, for example, has contended that communist women working in state women’s and international socialist organizations strategically chose to align their programs with the larger goals of communist parties. This alignment resulted in significant successes for women in terms of legal equality and family law, education, and labour force participation. Francisca de Haan underlined the progressive character of important achievements in the Women’s International Democratic Federation (widf), an organization that brought together left-leaning feminists from around the world and achieved important results in the promotion of peace, women’s rights, antiracism, and anticolonialism. Susan Zimmermann has analyzed the complex gender regime and gender struggles in Hungary during the Cold War, pointing out the conflicts at different levels provoked by the struggle against men’s privileges in various spheres. Zheng Wang has also shown how socialist state feminists in China skillfully navigated male–female relationships to advance the cause of gender equality, often facing opposition from party leadership.
This chapter adopts de Haan and Ghodsee’s “revisionist” perspective, applying it to the interwar period and the labour and trade union activities of communist women. It further develops Zimmermann’s and Zheng’s methodological insights in order to scrutinize the antagonistic gender dynamics within the Profintern. It also builds on my own recent articles and a co-edited documentary collection on the international cwm, which analyze the wider scope of policies, activities, and efforts in which the cwm engaged during the early 1920s.11
Using the archives of the Comintern and Profintern, this study seeks to offer a deeper analysis of the Profintern’s engagement with women’s issues and
I focus on two aspects in particular: communist women’s activism within the Profintern, and the complex relationship between men and women within the trade union international communist movement. I argue that the Communist Women’s Movement played a crucial role in setting up structures for women within the Profintern. These structures became particularly active in 1927–1928 and took up the demands of specific women workers. Their efforts were, however, only partially successful because of the lack of cooperation and sometimes open sexism on the part of men Profintern activists. The Profintern’s women’s section was active until early 1936 and fought for women’s unionization and women’s specific workplace demands. Developments during the 1930s lay outside the scope of this research. That said, the abundance of archival data on Profintern activities at the Russian State Archive for Social and Political History (rgaspi) leaves space for further research on Profintern women in the future.
1 “The Trade Unions Should Become the Center to Which the Attention of the Women’s Section Is Directed”: The cwm and the Profintern
When the cwm’s delegates convened in Moscow for their founding conference in July 1920, labour relations between the sexes and the participation of women in the labour movement and trade unions were core points on the agenda. All delegates who took the floor pointed out the growing importance of women workers within trade unions, which was the result of women’s mass entry into industries during World War One. Indeed, women became important actors in labour politics particularly after 1914. Things, however, changed once the war ended and men workers returned to their workplaces. Trade Unions, then, as the French delegate Alfred Rosmer pointed out, “seemed not only indifferent to the task of organizing women workers, but even showed hostility,” discouraging “in every possible way those who came to the trade unions and spoke for the women, asking for help with organizing women workers.”12 Some
The young Soviet state intended to fight such tendencies in Soviet trade unions and encouraged women’s entry and participation in the organizations, including in leadership positions. However, changes were slow, which is why the First Conference’s “Guidelines”—a blueprint for the cwm’s activities drafted by Clara Zetkin and amended later by a specially appointed commission—encouraged “countries such as Russia, where the proletariat has already conquered state power […], to draw all employed women into full participation in the work of economic reconstruction through the soviets, the trade unions, and the cooperatives and their various institutions.” In capitalist countries, the cwm called on parties to “enlist women as members with equal rights and duties in the Communist Party and in the economic organizations of the proletariat for the class struggle,” meaning that wherever communists had influence within trade unions, they were to promote women’s participation and leadership in these structures.14
The conference call for the Second cwm’s Conference, which convened in 1921, encouraged parties and unions to send cwm’s representatives to both the Comintern’s Third Congress and the Founding Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions—the Profintern.15 Women delegates were indeed present at the first Profintern international meeting in Moscow, which opened two weeks after the closure of the women’s gathering. Clara Zetkin, de facto leader of the women’s movement and head of its international secretariat, was one of the key participants and leaders of the Profintern’s Founding Congress as well. Solomon Lozovsky, a seasoned Russian revolutionary who would become the Profintern’s general secretary and hold this position until its dissolution in 1937, gave a speech on behalf of the international trade union movement at the opening of the Second Communist Women’s Conference. Lozovsky highlighted the important role played by Russian revolutionary women “in all the practical work of our economic life, in the party, in the trade unions, and on the military front with rifle in hand”16 and encouraged delegates to organize
Trade unions should become that center, to which the attention of the women’s section should be directed. The trade union ought to become the center of the struggle for controlling the national economy, its regulation, and control over production.
Every one of us understands that the old system of capitalist production kept the woman dependent and deprived of all rights, and that only communism will bring about her emancipation. But the importance of the revolution for a woman does not lie in the fact of granting her political rights equal to those of a man, but in the fact that the social collective began to need her work. And the greatest day for the woman was not
when she was acknowledged as having equal rights according to law but when the universal obligation to labour was established across the entire Soviet Republic. That day was a magnificent event in relation to the condition of woman, second to none in the whole history of humanity. Being enrolled on the registration list inasmuch as the national economy is concerned, the woman is no longer responsible only to her husband or family but to the collective, and from this naturally follows a new attitude toward her on the part of the state and society, and she is approached as a force for labour.20
In other words, Kollontai pointed out how the economic and labour integration of women liberated them more than did political emancipation linked to voting rights. Despite its distinct Workers’ Opposition perspective, the Comintern supported Kollontai’s ideas on the importance of women’s economic integration, as did communist Parties worldwide.21
A few delegates who spoke after Kollontai at the Second Conference again underscored the importance of work among women within trade unions and special measures and methods the future international Red Union should adopt in order to address the position of women within the labour movement. German delegate Gertrude Faber urged participants of the second conference to approach the forthcoming Profintern congress and encourage the future Profintern to consider the “woman question.” As a result of these efforts, the conference adopted a resolution calling for such action, and the Profintern adopted a “Resolution on the Woman Question” at its Founding Congress in July 1921.
At the Profintern’s Founding Congress,22 it was Hertha Sturm, an active German delegate at the cwm’s international gatherings and a member of the International Women’s Secretariat in Berlin in 1921–1924, who delivered a “Report on Women in the Trade Unions” in which she stressed that women made up a large part of the proletarian masses. She then spoke about the divisions within the proletariat and specifically the trade union movement on the question of women’s employment and their integration into the labour movement. She mentioned the need for the new communist labour organization—the Profintern—to do away with practices that discriminated against women.
Following Sturm’s report, a commission consisting of women delegates was appointed to develop a resolution regarding the “woman question” that could be adopted by the congress. The document declared the importance of women within the proletarian movement and called on the Profintern to, first, gather and engage working women using all means of agitation and organization, and, second, make women “take an active part in all forms of trade-union life and activity” in shop committees, agitation, wage-rate committees, executive committees, etc. The resolution also urged members of the Profintern to “energetically fight the efforts of capitalist employers, aided by governments, to increase their profits and strengthen and maintain their industries by utilizing the cheap labour of unorganized women.” This latter point reiterated the significance of struggle for equal pay for equal work and the improvement of working conditions for women, as well as legal protections for women workers and working mothers. Finally, the Profintern instructed its members to fight against the antiwomen tendencies of workers within the rival socialist Amsterdam International—the International Federation of Trade Unions.24 This resolution, thus, carried the seeds of the competition between socialists and communists over working-class women that would only increase throughout the 1920s.
After reading out the resolution at the Profintern’s congress, Swiss cwm activist Rosa Bloch highlighted the importance of acting on the resolution and translating principles into specific actions that would protect the interests of
At the Profintern’s Founding Congress, women were still a tiny minority. Those who attended were mainly women organized within the cwm and coordinated by the iws; though small, they immediately began implementing the goals laid out in the Profintern’s resolutions. However, toward the end of the year, German delegates had to admit that this work had not advanced much. The situation was similar in other countries. Almost a year later, in October 1922, the conference of specially appointed communist women delegates from most European countries that met in Berlin reported certain improvements in trade union work. The reports stated that not only parties but also the trade union press in different countries had begun publishing so-called women’s pages—articles and news items concerning women’s activities. At the same time, the conference had to acknowledge that turning resolutions into reality was a slow process, and in most countries, “comrades have, as yet, hardly embarked on conscious and systematic activity in the trade unions at all, let alone considered a special focus on working women.”26 At the same time, the reporter on the trade union question, Austrian communist Isa Strasser, pointed out successes in specific countries. One of these countries was Bulgaria, where communists controlled almost the entire trade union movement at the time. According to Bulgarian communist Tina Kirkova’s report, the women’s committee within the Bulgarian party closely cooperated and sent its members to trade unions to organize women and fight for their specific demands. The party and its women’s department also formed so-called educational or information groups, which assembled women sympathizers, including members of trade unions. It goes without saying that the international cwm viewed Soviet Russia as the country where women were the most active and effective in the
When the Second Profintern Congress convened in November 1922, Hertha Sturm pointed out the low level of organizing among women. Lozovsky, by that time the head of the Profintern, agreed and urged the Profintern to earnestly take up issues related to women workers.28 However, once again, it was up to the iws (rather than the Profintern) to formulate the specific modes of women’s work within the Red International and, most importantly, to bring the project to life. At a meeting in Berlin in January 1923, the iws worked out a plan for the Profintern’s activism among women workers. The objective was familiar: involving women in all of the proletariat’s political and economic struggles. At the same time, the plan included some very specific, new, and ambitious (for the time) demands such as the abolition of Saturday afternoon work for women; a decrease in the working hours for women agricultural workers, domestic servants, nurses, and other “female professions” not covered by the legislation for industrial workers; the abolition of overtime for women; a reduction of working hours in dangerous and hazardous industries; fourteen fully paid days off; health and accident insurance and allowances; measures to ease the burden of housework for housewives, and the establishment of facilities that would transform housework into collective work such as laundries, canteens, etc. by employers; day care and school facilities for children and youth; sixteen weeks of maternity leave; a six-hour working day for nursing mothers and breaks to breastfeed at the workplace; and the creation of special inspections to ensure employer compliance with these measures. Communist women demanded equal pay for equal work and the abolition of take-home work for fully employed women workers.29 Lozovsky again spoke of the need to engage women in trade union work at the Third Profintern Congress held in July 1924. The resolution on women worked out by the congress integrated most of the demands formulated during the cwm’s meeting in Berlin, adding
For the next few years, the iws remained the major body charged with the implementation—as far as possible—of the decisions of the Profintern. It was only in 1928, just before the Profintern’s Fourth Congress, that the Red International itself established a special women’s committee within its structures.32 At the beginning of 1928, the Comintern was about to take the “Left Turn”—a new policy strategy formulated in late 1927 and adopted by the Sixth Congress of the Comintern convened in Moscow from 17 July through 1 September 1928. The new policy prohibited communists around the world from collaborating with reformist labour unions and social democratic organizations and, thus, directly targeted Profintern activities.33 Moreover, this meant that communists within trade unions were to mobilize and radicalize in order to unmask social democrats and reformists.34 Greater mobilization implied better organized and disciplined structures, which pushed the Profintern to set up a number of new secretariats, first to lead trade union work in colonial and semicolonial countries and contexts—a Pan-Pacific Secretariat, a Latin American Trade Union Confederation (Confederación Sindical Latinoamericana), and an International Trade Union Committee for Negro Workers. Women were also included in the plans for organizational expansion envisioned in the Left Turn. In February 1928, a special (at first temporary) body was created within the Executive Committee of the Profintern specifically to work among women.35
At the beginning, the new permanent body, which was called the International Trade Union Committee of Women Workers of the Profintern (itucwwp), had representatives from Britain, the United States, China, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Italy, Poland, Norway, the ussr, and Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia.36 In cooperation with the iws, the Lenin School in Moscow,37 the Soviet All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, as well as the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (cpsu), the itucwwp developed a resolution regarding women workers for the Fourth Congress of the Profintern. In line with “Left Turn” rhetoric, this resolution blamed reformist unions (including social democratic ones, which would soon be called “social-fascist” unions by Comintern members) for “the weak organization of women workers” and for “sidetracking them from the questions of the class struggle.”38 It nevertheless recognized its own deficiency, admitted that the work done by the Profintern among women had been insufficient, and appealed to its members “to extend it as far as possible,” declaring that such work was “one of the fundamental tasks” of the rilu.39 The resolution encouraged the integration of women into Profintern structures at every level and promoted women as trade union leaders. Moreover, admitting that many male Profintern members “underestimated the importance of women’s work,” it suggested resorting to “special explanatory propaganda efforts” to spell out to members the importance of women’s labour and trade union organizing.40
As a part of the Profintern’s Executive Committee, the itucwwp could (or at least hoped to) have access to greater resources, both financial and human. It planned to collect very detailed information about the situation of women workers in different countries and designed pamphlets for different countries that outlined a concrete plan for organizing among working women. As part of the Red Unions Executive, the woman’s body also believed that several points on the agenda that were related to the work being done among women and by women were to be integrated into the “Thesis of the Agitprop [agitation and propaganda] Department” of the Profintern and, in accordance with the Fourth Congress’s resolution, expected national Profintern sections to issue a special mass paper for women. The new work plan also included sending special instructors from the Soviet Union to work with women in trade unions in other countries.44
2 “Completely Sabotaged by the Central Trade Union Department”: Rank-and-File vs. Leaders and Women vs. Men in the Profintern
The leadership of Profintern sections and parties, which was overwhelmingly male, were to encourage and support women’s efforts within their structures in all possible ways, an approach in line with all the resolutions of Profintern congresses and with other Profintern programmatic documents. In reality, support and cooperation, or even the coordination of efforts, had been highly contentious issues from the very beginning of the Profintern.
Attitudes within the Profintern, in fact, reflected the broad sexism of and prejudice against women on the part of men comrades within the communist movement, which has been discussed in a number of historical studies on the complex gender dynamics within communist parties in the Soviet Union as well as in other (national) contexts.46 This was one of the questions the cwm discussed at all of its meetings, and women delegates made impassioned
Within the Profintern, the case of the communist trade union movement in Poland is both revelatory and relevant. In a report to the itucwwp dated July 1928, the Polish trade union delegate comrade Kalina mentioned the significant presence of women employed in the industrial and agricultural sectors of the country.47 Indeed, according to Kalina, women constituted 35 percent of the workforce. In the textile industry, they represented 60 percent of all workers, and in tobacco industry, up to 90 percent. Kalina reported that women earned only 60 percent of men’s wages and worked ten to sixteen hours a day, often in hazardous and toxic conditions. Legislation protecting women (such as prohibitions on women’s night work, the protection of motherhood, and employer-provided day care facilities) existed only on paper. In short, there was much work to be done to remedy Polish women workers’ deplorable conditions. And yet, Kalina stated, work among women in trade unions was deficient even in those unions where communists were influential. She explained this by pointing to the lack of contact and coordination between the trade union department of the communist party and the party’s women’s section on both the national and local levels, except in a few locations such as Łódź. Kalina complained that a number of important campaigns including the fight for maternity protections and the celebration of International Women’s Day were “completely sabotaged by the central trade union department [of the Party].”48 Despite the women’s section’s demands and complaints to the Central Committee of the party, she argued, the trade union department’s inaction persisted as far as work among women was concerned. During the first half of 1928, the department had sent a representative to a women’s section meeting only once. While women hoped that this would be the start of true coordination, in reality, such collaboration remained unrealized.
Despite the fact that Polish women workers were active and effectual in strikes—and for this the itucwwp praised them on a number of occasions—it
The Polish case was not unique, of course. Similar reports came from Austria, where “prejudices against women” were still strong.51 Even the Central Council of the Profintern had to recognize “insufficient interest directed toward the work of women’s trade union commissions” in France, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia.52 At its regular meeting held in May 1929, the central secretariat of the itucwwp emphasized the importance of coordinating the work of the ec of the Profintern, the iws, the Lenin School, and the Communist
What can one say about workers that scowl with disdain when women are elected to factory and plant committees […] and who think that womankind is not ready to assume elected office or leadership? […] This does not mean there are no instructions and directives that urge women’s involvement in trade union work. There are more than enough resolutions, statements, and directives. The problem is that our organizations do not carry them out. It is time to do away with this vicious situation.54
Comrade Asher, who represented Britain, then spoke about the strength of such tendencies within the British branch of the Profintern and even maintained that women workers could only find support from women leaders.55
This situation resulted in the creation of a special commission to “examine” the itucwwp, which assembled representatives of the latter, as well as the Comintern and the Soviet All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. Comrade Gerber, representing the itucwwp, spoke about the unsatisfactory work of the Women’s Committee due to scarce financial and human
At its Sixth session held in December 1929, the Central Council of the Profintern returned to the “woman question.” Its resolution on the topic was somewhat contradictory. While noting the important role played by women workers in all recent economic disputes, and women’s independent role in initiating many strikes (including the Czechoslovakian miners’ strike in Kladno, as well as strikes in the United States, Japan, France, China, and in British colonies), the Central Council declared that the fundamental reasons for the weak organization of women workers were the “treachery of the reformist unions”; “the general political backwardness of women workers”; and “the lack of systematic activities among the women on the part of rilu,” i.e., the Profintern.59 According to the resolution, only Germany could boast of some progress, but even there, women were rare among leaders of red trade union organizations.
3 Afterword and Conclusion
Research on women in the Comintern has noted the deradicalization of the cwm from the mid- to late 1920s. Elizabeth Waters has argued that by the end of the 1920s, “the movement’s aim was no longer the advancement of women but their mobilization for the advancement of the Comintern.”61 The movement became weaker as the Comintern downgraded the iws from a semi-autonomous body to a department of the Executive Committee. Scholars have attributed this weakening and subsequent de-radicalization to the Comintern’s Left Turn, brought about by the rise of the Stalinist system in the Soviet Union; the cpsu’s domination of the international communist movement; as well as the increasing centralization of the Comintern’s apparatus.62 These interpretations reveal important truths about the history of the cwm. By the mid-1930s, the cpsu would become a major—although not omnipotent—decision-maker within the Comintern. Simultaneously, in the Soviet Union, there was a revival of the old conservatism that led to significant retreat as far as women’s rights were concerned—the most important of which were, perhaps, the closure of the Zhenotdel in 1930 and the re-criminalization of abortion in 1936. The Soviet retreat from its emancipatory agenda would indeed affect the cwm, both its international apparatus and the national communist parties. Moreover, shifts in Soviet Foreign policy and, perhaps more importantly, the adoption of the Popular Front policy by the Comintern significantly affected the work of women. The Comintern then sought alliances with a very broad spectrum of antifascist political movements, including center-left and even bourgeois forces, and tried to avoid antagonizing potential allies with a radical gender agenda. Consequently, the Comintern’s women’s agenda was often revised and deradicalized for the sake of unity with more traditional (in terms of gender) political forces within the mass Popular Front movement. The search for a broad alliance with “all women,” which then became a major element of the cwm’s strategy, meant the adoption of a weaker gender agenda that would
National women’s sections, however, continued to function in most communist parties. And women involved in these sections continued the struggle for women’s rights on the national and local levels. During the interwar period, communist women advocated for the creation of broader non-party women’s organizations that would appeal to wider audiences. In Norway, communist women established the Housewives Organization, which assembled non-party working-class housewives. Until the late 1930s, this organization engaged in efforts related to everyday women’s demands such as solutions to housing problems, unemployment, food prices, and the legalization of abortion. The Norwegian “Mothers’ Clinics,” established in 1924 as a collaborative effort by three socialist parties, were active throughout the interwar period. In Denmark, up until 1934, the Working Women’s Association—the women’s organization of the Communist Party—fought for gender equality in civil rights, in the workplace, and in the home.63
Although it was also an auxiliary organization of the Comintern, the Profintern followed a slightly different path. The rilu started genuinely supporting women only in spring 1928, when the International Trade Union Women Workers Committee was founded as part of the Profintern’s Executive Committee. The turn coincided and was arguably encouraged by the Comintern’s “Left Turn” and the increased competition between the Profintern and the iftu over women workers. Women still faced numerous difficulties after the body was established: the lack of support on the part of trade union leadership, discrimination against women’s separate organizations, and ordinary sexism. That said, women in the Profintern were reluctant to ignore these difficulties. On the contrary, they pushed the Profintern leadership to fight against such attitudes within its ranks and effectively promoted their specific agenda.
The itucwwp was rather short-lived. With the Comintern’s adoption of the Popular Front policy, the Profintern became an obstacle to trade union unity. The new strategy called for the coordination of efforts among all trade unions, including reformist ones. In early 1936, the Profintern was transformed into a department of the Comintern’s Executive Committee. Its major task was now to achieve the unification of different trade union organizations, not to be an alternative international revolutionary union. Accordingly, all parts of
The name (Communist Women’s Movement) was not an official term and is rarely used in the Comintern’s documents. But this was how communist women commonly spoke of it. See, for example, Riddell 2012, 838.
Ruthchild 2010; Alpern-Engel 2003; Scheide 2001; Clements 1997 and 1979; Wood 1997; Goldman 1996 and 1993; Elwood 1992; Farnsworth 1980; Porter 1980.
Sewell 2012; Bard 2011; Hunt and Worley 2004; Bard and Robert 1998; Gibson 1998; Grossmann 1998; Weitz 1997.
Studer 2021, 2015a and 2015b; Bayerlein 2007 and 2006; Marie 2003; Waters 1989; Carr 1964.
Zimmermann 2021, 218–225.
Ghodsee 2016, 2014, 2012; Zheng 2016, 2010, 2005; De Haan 2012, 2010; Zimmermann 2010.
Partridge 2012; Einhorn, 2010; Brunnbauer 2009; Jancar 1978.
Ghodsee 2016, 115.
Riddell 1991, 988–990.
During the Civil War, some 60,000 women fought as combatants; almost 2,000 died in combat or were taken prisoner. In addition, 20,000 women served as Red Nurses, and 30,000 were performing administrative work.
“Заседание второй конференции коммунисток” [Meeting of the Second Conference of Communist Women], Стенограмма первого дня второй международной конференции коммунисток [Minutes of the first day of the Second Conference of the cwm], 9 June 1921, f. 507, op. 1, d. 3, ll. 6–7, Российский государственный архив социально-политической истории [Russian State Archive for Socio-Political History] (hereafter rgaspi), Moscow, Russia.
Alexandra Kollontai was one of the leaders of the Workers’ Opposition in the Soviet Communist Party at the time. This opposition emerged in 1920 as a fraction within the cpsu that opposed what it perceived as over-bureaucratization of the party and urged the transfer of economic management to trade union organizations. Kollontai presented her views at the Comintern’s Third Congress. See Riddell 2015, 679–682.
“Отчет о формах и методах коммунистической работы среди женщин” [Report on forms and methods of communist work among women], Стенограмма третьего дня второй международной конференции коммунисток [Minutes of the third day of the Second Conference of the cwm], 12 June 1921, f. 507, op.1, d. 6., l. 62. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Отчет о формах и методах коммунистической работы среди женщин” [Report on forms and methods of communist work among women], Minutes of the third day, 12 June 1921, f. 507, op. 1, d. 6., l. 63. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
Riddell 2015, 1028–1029.
Tosstorff 2004, 348–421.
The 1918 Labour Code also provided at least one paid 30-minute break every three hours to feed a baby, factory rest facilities for working mothers, free pre- and post-natal care and allowances. See Sazhina 2013; Kiselev 2010; Goldman 1993, 52.
The International Federation of Trade Unions (also known as the Amsterdam International) was an international organization of trade unions founded in 1919. The organization had close ties with the Socialist International.
Taber (forthcoming).
Sturm 1922, 662.
“Стенограмма восьмого заседания третьей сессии Центрального совета Профинтерна” [Minutes of the eighth sitting of the third session of the Central Council of the Profintern], July 1923. f. 534, op. 2, d. 9, l. 21. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
Tosstorff 2004, 577 and 579.
“Тезисы и письмо МЖК в Берлине о революционной профсоюзной работе среди работниц, отправленное исполкому Профинтерна” [Theses and letter of the iws in Berlin on revolutionary trade union work among women workers sent to the ec of the Profintern], “Стенограмма заседания Международного женского комитета (МЖК) в Берлине” [Minutes of the meeting of the iws in Berlin], January 1923, f. 534, op. 3, d. 52, ll. 15–26. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Проекты резолюций, резолюции и обращения к Третьему Конгрессу Профинтерна” [Projects of resolutions and resolutions, addresses of the 3rd Congress of the Profintern], Тезисы о работе среди женщин [Theses on work among the women], July 1924, f. 534, op. 1, d. 44. l. 66. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
Zimmermann 2021 has outlined this turn in the politics of the Profintern (using printed and non-Russian language sources).
International developments in 1926–1927 seemed to confirm the new analysis. In 1927, the Chinese revolution suffered a serious setback that led to the systematic extermination of the Chinese communists. Britain severed its ties with the Soviet Union. Austrian Social Democrats ignored a call for a general strike by communists in Vienna in the summer of 1927. In the autumn of the same year, British trade unionists dissolved the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee. The reformist and moderate Left appeared to turn its back on the “Reds.” The radicalization of the international communist movement seemed inevitable and imperative.
McDermott and Agnew 1996, 71–74.
“Стенограммы заседаний, отчеты, планы и другие материалы Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна” [Minutes of meetings, reports, plans and other materials of the itucwwp]. Стенограмма первого заседания [Minutes of the first meeting], 12 April 1928, ll. 1–2, f. 534, op. 3, d. 360. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Воззвание к работницам всего мира” [Appeal to working women of the whole world], 5 May 1928, l. 28. f. 534, op. 3, d. 360. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
The Lenin school was founded by the Comintern in 1926 to teach Marxist-Leninist theory and Soviet history to foreign communist militants and instruct them on activism in their countries.
“Проекты резолюций и резолюции Четвертого Конгресса Профинтерна. Резолюция о работе среди работниц” [Draft resolutions and resolutions of the Fourth Congress of the Profintern. Resolution on work among women workers], April 1928, f. 534, op. 1, d. 81, ll. 171–172. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Проекты резолюций и резолюции Четвертого Конгресса Профинтерна. Резолюция о работе среди работниц” [Draft resolutions and resolutions of the Fourth Congress of the Profintern. Resolution on work among women workers], April 1928, f. 534, op. 1, d. 81, l. 172. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Резолюция о работе среди женщин” [Resolution on work among women workers], April 1928, rgaspi, f. 534, op. 1, d. 81, l. 176 and 177. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Резолюция о работе среди женщин” [Resolution on work among women workers], April 1928, f. 534, op. 1, d. 81, l. 173. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia. See also Zimmermann 2021, 122.
“Воззвание к работницам всего мира” [Appeal to working women of the whole world], 5 May 1928, f. 534, op. 3, d. 360, ll. 27–28. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Воззвание к работницам всего мира” [Appeal to working women of the whole world], 5 May 1928, f. 534, op. 3, d. 360, l. 28. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Стенограммы заседания Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна 15 сентября” [Minutes of the meeting of the itucwwp on 15 September 1928], ll. 3–4; “Стенограммы заседания Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна 13 ноября” [Minutes of meeting on 13 November 1928], ll. 14–16. f. 534, op. 3, d. 360. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Резолюция о работе среди женщин” [Resolution on work among women workers], April 1928, f. 534, op. 1, d. 81, l. 175. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
Studer examines the masculinist culture that limited most Comintern women’s career opportunities and maintained the sexual double standard for men and women (Studer, 2015b). Anne E. Gorsuch (1996) and Seth Bernstein (2017) have looked into complexities of gender relations within the Soviet Komsomol, and more broadly among Soviet youth. Susan Zimmermann (2010), in her article on state socialism and gender in post-Second World War Hungary, discussed the tendency to reduce direct attacks on the privileged position of men promoted by the state. The 2016 Aspasia “Forum” also examined the issue of male resistance to women’s activism in socialist countries during Cold War era (De Haan 2016). Wang Zheng discussed the fierce opposition of the male-dominated Communist Party leadership to women’s rights activists’ struggles in post-World War Two China (Zheng 2016).
“Отчет делегата Польши Калиной” [Report by Kalina, Poland], July 1928, f. 534, op. 3, d. 360, ll. 92–96. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Report by Kalina, Poland,” July 1928, f. 534, op. 3, d. 360, l.95. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Report by Kalina, Poland,” July 1928, f. 534, op. 3, d. 360, l.96. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Отчет о профсоюзной работе среди работниц в Польше” [Report on trade union work among women workers in Poland]. Стенограммы собраний, резолюции, отчеты о работе среди женщин в Австрии, Британии, Польше, США, в странах Дальнего Востока и другие материалы Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна. [Minutes of meetings, resolutions, reports on activities among women in Austria, Britain, Poland, USA, in countries of the Far East and other materials of the itucwwp], 1 May 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, ll. 91–92; “Отчет центрального женского секретариата КПП” [Report of the Central Women’s Secretariat of the cpp], Отчеты и письма Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна ЦК КПП о работе среди женщин [Reports and letters of the itucwwp to the cc of the Communist Party of Poland on Work among Women], November 1928 to April 1929, f. 534, op. 7, d. 429, ll. 13–14. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Отчет о работе в Австрии” [Report on work in Austria], March 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 30. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Работницы в экономической борьбе и задачи революционного профсоюзного движения” [Women workers in the economic struggle and tasks of revolutionary trade union movement], Тезисы и резолюции шестой сессии Центрального Совета Профинтерна [Theses and resolutions of the Sixth Session of the Central Council of the Profintern], December 1929, f. 534, op. 2, d. 55, ll. 50–55. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Заседание секретариата Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна” [Meeting of the Secretariat of the itucwwp], 22 May 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 4; “План работы Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна, октябрь 1929-январь 1930” [Plan of work of the itucwwp for October 1929 through January 1930], f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 8. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Стенограмма совместного заседания секретариата Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна и делегации иностранных работниц в СССР по случаю празднования двенадцатой годовщины Октябрьской Революции” [Minutes of the joint meeting of the itucwwp and Delegation of Foreign Women Workers to the ussr for the celebrations of the 12th anniversary of the October Revolution], November 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 137. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia.
“Стенограмма совместного заседания секретариата Международного профсоюзного комитета работниц Профинтерна и делегации иностранных работниц в СССР по случаю празднования двенадцатой годовщины Октябрьской Революции” [Minutes of the joint meeting of the itucwwp and Delegation of Foreign Women Workers to the ussr for the celebrations of the 12th anniversary of the October Revolution], November 1929.
“Стенограмма заседания комиссии по Международному профсоюзному комитету работниц Профинтерна” [Minutes of the meeting of the Commission to examine the itucwwp], 14 November 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 14.
“Стенограмма заседания комиссии по Международному профсоюзному комитету работниц Профинтерна” [Minutes of the meeting of the Commission to examine the itucwwp], 14 November 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 14.
“Стенограмма заседания комиссии по Международному профсоюзному комитету работниц Профинтерна” [Minutes of the Meeting of the Commission to examine the itucwwp], 14 November 1929, f. 534, op. 3, d. 449, l. 15.
Резолюция “Работницы в экономической борьбе и задачи революционного профсоюзного движения” [Resolution “Women Workers in the Economic Struggle and Tasks of Revolutionary Trade Union Movement”] December 1929, f. 534, op. 2, d. 55, ll. 50–55. rgaspi, Moscow, Russia. See also Zimmermann 2021, 221–224 (who, while referring to the decision to establish the itucwwp in 1928, gives the end of 1929 as date of the formal foundation of the Committee, a date based on published sources).
Tosstorff 2004, 769.
Waters 1989, 51.
For more information on communist and left-wing women’s movements in Norway, Denmark, and Germany, see Blom 1998; Christensen 1998; and Grossmann 1998.
Tosstorff 2004, 805.
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