Peasant woman and Soviet power in the Yenisei Province during the New economic policy

Abstract

The authors analyze the work of the Soviet government with peasant women in the Yenisei province during the New economic policy. The collection, systematization, summarization of data and construction of the narrative were carried out on the basis of the problem-chronological method. The historical-genetic method is used to analyze the activities of women's departments from 1920 to 1929, the emphasis is placed on the first, most difficult stage of their creation and the beginning of work (until the mid-1920s), when the Soviet government brought the country out of acute political and economic crisis after the Civil War, intervention and war communism. The historical-systemic method made it possible to consider the work of womens' departments to involve women in social production and political life in the context of the changes taking place in the country and the socio-economic conditions of the Yenisei province. Based on the comparative historical method, the tasks and their practical implementation in the field of womens' issues are compared. It is shown that in the conditions of economic devastation after the First World War and the Civil War, famine, and mass epidemics, the harsh tax policy of the Soviet government among the East Siberian peasantry caused an increase in anti-Bolshevik sentiment. Experience of women's departments working with peasant women in the 1920s showed that without solving urgent economic and social problems of society (mass illiteracy, lack of modern industrial sectors, technical backwardness in agriculture, manual labor, low standard of living, etc.), the transformation of womens' position and their involvement in socio-political life were impossible. It became obvious that this kind of large-scale task could only be solved gradually with an increase in the educational level of the population, the qualifications and professional level of women, and the solution of many everyday issues. All these tasks were related to the need to modernize the state's economy.