Between 1907 and 1917, the League for Women's Equal Rights was the most important feminist organization in Russia. Like the Russian Women's Mutual Philanthropic Society, it was focused on education and social welfare, but it also pushed for equal rights for women, including suffrage, equal inheritance, and an end to passport restrictions. The 1917 Revolution, catalyzed in part by women workers' demonstrations, generated a surge of membership in the organization. In the same year, because of the society's continued lobbying, Russia became the first major world power to grant women the right to vote. Vladimir Lenin, who led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution, recognized the importance of women's equality in the Soviet Union they established. "To effect [woman's] emancipation and make her the equal of man," he wrote in 1919, two years after the Revolution, following the Marxist theories that underlaid Soviet communism, "it is necessary to be socialized and for women to participate in common productive labor. Then woman will be the equal of man."
In practice, Russian women saw massive gains in their rights under Communism. Women's suffrage was granted. Abortion was legalized in 1920, making the Soviet Union the first country to do so; however, it was banned again between 1936 and 1955. In 1922, marital rape was made illegal in the Soviet Union.[15] Generous maternity leave was legally required, and a national network of child-care centers was established. The country's first constitution recognized the equal rights of women.
he Soviet government of the Russian Soviet Republic decriminalized homosexuality in December 1917, following the October Revolution and the discarding of the Legal Code of Tsarist Russia.
The legalization of homosexuality was confirmed in the RSFSR Penal Code of 1922, and following its redrafting in 1926. According to Dan Healey, archival material that became widely available following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 "demonstrates a principled intent to decriminalize the act between consenting adults, expressed from the earliest efforts to write a socialist criminal code in 1918 to the eventual adoption of legislation in 1922."
Between 1907 and 1917, the League for Women's Equal Rights was the most important feminist organization in Russia. Like the Russian Women's Mutual Philanthropic Society, it was focused on education and social welfare, but it also pushed for equal rights for women, including suffrage, equal inheritance, and an end to passport restrictions. The 1917 Revolution, catalyzed in part by women workers' demonstrations, generated a surge of membership in the organization. In the same year, because of the society's continued lobbying, Russia became the first major world power to grant women the right to vote. Vladimir Lenin, who led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution, recognized the importance of women's equality in the Soviet Union they established. "To effect [woman's] emancipation and make her the equal of man," he wrote in 1919, two years after the Revolution, following the Marxist theories that underlaid Soviet communism, "it is necessary to be socialized and for women to participate in common productive labor. Then woman will be the equal of man."
In practice, Russian women saw massive gains in their rights under Communism. Women's suffrage was granted. Abortion was legalized in 1920, making the Soviet Union the first country to do so; however, it was banned again between 1936 and 1955. In 1922, marital rape was made illegal in the Soviet Union.[15] Generous maternity leave was legally required, and a national network of child-care centers was established. The country's first constitution recognized the equal rights of women.
he Soviet government of the Russian Soviet Republic decriminalized homosexuality in December 1917, following the October Revolution and the discarding of the Legal Code of Tsarist Russia.
The legalization of homosexuality was confirmed in the RSFSR Penal Code of 1922, and following its redrafting in 1926. According to Dan Healey, archival material that became widely available following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 "demonstrates a principled intent to decriminalize the act between consenting adults, expressed from the earliest efforts to write a socialist criminal code in 1918 to the eventual adoption of legislation in 1922."
Now continue that timeline through Stalin's tenure.