S. Iakopov. The Struggle against Offenses Rooted in the Traditional Way of Life (May 1930)

Original Source: Revolutsiia i natsionalnosti, No. 4-5 (1930), pp. 58-70.

By 'traditional' offenses we understand such acts of individual representatives of the population, being survivals of the past, as are in themselves socially dangerous and therefore must be fought.

In these or similar terms do some of our contemporary jurists define "traditional" (1) offenses.

It is at once obvious that such a definition is based on a purely formal method of thought which is alien to the proletarian conception of life. In the first place, it does not specify the most essential feature of "traditional" crimes--their class character. Secondly, by this very omission, it obscures the political significance of the struggle against "traditional" crimes. Therefore we consider the explanation of the Plenary Assembly of the Supreme Court of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (May 21, 1929) to be most timely and correct. This direction recommends "when investigating a case, to expose as fully as possible the social and class setting of the parties and their economic position."

This explanation of the Plenum of the Supreme Court also adopts a well-defined class attitude with regard to kalym (payment of ransom for a bride), as is shown by the following passage:

Taking into account the fact that kalym, as a means of obtaining possession of a woman (her labor power) generally expresses a class interest, and that this practice is directed essentially against the interests of agricultural laborers and small peasants, we instruct the courts to take a strong line in the fight against kalym, giving, of course, due consideration to the special circumstances of each case.

There can be no disagreement about the fact that the abolition of "traditional" crimes requires first and foremost an uprooting of those basic conditions which produce them. The economic inequality of women (especially, amongst others, in our national republics and regions such as Azerbaijan, Bashkiria, and Kazakhstan), religious and customary prejudices (shariat) (2) and adat (3)), cultural backwardness-all these conditions still give rise to "traditional" offenses in our national regions.

At a time when the socialist offensive is developing on all fronts, the class enemies (the clergy and the big landowners in the forefront) avail themselves of every opportunity to preserve the existing social and economic relations on the basis of shariat and adat.

The measures taken by the Soviet State to promote the emancipation of women provide first and foremost for the recruitment of women into industry, the creation of special producers' co-operatives (artels) for women and of special Women's Institutes (e.g., the well-known Ali Bairanova Women's Club in Azerbaijan), the extension of a network of nursery schools, hospitals and canteens, easier access for Eastern women to schools and other cultural and educational institutions, the allotment of special funds to the Commissions for the Improvement of the Working and Living Conditions of Women, and so on.

For instance, we must place on record the extraordinary extent to which the land and water reforms in the Republics of Central Asia have contributed to the emancipation of women.

Although Associations for the Joint Cultivation of the Land (4) are at present recognized as the main forms of kolkhoz economy in our Eastern Republics, the collectivization of village economy must nevertheless have introduced considerable changes in the habits of life. As kolkhoz economy develops and passes into higher forms (Artel and Commune), the background which produces "traditional" crime will accordingly die out. We must point out, however, that this process takes some considerable time.

Soviet legislation, in its struggle for the emancipation of Eastern women, does not confine itself solely to measures of an economic and cultural character.

Side by side with these measures, Soviet legislation provides a number of punitive sanctions, without which the struggle against Survivals of tribal life must be and remain ineffective.

As a logical consequence of the principal postulates of Soviet legislation in the early years of the revolution establishing the equality of women, criminal responsibility was established for the violation of women's rights, in the Penal Codes of our National Republics (the Penal Codes of the RSFSR for its Autonomous Republics and Regions and the Penal Codes of the Uzbek, Tajik, Azerbaijan, Armenian and Georgian Soviet Socialist Republics).

On October 16, 1924, the Government of the RSFSR passed a law in pursuance of its struggle against "traditional" offenses in the Autonomous Republics and Regions. This law applied to the Autonomous Republics of Kirghizia, Turkestan and Bashkiria and was later extended to the Oirot, Kalmyk, Karachaev, Abzharian, and Kabardinian-Balkar Autonomous Regions. Later still, this statute was extended to various autonomous units on the North Caucasian Border. This statute of the RSFSR made special provision for each of these Autonomous Republics and Regions for those kinds of "traditional" offenses which occurred in their respective territories.

Subsequently, the second session of the twelfth Election Period of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (April 16, 1928) deemed it necessary to consolidate all the individual enactments of the RSFSR Government in its struggle against "traditional" offenses hitherto promulgated for the various Republics and Regions, into a single legislative act of the RSFSR, designed for all the national units where survivals of tribal life still exist. This decision is reflected in the Penal Code of the RSFSR in the form of a special chapter, entitled: "Offenses representing survivals of tribal life." The measures of social protection provided for "traditional" offenses in the first decree of the Government of the RSFSR (October 16, 1924) had in various cases been more severe than those contained in the decree passed in 1928. Thus, for instance, imprisonment not exceeding five years was the measure of social protection for compelling a woman to marry against her will, especially by way of kalym (payment of ransom).

The wording of the decree for the Bashkir Autonomous SSR was somewhat different, but the measures of social protection were the same, that is to say imprisonment not exceeding five years. It should be mentioned that the first decree of the Government of the RSFSR gave special consideration to such kinds of "traditional" Offense as abduction and compelling a woman to marry. Abducting a woman on reaching marriageable age preliminary to marrying her against her will, was also punished by imprisonment not exceeding five years.

In principle, the terms of imprisonment imposed for any particular offense are rather less important than the fact that our legislation recognizes practices of this kind as being punishable and applies to them adequate measures of social protection, although this does not mean that it is of indifference to the legislator how many years should be given for any particular offense. But it is most important that the legislator should determine the range of practices which, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, are to be considered as socially dangerous, and, on that ground, as punishable.

In the case of socially dangerous persons and of class enemies the legislation of the USSR ordains confiscation of property by the Court as a form of punishment. It thus acknowledges that confiscation by Order of Court should be applied only in cases which are exactly delimited by the law.

In the struggle against the various kinds of "traditional" offense confiscation of property is legalized as a measure of social protection in addition to imprisonment and removal from the bounds of a given locality.

Such measures may be applied, for instance, against a person who belongs to the clan of the victim of a murder and declines to be reconciled with the murderer and his clan as laid down by local statutes relating to conciliatory proceedings, and also against persons who obstruct such a reconciliation. This kind of crime assumed very ugly forms at times in our national Regions, inflicting great economic damage and preventing our local organs from getting on with their proper task of building up socialism. For this reason, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR accepted the arguments of the USSR Government and decided to apply confiscation of property, either wholly or partly, to crimes of this kind which represent a survival of tribal life.

In the years 1926-27, abduction of women was the most widely spread of all these crimes in our national Regions. Sixty-six cases out of 155, or 42 per cent, were cases of abduction. (See Table 1.)

TABLE 1. Convictions for Cases of Traditional Offenses in 1926-1927

One cannot but agree with the opinion of the Commissions for the Improvement of the Working and Living Conditions of Women, attached to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, that the figures of this table present only an incomplete picture of the extent to which "traditional" offenses occur in the Autonomous Regions. A considerable proportion of these offenses never comes before the Court. This is due, on the one hand, to a lack of initiative on the part of the organs of revolutionary law, and on the other hand to the special nature of "traditional" crimes (a girl who has been raped usually seeks to avoid prosecuting the man who has raped her; she marries him, because under the local conditions of social life it is extremely difficult for a victim of rape to marry any other man).

We have not yet got the full figures for all these Autonomous Regions during the year just ended. But the evidence for the various Regions for 1928-9 indicates that instances of abduction of women (some forms of kalym) still occur. Thus, for instance, during the year just ended, 20.8 per cent of all offenses in seven

Autonomous Regions of the RSFSR fell into the category of kalym, 24.5 per cent into that of customary abduction and 46 per cent into that of polygamy. If we examine the distribution of the most widespread offense, polygamy, among the various Republics, it appears mainly as a "privilege" of the Bashkir Republic. Almost 75 per cent of the cases brought before the Courts of the Bashkir Republic were cases of polygamy.

Legislation in the Turkmen SSR against "traditional" offenses did not at first embrace the complete range of such offenses. The first law passed by the third session of the first Election Period of the Central Executive Committee of the Turkmen SSR (October 6, 1926) provided measures of social protection against polygamy, kalym, abuses in connection with divorce amongst the indigenous population, and marrying off a woman below the age of puberty. Later on, the second session the second Election Period passed a final version of the Turkmen

Penal Code which included the laws against "traditional" crimes passed by the third session of the first Election Period, and supplemented these by measures against other kinds of "traditional" crimes (blood feud, abduction, kaitarma, and so on).

Amongst all the various kinds of "traditional" offense which we have enumerated, kalym is one of the most dangerous and one which demands a special approach. Kalym is a most barbarous and despicable violation of woman's liberty, for it reduces the woman to the position of a chattel. Kalym results in a barbarous and brutal exploitation of the woman. What is more, kalym is a means to illegal enrichment. The institution of kalym makes it extremely difficult for small peasants and agricultural laborers to set up house and found a family. Kalym in rural areas enslaves the agricultural laborers and small peasants. Marriage by means of kalym is a special privilege of the clergy, the big landowners, and the kulaks. Finally, kalym is a weapon in the hands of the class enemy by which he tries to prevent the integration of Eastern women into a socialist system. That is why a determined fight against kalym remains one of the most important tasks not only for our judicial and prosecuting organs but for Soviet society as a whole, especially in the national Republics and Regions. Kalym does not always take the form of direct payment for the bride in money or goods: it frequently takes the form of personal services. There was, for instance, an agricultural laborer in the Ak-Daryan district of the Samarkand region whom a woman hired for four years, promising him her daughter in marriage. At the end of these four years she suggested that the laborer should wait for some years longer. The laborer was annoyed at this and brought a suit before the People's Court of the Ak-Daryan district, demanding payment of an adequate amount of money for the four years' service.

In the Syr-Daryan district there occurred a lawsuit based upon the declaration of one Niyas-Badalov, an agricultural laborer who had worked without pay for the farmer Khazanov for about eight years, because Khazanov had promised him his niece in marriage. It was found that Khazanov not only had not kept his promise but at the end of the eight years had paid nothing to worker Badalov.

In the Uzbek Republic, 248 charges of paying kalym were brought before the Courts in 1928.

Polygamy is another and equally dangerous kind of crime representing a survival of tribal life, and it finds a place in the legislation of the Turkmen, Uzbek and other SSRs. Thus, the Uzbek Penal Code establishes criminal responsibility and imprisonment not exceeding five years for everybody who marries without having first dissolved his former marriage. This law is in fact wholly directed against the rich landowners and kulaks, for polygamy under the conditions prevailing amongst the Eastern nationalities is the exclusive privilege of the propertied class. The existence of kalym has its repercussions within the strata of small peasants and agricultural laborers, as it makes possession of an adequate amount of money, goods, livestock or other such property necessary for marriage. Thus the big landowner is in a position to acquire more than one wife; according to shariat, he may have three. Polygamy, like kalym, reduces the woman to a chattel, restricts her liberty and is an insult to her person and dignity. With the exception of those rare instances where the sexual element prevails, polygamy fundamentally pursues the aim of exploiting woman economically. Besides, it is not difficult to imagine what kind of relations will exist between a woman and a husband who has several wives. We have evidence to show that favoritism and quarrels among the wives on this ground lead to hurt feelings, intrigues, bodily injuries and sometimes--rarely, it is true--even to murder.

Polygamy is one of the reasons for the development of kalym.

In 1928 the "traditional" offenses most widespread in the Turkmen SSR were inciting the divorce of a married woman and marrying a minor.

Forty-one cases out of 162 (i.e., 25.31 per cent.) fall within the clause dealing with marrying minors; 52, i.e., 32.11 per cent., within the clause dealing with compelling a married woman to a divorce. The remaining cases fall within the clauses dealing with customary abduction, kalym and so on. One hundred and six people were sentenced to varying measures of social protection for one or the other of these offenses. Eight of the offenders, i.e., 7.55 per cent, were members of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), candidates and members of the Komsomols (Communist Youth Movement). The persons convicted can be divided into the following groups, according to their social position:

TABLE 2. Social Position of Offenders

Unfortunately, the statistics do not show under the heading "peasants" the class characteristics of those who committed "traditional" offenses: whether they were small peasants, middle-class farmers or kulaks.

It is extremely interesting to note the degree of illiteracy among the persons convicted. Only 21 of them, i.e., 19.8 per cent, could read and write, and 85, i.e., 80.2 per cent, were illiterate. These figures suggest that the political and educational work among the peasant masses is extremely ineffective: no real progress has been made in liquidating illiteracy; the legislation against offenses which are survivals of tribal life has not yet been properly explained and popularized.

We must make reference to certain regions and districts where acquittals are the rule. The reasons for this state of affairs are twofold: because there are alien elements among the organs of criminal investigation, and because court officials are insufficiently trained. In the Tashausk district of the Turkmen SSR, for instance, 78 per cent of all cases were brought to court but there was not a single conviction. There can be no doubt that in this instance not only the investigating organs but also the Prosecution were guilty of grave neglect.

The same state of affairs, that is to say a continuous flow acquittals, exists in the Uzbek SSR The investigating organs, of course with the knowledge of the Prosecution, very frequently dismiss cases of "traditional" offenses without giving any reason. For instance, a Commission of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the Uzbek SSR examined the work of the Kashka-Daryan district where the big landowners and the clergy were putting up a strong opposition against women activists; it disclosed that amongst the cases dismissed there was one murder in the village of Zakzav-Bek in the Budinsk district: the mutilated body of one Ravat-Bida Turnova, a girl of 18, was found in a well. The evidence shows that the victim was an activist who worked amongst the women in the village. No proper action was taken to investigate the crime and discover the murderers. The main reason, as established by the Commission, was due to disintegration, to the penetration of elements alien to the Soviet regime into social organizations and to criminal abuse of office. In 1928, for instance, fifty court officials had to be prosecuted.

We must note that the Government and the Courts in Armenia are rather more assiduous in implementing the legislation against "traditional" crimes. The year 1928, as against 1927, showed a considerable increase in the number "traditional" offenses brought to court in Armenia. This increase is to be explained not so much by the growth of criminality but by the greater publicity given to such offenses following on the mobilization of public opinion and the instructions given by the Supreme Court of the Armenian SSR 0ut of 16,752 cases which in 1926 were brought before the Armenian People's Courts, 259, i.e., 1.5 per cent of all criminal cases, were, cases of "traditional" offenses. Eight of the convicted persons were minors of both sexes--192 were men and 26 women. Seven, of the persons convicted were members of the Communist (Bolshevist) Party or of the All-Union Lenin Young Communist. League.

The distribution of convicted persons with regard to their social position is shown in the following tables.

TABLE 3. Social Position of Persons Convicted for "Traditional" Offenses In Armenia

Middle-class farmers thus form the main contingent of those who committed "traditional" offenses.

TABLE 4. Measures of Social Protection Imposed for "Traditional" Offenses

The number of conditional sentences imposed in these cases of "traditional" offenses is considerable.

TABLE 5. Distribution of the Various Kinds of "Traditional" Offense

The Supreme Court of the Armenian SSR gave directions to the local authorities, stressing the necessity of considering in each case the danger to society involved and the frequency of similar cases and to intensify the struggle and to apply measures of social protection accordingly.

We must not omit to place on record the slackness in bringing cases of "traditional" offenses to a decision. This feature, common to nearly all the Autonomous Republics, generally leads to the worst kind of red tape. In many Autonomous Republics and Regions of the RSFSR and in the Turkmen, Uzbek, Armenian and Azerbaijan SSRs, it frequently happens that the judgment in a case is delayed by the court officials for more than six months, although the higher courts and the Public Attorney were ordered to use every means possible to speed up the proceedings in cases of "traditional" offenses.

We have to pay special attention to cases of murder directed against the emancipation of women. Only recently could the assassination of a woman with this motive be construed as a counter-revolutionary crime. Previously, such anti-feminist murders were treated like any other murder in law and in practice, and capital punishment was accordingly not available as a measure of social protection.

The Government of the Socialist Soviet Republics of Uzbekistan and Turkmenia, and later also of the Transcaucasian Federation, petitioned the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to include anti-feminist murder in the category of counter-revolutionary crimes and accordingly to apply the supreme measure of social protection-the death penalty. This question was considered by the Committee for the Improvement of the Working and Living Conditions of Women, attached to the Presidium of the Soviet of Nationalities, by the Presidium of the Soviet of Nationalities of that Central Executive Committee and finally by the Secretariat of the same. On February 16, 1930, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR made the following pronouncement:

In view of the aggravation of the class struggle alike in town and country and of the consequent increase in anti-feminist murders especially among the Eastern nationalities, which murders are thus counter-revolutionary crimes, we direct the Central Executive Committees of the United Republics to rule that where it is established that the murder of a woman was committed because of opposition to the emancipation of women, clause 8 of the statute referring to crimes against the State (counter-revolutionary crimes) may be invoked.

In other words, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR referred this kind of crime to the category of Crimes against the Revolution and sanctioned the application, in serious cases, of the supreme measure of social protection-the death penalty.

During the period of intensified class struggle, especially in the Caucasian and Asiatic villages, there were outbursts of anti-feminist terrorism, particularly in connection with the discarding of the veil and the yashmak.

In Uzbekistan alone, there were 203 cases of anti-feminist murder in 1928. In the first half of 1929, such cases amounted to 165. We must place on record that the actual number of women murdered on political grounds was considerably larger, for there were also many cases which were not investigated. For instance, according to a communiqué; of the Public Attorney, sixty-eight women were murdered in Khorezm in 1928, but only twenty of the murderers came up for trial.

Women members of Soviets were also murdered in the regions of Samarkand, Bergand and Andizhan, and an attempt at murder was made in Khojent, in the Tashkent district. Here the Chairman of the Village Soviet of Dargomsk, one Gaziskhanov, was murdered by assassins hired by the big landowners, because he had worked zealously for the emancipation of women in the village. In this case the clergy had instigated the murder and thus played a major part in the crime.

The clergy and the big landowners were continually fighting the efforts of Soviet legislation to achieve the emancipation of women, and in pursuance of their obstructive aims they availed themselves not only of our internal difficulties but also of various factors in the sphere of foreign policy. In a period when our relations with the Conservative Government of England were strained, and diplomatic relations were broken off, the clergy engaged in strong agitation. They preached in the settlements and villages that the English had severed relations with the Soviet Union and were preparing for war because they disapproved of the fact that women were discarding their veils and yashmaks.

Further, they spread rumors that the recent earthquake in Central Asia was an act of punishment by Allah for the same offenses. In that period, there was also a number of antifeminist murders.

We have previously pointed out that there is a certain amount of corruption among the lower grades of government officials in various localities of the national Regions and that this arises from the presence of alien and disreputable elements.

We have additional evidence to show that similar corruption exists also in other national Republics. In the Amiadlisk daira of the Azerbaijan SSR, for instance, betrothals of girls under age were arranged under the direct protection of local government officials. In this daira, there was also a forced marriage and kalym was received. One shrewd villager married off his daughter three times and each time he received a substantial consideration.

In the Ordubat daira, cases of the following kind were noted: people who knew that the law did not permit minors to be married off, brought to the Registrar's Office instead of the girl of 13 about to be married another woman of 18, or sometimes even of 25.

At an earlier period, marriages were also arranged in quite a number of regions. In the Yaiji settlement of the Ordubat daria, for instance, twenty-five cases were recorded of marriages arranged for girls between 6 and 12. One Fatma Asker-Kizi, the daughter of a woman delegate, arranged a marriage between her daughter, aged 9, and a member of the Komsomol. In all these cases, it took an investigation by an instructor of the Organization of Azerbaijan Communist Women Workers to rouse the attention of the general public and of the local government officials. These facts refer to 1928-9. Similar things occurred in other districts, as late as 1930. All that has been said above convinces us that the religious and customary law (shariat and adat) which existed among the Eastern peoples of the USSR before the Revolution are still to some extent preserved. These traditions obstruct the building up of socialism in the Soviet Union, they stunt the cultural development of these nationalities and delay the recruitment of the large masses of working women into constructive work, for socialism.

Although the Soviet laws about "traditional" offenses and the measures to bring about the emancipation of the Eastern women have been implemented with some success, (7) the significance of these achievements is very considerably diminished by a number of shortcomings.

These defects were fully exposed by the Commission for the Improvement of the Working and Living Conditions of Women attached to the Central Executive Committee of the USSR

The most important shortcomings are as follows:

(1) Soviet legislation has not been sufficiently popularized amongst the great masses of the workers, especially the women.

(2) The courts do not apply sufficiently strong measures of social protection in pursuance of their penal policy. This is true in particular of cases where imprisonment is commuted into compulsory labor at the place of employment, a conditional sentence is imposed, or an acquittal is given.

(3) Legal advisory assistance for women is inadequate.

(4) Proceedings by the organs of justice are slow.

(5) The conservative attitude of officials in the judicial and crime-investigating bodies which has frequently been observed during trials of "traditional" offenses and the not infrequent corruption of some organs of the judiciary by the presence of alien elements.

(6) Inadequate appointment of women to positions in the judiciary.

(7) Both the judicial organs and the various social organizations fail to avail themselves sufficiently of Women's Institutes, Peasants' Clubs, mobile tents and other cultural and educational institutions, nor do they make sufficient use of the Associations of Women Delegates for popularizing the legislation against "traditional" offenses.

In our efforts to remove these defects, better planned and more systematic work for the emancipation of women should take first place. Soviet Trade Unions and Co-operatives ought to give more attention to this work than they now do. The integration of women into the process of production, and the creation of special producers' co-operatives (Artels) constitute a main task of our central and local administrators.

The press, which till now has been almost oblivious of this front, might render great service to the struggle for the emancipation of women. Our judicial organs and social organizations have up to now made extremely little use of mock trials and debates on the subject of women's emancipation and "traditional" crimes. If such trials and debates can be arranged, they may contribute decisively to the struggle against "traditional" offenses. Soviet legislation against crimes which are survivals of tribal life has not yet been disseminated. There is a dearth of popular pamphlets and booklets to explain the history and significance of "traditional" crimes.

The departments of the Soviets dealing with social life can do a great deal of good and useful work in the sphere of protecting women's rights. Experience in many localities shows that departments have achieved a great deal by supervising the correct application of Soviet laws for the emancipation of women. Everything possible must be done to improve the work even further, to bring indigenous women into these departments and to train activist women for this work.

Another problem that must be tackled with greater determination than at present is that of appointing indigenous women from the rural strata of workers, agricultural laborers, small peasants and middle-class farmers to positions in the Courts and in the departments dealing with the investigation and prosecution of crimes. Further, the potentialities of the Boards of Information have not yet been properly realized. In part, this is due to the scarcity of qualified workers and a lack of popular literature. Nevertheless, if even such possibilities as exist were utilized more fully, Boards of Information could be set up in most of the Soviets, Women's Institutes, Peasants' Clubs and the Legal Sections of the Conferences of Women Delegates.

We should point out that the work of Boards of Information amongst the nomad population of the Eastern nationalities of the Soviet Union deserves special attention. It is precisely amongst the nomad population (in Kazakhstan and elsewhere) that tribal life has survived to an extremely high degree. For this reason the setting up of Boards of Information amongst the nomad population will contribute to the emancipation of women.

The clergy and the ministers of religion frequently play part of inspiring and providing an ideology for agitation and propaganda against the measures of the Soviet Government for the emancipation of women. The ministers of religion thus implicate themselves as abettors in "traditional" crimes, and the courts must apply firmer measures against them. In this connection, the social organizations should widely increase their anti- religious work amongst the population, avoiding, of course, a leftish ardor which would only assist the class enemies.

We have previously mentioned the slow procedure in matters of "traditional" crimes. This dilatoriness does not inspire the women victims with faith in the help likely to be forthcoming from our investigating and prosecuting organs. Our social and Trade Union organizations must in cases of need exert pressure upon the crime-investigating organs, at least by means of the press, to speed up the proceedings in cases of "traditional" offenses. An end must be put to all the manifestations of red tape which hinder the quick decision of cases.

What is more, officials who fail to take action against those break the laws safeguarding the rights of women, should be shed for neglect of duty.

Finally, we must devote especial attention to the special work amongst the native women who act as People's Assessors. If possible, special courses of systematically conducted educational conferences should be arranged for them. If all these measures are carried out, the work of fighting crimes representing survivals of tribal life should greatly improve.

The abolition of special departments for Women Workers and Peasants within the Party Committees makes it essential that the Commissions for the Improvement of the Working and Living Conditions of Women attached to the Central Executive Committee of the Union and Autonomous Republics and to the district, provincial and regional Executive Committees should improve to the maximum the quantity and quality of their work in this sphere. These Commissions can cope with these problems only if they can rely on the unfailing assistance of the whole of public opinion in the Party and the Soviet Union.

There can be no doubt that the emancipation of the working woman in the Eastern national Republics of the Soviet Union is intimately dependent on the economic and cultural rebirth of these Republics which will come with the socialist reconstruction of the economy of the peoples in these regions and a revolution in their way of life. Nevertheless, Soviet legislation against crimes representing survivals of tribal life will, if successfully applied, contribute decisively to the emancipation of women, to their integration into production, to socialist economic reconstruction and to the building up of a civilized social life.

Source: Rudolf Schlesinger, ed., Changing Attitudes in Soviet Russia; the nationalities problem and Soviet administration (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1956), pp. 33-44.