How Did Russian Revolution Affect Women's Life After The Bolshevik Revolution

The Bolshevik Revolution played a role of women’s lives in Russia. According to Stites and Rimmel, the Revolution affected the women’s lives positively or not at all. The Soviet women went through phases throughout the Revolution and experienced several difficulties before, during, and after the Revolution. The difficulties included inequality among education, labor, leadership, and a person’s rights overall (Stites 165). Women were basically required to maintain their households and take care of their children while men made the decisions and worked for their families (164). This document argues both sides of how the Revolution improved or did not affect women’s lives. Stites believes that the Revolution started the steps for women to improve their lives, while Rimmel believes the Revolution did not affect women’s lives (163). The Revolution, in my opinion, mostly improved the lives of women but the women did not secure their overall rights. The Soviet women during the Revolution had an idea on how to improve their lives and succeeded to a certain extent but that idea was not fully achieved and is still hard to achieve to this day.

According to Stites, “Before the Revolution, women who chose not to challenge the regime and its entire patriarchal structure but who nonetheless wished to improve the lot of women organized the Russian feminist movement…They worked for women’s rights, not for the rights of peasants or workers, and not on behalf of a socialist vision.” (Stites 165) Here Stites is saying that women made a step towards improving their lives before the Revolution and were only focused on working to get their rights.

He supports his claim by adding the specific group that was created and his claim is persuasive towards his side because of the evidence backing up his claim. His claim seems to be supported by facts and contributes to his

opinion.
“In a series of decrees, codes, electoral laws, and land reforms, the Bolsheviks proclaimed an across-the-board equality of the sexes-the first regime in history ever to do so. Women attained equal status in marriage-including the right to change or retain their own names-divorce, family, and inheritance and equal rights in litigation and the ownership of property.” (Stites 169) In this quote, Stites is stating that the Bolsheviks gave women rights and women were practically equal to men. This claim also offers evidence to which women received some rights during the Revolution by the Bolsheviks, which is persuasive towards Stites’ side of the argument. His claim seems to be supported by facts and enforces his opinion as well.
“These last comprised a class created by the introduction of Lenin’s New Economic Policy in 1921, which allowed a mixed economy, a limited arena of capitalism and hired labor with enclaves of privileged specialists, government leaders, and foreigners. Women were hit very hard by all of this. About 70 percent of the initial job cutbacks that occurred periodically during this period affected women” (Stites 172) This statement from Stites seems to go against his whole argument about how women received rights and improved their lives. This statement makes you begin to question whether Stites’ argument is a valid one or not. This statement makes it seem as if the women lost some of their rights and equality.

“As these books indicate, women in Soviet times were defined as ‘the same as’ or ‘different form’ men according to the current needs of the regime, with gender-specific or gender-neutral policies then applied as the particular situation warranted. Only recently have post-Soviet women begun the difficult but necessary work of claiming agency and making themselves their own first priority.” (Rimmel 173) This claim from Rimmel supports her opinion on the fact that the Revolution did not improve women’s lives. She states that women have just now started taking steps towards making their lives better. She backs her claim up by incorporating a book as her evidence. I believe her claim is somewhat persuasive but she needs more than just that to persuade someone to take her side.
“What did give meaning to most of these women’s lives was a love of work. Only a few of them, when prodded, complained about limited opportunities for women; but even the loyalist Pavlova had to admit that women could not get any further than she had, as head of a department of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Under the personal, economic and political conditions that these women lived through, however, their survival and the survival of their children seems nothing short of miraculous.” (Rimmel 177) Rimmel’s claim here states that it is crazy that women made it under the conditions they had to go through and that women could not make it any further than Pavlova did. Rimmel’s claim is very persuasive in the fact that women had it rough through the Revolution but it still does not rule out the possibility of women taking steps towards bettering their lives. Rimmel’s claim here is more about how bad women had it and how it was nothing short of a miracle that they made it through the Revolution but it does not rule out whether or not women could work to make their lives better during the Revolution.

After reading Stites and Rimmel’s sides on the topic, I believe that Stites is more persuasive and his side is easier to take than Rimmel’s. Throughout the reading, Stites uses many specific details as valid evidence that helps back up his claims and supports his opinion. Stites’ claims are effective because the evidence backing up his claims are believable and persuasive. I believe his claims are valid towards the topic because there seems to be more evidence supporting his side than Rimmel’s side.
Rimmel’s claims are hard to fully believe because they do not have complete evidence to back up them up. Her claims can seem to be effective at first because she used the interviewing of Soviet women in her claims. I believe that her side is not right or wrong but rather her side is on how poorly women were treated and how the women dealt with the conditions they lived under. I think her side is effective but it is not effective on whether the Revolution improved the lives of women or not. I think she took her opinion and it is used to form an opinion that says women did not get anywhere improving their lives during the Revolution when really her side is focusing on how women struggled.
In my opinion, I believe the Bolshevik Revolution did in fact improve the lives of women but not forever. Going off of Stite’s claims and the evidence he has, I believe that women did prepare to take steps to better their lives before the Revolution and then when the Revolution began, the women did what was necessary to earn their rights. I also believe that when the Revolution was over, the women were treated how they were before the Revolution to a certain extent and lost some of the rights and equality they thought they had gained. There is no doubt in my mind that women had to go through many difficulties and unfairness to obtain what they thought was equality but I do not believe that they obtained full equality.
My opinion on Rimmel’s side is that she is not right or wrong. I believe that she thinks that women were put under such conditions that made it impossible for them to improve their lives. I do not think that it was impossible for women to improve their lives during the Revolution; I think it was very hard for them to improve their lives with the circumstances they were living with.
Going off the evidence in the text, my opinion is that the Revolution did improve women’s lives, and then women lost some of what they gained when the Revolution ended. I believe that the women in Russia during this time set an example for Russian women in the future to stand up for themselves and fight for their rights and equality. It is hard to say that Stites or Rimmel’s side is entirely correct because I think there is some truth to both of their sides but if I had to take a side, I would take Stites’. I agree with what he believes the Revolution did for Russian women. In my opinion, the Revolution set an example for women in the future because it improved women’s lives during the Revolution even with the harsh rules the women lived under. I think to this day it is still hard for women in Russia to earn full equality but I think it is easier for women now than it was during the Revolution and that is what is used as motivation for the Russian women today.
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