Women as a resource of the social contract during the Great Russian Revolution: historical and sociological analysis
Research Article
Acknowledgments
The research was carried out within the framework of the Russian Science Foundation project “The Fate of the social contract in Russia: the evolution of ideas and the lessons of implementation” (project no. 23-18-00093).
How to Cite
Milovanova M.Y. Women as a resource of the social contract during the Great Russian Revolution: historical and sociological analysis. Humanities of the South of Russia. 2024. Vol. 13. No. 3. P. 35-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18522/2227-8656.2024.3.3 (in Russ.).
Abstract
Objective of the research – the representation of women as a social resource of the social contract during the Great Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet gender contract.
The methodological basis of the research. The historical and sociological analysis of the social inclusion of women as a social resource in the process of establishing a new social contract during the Great Russian Revolution was carried out using scientific ideas of the sociology of life, the “society of trauma”, the resource approach, gender sociology, involving statistical data, life stories and their interpretation.
Results of the study. Women are represented as one of the larger gender communities due to the deformation of the age-sex structure to the degree of sharp gender asymmetry due to the irretrievable loss of the male part of the population due to mass deaths in the war and revolutionary events and as a result of the redistribution of social burden resources. In conditions of cardinal changes, increasing uncertainty, chaos, the action of the main internal motivator of a person is natural – the need to "survive" and the launch of adaptive mechanisms, adaptation to the new social order. The opening of the "window of opportunity" of the new social contract in the early years of Soviet power took place against the background of the leveling of the traditional system of division of labor, the social inclusion of women as a labor resource, the growth of women's employment outside the field of private, equal access of women to education and the high dynamics of female literacy. The important components of the social contract along the trajectory of the categories "state" – "women" as the majority of the "people" and part of the "society" (vertical interaction) are identified: the class character of the workers' and peasants' state with the inclusion of the majority in socio-economic transformations and the choice of an alternative for the minority; the incorporation of the political declaration of gender equality in the decisions of government bodies and social policy, the practical implementation of the Soviet project of emancipation of women's subordination as a social resource to the state, their willingness to become a "working class", compliance with the ideological impact of the value orientation of the formation of a "new man", "new woman", high life meanings in people's aspirations – to work for and for of the future, not to remain on the sidelines of historical changes, to prefer to be part of collective transformations, to put public interests above personal ones. The social contract along the trajectory of the categories "people" – women as part of "society" (horizontal interaction) had the character of revolutionary experiments, the transformation of traditional gender relations towards innovation. The gender paradoxes consisted in the coexistence of contradictions between the acquired political rights and the real limitations of the possibilities of action; the acquired freedom of morals and the deep cultural ties of the patriarchal-traditional society; the authorities are aware of the destruction of traditional institutions of family and marriage and a purposeful social policy to protect motherhood and childhood; the ideological formulation of the question of the formation of a "new man", a "new woman", but not a "new man".
Research рerspectives are related to the application of the social dimension of the social contract (OD) for the historical and sociological reconstruction of the role and participation of women in government bodies, in the activities of public associations, the reflection of women's interests in the polyphony of programs of political parties during the Great Russian Revolution, a conservative turn from revolutionary experiments in the context of an aggravation of the demographic situation to the Soviet gender contract of double burden "women-workers, women-mothers" and its reproduction as the main one in the modern national model of gender equality.
Keywords:
social contract, state, social policy, women, interests, needs, gender equality, revolution, opportunities, chances, adaptation, gender contract
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Shevchenko I. O., Shevchenko P. V. Gender characteristics of precarity. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological studies. 2019; 9: 84-95 (In Russ.).
Shelenkova A. I. History of the development of gender equality in Russia. Nauka. Obshchestvo. Gosudarstvo = Science. Society. State. 2021; 3(35): 37-45 (In Russ.).
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Sztompka P. Social change as social trauma. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological studies. 2001; 1-2: 6-16 (In Russ.).
Shubin A. V. The Great Russian Revolution. 10 questions. Moscow. 2017; 46 p. (In Russ.).
Yukina I. I. History of women in Russia: women's movement and feminism. 1850-1920s Materials for bibliography. St. Petersburg. 2003 (In Russ.).
Buckley M. Women and Ideology in the Soviet Union. – Ann Arbor: The Univ. of Michigan Press. 1989.
Kashina M. A., Vasilenko L. A. Fractality of gender relations and the usE of gender resource of the public policy and administration in modern Russia. Woman in Russian Society. 2019; 2: 17-31. DOI 10.21064/WinRS.2019.2.2.
Hirdman H. The Gender System. Ed. by Andreasen et al. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 1991; 187-207.
Berdyaev N. A. Philosophy of freedom. The meaning of creativity. Moscow. 1989; 607 p. (In Russ.).
Volkov Yu. G. Sociocultural traumas of modern Russian society. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological studies. 2022; 3: 13-23 (In Russ.).
Gender examination of Russian legislation. Ed. L. N. Zavadskaya. Moscow. 2001; 255 p. (In Russ.).
Ginsburg L. Ya. Notebooks. Memories. Biographies of famous people. Moscow. 2020; 736 p. (In Russ.).
Dahrendorf R. Modern social conflict. Essay on the Politics of Freedom. Moscow. 2002; 288 p. (In Russ.).
Dreiser T. What did I see in Soviet Russia? Through the eyes of foreigners 1917-1932. Moscow. 1932; 253-265 (In Russ.).
Znaniecki F. Memoirs as an object of research. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological Research. 1989; 1: 106-109 (In Russ.).
Zhiromskaya V. B. After the revolutionary storms: the population of Russia in the first half of the 20s. Moscow. 1996; 154 p. (In Russ.).
Kashina M. A. Gender resource of state policy and management in modern Russia: abstract. dis. ... Dr. Polit. Sci. St. Petersburg. 2018 (In Russ.).
Kollontai A. M. Social foundations of the women's issue. St. Petersburg. 1909; 431 p. (In Russ.).
Kollontai A. Society and motherhood. Petrograd. 1916; 20 p. (In Russ.).
Kollontai A. M. Chronicle of my life. Moscow. 2004; 256 p. (In Russ.).
Kon I. S. Strawberry on a birch tree: Sexual culture in Russia. Moscow. 2010; 606 p. (In Russ.).
Milovanova M. Yu. Gender resources of social changes: on the issue of research methodology. Sotsiologiya v postglobal'nom mire: materialy vserossiyskoy nauchnoy konferentsii, Sankt-Peterburg = Sociology in the post-global world: materials of the All-Russian scientific conference, St. Petersburg. 2022; 639-641 (In Russ)
Milovanova M. Yu. Social policy: sociological aspects of study: textbook. Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennyy gumanitarnyy universitet, Moskva = Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow. 2023. 198 p. (In Russ.).
Miroshnichenko M. I. Contents of the first Soviet gender model in the 1920s. Vestnik Yuzhno-Ural'skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Sotsial'no-gumanitarnyye nauki = Bulletin of the South Ural State University. Series: Social Sciences and Humanities. 2015; 15 (1): 35-42 (In Russ.).
Mozgovaya A. V. Adaptation of women to social changes: resource potential. Zhenshchina v rossiyskom obshchestve = Woman in Russian society. 2023; 2: 47-59 (In Russ.).
Mozgovaya A. V. Adaptation to the risks of transformation processes in Russian society: abstract. dis... doc.soc. Sci. Moscow. 2020 (In Russ.).
Morozov S. D. Men and women of Russia during the First World War: demographic crisis and population losses. Zhenshchina v rossiyskom obshchestve = Woman in Russian society. 2014; 3: 10-20 (In Russ.).
Pushkareva N. L. Russian woman in the family and society of the 10th-20th centuries: stages of history. Etnograficheskoye obozreniye = Ethnographic Review. 1994; 5: 3-17 (In Russ.).
Pushkareva N. L. The gender system in Russia of the 20th century and the fate of Russian women. Novoye literaturnoye obozreniye = New literary review. Vol. 117. Moscow. 2012; 5: 8-24. (In Russ.).
Reisner L. M. Front. 1918-1919. Moscow: Krasnaya Nov. 1924; 130 p. (In Russ.).
Rozhdestvenskaya E. Yu. Biographical method in sociology. Moscow. 2012; 380 p. (In Russ.).
Sidorchuk I. V. “Flapper”, “die neue From” and the Soviet “new woman” of the 1920s: general and special. Semeynoye, zhenskoye, povsednevnoye v istoriko-antropologicheskom izmerenii: Materialy XVI Mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoy konferentsii RAIZHI i IEA RAN, Kostroma = Family, feminine, everyday in the historical and anthropological dimension: Materials of the XVI International Scientific Conference of RAIZH and IEA RAS, Kostroma. 2023; 437-439 (In Russ.).
Sillaste G. G. Social transitions and the formation of a new gender order. Zhenshchina v rossiyskom obshchestve = Woman in Russian society. 2019; 2: 3-16 (In Russ.).
Sorokin P. A. American sexual revolution. Moscow. 2006; 147 p. (In Russ.).
Stites R. The feminist movement and the Bolsheviks: the February and October revolutions of 1917. Gendernaya rekonstruktsiya politicheskikh system = Gender reconstruction of political systems. St. Petersburg. 2003; 301 p. (In Russ.).
Tilly Ch. From mobilization to revolution. Moscow. 2019. 432 p. (In Russ.).
Tikhonova N. E. Resource availability of mass segments of the country's population: state and dynamics in 2008-2020. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskiye i sotsial'nyye peremeny = Monitoring of public opinion: economic and social changes. 2021; 4: 121-138 (In Russ.).
Tolkunova V. N. Women's right and its guarantees. Moscow. 1967; 71-72 (In Russ.).
Toshchenko Zh. T. Sociology of life. Moscow. 2016; 399 p. (In Russ.).
Toshchenko Zh. T. Society of trauma: between evolution and revolution: (experience of theoretical and empirical analysis). Moscow. 2020; 352 p. (In Russ.).
Toshchenko Zh. T. Social contract as a noumenon: experience of sociological comprehension. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological studies. 2023; 6: 3-14 (In Russ.).
Shevchenko I. O., Shevchenko P. V. Gender characteristics of precarity. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological studies. 2019; 9: 84-95 (In Russ.).
Shelenkova A. I. History of the development of gender equality in Russia. Nauka. Obshchestvo. Gosudarstvo = Science. Society. State. 2021; 3(35): 37-45 (In Russ.).
Shtompka P. Sociology. Analysis of modern society: Trans. from Polish by C. M. Chervonnaya. Moscow. 2010; 655 p. (In Russ.).
Sztompka P. Social change as social trauma. Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya = Sociological studies. 2001; 1-2: 6-16 (In Russ.).
Shubin A. V. The Great Russian Revolution. 10 questions. Moscow. 2017; 46 p. (In Russ.).
Yukina I. I. History of women in Russia: women's movement and feminism. 1850-1920s Materials for bibliography. St. Petersburg. 2003 (In Russ.).
Buckley M. Women and Ideology in the Soviet Union. – Ann Arbor: The Univ. of Michigan Press. 1989.
Kashina M. A., Vasilenko L. A. Fractality of gender relations and the usE of gender resource of the public policy and administration in modern Russia. Woman in Russian Society. 2019; 2: 17-31. DOI 10.21064/WinRS.2019.2.2.
Hirdman H. The Gender System. Ed. by Andreasen et al. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. 1991; 187-207.
Article
Received: 05.06.2024
Accepted: 27.06.2024
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Milovanova, M. Y. (2024). Women as a resource of the social contract during the Great Russian Revolution: historical and sociological analysis. Humanities of the South of Russia, 13(3), 35-55. https://doi.org/10.18522/2227-8656.2024.3.3
Section
MODERN RUSSIAN SOCIETY
