The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 24, 1925, Page 14

——— S, ae “Krestianka” [Peasant Woman} in Soviet Russia By MORRIS BACKALL. RESTIANKA” (Peasant Woman) is a magazine issued monthly in Soviet Russia that represents and re- flects the needs, problems, strivings of the woman in the villages of So- viet. Russia. It is a magazine that con- tains articles, short stories, reports, and illustrations, also letters written by the women of the village that are scattered all over the big land that is now consisting of socialist Soviet republics, and forty nine languages are spoken in this land of Communist life and. activity. Who does not know the life of the Russian “Baba” in the former times in the Russian villages? The peasant woman was a slave of slaves. “She worked together. with her husband the mujik in tilling the soil. She raised children, she cooked the meals, spun the cloth, kept the household and was the object of the anger and drunkenness, darkness and beastality of the mujik. The Russian péasant was illiterate, was kept in subjection, worked in a pri- mitive surrounding, and the tragedy of his life was the double tragedy of his wife, who suffered equally as he and diso because of her lower place in “sociéty. She was not considered an equal person, and therefore she felt the beating of her husband and the insult of life in a degree that is hard to imagine, The Soviet government brought equality to the woman in the village, who is not only a worker, but also a mother to children. She keeps in her hands the future generation of the greatest part of the population. “Krestianka,” the magazine for the peasant woman, tells us the story of the new freedom, of the new place that the woman in the village occupies in the life of building up the work- ers’ and peasants’ republics of Soviet Russia. ey ‘He seein the Magazine “Krestian- ka” a report and a photograph of a general convention that was held in Moscow in March of this year of workers among the peasant women. The delegates were simple women of the villages, among them we find Krupskaia and Kalinin. They de- liberated about the problems of the woman in the village, not only how to get her. interested in the Com- munist movement, but first of all, to get her to understand that her Pesition in life is now based on equality in the ecotiomie, political, and cultural spheres. She is not any more the inferior slave of the husband, of the officer -of the village, but she has the right and the privilege to partici- pate in. all Soviets and the elections, that she is equal before the law, that she has the right to stand up against the insults of her husband, of the kulak (rich peasant), or the fac- tory owner. In the report of this convention the active workers in the villages demon- strated the great spirit of awakening that goes on in those little huts” among the poor peasant women in regard to education. Peasant women go to the elections of the village Soviets, put up their eandidates, are elected to these So- viets and spread propaganda for it. They are judges in courts of the vil- ‘lage and village district, they take an interest in education, they feel that as mothers they must be in a position to be able to help their children in their work in schools. The little school houses that are to be found now in a great deal of villages contain a “Lenin corner” decorated with red ribbons, with a little library. Who are the ones who organize those corners? The peasant women. They donate pounds of flour, bushels of wheat, seli it, and for this money they buy the necessary books, magazines for the Lenin corners in the schools of the villages. After a long, day of hard toil on the field, after they put their little children to bed, the peasant women get together in these school houses and study with the teacher that was oceupied all day with the children, or the teacher reads to them the news of the Soviet papers, especially the articles that are connected with their own life, and those that give information how to improve their agricultural activities and their“house and home problems. Celebrations are organized at the openings of these Lenin corners. In “Krestianka” we find very many letters sent in by peasant women. They are coming from Ukrainian villages, from White Russian villag- es, from Caucasia—Cossack. women, These letters represent the: “bit” (mode of life) of thé present village. A revolution goes on in the village, the past did not disappear yet, the hundreds and hundreds of years of darkness, prejudices, illiteracy, domi- nation of priests is yet felt very much. It could not disappear entirely yet, The mujik looks with suspicion when his wife goes to the election of the village or village district Soviets, Many quarrels occur on ac- count of it. The women were ridicul- ed-at the beginning and many peas- ants expressed their disapproval of | the “baba” becoming an equal, but enlightenment changed the situation somehow, the women org&nized meet- ings at which speakers explained the new spirit and position of Soviet Russia. The meetings of women discussed the needs of the life and existence of the village community, so the men began to understand that the differentiation of sex is only art!- ficial in regard to social and economic problems. The women of the Russian villages carries the burden of life as well as the men and ‘in addition, they raise the young generation. The great mystery of the existence of the Russian village was the peas- ant..woman, her energy and her en- durance was the great secret that could keep the village community alive. Now, with her awakening, de- velopment and enlightenment, the Soviet government brings into play an element that will astonish the world with its power and with -its possibilities. . We -read- letters tow peasant women in Soviet Russia, on their dying bed, are asking their children not to call the “pop” (priest) but to make them a red funeral, or how a peasant woman, decides that she has to devote her life in working for her sisters and goes to a large town to study in a workers’ school. The whole village goes out to .give her a send off and everybody is ex- pecting to receive letters of instruc- tion of what to do in order to serve the community in its needs, In “Krestianka” we find also letters that tell us of tragedies in the village of Soviet Russia. The husband comes home in some cases drunk, and still beats his wife. A kosac woman tells in detail that her whole body is cov- ered with wounds and that she went to the court of the district and the judge issued a divorce immediately and divided the belongings in half so the Russian peasant woman of today has a protection against the brutal- ity of those that are yet ignorant of ‘the equal rights the Krestianka enjoys in Soviet republics. The peasant women organizes as- sistance for the poor children of the village that have.no clothes or shoes to go to school. They co-operate with the teacher of the village school, they help in the, building up of the new educational system in their land. They organize nurseries for the suni- mer when they are busy on the field, and the school teacher or thé organ- ization worker is left with the chil- dren, It is remarkable to note the tune of the district and gubernatorial confer- ences that are held of the Russian peasant women, The frank state- ments of their situation demonstrates to us how in Soviet Russia out of ‘the depths of the villages grows a woman that is looking realistically about her position in life. The reports of these conference are full of description how their husbands treat them, what they demand, what they do, and what they hope for their future. There is also short stories in the “Krestianka magazine. to us the yet poor conditions of the Russian villages, but, it is full of heroism and success how these simple people are ready to sacrifice their They picture own pérsonal well-béing for the greater needs of their community. How they look with prejudice at the beginning, at every new person com- ing in their midst, and every new mode of life that is brought in the village, but after finding out the truth about it, they accept it with a religious fervor, The short stories picture to us the new relation to children; the child in the village is ceasing to be a private owned object as well as the woman used to be in these localities. The child is more a communal member, In one of. the steries a peasant meets a little child, a girl, on the field in a cold, winter morning. He recognizes the child and is asking, “Why do you not go to your uncle?” The child does not an- swer but sheds tears, and the peasant understands why the child cannot go back to its uncle. He calls to his imagination the beatings the child received so he takes the child on his arms and carries her back to the village Soviet, peasants are present in the village Soviet, everybody looks at the child and when the commissar asked for bread, every peasant was stretching his-hand with bread to the child. When the child satisfied its hunger the commissar was ordered to take the child back to its uncle, but the youngster cried again, and the commissar understood the reason dnd said, “We will drive over to marked in the years to come this girl may occupy a big position in a Soviet herself. This position in regard to children in the Russian village is a great factor in relation to the future life of the Russian Soviet peasant popu- lation, The “Krestianka” contains questions by many Village women in regard to the education of the children, how to build community houses and even legal questions pertaining to the cruel attitude of some husbands towards them. The magazine answers all these questions and instructs'the woman about the laws of the Socialist Soviet Republics. Like in every other corner of life, this remarkable work among the women in the Russian Soviet villages proves that only a government of the working class and -peasant* popula- * tion is able to deal with every problem of life in a realistic and con- erete fashion. There ig no hypo- crisy, conventionality, prejudice,’ to- wards a problem that is surrounded with so much falsehood in our cap- italistic states: The problem of equality of women in economic, and cultural sense. The peasant woman of today visits the working women in cities, becomes familiar with the factory life, union conditions, problems of work, and the | brings it back to her sisters in the children’s home in the district.” The | villages, and hammers out close rela- child smiled, and every peasant re-! tions between the city and the village. The A. F. of L. and International Relations (Continued from page 1) _ served German capitalism by support- ing the Noske dictatorship, for- any expression of the need for world trade union unity or of friendship for the Russian workers and peasants, or any acknowledgement of the incalcu- lable services rendered the German working class by those workers who gave their lives for the German revo- lution. Quite the contrary: » « « Bolshevists caused a lot of trouble. Bolshevism is a good re- ligion for starving and - desperate men. In the trade unions we do not want to drive the workers to despair, but we mean to better their living conditions and in this useful work we have been disturbed many times by the Bolshevists, but we have repulsed this wave in Germany and today they are quite insignifi- cant and play only a very funny role. IGHT thousand of the best fighters of the working class are in the dungeons of the German rulers, sub- sidized by American loans, They “play only a very funny role,” these eight -housand tortured workers, according to Fritz Tarnow. And what is the burning need of ®Surope in the view of this reformist leader? Here it is: The greatest problem which has to ‘be solved in Europe is the re- storation of a sound economy. . . This is the same view that is held by Schwab, Morgan, Dawes and Mel- lon and they are busy restoring a “sound national economy” in Germany —for everybody but the workers. HE German delegation. came to study “economic and social condi- tions existing,” in the words of Fritz Tarnow, and after his denunciation of the Bolshevists and his Dawes’ plan estimate of the needs of the moment we need not be surprised to find President Green saying in reply: 1 want to call upon all our na- tional unions, our. state and central. bodies, our local unions everywhere to meet these brothers as they trav- el from place to place and extend to them every facility for making the most comprehensive and all embrac- ing study of the problems in which they are interested. URCELL also is to make a tour of the United States. But he speaks on world trade union unity, So when the Washington Post, organ of the Coolidge administration, demanded his deportation, President Green did not even protest. Neither does he ask the co-opera- tion of the affiliated labor bodies in arranging meetings for Purcell upon > - a ence nen arnt the most vital question cuntronding the. working class, Purcell, personifying the new spir- it of British labor, must depend for his opportunity of meeting Americany workers upon the militant members » of the unions -whom ‘Green.and_ his_ cohorts cannot terrorize. Fritz Tarnow and his reformist col- | leagues, vassals of American imper- ialism, are welcomed into the brother- hood of Wall Street’s labor agents. ‘Here is the contrast and here is the symbolism and the proof that at Atlantic City the A. F. of L. chose its path—the path of American im- perialism. German reformism as against Bri- tish revolution—the slave unionism as . against the militant struggle for a workers’ republic, the leadership of Wall. Street as against that of the militant wing of the International Federation of Trade Unions, - Well may the New York Times glee- fully acclaim the action of the At- lantic City convention in the field of international relations “a ween for dynamic conservatism.” New York Museum’s Asiatic Expedition Returns from Trip. SAN FRANCISCO; “Oct. -28--James~ B. Shackelfrod, and “Leo, B. Roberts, members of the Roy Chapman And- rews archaeological expedition into Mongolia were in San Francisco on their way to New York following their arrival from the Orient yesterday. Report that many interesting relics of prehistoric man were unearthed in the Gobi desert by the third Asiatic expe- dition sent by the New York museum of natural history. Among the things the expedition is bringing with them is the only living specimen of the Asiatic black condor now in captivity. This bird measures ten feet from tip to tip, The Walden Book Shop 307 Plymouth C Court (Between State and Dearborn Just South of Jackson) CHICAGO AAApAmAAmmananamnnn anne ne SE Re oe TOE EES Lear A Sa A AR A MRE Sm | J na eR ME